Marines vindicated

[David Lockmiller]

(02-04-2019 05:30 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(02-04-2019 04:51 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(02-04-2019 01:35 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  Grant had issued the invitation at the suggestion of his wife, Julia, who had been struck by constant newspaper report of "the exhausted appearance of the President." Grant worried at first about the propriety of issuing an invitation when the president could visit without waiting "to be asked," but on March 20, he wrote a note to Lincoln: "Can you not visit City Point for a day or two? I would like very much to see you and I think the rest would do you good."

I wonder if Julia meant for the invitation to include Mary, too (as she did come).

Interesting question because the General's invitation certainly seems to be in the singular form.

The invitation did not include Mary. Mary included Mary.

Delighted with the idea, Lincoln asked the Navy Department to make arrangements for a ship to carry him south. Assistant Secretary Fox was not happy to be assigned the task, for he believed "the President was incurring great risk in making the journey." To minimize danger, he ordered John Barnes, commander of the Bat, a fast-moving gunboat, to report to the Washington Navy Yard at once. Work immediately commenced on the interior of the armed ship to make alterations necessary "to insure the personal comfort of the President as long as he desired to make the Bat his home." To discuss the meals and amenities Lincoln might require, Fox brought Barnes to the White House. Lincoln told Barnes "he wanted no luxuries but only plain, simple food and ordinary comfort -- that what was good for me would be good enough for him." Barnes returned to the Navy Yard to supervise the changes.

The next morning, Lincoln summoned Barnes back to the White House. Embarrassed at the thought that workers had stayed up all night to make alterations that might now require additional work, Lincoln explained apologetically that "Mrs. Lincoln had decided that she would accompany him to City Point, and could the Bat accommodate her and her maid servant." Barnes was, in sailor's phrase, taken 'all aback,'" knowing that the austere gunboat "was in no respect adapted to the private life of womankind, nor could she be made so." He returned to the Navy Yard, where "the alterations to the Bat were stopped and the steamer River Queen was chartered." The change of plans was particularly upsetting to Fox, who "expressed great regret that the determination of Mrs. Lincoln to accompany the President" had forced the shift to "an unarmed, fragile, river-boat, so easily assailed and so vulnerable." He directed Barnes to follow Lincoln's steamer in the Bat, but could not shake his anxiety. Though aware of the danger, Lincoln remained relaxed and cheerful, talking about the problems of accommodating womenfolk at sea "in very funny terms."

("Team of Rivals," pages 707 - 708.)