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Here, There and Everywhere

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American History
octoBer 2013

Features

32 Lincoln at Petersburg

COVER STORY

the presidents review of frontline

black troops was missed by civil
War photographer Mathew Brady
and filmmaker steven spielberg

38

An unidentified soldier
in the U.S. Colored
Troops, photographed
at Benton Barracks,
St. Louis, Mo. Benton
was a training camp for
thousands of soldiers,
black and white, and
also a refugee camp
for former slaves.

by Robert Wilson

38 We Are Coming,

Father Abraham

the United states colored

troops in photographs

42 Rebellion, Love
and Revolution

new bride Lucy Knox left her

loyalist Boston family to follow
husband Henry and the american
patriots to independence
by Nancy Rubin Stuart

48 Superman at 75

the Man of steel reaches

a milestoneand shows
no sign of slowing down
by Larry Tye

50 Speed Demons

a Vanderbilt heir ditched

railroads for cars and launched
a race that put the american
auto industry on the map
by Timothy Messer-Kruse

58 American Leviathan
anchors aweigh on an
1840s whaling ship
by Charles Wilkes

64 Moment of Truth

When a scandal threatened the

1884 presidential bid of grover
cleveland, he did the unthinkable
LiBrary of congress

by Ernest B. Furgurson
ON THE COVER:
Lincoln portrait by Mathew Brady
made on January 8, 1864.
LiBrary of congress

octoBer 2013

WHG

W EIDER H ISTORY G ROUP

20

GROUP MANAGING EDITOR

Forty years ago

this summer,
John W. Dean
blew the lid off
the Nixon White
House when he
testified about the
Watergate scandal
before a Senate
investigating
committee.

Roger L. Vance

History
Vol. 48, No. 4

OCTOBER 2013

Roger L. Vance

EDITOR

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Letters
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The First
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Weve Been Here Before
When terrorists turn out
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Interview
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George Clark
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Ralph
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The first two novels in what promises

to be the greatest civil war series of our time.

Available in trade paperback and eBook

H Surpasses Michael Shaaras classic

The Killer Angels. Brilliant is an

adjective one is tempted to wear out
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Booklist, starred review

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A Notice from the Editor

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Letters

Target: POTUS

In recounting the attempted

assassination of President Ronald
Reagan (Reagan Reborn, August
2013), H.W. Brands correctly states,
No other president in American
history had recovered from a
gunshot wound sustained while in
office. We should recall, however,
that former president Theodore
Roosevelt, campaigning for a third
term in 1912, was shot while on his
way to a speaking engagement in
Milwaukee. Roosevelt gave his
entire speech, more than an hour
long, before going to the hospital.
Doctors decided not to remove the
bullet from his chest, and Roosevelt
made a full recovery.
Gerald Bazer
Toledo, Ohio

The Need to Secede

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6 AMERICAN HISTORY

I read with interest Gerald Swicks

article about West Virginia seceding
from Virginia (Where Rebels
Won, August 2013). Having been
born and educated in West Virginia,
I recall from my required state
history classes that the Virginia
assembly was called to meet so
hastily that representatives of the
transmontane part of the state
didnt make it to Richmond to
vote on secession. They believed
the vote was not legal and,
therefore, not binding.
As a side note, the B&O Railroad
spent its entire corporate life trying
to tie in with the more lucrative
industrial areas in the North, and
its failure eventually led to its
absorption into the Chessie System.
Kenneth Baker
Bowie, Md.

Clement Vallandigham was not the

only Northerner to be incarcerated

by Lincoln and his minions (Weve

Been Here Before, August 2013).
He was joined by 13,352 other poor
souls who had the temerity to
publicly criticize Lincoln and his
war on the South. Opposition
newspapers were destroyed by
shattering the presses and
scattering the lead type in nearby
streams. Honest Abe brooked no
opposition, the First Amendment
be damned. American History
apparently sees no irony in the
August issue that secession of the
South is treason, but seceding from
a seceded state is honorable, even
though unconstitutional. Your
magazine is beautifully done and
interesting, but when it comes to
issues concerning the War for
Southern Independence, you
prove the old adage that the
winners of a war write its history.
Fred Stout
Pacific, Mo.

Indian Recognition

The story about Edward Curtis

early pictures (First Step Toward
Destiny, August 2013) is another
example of Curtis maniacal
interest in the American Indian.
His discovery of the daughter of
Chief Seattle living in such squalid
conditions speaks volumes about the
abuse inflicted on these people by
the industrial invasion. Curtis paying
Angeline to pose for him in her
rags was so hurtful. He could have
at least paid to clean her up and
gotten her better living quarters.
Arlene F. Clayton
via e-mail
American History
19300 Promenade Drive
Leesburg, VA 20176-6500
americanhistory@weiderhistorygroup.com

Weider Reader

Selections from our sister publications,

chosen by the editors of American History

WILD WEST

WORLD WAR II

Confederate Raiders
Drench Kansas in Blood

Leaving the Front

Lines Behind

MILITARY HISTORY

hen William
Clarke
Quantrill launched
his raid on the
afternoon of
August 20, 1863,
guerrillas streamed
in to join him as his group headed
for Kansas. By the time he reached
the outskirts of Lawrence, his force
had grown to more than 400 heavily
armed men. Many had tied
themselves to their saddles so as
not to fall off in the punishing ride
that had kept them up for more
than 24 hours. The Bushwhackers
arrived at the edge of town just as
dawn was breaking on the 21st.
Fatigue was replaced by adrenalin,
and guerrilla George Miller summed
up the mindset of the raiders when
he said, Vengeance is in my heart
and death in my hand.
Quantrills raiders crashed into
Lawrence whooping and hollering
and firing off guns in every direction.
The sleepy townsfolk were taken
entirely by surprise, as the
Bushwhackers killed and burned in
a fury. While the attackers would
not kill a single woman, they had no
compunctions about killing their
husbands and sons, oft-times
directly in front of them. German
residents fared especially badly.
One was stopped on the street by
raiders. Nicht versteh! [I dont
understand!], he pleaded. In
response, a guerrilla snarled, God
damn you. I will make you versteh!
before shooting him to death.

y his own
admission,
Eddie Slovik was
the unluckiest man
alive. Nearly 50,000
American soldiers
deserted during the
Second World War, but the 25-yearold ex-convict from Detroit, Mich.,
was the only one executed. Sloviks
desertion in northern France on
October 9, 1944, was atypical.
Most deserters were frontline
infantrymen escaping after long
periods of continuous combat, but
Slovik never saw combat. Nor did
he go on the run. His mistake was
to make clear that he preferred
prison to battle. Instead a courtmartial condemned him.
Of 49 Americans sentenced to
death for desertion, Slovik alone saw
his appeal for commutation rejected.
His case arose during the Battle of
the Bulgeno time for an army to
be seen condoning desertion.
High desertion rates in a unit
indicated failures of command and
logistics, for which blame pointed
to leaders as much as to the men
who deserted. Some soldiers
deserted when the rest of their
units had been killed and their own
deaths appeared inevitable. Those
who showed deserters the greatest
sympathy were fellow frontline
soldiers. They had, at one time or
another, felt the same temptation.
The astounding fact is not that so
many men deserted, but that the
deserters were so few.

When Bleeding Kansas Became

Bloodier, by Frederick J.
Chiaventone, August 2013

From Breaking Point,

by Charles Glass, September/
October 2013

The British General

Who Lost America?

s commander in
chief for North
America from 1778
to 1782, Sir Henry
Clinton was a gifted
strategist who
understood the
precarious military situation facing
the British. As the son of an
admiral and brother-in-law of two
others, he particularly understood
the importance of British naval
supremacy in supporting the army
in America. He foresaw the threat
of French naval intervention, and he
repeatedly forewarned that British
units operating outside New York
could be stranded should a superior
French fleet arrive in American
waters. He knew Britain had come
close to defeat on several occasions
before the October 1781 defeat at
Yorktown, and he never took it for
granted he would have naval support.
Unlike most of his British
military and political peers, Clinton
understood that force alone was
not enough to retain possession of
the colonies. Even if Britain were
able to conquer the country, he
questioned whether it was
worthwhile to possess absent the
affections of its people. Thus he
argued for the need to gain the
hearts and subdue the minds of
America.
From The General Who
Lost America? by Andrew
OShaughnessy, September 2013
To order these or any other
Weider History magazines,
visit: www.HistoryNet.com
or call 1 (800) 435-0715

OCTOBER 2013

Gazette
Compiled by Sarah Richardson
and Lily Kleppertknoop

Mississippi Plans Dual Museums

GROUNDBREAKING ceremonies
for Mississippis first civil rights
museum and its companion, the
Museum of Mississippi History,
will take place this fall in Jackson.
The project still needs $30 million
to finish in time for the states
bicentennial celebration in 2017.
The legislation authorizing the
dual construction mandates a 50-50
split between public and private
funding. The museums will each
have more than 20,000 square feet
of permanent exhibit space. Hank
Holmes, executive director of the
Mississippi Department of Archives
and History, says the museums are
expected to generate $19 million a
year for the state.
Jacqueline K. Dace, project
director for the civil rights museum,
hopes to illustrate the key role
Mississippi had in the national civil
rights movement. The 1955 murder
of 14-year-old Emmett Till over an
alleged incident with a white woman
propelled youth action all over the
country, and demonstrated the
Mississippi River steamboats
are loaded with cotton in
Vicksburg around 1910.

8 AMERICAN HISTORY

power of common people to take a

stand and bring about change,
Dace said. The 1963 assassination
of Medgar Evers, a civil rights
activist from Jackson, was also
important in focusing a national
spotlight on Mississippi. Its crucial
we understand all the things weve
come through and where we are
now, said Dace.
Among the topics slated for the
state history museum are native
peoples, the territorial and statehood
periods, the role of cotton and
slavery in the states development,
the Civil War, Reconstruction, and
the broad impact of such Mississippi
cultural icons as Elvis Presley and
Muddy Waters.
Former Mississippi governor
William Winter calls the museums
an exercise in racial reconciliation.
Visitors to one museum will want to
explore the other, Winter said.
Were going to be educating people
in one location, so that we all have a
better perspective where we have
all come from.

Myrlie Evers and son Darrell grieve at the

June 1963 funeral of slain Mississippi civil
rights leader Medgar Evers. Evers was
buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Jimmie Rodgers,
the father of
country music,
hailed from
Meridian, Miss.

A Depression-era image of
black workers at a Mississippi
Delta cotton plantation.

Native Americans in Vatican Fresco?

SO LONG, JOHN WHITE!
An ornate Vatican fresco,
The Resurrection, painted by
Renaissance artist Pinturicchio in
1494 may show the first known
images of Native Americans,
beating out the renowned White
watercolors by nearly a century. The
fresco is part of the private Borgia
apartments of Pope Alexander VI.
Alexander, a great patron of
Renaissance art, was no doubt well
informed of Columbus journey to

the New World; he had drafted

the Treaty of Tordesillas to end the
land disputes between Spain and
Portugal over new territories. The
nude natives in the fresco, situated
in the centerright under a risen
Jesus feetresemble Columbus
descriptions of New World peoples.
Although the Borgia apartments
have been opened to the public since
1889, the figures were not noticed
until the fresco was carefully
cleaned in 2013.

