Tough Tarbell Trivia

[RJNorton]

(08-23-2021 09:02 PM)Gene C Wrote:  After the crisis was over, he said to her one day, "Mrs. Lincoln, I intend to have a full-length portrait of you painted, standing on the ramparts at Fort Stevens overlooking the fight."

"That is very well", Mary retorted. "and I can assure you of one thing Mr. Secretary, If I had a few ladies with me the Rebels would would not have been permitted to get away as they did!" (p. 198-199)

Unfortunately, the source is not referenced, and I do not recall reading it anywhere else.
That would have been an interesting scene to witness.

Gene, Ruth Painter Randall's source is Francis Carpenter's Six Months at the White House. I have a paperback copy of Carpenter's book, and the story is on pp. 301-302. Carpenter reports that two or three weeks after the Ft. Stevens' battle Edwin Stanton visited the Lincolns at the Soldiers' Home, and the above conversation took place between Mary and Stanton.

Carpenter was not present for the conversation. He prefaces his report of the conversation with the words "it was said that." Thus, Carpenter's source is not in his book.