Earlier restorations of Pinturrichios

fresco (left) painted over the figures
now visible in a detail (above).

Where Yesterday
Lives Today
NEARLY 3,000 history lovers
converged on the University of
Maryland campus in College Park
June 9-13 for National History
Day, an annual competition that
celebrates research and critical
thinking among junior and senior
high school students worldwide.
Projects range from papers and
exhibits to documentaries and
performances that reflect a chosen
theme. Top prizewinners for this
years topicturning points in
historywere a performance
that explored the relevance of
the Haitian Revolution to the
Civil War; a website devoted to
advertising in the 1960s; and a
paper about cancer treatment
that evolved from the use of
mustard gas in World War II.
Prizes ranged from $250 to three
full college scholarships. Each
year some 600,000 students and
teachers join in National History
Day research projects. Weider
History Group, the publisher of
American History, is a partner of
National History Day.

Slave Cabin Moves to Smithsonian

A South Carolina slave
cabin is being restored
for exhibit at the 2015
grand opening of the
Smithsonians National
Museum of African
American History and
Culture. The cabin is
from the Point of Pines
Plantation on Edisto
Island, where slaves
declared themselves
free after Union troops
occupied the area in 1861.
Slavery at Point of Pines
can be documented to
at least the 1750s.

CLOCKWISE FROM VATICAN: SCALA/ART RESOURCE, NY (2); NATIONAL HISTORY DAY; COURTESY OF THE SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN
AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE; OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM LIFE: JOHN LOENGARD/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES; PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY;
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2)

Junior Group Performance winners

Hazel Homer-Wambeam and Jackson
Higgins from Laramie, Wyo.with Dr.
Carole Watson, National Endowment for
the Humanitiestook home the prize for
their entry on the golden age of radio.
OCTOBER 2013

Gazette

Will Jim Thorpes

Body Leave Jim
Thorpe, Pa.?
JIM THORPE, widely regarded as
one of Americas greatest all-around
athletes, is still making news 60
years after his death. Thorpe, a
Native American of the Sac and Fox
tribe of Oklahoma, was buried in
the Pennsylvania town of Mauch
Chunk, under a 1953 agreement
with his widow that the town adopt
his name to honor his memory.
Thorpes legend proved to be a
strong tourist attraction for the
former coal town. In 2010 two of
Thorpes three sons sued in federal
court for the right to move their
fathers remains to Yale, Okla.,
where many of his kin are buried.
A judge agreed, ruling that the
town of Jim Thorpe was in violation
of the Native American Grave
Protection and Repatriation Act
of 1990, which allows Indians to
reclaim human remains
and other items removed
from native burial sites.
Town officials contend
that since Mauch
Chunk was Thorpes
original burying
place, his remains
do not fall within
the purview of the
law. They plan to
appeal the decision.
Thorpe excelled in
football, baseball and
track as a student at
the Carlisle Indian
School in Carlisle, Pa.

10 AMERICAN HISTORY

Ye Olde Bomb Shelter Next Door

AN UNDERGROUND bomb
shelter discovered in a Neenah,
Wisc., backyard is showcased at the
local historical society. When the
current homeowners found the
buried concrete 8-by-10-foot shelter,
it was filled with water, but the
contentssafety and first aid

supplies and foodwere intact.

Privately built top-of-the-line
bomb shelters were a rarity, given
the cost of construction (about
$1,200 in 1959, or $9,300 today). The
shelter was built in 1961 during the
period of heightened fear of nuclear
attack by the Soviet Union.

Jane Lang of the Neenah

Historical Society climbs
down into the fallout
shelter found by Ken
Zwick and Carol HollarZwick. A coffee can filled
with crystals thought to
be a desiccant acted as a
dehumidifier. A variety
of sweet snacks were
among the goodies
packed for riding out a
nuclear disaster.

Top Bid

$227,050
A U.S. Model 1883
Colt Gatling gun
and limber sold at
Heritage Auctions,
Dallas, in June. The
gun features 10
32-inch barrels fed
by a 104-round
magazine. Richard
Gatling first patented
his gun in 1862, but it
was not widely used
until after the Civil War.

CLOCKWISE FROM BOMB SHELTER: FRED LANG; KEN ZWICK (2); HERITAGE AUCTIONS, WWW.HA.COM; DPA/LANDOV; OPPOSITE: THINKSTOCK

Briefs

Frederick Douglass

Honored in the Capitol

Smithsonian Civil War

District of Columbia residents rankle

at their lack of representation in
Congressa slight that extended
even to the statuary in the Capitol
building. Now they can boast that
Frederick Douglass has breached
the walls. A statue of the legendary
civil rights leader, whose home in
Anacostia is a National Historic Site,
has been on display in Judiciary
Square since it was completed in
2006. On June 19, several politicians,
including House Speaker John
Boehner and Vice President Joe
Biden, led a ceremony honoring
Douglass and the relocation of his
statue to a prominent position in
the Emancipation Center in the
U.S. Capitol.

Inside the National Collection

By the Smithsonian Institution Edited by Neil Kagan Foreword by Jon Meacham

Smithsonian Civil War is a truly unique narrative crafted around one-of-akind, famous, and previously unseen relics handpicked from tens of
thousands in the Smithsonian collections. Through spellbinding narrative
and stunning visuals, 550 treasures transform from objects into potent
reminders of this devastating period in American history. Illuminating
the full scope of the political, military, social, and cultural climate of the
era, Smithsonian Civil War is history as only the Smithsonian can tell it.
550 color photos 368 pages 978-1-58834-389-5 9-1/2 x 11 Hardcover $40.00

Last of the Blue and Gray

Old Men, Stolen Glory, and the Mystery That Outlived the Civil War
By Richard A. Serrano

Richard Serrano tells the fascinating stories of several men who claimed
to be the last survivor of Civil War armies. All but one were fakes. As
the nation approached the Civil War centennial in the 1950s, the
controversies over the last veteran of the war highlighted the continuing
debates about a war that never really ended.James M. McPherson
10 B&W photos 232 pages 978-1-58834-395-6 6 x 9 Hardcover $27.95

Lines in Long Array

A Civil War Commemoration: Poems and Photographs, Past and Present

Edited by David C. Ward and Frank H. Goodyear III

A powerful juxtaposition of modern poemsfrom Pulitzer Prize winners

Tracy K. Smith, Paul Muldoon, Jorie Graham, Yusef Komunyakaa, and
othersand period poemsfrom Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Emily
Dickinson, and othersexplores Civil War themes. Beautifully illustrated
with modern photographs from Sally Mann and period photographs from
Alexander Gardner, Lines in Long Array is an essential volume for poetry,
photography, and history lovers alike.
12 color photos 136 pages 978-1-58834-397-0 8 x 10-3/4 Paperback $19.95

Inside Scoop on
the Georgia Peach

The story of how the peach became a

Georgia icon has won Tom Okie of the
University of Georgia the prestigious
53rd Annual Allan Nevins Dissertation
Prize, awarded to the best doctoral

Available wherever books are sold.

Smithsonian Books

thesis on an American subject.

The peach became a postCivil War
symbol of the South that provided an
alternative to the slave-powered
antebellum cotton industry, Okie
found. Cotton had a bad reputation
by the end of the warthe peach came
along and it was everything cotton
wasnt. Peaches are actually native
to China and were brought to the
Americas by Spanish missionaries in
the 16th century.

# # ! #

Experience

Maury

Samuel Sam Rush Watkins was a noted Confederate soldier during

the American Civil War. He is known today for his memoir Company
Aytch: Or, a Side Show of the Big Show, often heralded as one of the
best primary sources about the common soldiers Civil War experience. He was born near Columbia, TN in Maury County and is buried
at Zion Presbyterian Church near Mt. Pleasant.
Maury County, Tennessee is rich with civil war history. Come for
a visit to experience beautiful historic homes, a Presidential site &
exhibit hall, driving tours, Civil War Trail sites, antiques & specialty
shopping, unique eateries, and true Southern hospitality.

888.852.1860

www.antebellum.com
OCTOBER 2013

11

Gazette

Briefs
Tarheels Civil War
Roster Goes Online

In 1961, in commemoration of the

100th anniversary of the Civil
War, researchers in collaboration
with the North Carolina
Department of Cultural Resources
began preparing definitive rosters
of the units in which 115,000
Tarheels served. Since then 18 of
the 22 volumes have been
published. The rosters are now
available for online research:
cwroster.ncdcr.gov/

Bison Booster

The magnificent herbivores take

center stage at a newly established
Museum of the American Bison
and Great Plains Center in Rapid
City, S.D. Museum director Susan
Ricci had raised her own buffalo
herd and wanted to educate the
public about the heritage of the
buffalo in South Dakota, their
importance in Native American
culture and the pioneering efforts
of conservationists to save the
buffalo from extinction. The
museum includes interactive
exhibits for kids, as well as
archival material documenting
the history of the bison in North
America. Admission is free:
www.bisonmuseum.org
12 AMERICAN HISTORY

THINKSTOCK

LA
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portrait

Liberty Bell, quill pen

& July 4th date

New York Mint Announces the Limited Mintage

Striking of an Extraordinary Silver Proof
the Newest United States $100 Bill Struck in
Pure Silver Bullion. Discount Price $99
This extraordinary piece of pure
silver bullion has a surface area
that exceeds 15 square inches...and
it contains one Troy ounce of pure
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And now, for a limited time
during the strike period, the very
first Year 2013 $100 Silver Proof
is available at a special discount priceonly $99!

EXQUISITE DETAIL

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only the second new $100 bill design in 70 years. It is a true
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.999 SILVER

Best of all, this stunning Silver Proof is even more beautiful

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Is Individually Registered and Comes With a Numbered
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Is Fully Encapsulated to Protect Its Mirror-Finish.
Includes a Deluxe Presentation Case.

Minted in one Troy ounce

of pure silver bullion

$9

WORLDS FIRST

CH
A
N
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Actual size is 6 x 2

LAST CHANCE AT $99!

The price for this 2013 $100 Silver Proof will increase to $129
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By placing your order now, you can acquire this giant
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NOTE TO COLLECTORS: When you place your order for the
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ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTS

Substantial additional discounts are available for serious

collectors who wish to acquire more than one of these
exquisite silver proofs.
You can order:
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TEN Year 2013 $100 Silver Proofs for just $89 each + s/h
There is a limit of twenty $100 Silver Proofs per order, and
all orders are subject to acceptance by New York Mint.

ONLY 9999 AVAILABLE

New York Mint will limit striking to only 9999 One Troy Ounce
Silver Proofs for the year 2013. With over half of the mintage
already SOLD OUT, the time to call is now!
Telephone orders only will be accepted on a strict first-come,
first-served basis according to the time and date of the order.

Call Today to Order Your

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1-888-201-7064
Offer Code: SPN233-03

Please mention this code when you call.

A major credit card is necessary to secure your reservation,

and New York Mint guarantees satisfaction with a money-back
policy for a full 30 days.

New York Mint, LLC

Prices and availability subject to change without notice. Past performance is not a predictor of future performance. NOTE: New York Mint is a private distributor of
worldwide government coin and currency issues and privately issued licensed collectibles and is not affiliated with the United States government. Facts and figures
deemed accurate as of April 2013. 2013 New York Mint, LLC.

Visit our web site at www.newyorkmint.com

The First

American Coin
by Christine M. Kreiser

Bartering with musket balls and livestock

CLOCKWISE FROM 1652 SHILLING: HERITAGE AUCTIONS, WWW.HA.COM (5); NORTH WIND PICTURE ARCHIVES/ALAMY; THINKSTOCK; ALAMY

was no way for a colony to survive in the global

marketplace. In 1652 there was a persistent
shortage of English coins in the Massachusetts Bay
colony, and the flow of counterfeit foreign currency
threatened economic growth. The general court of
Massachusetts Bay took action and ordered the
establishment of a mint in Boston to strike
silver coins. Bearing the image of a pine tree, the
coins came in three denominations: 1 shilling,
6 pence and 3 pence; the coins contained less silver
than their English counterparts. These pine tree
shillings were widely adopted in New England and
credited with stabilizing the local economy. Coinage
had been the prerogative of the king, but Charles I
lost his head in 1649, so there was no monarch to
object to the colonys show of independence.
Even after the monarchy was restored in 1660,
little attention was paid to the Boston mint, which
continued turning out coins stamped 1652a
hedge, perhaps, against charges that the colony
had usurped royal privilege. But in 1684, citing the
illegal coining of money as well as more serious
accusations of resisting tax and trade laws, the
Crown revoked the charter granting Massachusetts
rights of self-government. Strong-willed American
colonists had incurred the wrath of an English
kingand not for the last time.

DIY Currency

Serviceable substitutes for the

cash-poor economy
FurIndians traded furs with colonists
for goods like tools and guns. The
furs were then shipped to Europe in
exchange for supplies and debt relief.

WampumStrings of
shells and beads were legal
tender in colonial America.
Wampum also signified
important events: This belt
commemorated a 1683
treaty between William
Penn and Delaware Indians.

Company Scrip
In 1933 Berne
Manufacturing in
Berne, Ind., paid its
workers in scrip
redeemable for
cash or merchandise.

GoldDuring the 1849

California rush, an ounce
of placer-mined gold could
fetch $16$496 today.

ContinentalA rare
$40 Continental note
issued by Congress
in 1778 used a nature
print and engraved
borders to deter
counterfeiters. The
safeguards failed,
and the notes quickly
became worthless.
OCTOBER 2013

15

%-%..$!,%2*)%'%.,1/-!/(

!(& (! & &$#"&#% ,' ,%2*).%*)'/, %-.*,%'*%!.1 $%)'

"#"$%#'#%$#%'#" &' & (" %' *&#%-#".'# "" ' $$% '#"#
' &'#%,#%-#""' #"'%('#"&#' '#%-#""' %-#"'#"
(%'#' '' #%-#""'#' '#"/ !(& (! &##"#%&' ! '%,
& %) #%-#""&*#& %) "' ! '%,

DONT
MISS THE LARGE
COLLECTION OF
VIETNAM
ARTIFACTS!

*/,-/++*,.%)&!!+%)#.$%-+,.*"*/,(%'%.,1$%-.*,1'%0!%-0%.'.*/-

'!-!*)-% !,!*(%)#(!(!,*,'%"!(!(!,*".$!
,%2*).%*)'/, %-.*,%'*%!.1
*!*(!(!(!,*,#!.(*,!%)"*,(.%*)''*,
#' '$#% '%, & %)'#"#* # "+%-#"

Weve Been
Here Before

Domestic Terrorism: The Killers Next Door

by Richard Brookhiser

Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsarnaev,

the
dustrial nouveau riche. Grinding hours and bitter strikes
Boston Marathon bombers, murdered four people and
provided the spark. Johann Most, who came to New York
injured 280 in the April blast they set off near Copley
from Germany in 1882, believed in targeted murders of
Square and in shootings afterward. Tamerlan, the elder
political figures or prominent capitalistswhat he called
brother, was also killed. Dzhokar said after his capture
propaganda by deed. Retail violence would make the
that they were radicalized by their opposition to Ameriruling classes fearful, and could be justified as attacks on
cas wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that they had
money kings and beasts of property. He published a
learned to build bombs from an al-Qaeda
how-to pamphlet on explosives, Revoluinspired online magazine article: Make a
tionre Kreigswissenschaft (Science of
A girdle
Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom. Their
Revolutionary War). A girdle of dynamite
of dynamite
crimes remind us that the war on terror is
encircles the world, he wrote.
still with us nearly 12 years after 9/11.
His preaching fell on eager ears. In 1886
encircles
Radicalism and bombings are not new. A
someone, most likely an anarchist, threw a
the world
century ago America suffered a wave of viobomb at police who were breaking up a
lence carried out by anarchists. Like the
demonstration of strikers in Haymarket
Tsarnaevs and most terrorists, the anarchists had grievSquare in Chicago. Eight anarchists were arrested and
ances both real and imaginedand their attacks were
four executed. In 1892 Alexander Berkman, a Russianboth simple and deadly.
born anarchist, broke into the Pittsburgh office of indusThe anarchist movement started in Europe in the late
trialist Henry Clay Frick during a steel strike and
19th century. Anarchists longed for a stateless society,
stabbed and shot him. Frick survived. The most sensacomposed of self-governing workers communes. Revolutional crime of all came in 1901: President William
tionary anarchists believed the only way to accomplish
McKinley was shot and killed while shaking hands at the
their goal was to smash the existing order, and they carPan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. The assassin,
ried out a string of high-profile political assassinations.
Leon Czolgosz, said he had been inspired by Emma
Some anarchists fled to the United States, which they
Goldman, anarchist lecturer and former lover of both
also wanted to transform. As in Europe, they focused their
Most and Berkman. I thought it would help the working
anger on the ruling class, which in America meant the inpeople, Czolgosz said of the assassination.

Emergency
responders view
the wreckage after
a bomb exploded
on Wall Street on
September 16,
1920. Italian
anarchists were
thought to be
responsible for
the attack on
New Yorks
financial center.

PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY

OCTOBER 2013

17

These terrorists were almost all immigrantsthe

less. A few wrong men were arrested. Left-wing newspaanarchists from Europe, the Tsarnaev brothers from
pers meanwhile argued that the disaster had been either
central Asia. And yet many of them had lived here for a
an accidentblasting gelatin was used in ordinary buildnumber of years and become at least partly Ameriing jobsor a provocation, arranged by the beasts of
canized. Czolgosz, whose parents had emigrated from
property themselves.
Eastern Europe, was born in Michigan. They were the
In 1927, after many appeals, Sacco and Vanzetti were
killers next door.
executed for the South Braintree murders. A few bombAnarchist crimes in the early 20th century became
ings in America and at American embassies and banks
more indiscriminate. In 1910 radicalized union leaders
abroad marked their deathsand then the cycle of anarplanted a bomb in the offices of the Los Angeles Times
chist violence ended.
that killed 21 people. Ten years later two Italian-born
In 1944, an internal FBI memo finally attributed the
anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were
Wall Street bomb to Italian anarchists. Italian-American
indicted for a robbery in South Braintree, Mass., in
anarchism was fertile soil for violence. Luigi Galleani, an
which two payroll guards were killed. On September 16,
Italian immigrant who lived in Vermont, had published an
1920, a bomb went off that combined
equivalent of Mosts bomb-making
both symbolism and slaughter. One
pamphlet, eerily titled La salute
minute after noon a blast of flame
in voi! (Health Is Within You!). The
and metal shards swept the intersecprisoner mentioned in the Amerition of Wall and Broad streets in
can Anarchist Fighters flyer was
Manhattan, the heart of the financial
quite possibly two prisoners, Sacco
district. Survivors described the
and Vanzetti: The Wall Street blast
aftermath as like a dream or the
happened five days after their indictend of the world. The dead, the
ment. Paul Avrich, a historian of
wounded and the simply dazed lined
anarchism, suggested in 1991 that
the streets, along with broken glass
the Wall Street bomber was Mario
and body parts.
Buda, an anarchist friend of Sacco
The explosion happened opposite
and Vanzetti.
Presidential assassin Leon Czolgosz
the headquarters of J.P. Morgan &
Anarchists were inspired by a
was put to death in October 1901.
Company. (Pockmarks from the blast
quasi-religious faith in the transare still visible in the facade of the
forming power of destructionthe
building.) J.P. Morgan, who died in 1913, had personified
apocalypse of the Bible, transmuted to secular terms.
finance capitalism, and the bank he founded was still
Dzhokar Tsarnaev also claimed religious motivation
the most powerful in the country. The victims, however,
politicized Islam. When you attack one Muslim, you
were almost all worker bees in the financial industry
attack all Muslims, he wrote as he awaited capture.
clerks, accountants, stenographers, messengersrunning
Though the handiwork of the anarchists and the
errands or beginning their lunch hour. Tell my boss to
Islamists was deadly, their equipment was small-scale
send another boy to relieve me, said a dying messenger.
and homemade. Dynamite was relatively easy to steal
Thirty-eight people were killed, most of them under the
and use; the Tsarnaevs made bombs of ordinary pressure
age of 30. Four were teenage boys; five were women.
cookers. Both anarchists and Islamists used widely availWall Street was determined to return to normal as soon
able recipes for their explosives. The 9/11 attack, a quasias possible. Cleanup crews worked all night, and both the
military operation planned in Afghanistan, created a
Morgan bank and the New York Stock Exchangekittymistaken impression of the scale of terrorism; bloody
corner from the blastopened for business on Sepacts of violence can be strictly DIY.
tember 17. Their shattered windows were replaced by
Anarchism waned not because of efforts to suppress
boards or lengths of cloth.
it, but owing to competition from communism. ComDetails of the crime were pieced together only slightly
munists believed in political action directed by a revoless quickly. The explosion was set off by blasting gelatin,
lutionary vanguard, not freelance mayhem; after the
a form of nitroglycerin used in demolition and excavation.
success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, radical
It had been carried in a horse-drawn wagon; one of the
energy worldwide was sucked into the service of the
horses shoes was traced to a downtown stable. Flyers
Soviet Union.
found in a financial district mailbox seemed connected to
It will take a long time for the grievances of politicized
the blast. Rimember, the misspelled headline read.
Islam to wear out. In the meantime, our police and intelFree the political prisoner or it will be sure death for all
ligence work is a lot better than it was in 1920. Thats one
of you. It was signed, American Anarchist Fighters.
reason the Boston bombing was the first major attack
Then the trail went cold. Eyewitness accounts of supsince 9/11. We will need all our skills and vigilance in the
posed perps fleeing the scene were confused and worthyears ahead.

18 AMERICAN HISTORY

RGB VENTURES LLC DBA SUPERSTOCK/ALAMY

Interview

What did the

president know
and when did
he know it?

John W. Dean, counsel to President Nixon

by Richard Ernsberger Jr.
Forty years ago, in the summer of 1973, a little-known 34-year-old White
House counsel, John W. Dean, delivered riveting televised testimony before
the Senate Watergate Committee. The committee was investigating the role of
President Richard Nixons administration in a June 17, 1972, break-in at the
Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in
Washington, D.C. Deans revelations of the administrations attempt to cover
up its involvement led to Nixons resignation on August 4, 1974. Dean later
pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for his part in the scandal. Dean is
working on his third book related to Watergate, scheduled to be released next
year. In transcribing or re-transcribing 1,000 audiotapes, he has uncovered,
he says, news of a historical nature: Nixons knowledge about a planned
break-in to George McGoverns presidential campaign headquarters in 1972.
Forty years after Watergate, whats
the big public lesson about power
and the presidency?
Today, unfortunately, the lesson
of Watergate is dont get caught
if you abuse power, and if you
cannot hide your abuses, as several
Nixon successors have shown, simply
tell the world you are using your
power for the good of America,
and act like you mean it. That will

sound cynical, but it is the sad

truth. For several decades, the
shadow of Watergate did have a
restraining influence on abuses of
government power and misuses
of the American presidency. But as
the memory of Watergate began to
fade, so did the lessons. In fact,
there has been a successful effort
to take the presidency back to its
pre-Watergate status.

Anyone who claims

that Watergate was
one of Americas
darkest periods
doesnt know history.
Americas darkest
history was slavery.

Nobody died during

Watergate

John Dean

20 AMERICAN HISTORY

In 1973 John
Dean testified
before the
Senate Watergate
Committee for
nearly 30 hours.

MARK GODFREY/THE IMAGE WORKS

Why was Nixon so obsessed

with secrets and enemies?
Richard Nixon began his
presidency hoping to make it
highly transparent. Indeed, his
first instructions on executive
privilege reflect such a desire.
Nixon, like his immediate
predecessor Lyndon Johnson,
was besieged by serious national
security leaks during the Vietnam
War, which he felt limited his
options to govern. As the leaks
increased, so did his efforts to keep
secrets. As for his desire to do in
his enemies, both perceived and
real, it was worse than I thought.
I am currently listening to all of
his conversations relating to
Watergate, and it is striking that
the more assured he became of
his 1972 reelection, the more he
was determined to get back at his
enemies. Why he was this way
is a matter for psychologists and
psychiatrists.
When did you first become
aware of the legal gravity of
the Watergate cover-up?
I was not aware that I was on
the wrong side of the law until after
the election. I should have been
aware immediately, but conspiracy
to obstruct justice is not a brightline crime. After the June 17
arrests of the burglars at the
Watergate, I suggested to John
Ehrlichman, who had been White
House counsel before me, that
we bring a criminal lawyer on the
staff because we did not have that
experience. He rejected the
suggestion. That was a mistake.
It was not until [special
counsel] Chuck Colson gave
me a recording of his conversation
with Howard Hunt [one of those
involved in the Watergate break-in
and wiretapping] that I realized we
were obstructing justice. Hunt, in

essence, told Colson that if he

and the others were not taken
care of, we would have problems.
By that time I had learned that
Hunt, Gordon Liddy and two of
the men arrested at the Watergate
had all been involved in a [1971]
break-in related to Daniel Ellsberg,
who leaked the Pentagon Papers.
Ehrlichman had approved it.
After listening to the Hunt-Colson
conversation I realized we were
obstructing justice. When I told
Ehrlichman he rejected the notion,
claiming we had no criminal intent.
He later tried that defense when he
was indicted, unsuccessfully.
Why did you decide to confront
Nixon with the cancer on the
presidency meeting in March
1973and what was his reaction?
I had a somewhat perfunctory
meeting with the president on
September 15, 1972, the day the
indictments were handed down
against the five Watergate burglars,
plus Howard Hunt and Gordon
Liddy. By March 21, 1973, I was
meeting with the president regularly
and there was a confluence of
events. First, I was not sure,
based on our conversations, if
Nixon fully understood the facts
and their implication. The second
situation, which triggered my
action, occurred when Hunt sent a
message directly to mesomething
he had not previously donestating
that if he was not paid $120,000
immediately he would have seamy
things to say about Ehrlichman,
referring to the Ellsberg break-in.
Hunt was directly blackmailing the
White House. Ehrlichman passed
it off as a problem for others to
handle. I told White House chief of
staff Bob Haldeman that I thought
I should lay out my concerns for the
president, and he agreed. I wanted
the president to know paying Hunt

was obstruction of justice. To

make sure I had his full attention,
I told him there was a cancer on
the presidency, and laid out the
worst-case situation for himall of
which later occurred as I warned.
To my amazement, the president
thought the money should be paid
until we could figure out what to do.
I was surprised and disappointed
by his response.
When H.R. Haldeman refuted
your testimony about Nixon
knowing of the cover-up, before
the Oval Office tapes were
revealed, what did you think?
To this day I remain stunned at the
blatant perjury of Haldeman, as
well as John Ehrlichman and
[Attorney General] John Mitchell.
Apparently, they thought it their
only option. I was not personally
concerned about their lies
because I knew I was telling the
truth, and probably naively, I
believed that the truth has its way
of surfacing. And it did.
Did you know about the
Oval Office recording system
before the tapes were revealed
in the Senate hearings?
Other than Nixon and Haldeman,
and Haldemans aides Larry Higby
and Alex Butterfield, along with
a few Secret Service technical
experts involved in installing and
maintaining the system, no one
knew of its existence. Yet, because
of Nixons odd behavior during our
conversation on April 15, 1973, I
thought I had been recorded, so I
decided to include this fact in my
testimony. A minority member of
the Watergate Committee staff
asked Butterfield on July 13 if I
knew what I was talking about.
Butterfield had not planned to
volunteer the information, but he
responded honestly. On July 16,

OCTOBER 2013

21

rules for lawyers. With the

exception of ethics for lawyers, all
the post-Watergate reforms have
come and gone. The U.S. Supreme
Court has dramatically restricted
the power of Congress to control
campaign finance. The Internet
and increased corporate ownership
of the news media has made
investigative journalism the
exception rather than the norm.
Political polarization and successful
efforts to empower the president
have shifted the balance of power in
Washington, making the president
dominant again.
Because of my testimonyI had
called attention to the number of
lawyers who had gotten on the
wrong side of the lawthe American
Bar Association developed a new
code of ethics for lawyers. Those
rules of professional conduct are
very much still in effect.
On April 30, 1973, Nixon fired Dean and accepted the resignations of other key staffers.

Butterfield appeared before the

full committee on national television
and told the world that Nixon had
recorded all his conversations in
the Oval Office, his Executive Office
Building office, his study at Camp
David, and telephones at all these
locations plus the Lincoln Sitting
Room in the residence. It was the
game changer.
Did Nixon authorize the
Watergate break-in?
I am not exactly a Nixon defender
or apologist, but I am aware of no
evidence that Nixon or anyone at
the Nixon White House knew Liddy
was going to break-in and bug the
Democratic headquarters.
But think about this fact, which I
uncovered while doing research for
my work-in-progress: If Liddys
team had not been arrested at the
Watergate but instead had gone
on to do the other job planned for
the night of June 17, 1972, which
was to bug [Democratic presidential
candidate] George McGoverns

22 AMERICAN HISTORY

campaign headquarters on Capitol

Hill, and been arrested at that
target, that undertaking would have
been traceable directly from Nixon
to Haldeman to [Haldeman aide]
Gordon Strachan to Liddy. Nixons
tapes reveal that in April 1972, he
and Haldeman discussed the
McGovern operation, and a few
days later, according to Strachans
contemporaneous handwritten
notes, he was instructed by
Haldeman to tell Liddy to transfer
his intelligence-gathering capacity
to Senator McGovern. I should
note, however, that it is not clear
from this conversation that Nixon
was calling for the plant of an
electronic listening device.
What reforms were instituted after
Watergateand have they stuck?
There were a number of significant
reforms, among them campaign
finance, investigative journalism,
the operations of Congress vis--vis
the president and a post-Watergate
morality that included new ethics

Was Watergate our worst

political scandal?
As scholars whove studied the
subject report, scandals occupy a
sort of middle ground of impropriety.
Ben Bradlee, the Pulitzer Prize
winning editor of the Washington
Post during Watergate, told me he
thought the Iran-Contra scandal
was far worse.
Watergate was high Washington
politics. Richard Nixon was not
about to become an American
dictator or undertake a coup, nor
was he some Mafia-like godfather
running a criminal enterprise, as
some of his detractors claim.
Nixon did nothing as president
that had not been done before and,
remarkably, has not been done since.
He got caught, and it is probably
good that he did because he was
hell-bent on going after his enemies
in his second term, and he was not
playing by Queensbury Rules.
When the tapes revealed the real
Richard Nixon, no one thought he
should be president of the United
States. His most selfless decision
as president was to resign.

EVERETT COLLECTION/SUPERSTOCK

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Encounter

It was Americas first

full-blown celebrity wedding,

choreographed, publicized and
staged by P.T. Barnum, the genius
of hype, and it came in the depths
of the Civil War, when Americans
were eager for a moment of
joyous distraction.
The groom was Charles Stratton,
25, the worlds most famous midget,
a 3-foot-tall man with a gift for
singing, dancing and comic repartee,
whom Barnum had discovered 20
years earlier, renamed General
Tom Thumb and turned into an
international showbiz sensation.
The bride was 21-year-old
Lavinia Warren, a 32-inch-tall
former Massachusetts schoolteacher
hired by Barnum in 1862 and billed
as The Queen of Beauty. She was
indeed beautiful, and when Stratton
saw her, he was smitten. So was
another of Barnums little people,
George Washington Morrison Nutt,
known as Commodore Nutt, who
stood 29 inches high. Both men
courted the Queen, but Stratton
won her heart. He proposed, she
accepted and a date was set
February 10, 1863.
Barnum made sure New Yorks
newspapers learned the happy news
and announced that he would
proudly pay for a princely wedding.
Then he exhibited the little
lovebirds to huge crowds in his
American Museum on Broadway,
earning so much money that he
offered the General and his lady
$15,000 to postpone the wedding for
a month and keep the show going.
They refused. Not for $50,000,
the General replied in a huff. Or so

24 AMERICAN HISTORY

Abraham Lincoln Greets

General and Mrs. Tom Thumb
by Peter Carlson

the story wentits always hard to

separate fact from fiction when
Barnum is involved.
The great showman considered
selling tickets to the wedding
but decided that commercializing
such a sacred ceremony would be
unspeakably crass, so he sold
tickets to the reception instead. He
arranged for Charles and Lavinia
to wed at the prestigious Grace
Episcopal Church, which appalled
the pious and the humorless.

Lincoln did not talk

down to them. He
regarded them as real
folks, sensible, and
knowing a good deal
of the world
When Mr. Barnum brings the
church and its solemn rites into
his show business, he outrages
public decency, the Brooklyn Eagle
editorialized. We are surprised
that the clergy, or representatives
of so respectable a body as the
Episcopal Church should, for a
moment, allow themselves to be
used by this Yankee showman to
advertise his business.
But most New Yorkers didnt
share the Eagles umbrage, and
wanted only to witness the historic
event. Outside the church, huge
crowds packed Broadway, held back
by lines of police. Inside, 2,000
invited guests filled the pews,
among them tycoons, politicians
and generals, including General
Ambrose Burnside, whose foolish

frontal assault on a Confederate

army at Fredericksburg, Va., had
resulted in a horrendously bloody
Union defeat two months earlier.
As the tiny bride and groom
strode down the aisle, the guests
strained to catch a glimpse of
them. Many stood upon the
seats, others stood upon stools
placed on the seats, the New
York Times reported in its
delightfully detailed account of
the wedding. Irrepressible and
unpleasantly audible giggles ran
through the church.
At the altar, the couple climbed
six steps to the top of a tapestrycovered platform so they could
look the minister in the eye as
they repeated their vows. After
the benediction was pronounced,
the Times reported, the General
honestly kissed his wife, and in the
presence of the entire audience
bestowed upon her the killing
glance with which he has, in days
gone by, captivated so many millions
of equally susceptible damsels.
General and Mrs. Tom Thumb
rode through cheering crowds to
the reception at the Metropolitan
Hotel, where they stood atop a
grand piano and shook hands with
several thousand guests. Among
their many wedding gifts was
diamond jewelry from Mrs. John
Jacob Astor, a mechanical singing
bird from Barnum and Chinese
ornamental fire screens from
Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.
It is understood that the little
General and his wife will proceed
to Washington tomorrow, the
Times reported.

Honeymooning at the Willard

Hotel in Washington, the newlyweds
received an invitation to a reception
in their honor at the White House.
Held on Friday, February 13, it
was one of the Lincolns first
social engagements after a long
mourning period following the
death of their 11-year-old son,
Willie, a year earlier. Robert
Lincoln, 19, the couples oldest
son, refused to attend. I do not
propose to assist in entertaining
Tom Thumb, he told his mother.
But Tad Lincoln, 9, eagerly
joined the celebration, and so did
General Benjamin Butler, Treasury
Secretary Salmon P. Chase and
Navy Secretary Gideon Welles.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Stratton!
an attendant announced to the
guests, and then the newlyweds
marched into the East Room,
Charles in a formal suit, Lavinia in
her white satin wedding gown, its
2-foot train trailing behind her.
They strode slowly toward the
president, who wore a black suit
and white kid gloves, and Mary
Lincoln, who looked festive in a
pink silk dress, with pink roses in
her hair. When the newlyweds
reached the 6-foot-4 president, he
graciously bowed to greet them.
It was pleasant to see their
tall host bend, and bend, to take
their little hands in his great palm,
holding Madames with especial
chariness, as though it were a
robins egg, and he were fearful of
breaking it, wrote another guest,
journalist Grace Greenwood. Yet
he did not talk down to them, but
made them feel from the first as

STEPHEN KRONINGER

though he regarded them as real

folks, sensible, and knowing a
good deal of the world.
The President took our hands
and led us to the sofa, lifting the
General up, and placing him at his
left hand, Lavinia later recalled,
while Mrs. Lincoln did the same
for me, placing me at her right.
Amazed at these tiny adults,
Tad Lincoln studied the bride and
concluded that she resembled his
mom. Mother, if you were a little
woman like Mrs. Stratton, he said,
you would look just like her. Then
he compared the newlyweds to his
father. Mother, isnt it funny that
father is so tall, and Mr. and Mrs.
Stratton are so little?
His father overheard that
remark. My boy, it is because
Dame Nature sometimes delights in
doing funny things, the president
said. You need not seek for any
other reason, for here you have the
long and short of it.
Making small talk, Lincoln
asked General Thumb how he
ought to conduct the war against

the Rebels. The General proffered

some sage advice. My friend
Barnum, he said, would settle
the whole affair in a month.
The next day, the newlyweds
visited a Union army garrison
in Virginia. As we rode through
the vast camp, we were greeted
with cheers, throwing up of caps,
and shouts from all sides, Lavinia
later recalled. It seemed a joy to
them to see a face which recalled to
their minds memories of happy
days at home.
The couple traveled the world
for three years, making 1,471 paid
appearances and accumulating a
fortune. They remained happily
married for 20 years, until 1883,
when Charles died of a stroke.
Ten thousand people attended
his funeral. Later, Lavinia
returned to showbiz and married
her co-star, a 45-inch-tall Italian
piccolo player. She died in 1919,
a short, plump 78-year-old
member of the Christian Science
Church and the Daughters of the
American Revolution.

OCTOBER 2013

25

The WEIDER HISTORY GROUP presents

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Details

Mount Vernon Fan Chair

by Sarah Cokeley

Climate control in the 18th century

was non-existent, so when John Cram, a
musical instrument craftsman from
Philadelphia, developed a fan chair to
improve the health of the sedentary, it
was a sensation. With just a press of the
foot, the fan chair provided a small breeze,
making hot summer days tolerable. In
July 1786, Crams benefactor Charles
Willson Peale submitted a schematic of the
fan chair to the American Philosophical
Society, the nations first patent office.
Peale imagined the fan chair would be
useful to the studious and others that are
obliged to sit at their employments. With
Peales help, Crams fan chair became
popular among local Philadelphians, like
Benjamin Franklin, who was known to
pedal a fan chair in his home library. Even
George Washington purchased a fan chair
similar to this one, on display at Mount
Vernon, while attending the Constitutional
Convention in 1787.

Power Supply
A treadle, secured to the front chair
legs, creates a fulcrum and supplies the
movement of the fan frame. When a
sitter presses and releases the treadle,
the back end rises and falls, making the
frame move and the fan swing.

MOUNT VERNON LADIES ASSOCIATION

Pulley System
Two leather straps
wrapped around a pulley
in opposite directions
creates the fans backand-forth motion when
the treadle is activated.

Fan Blade
A blade, made of
pasteboard, is placed
just high enough for
someone to sit upright
comfortably. The motion
of the blade, passing
above the sitters head,
creates a cool breeze.
Fly Trap
Peale noted some
cuttings of paper, or
streamers, could be
added to the fan blade
to help keep flies away.

Wood Frame
The maple spine of the
fan frame is supported
by the chair, and attached
at the seat bottom and
the chair back.

Windsor Chair
The fan frame could
be fitted to any
Windsor chair. This
bow-back Windsor is
ideal because the Hshaped brace below
the seat provides
enough clearance
to accommodate
the treadle.

A-Frame Design
The two-prong, A-frame
treadle design allows the
sitter to easily use either
foot to create movement.

OCTOBER 2013

27

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An Alaskan Village Holds the Key to

Understanding the 1918 Spanish Flu

Here Is Where

by Andrew Carroll

LAST YEAR, historian Andrew

Carroll returned from a 50-state
trek to visit historical sites that are
nationally significantand yet have
gone unmarked. He chronicles that

journey in his new book, Here

Is Where: Discovering Americas
Great Forgotten History (Crown
Archetype). Carroll is now a regular
contributor to American History and

Scientists had never seen anything like it.

Considered the worst pandemic in history, the Spanish

flu started in 1917 and, in less than two years, killed
approximately 50 million people around the world. Other
estimates put the global tally at twice that, but the final
number wont ever be known because the doctors,
nurses and coroners who normally recorded fatalities
Left: The Spanish flu virus
was re-grown in the lab in
2005. Below: Soldiers sick
with the flu are treated at
a U.S. Army hospital in
France during World War I.

U.S. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH; INSET: BSIP SA/ALAMY

will feature a new forgotten site in

each issue. Readers are encouraged
to suggest their own favorite, littleknown sites. For more information,
please visit www.HereIsWhere.org.

were either overworked to the point of

exhaustion or dead themselves.
Even with travel restrictions and
quarantines in place, the disease spread
quickly to the most remote corners of
the world. In November 1918, the
Spanish flu reached a tiny outpost in
Alaska called Brevig Mission and killed
72 residents within five days, leaving
alive only eight children and teenagers.
In August 1997, a scientist named
Johan Hultin from San Francisco
traveled to Brevig Mission and,
with permission of the towns elders,

Brevig
Mission, AK

Degrees Minutes Seconds:

Latitude .........65-20'05'' N
Longitude .....166-29'21'' W
Decimal Degrees:

Latitude ..........65.3347222
Longitude ....-166.4891667

OCTOBER 2013

29

A white cross marks the

Brevig Mission cemetery.
Ninety percent of the
small Alaska towns
residents died during the
1918 influenza epidemic.

excavated the local cemetery to try and unearth a victim

of the outbreak buried deep within the frozen tundra.
He hoped to extract a sample of human tissue that
contained a hibernating specimen of the 1918 flu virus.
On August 23, Hultin found a female body seven feet
down that was remarkably well preserved.
I sat on a pailturned upside downand looked at
her, Hultin recalled in Gina Kolatas 2001 book Flu.
She was an obese woman; she had fat in her skin and
around her organs and that served as a protection from
the occasional short-term thawing of permafrost. Those
on the other side of her were not obese and they had
decayed. I sat on the pail and saw this woman in a state
of good preservation. And I knew that this was where
the virus [sample] has got to come from, shedding light
on the mysteries of 1918.

With an autopsy knife, Hultin sliced out most of

her lungs and immersed the sections in a chemical
solution. Then he and his crew carefully reburied the
woman hed named Lucy.
Once he returned to San Francisco, Hultin sent the
samples to Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger at the Armed
Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C.
Taubenberger was able to decode the virus entire
genetic sequence, a historic achievement in itself. Later,
Taubenberger and his team reconstructed the Spanish
flus complete gene sequence and in 2005 successfully
re-grew the virus, a feat never before accomplished
30 AMERICAN HISTORY

with an extinct disease. That raised obvious ethical and

security issues, since the viruswhich is 25 times more
deadly than the regular seasonal flucould conceivably
be used as a biological weapon or accidentally released.
But Taubenberger believed the benefits of studying the
live virus outweighed the dangers.
Its clear that the 1918 virus remains particularly
lethal, Taubenberger said after bringing about its
Lazarus-like resurrection, and determining whether
pandemic influenza virus strains can emerge via
different pathways will affect the scope and focus of
surveillance and prevention efforts.
Deciphering how a particular virus operates opens
up insights into other viral strains and reveals how
they grow, mutate, jump from animal to animal, and
attack their hosts. Research based on Lucys lung
tissue has already led to improved flu vaccines that
have prevented larger epidemics, and, ideally, someday
scientists will build on Hultin and Taubenbergers work
to uncover a genetic Achilles heel in one strain that
makes it possible to wipe out all of them.
As for Hultin, he left something behind for the
residents of Brevig Mission in 1997. Two white wooden
crosses that once marked the cemeterys perimeter had
rotted away to almost nothing. Before rushing back to
San Francisco, the 72-year-old scientist constructed
two new crosses, which he mounted where the originals
had stood. They were his tribute to the dead and his
thank-you to the community that had shown him such
hospitalityand given so much to medical science.
COURTESY OF ANDREW CARROLL

Letter From
American History

Opportunities
Lost and Found

In our collective minds eye are certain photographic images that have served to define people,
places and events for generations. Among the most
powerful are those taken during the Civil War, a time
coincident with the rapid technological and commercial
development of photography. When photographers
took to the battlefields, Americans gained gruesome
insights into the reality of war, starting with Alexander
Gardners images taken two days after the Battle of
Antietam in September 1862. Gardner was back at
Antietam in October when President Abraham Lincoln
visited, and his photos of Lincoln with his generals
became enduring icons. Gardner worked for the legendary Mathew Brady, who two years later missed an
opportunity to capture a scene that could have had
profound impact at the time, and in history. As Robert
Wilson, author of Mathew Brady: Portraits of a
Nation, relates in our cover story, when President
Lincoln visited the Union lines near Petersburg, Va., in
June 1864, he took the opportunity to review the
United States Colored Troops (USCT) of the XVIII
Corps of the Army of the James, which had fought
valiantly there days before. Brady was also on the
Union lines around Petersburg at the same time, but,
inexplicably, never crossed paths with the president.
One can only imagine the impact an image, if it dared
be taken, of Lincoln alongside black Union soldiers
would have had at the timeand on our perceptions of
the times. Now, 150 years after the Bureau of Colored
Troops was created as a result of Lincolns courageous
decision to open the ranks to African Americans, all
of the USCT service records have been digitized by
the National Archiveswww.archives.gov/research/
military/in partnership with Fold3www.fold3.com/
category_268/. As a result, access to nearly 4 million
images of historic documents and personal papers is
just a click away, giving researchers and descendants
of those men a new opportunity to understand and
honor their service to their country.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; INSET: NATIONAL ARCHIVES/WWW.FOLD3.COM

Sergeant
Tom Strawn
was posted
to western
Tennessee with
the 3rd USCT,
Heavy Artillery.
Strawns service
record (left) was
one of millions
digitized by the
National Archives
and Fold3.

OCTOBER 2013

31

LINCOLN
at Petersburg

The 16th president had

an emotional real-life
encounter with black
soldiers you wont see
in Spielbergs Lincoln
by Robert Wilson

hen Steven Spielbergs film

Lincoln appeared last year,
we were urged to learn from
it the value of compromise.
The movies action centers

on the horse-trading that led to the House of

Representatives passing the 13th Amendment,
which when ratified would outlaw slavery. Todays
leaders would do well to heed the example of
President Lincoln and the House members disinclined to vote for the amendment, who were willing to soften their positions and act for the
greater good. But did the movie underplay an
important part of the story, namely Lincolns true
feelings about the issue of race?
We know that Abraham Lincoln was willing to do
almost anything to preserve the Union before the Civil
War began and to hold the border states in the wars first
years. As the fighting dragged on, his greatest goal was
ending the war; ending slavery was not his abiding passion. In 1862, in one of the best known of his letters,
Lincoln wrote to Horace Greeley, the editor of the New
York Tribune, professing, What I do about slavery, and
the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the
Union. Lincolns historical pragmatism, taken together
with Daniel Day Lewis portrayal in the Spielberg film, in
which the president is relentlessly either winsome or contemplative, might persuade us that he lacked real feeling
with regard to race. Even the presidents few outbursts of
emotion in the film seem more strategic than heartfelt.
But in June 1864, on a visit to General Ulysses S. Grant
at City Point, Va., and to the black troops among the larger
Union force arrayed outside Petersburgsome 20 miles
south of the Confederate capital in Richmondthe president showed a depth of emotion that thus might seem
unfamiliar. Its hard to resist beginning this story the

32 AMERICAN HISTORY

Black soldiers risked

their lives for the
promise of freedom,
said Abraham Lincoln
in 1863: And the
promise being made,
must be kept.

night before he left for City Point. With Mary Lincoln in

New York with their son Tad, the president went to a concert at Fords Theatre with John Hay, his young private
secretary. The next day Hay wrote a jocular letter about
the evening to his fellow White House secretary, John
Nicolay, which begins, I went last night to a Sacred Concert of profane music at Fords. Hay and Nicolay had pet
names for others in the White House, and one of Hays for
what we would now call the POTUS was the Tycoon.
Hay reported, The Tycoon and I occupied a private box,
and both of us carried on a hefty flirtation with the M. girls

Soldiers from the U.S. Colored Troops gather at

their bombproof shelters in August 1864 during a
lull in the fighting at Petersburg, Va. The picture
was taken by Timothy OSullivan, a protg of
famed photographer Mathew Brady. Two months
earlier, Brady photographed white troops at
Petersburg, but he neglected to photograph the
black troops thereor Lincolns visit to them.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; OPPOSITE: NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION/ART RESOURCE, NY

OCTOBER 2013

33

in the flies. Hefty flirtation is not something we often

the troopsthe first time Lincoln had visited the army
associate with Lincoln, and it is especially hard to imagine
under Grants command. The army had suffered 65,000
given his eventual fate in the presidential box at Fords.
casualties over the past six weeks as it fought to annihiThe same day as the concert, June 19, Tad returned to
late Robert E. Lees Confederates and finally end the
Washington alone and Lincoln telegraphed Mary that he
war. Now, after four days of fierce, but ultimately fruithad arrived safely. The next day at 5 p.m., Tad and his
less, combat outside Petersburg, Grant laid siege to the
father boarded the ordnance steamer Balticity to choke off its vital transportation
more at the Washington Navy Yard, which
links to Richmond.
Lincolns pants
made its usual run down the Potomac to the
Lincoln rode the generals favorite horse,
legs had hiked
Chesapeake Bay, then down the bay, past
a large bay called Cincinnati, and Grant
Fort Monroe at the mouth of Hampton
rode a horse called Jeff Davis. Porter,
up above his
Roads and up the James River to City
who later wrote an engaging memoir about
ankles, and he
Point. Hay stayed behind in the White
his Civil War experiences, and two other
House, but Gustavus Fox, the assistant secmembers of Grants staff accompanied
looked like a
retary of the Navy, accompanied them.
them. Porter observed that Lincoln had
The overnight trip, which landed them at
good command of a horse, but it must be
country farmer
Grants headquarters at about noon on the
acknowledged he was not a very dashing
21st, had apparently been rough, because when Grant and
rider. The president was characteristically dressed all in
some of his officers boarded the Baltimore to welcome the
black, including his famous very high black silk hat, but
president, Lincoln confessed to feeling seasick. As Genby the time they had ridden the nearly 10 miles to where
eral Horace Porter, who accompanied Grant onto the
the troops were, he was completely covered with dust,
steamer writes, one of the younger officers on Grants
and the black color of his clothes had changed to
staff saw that an opportunity had arisen to make this
Confederate gray. In addition, his pants legs had hiked
scene the supreme moment of his life, in giving him a
up above his ankles, and he looked, Porter said, like a
chance to soothe the digestive organs of the Chief Magicountry farmer riding into town wearing his Sunday
strate of the nation. He suggested that Lincoln try a
clothes. Porter acknowledged that a civilian always
glass of champagne, which he called a certain cure for
looked out of place among troops, but the picture preseasickness. Porter reports that the president gazed at
sented by the President bordered on the grotesque.
the young man for a moment, and then smiled and said,
The troops ignored Lincolns hayseed appearance and
No, my friend; I have seen too many fellows seasick
cheered him heartily as he passed by. The Washington
ashore from drinking that very stuff.
Evening Star also reported on the visit, writing drily that
After they went to Grants headquarters and talked for
wherever he went he was enthusiastically cheered by
a while, the president and the general went out to inspect
such troops as were in his way, the number of whom,
A massive Union
mortar called the
Dictator rained
200-pound shells
on Petersburg. On
April 2, 1865, after
a nine-month
siege, the Rebels
abandoned the
city; Richmond fell
the next day.

34 AMERICAN HISTORY

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

however, was not large, as most of the army was uninviteyes, and his voice was so broken by emotion that he could
ingly near the front. In a little while Grant suggested
scarcely articulate the words of thanks and congratulation
that they visit the colored troops, who behaved so handwhich he tried to speak to the humbled and devoted men
somelyin front of Petersburg last week. He was referthrough whose ranks he rode. The scene was affecting in the
ring to the U.S. Colored Troops who had charged the
extreme, and no one could have witnessed it unmoved.
Confederate rifle pits on June 15.
Lincoln immediately agreed, saying he
The mighty trio of Spielberg, Doris
The colored
had read a report to the secretary of war
Kearns Goodwin (on whose Team of Rivals
regiments have
about how gallantly they behaved, havthe film was based), and Tony Kushner,
ing taken six out of sixteen guns captured
who wrote the screenplay, did not find or
proved their
that day. These were cannons along the
imagine a scene this moving or indeed this
efficiency and
10-mile Dimmock Line, which the Confedcinematic for Lincoln. Given the presierates had set up to defend Petersburg,
dents largely intellectualized approach to
kept pace with
and which they abandoned to the initial
race, in life as in the film, a scene like this
the white troops one might have given our understanding of
Union assault. Porter recalls that Lincoln
went on, saying to Grant,
his attitude more depth.
It should be said, though, in the interest of historical
I was opposed on nearly every side when I first favored the
accuracy and complexity, that a casual racism was not
raising of colored regiments; but they have proved their effiabsent from any of these events. As Lincoln and Grant
ciency, and I am glad they have kept pace with the white
approached the black troops, Porter recalls that the
troops in the recent assaults.
president told the general a racist joke. Porter himself
sets up the scene when the African-American troops see
They soon reached the encampment of the AfricanLincoln by saying, Always impressionable, the enthusiAmerican troops of the XVIII Corps of the Army of the
asm of the blacks now knew no limits, and quotes their
James, under Maj. Gen. William Baldy Smith. There,
negro dialect with remarks like God bress Massa
Porter writes, a scene now occurred which defies
Linkum! and De Lord save Fader Abraham!
description, when the black troops first encountered
Later in 1864, on November 12, John Hay and a large
the liberator of their race.
group went to visit Grant at City Point, and the question
of black troops came up again. Grant told the group that
They crowded about him and fondled his horse; some of
the African-American soldiers were admirable in many
them kissed his hands, while others ran off crying in triumph
respects, but that an army of them could [not] have
to their comrades that they had touched his clothes. The
stood the weeks pounding at the Wilderness or
President rode with bared head; the tears had started to his
Spotsylvania as our men did. Note Grants use of the

The 29th Connecticut Infantry

(Colored) was transferred to
Petersburg in August 1864,
shortly after this photo was
taken in Beaufort, S.C.

36 AMERICAN HISTORY

word our for his white troops, contrasting them with his
escorted Lincoln up the James to Richmond, occupied
black troops.
now by Union troops. African-American soldiers were
If the filmmakers missed an opportunity in Lincolns
among the first to enter the former Confederate capital,
meeting with the black soldiers, a more regrettable
heartening thousands of newly liberated black slaves
missed chance also occurred at the time of Lincolns visit.
eager to see the man who was now indisputably their
The famous photographer Mathew Brady,
president. Throngs of people slowed
whose 1860 image of Lincoln introduced a
Lincolns progress through the streets.
Lincolns sad
then little-known presidential candidate to
Mr. Lincoln, the admiral later recalled,
face seemed
the nation, was on that very day taking
was surrounded by these people, who had
photographs of Union troops along the
to say, I suffer
treasured up the recollection of him caught
Dimmock Line. Although the XVIII Corps
for you all, but
from a photograph, and had looked up to him
was at the north end of the line and Brady
for four years as the one who was to lead them
and his men were working farther south,
will do all I can
out of captivity. It was a touching sightthe
its puzzling that he could have missed this
tall, gaunt-looking man who seemed in himself
scene and the rest of the presidents visit,
to help you
to be bearing all the grief of the nation, and
especially since news of Lincolns presence
whose sad face seemed to say, I suffer for you all, but will do
was said to have spread as rapidly down the line as the
all I can to help you.
soldiers cheers for their ungainly commander in chief.
Lincoln and Tad slept on the Baltimore that night as
Ten days later, Lincoln was back in the presidential box
it was docked at City Point, and the next day steamed
at Fords Theatre on the last evening of his life. With his
up the James River to inspect the battlements, evendeath, and uncertainty hovering over the fate of millions
tually turning back and returning to Washington, sunof African Americans, the 22nd U.S. Colored Troopsone
burnt and fagged but still refreshed and cheered from
of the regiments that had fought so well at Petersburg
his visit with Grants army, according to John Hay.
traveled to Washington, D.C. In a final act of respect for
Bradys men would soon be training their cameras on
the slain commander in chief, they led the funeral procesGeneral Grant at City Point, and Brady himself would
sion from the White House to the U.S. Capitol.
at almost the same time be heading back to Washington
or New York, but no evidence exists, pictorial or otherRobert Wilson is the editor of The
wise, that the president and the cameraman crossed
American Scholar. He adapted this
paths in Virginia.
story from his book Mathew Brady:
Lincoln returned to City Point in late March 1865 and
Portraits of a Nation, to be published in
rode into Petersburg on April 3, the day it finally fell to
August by Bloomsbury.
the Union. On the 4th, Admiral David Dixon Porter

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

OCTOBER 2013

37

We Are Coming,
Father Abraham
Free men and former slaves answered the presidents call for troops

n May 1863, the War Department created the Bureau of Colored Troops to recruit
African Americans for military service. It was a controversial move, but one
that Abraham Lincoln believed necessary to win the war and preserve the

Soldiers or servants?
The black men
here might have
been part of a
work detail.
Fighting units
were segregated.

United States. Some 180,000 black soldiers and 19,000 black sailors served the

Union cause; 40,000 died. The recruits hoped that shared sacrifices on the battlefield
would be rewarded with equal opportunity off it. Let the black man get upon his person
the brass letters U.S., said the abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass, and
there is no power on the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship.

Private Abraham F.
Brown (left) served
with the 54th
Massachusetts
Infantry, the first
regiment of black
soldiers raised
during the war.
The unit lost 42
percent of its ranks
leading an assault
on Fort Wagner,
S.C., in July 1863,
but the battle
proved to skeptics
that black men
couldand would
fight bravely.

Pickets near the

Dutch Gap Canal,
November 1864.
Black troops were
sent to Dutch Gap,
Va., to build a canal
on the James River
near Richmond.
They came under
constant fire from
Confederate
artillery.

TOP: MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BOSTON, MA/THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY (2); BOTTOM: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; OPPOSITE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

OCTOBER 2013

39

The 64th U.S. Colored

Troopsin camp at
Palmyra Bend, Miss.
formed in March 1864
from the loyalist
7th Louisiana Infantry
(African Descent) and
were assigned to the
District of Vicksburg.

The log-base tent and a

bottle of wine indicate
officers quarters. This
unidentified man
wears a hat with a
Union II Corps badge;
he is likely the servant
of a mounted officer.

40 AMERICAN HISTORY

Standing guard over Union

cannons at City Point, Va.
Black troops were often
assigned non-combat roles.

Drummer Jackson (far left)

was an escaped slave who
served with the 79th USCT.
His photo was used to
recruit African Americans.

Sgt. Maj. Christian Fleetwood

(left), 4th USCT, was awarded
the Congressional Medal of
Honor for leading a charge
against Confederate defenses
near Richmond, Va., in
September 1864. Fleetwood
was one of 25 black soldiers to
earn the medal during the war.

TOP: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: CORBIS; EVERETT COLLECTION/ALAMY; OPPOSITE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2)

OCTOBER 2013

41

Rebellion, Love and

Young and vivacious, Lucy Knox surrendered privilege and

comfort to be with her lover, Henry, on the long journey to
revolution and victory by Nancy Rubin Stuart

n August 1773, as a local militia drilled on

Boston Common, 17-year-old Lucy Flucker
observed a tall, uncommonly good-looking
officer on horseback. The officer, Henry
Knox, wore a dark silk cloth tied around
his left hand to disguise its disfigurement
from a gun accident that had blown away
two of his fingers. Intrigued, Lucy was
soon visiting Knox at his New London
Bookstore, a fashionable meeting place frequented by
the likes of John Adams and Nathanael Greene.
It was a curious match in a city about to be engulfed by
the American Revolution and one that would personify
the complexities of the coming split between England
and the American colonies. At 24, Knox was a rising star
among Bostons patriots with a keen interest in military
science, a passion he indulged by reading everything he
could find on the subject. Lucy was the independentminded daughter of loyalists. Her father was Thomas
Flucker, the Crown-appointed secretary of Massachusetts; her mother, Hannah Waldo Flucker, was
heiress to vast tracts of land in the district of Maine. But
Knox was so smitten by Lucys flashing dark eyes, glossy
black hair and voluptuous curves that he fumbled making change for his customers whenever the spirited
young woman appeared in his shop. Before long, the couple was talking of marriage.
Lucys parents disapproved. Knox, they protested,
was a lowly man in trade, and his radical attitude
toward British rule was quite objectionable. Everything
Lucy enjoyedthe familys Summer Street townhouse,
fine clothes, books, imported household goods, servantsemanated from her fathers royal appointment. If
Lucy married Knox, they warned, she would eat the
bread of poverty and dependence.
None of that mattered to Lucy. She was determined to
marry Henry and cast her lot with the patriots. She
claimed the privilege of thinking for herself on a subject
so deeply involving her own happiness, Lucys daughter,
Lucy Knox Thatcher, later observed. The Fluckers eventually gave a half-reluctant consent but refused to
sanction [the marriage] by their presence. On June 16,

42 AMERICAN HISTORY

1774, six weeks before her 18th birthday, Lucy married

Henry at Bostons Kings Chapel. The only attendants
were her sister Hannah and her half-sister Sallie.
Lucy had wed the best and tenderest of friends,
whom she called her Harry, but war intruded on their

Revolution
happiness. After the battle at Lexington and Concord on
April 19, 1775, General Thomas Gage, commander of the
British forces in America and a friend of Lucys father,
pressed Knox to join his army. Knox refused. Gage
resorted to threats: If Knox tried to leave Boston he
would be arrested.
The Knoxes would not be bullied. Wielding her needle,
Lucy quilted Henrys sword into her cape. One moonless night they slipped out of Boston and arrived in
Cambridge, where the burgeoning revolutionary army
was camped. While Henry volunteered to serve, Lucy,
like other displaced patriotic women who followed their

husbands into war, sought refuge in a local safe house.

Henry had different frustrations. From his intensive
study of artillery and engineering manuals, Henry recognized the need for defensive lines around Roxbury to
secure the only land route out of Boston, but hed been
forced to leave his manuals behind. Relying on his memory, he built fortifications so impressive that George
Washington appointed him colonel of artillery in October.
Lucy, meanwhile, had reluctantly moved in June to the
safer, more distant town of Worcester, but separated
from her Harry and pregnant with her first child, she
felt alone and invisible. Henry was always in my

While the first pitched battle of

the Revolution raged at Bunker
Hill in June 1775, Lucy Knox
was ensconced 45 miles away
in Worcester. Henry Knox
oversaw the fortification of
Bunker Hill and directed
American artillery fire during
the battle. To everyones
surprise, the Americans
repulsed two British assaults.
A third devolved into bloody
hand-to-hand fighting before
low supplies of gunpowder
and ammunition forced the
Americans to retreat. In
addition to the lopsided
casualty count1,150 British
and 441 Americansthe battle
also provided the patriot cause
with a martyr, General Joseph
Warren. His death was depicted
in grand style after the war
by Bunker Hill veteran John
Trumbull. Warren was a
leading figure among Bostons
patriots and a friend of Henry
and Lucy Knox.

IMAGE ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD./ALAMY

OCTOBER 2013

43

Henry Knox (above) impressed George

Washington with his engineering skills. But he
became a national hero when he successfully
moved 60 tons of captured British artillery
from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the winter
of 1775-76 (right). Knox ordered 40 sleds for
the job, each capable of carrying 5,400 pounds.

thoughts, whose image is deeply implanted in my heart.

Knox was equally devoted, calling Lucy the dear idol of
my heart and the charmer of my soul, but he could not
ignore the desire to render my devoted country every
service in my power.

n early November 1775, Washington assigned

Knox to retrieve the big guns of Fort Ticonderoga. The Americans had captured the fort in
May, and its artillery pieces were desperately
needed at Boston, where the British had been
under siege since Lexington and Concord. Lucy, by then
nearly five months pregnant, was horrified at the
thought of Henrys 600-mile round trip to the shores of
Lake Champlain with winter coming on. If Henry perished from disease, exposure or attacks by the British or
British-allied Indians, what would become of her and her
unborn child? Dont be afraid. There is no fighting,
Henry reassured her. I am going upon business only.
The three weeks absence Henry originally estimated for
the journey turned into 58 tense days. Finally, on
January 24, 1776, Knox and his troops reappeared on the
Boston Post Road with 43 cannons and 16 heavy guns.
Lucyand the Continental Armyrejoiced.

44 AMERICAN HISTORY

To celebrate this remarkable achievement, on February 1, the Knoxes were invited to dine in Cambridge
with Washington and his newly arrived wife, Martha.
Lucy was in her element at social functions, even with
her advanced pregnancy, and Martha warmed to her wit
and charm, becoming a fond friend. Henry was preoccupied with the placement of the rescued guns, but on February 25, Knox asked his fellow artillery officer Henry
Burbeck to position several cannons at Lechmere Point
for him. These things I should have done myself, Knox
explained, but Mrs. Knox, being exceedingly ill, prevents my leaving her. In 18th-century parlance that
meant Lucy was in labor. The next day she delivered a
girl, also named Lucy. Still more triumphs lay ahead
when on March 4, 2,000 Americans stealthily placed
more than a dozen cannons on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston. The next morning British General
William Howe was stunned to see the formidable firepower now looming over his position. He soon decided to
evacuate the city.
Lucy was ecstatic. Her Harry had become a hero.
Yet joy quickly turned to sorrow when she learned her
mother and sister had sailed with the British to Nova
Scotiawithout a letter of farewell. Lucy returned to

LEFT: 2013 MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON (DETAIL); RIGHT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Boston, a city devastated by its British occupiers, with

was in the war: I imagine by this time you have almost
her new baby but without Henry. Washington believed
forgot my very looks and if perchance my name is menthe British would attack New York City next and ordered
tioned you cry what have we to do with women.Alas,
the Continental Army to relocate there.
what a change from the happy days I have seen.
Contrary to Washingtons expectations, the British did
As the war dragged into 1777, Lucy keenly felt the
not immediately appear in New York.
absence of her family. She reached out to
After weeks of waiting, Lucy grew impaHannah in Halifax: I wrote several times
HOW HORRID IS
tient and saw no reason to delay joining
during the siege of Boston but never
her husband. Henry reiterated his qualms
obtained a line in answer, a circumstance
THIS WAR,
about a British invasion, but Lucy would
that surprised and grieved me.I am not
not be deterred. She appeared in Manonly deprived of father, mother, brother &
BROTHER
hattan with her infant in early June.
sisters but also denied the satisfaction of
AGAINST
Reunited with Henry at his residence in
hearing of their welfare.My sister, how
Bowling Green, she hosted dinners for
horrid is this war, Brother against
BROTHER
other officers, toured New York with
Brother and the parent against the
General Nathanael Greenes wife, Caty,
child.The art of killing has become a
AND THE
and visited the Washingtons on Staten
perfect science. Adding to her distress,
Island. All went well until the morning of
Henry had forbidden her to visit him until
PARENT AGAINST
June 29. As the Knoxes ate breakfast in
she was inoculated against smallpox,
THE CHILD
their home overlooking New York Harbor,
which was rampant in the American
an ominous fleet of sails appeared on the
camps. I am very anxious to have it
horizon. The British had arrived.
immediately, she wrote Henry in April and soon reportYou can scarcely conceive the distress and anxiety
ed that she and little Lucy had been inoculated successthat [Lucy] then had, Knox reported to his brother
fully. Still he refused her visit.
William in Boston. Guns firing, the troops repairing to
he war was going badly for the Americans,
their posts and every thingbustle. Worst of all, Knox
but things also looked bleak on the home
had no time to calm Lucy, saying, My country calls were
front. The behavior of our town meeting has
loudest. In the press of war, he had scolded like a fury
almost made me a Tory, Lucy declared in
at her for having stayed too long on the island.
May. Old Mr. Erving is among the number
Stung by Henrys outbursts, Lucy and her baby left
who they have passed a vote to confine in close jailupon
for Fairfield, Conn., with Caty Greene and another offithe suspicion of their being Torys. I do not mean to blame
cers wife. In an angry letter, she proclaimed, I am not
them for ridding themselves of those persons who in case
deserving of the severe censure that I have received.
of an attack, would take a part against them, but their
Especially irksome was Henrys habit to remind me of
meddling with that old gentlemancan be from no other
my incapacity of judging for myself.I am afraid you do
motive but to share his estate.The mob have so much
not bestow the time to read my scrawls with any attenthe upper hand at present.
tion. After a week without word from Henry, a letter
By August Lucy could no longer contain her frustrafinally arrived on July 18. Knox explained he had hustled
tion. Henry had been promoted to brigadier general and
Lucy out of New York for her own safety and out of the
chief of artillery in January and she fretted that his rismost disinterested friendship cemented by the tenderest
ing authority in the Continental Army came at her
love. Chagrined, Lucy apologized. It grieves me that I
expense. I hope you will not consider yourself as comhavegiven you pain but I [am] sure you willforgive
mander in chief of your own house, she wrote, but be
when you reflect, that my affection for my dear Harry
convinced there is such a thing as equal command.
led me into the error.
Henry finally relented in May 1778 and invited Lucy to
Even so, the Knoxes marriage was strained by sepavisit him at Valley Forge, which by then had overcome
ration and distressing news from the front lines in New
the hardships of the previous winter. Food was in ample
York. Through the autumn of 1776, Lucy remained in
supply, and reinforcements had been trained for battle.
Connecticut as Washingtons army endured defeats in
As soon as Lucy arrived at the camp near Philadelphia,
New York, Harlem Heights and White Plains. When sevHenry folded her into his arms. So compatible were the
eral of Lucys letters failed to arrive, Knox complained to
Knoxes that their friend Nathanael Greene wrote his
her that he was exceedingly afflicted. On November 6,
peevish wife, Caty, that they seemed a perfect married
Lucy fumed, You accuse me of neglecting to write by
couple. But Mrs. Knox is fatter than ever, which is a
three postsand impute it to pleasure or negligence
great mortification to her, Greene gleefully added. The
neglecting you is a thing I never shall be guilty of. She
General is equally fat, Greene noted, and therefore one
wasnt so sure about Henry, completely engrossed as he

OCTOBER 2013

45

cannot laugh at the other. Indeed, the Knoxes size

Ten days later she delivered a second daughter, Julia.
was often commented onLucy weighed 250 pounds,
Though we wished a sonit is a divine child, Knox
Henry nearly 300.
wrote his brother. By May 2, Lucy felt so well that she
Once settled in Knoxs hut, Lucy visited with the wives
rode to Middlebrook to watch the Continental Army
of other officers and helped Martha Washington sew
parade before the French minister Conrad Alexandre
shirts and knit stockings for the soldiers.
Grard. A week later, however, she grew
Her visit was short, however, for the Conmost alarmingly ill. Her skin turned yeltinental Army was preparing for the sumI HOPE YOU WILL low, leading the doctors to conclude she
mer offensive. During the June 28 Battle of
suffered from jaundice, occupied by
NOT CONSIDER
Monmouth, Lucy and her daughter lived
bilious obstructions. In all probability,
with friends in New Jersey, but in August
she had contracted infectious hepatitis, a
YOURSELF
they joined Knox in camp at White Plains.
disease common to overcrowded sites like
In November 1778, Lucy, pregnant for
army camps. Lucy slowly regained her
COMMANDER
the second time, followed the Continental
health that spring but young Lucy and
OF YOUR OWN
Army to its winter residence in Middlebaby Julia fell ill.
brook, N.J. There the Knoxes lived in a
In late May, an alarm sounded through
HOUSE. THERE IS
Dutch farmhouse adjacent to the PluckeMiddlebrook. General Howes men had
min Artillery Cantonment, an academy
seized Stony Point, N.Y., a key garrison on
SUCH A THING AS
Henry had established to train artillery
the Hudson River. The next day, the
EQUAL COMMAND
and engineering officers.
British took Verplancks Point on the
On a sunny Thursday, March 18, 1779,
opposite shore, blocking the river crossing
the Knoxes hosted the Grand Alliance Ball at the academy
at Kings Ferry. Washington ordered the army to the
to commemorate the first anniversary of the American
Hudson. From his headquarters near Newburgh, Knox
alliance with France. Once again, Lucys pregnancy did
anxiously inquired about dear Julia, and asked his
not interfere with her social duties. She relished playing
wife to kiss her and my angelic Lucy for me. Ten days
the role of hostess to some 400 guests, among them mililater Lucy reported that the baby was gravely ill. On
tary officers, their wives and prominent patriots, including
July 2 Julia died.
Benjamin Franklin and former president of the ConThe Knoxes were devastated. Plans to bury the child in
tinental Congress Henry Laurens. And she was proud of
the nearby Dutch Reformed churchyard were scuttled
her husband for organizing what is now recognized as
when it was discovered that the Knoxes were CongreAmericas first war college. After a cannonade, military
gationalists. Local legend has it that Lucy and Henrys
processions, toasts, a banquet and fireworks, Lucy danced
landlord, Jacobus Vanderveer, solved the problem. Bury
a minuet with Washington to open the ball.
your child here, he allegedly told Knox and led him to a

Some 10,000 Continental

Army soldiers set up winter
camp in Jockey Hollow, near
Morristown, N.J., in 1779-80.
Washington ordered the
construction of a log-house
city, and his men cleared
600 acres of trees to build
more than 1,000 cabins.
Henry and Lucy Knox lived at
a nearby farm. A mural at the
Jockey Hollow Visitor Center,
Morristown National Historical
Park, depicts scenes from
that brutal winter, one of the
coldest ever on record.

46 AMERICAN HISTORY

site beyond the churchyard fence. There lay the grave of

his own daughter, who was believed to be insane when
she died and had also been buried outside the churchyard. In all probability, Knox remained on duty on the
Hudson and time has distorted the story. Nevertheless,
Julia Knox and Vanderveers daughter were indeed
buried outside the fence, and a later generation of congregants moved it to include them.
Lucy was so despondent over the infants death that
she ceased writing Henry. I have not had the happiness
to hear from you since your Letter of the 28th.I
entreatthat you wouldconfer that pleasure on your
Harry, he wrote. To cheer Lucy, he promised they would
soon be reunited. Like her, Knox longed for that period
when my Lucy and I shall be no more separated, when
we shall set down free from the hurry, bustle and impertinence of the world, in some sequestered vale.
After the summer of 1779, Lucy and Henry were
rarely apart except during battles. They spent the brutal
winter of 1779-80 in camp with the army at Morristown,
N.J., where Lucy, six months pregnant, braved her way
through a blizzard to attend a dancing assembly organized by Washington and his officers. As they had at
Middlebrook, Lucy and Washington opened the ball. In
May she delivered a son, Henry Jackson. Lucy and her
growing family joined Henry at his New Windsor, N.Y.,
headquarters later that year, and they followed him to
Virginia in 1781. While staying with Martha Washington
at Mount Vernon, Lucy learned of the British surrender
at Yorktown in October.

Towering Figure
The only known image of Lucy Knox is this postwar painted
silhouette, credited to one of the sons of revolutionary
financier Robert Morris. The caricature highlights Knoxs
outlandish hairstyle. Like other society women of the day,
Knox adopted the styles popularized by European royals.
Wires and cushions shaped the hairand hair extensions
into a pillowy pile atop the head. Knox had made of her
black hair a pyramid which rose about a foot above her head,
recalled the Marquis de Chastellux, who served with the
French forces in America during the Revolution. This was
all decked out with scarves and gauzes. Like everything
else about Lucy Knox, her hair commanded attention, and
not all of it was kind. But a historian of the period says Knox
probably enjoyed this gently mocking representation.

rom the time she left Boston in the spring of

1775 until the Morristown encampment four
years later, Lucy Knox moved at least 15
times, often while pregnant or with a baby
in tow. In December 1781, she gave birth to
her fourth child and second son, who did not live to see
his first birthday. Of the Knoxes 13 children, only three
survived to adulthood.
A 19th-century writer remembered Lucy as one of
the heroines of the Revolution, nearly as well known in
the camp as her husband.Both were favorites, he for
really brilliant conversation and unfailing good humor
and she as a lively and meddlesome but amiable leader of
society. Later generations marginalized Lucy because
of her girth, a sometimes elitist manner and an obvious
fondness for the good life. The sacrifices that Lucy
Flucker Knox, the once privileged daughter of loyalist
parents, made to the patriotic cause, her cheerful presence in the army camps of the Revolution and her devotion to Henry Knox were long forgotten.
Nancy Rubin Stuarts most recent book is Defiant
Brides: The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era
Women and the Radical Men They Married.

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BOSTON, MA/THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY; OPPOSITE: MORRISTOWN NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK (3)

OCTOBER 2013

47

 Superman, the

Jerry Siegel (left) and

"Champion of
the Oppressed,"
debuted in Action
Comics No. 1 in
1938. A near-mint
copy of the 10-cent
comic sold in 2011
for $2.2 million.

his partner Joe Shuster,

who drew the first
Superman, sold all
rights to the character
to DC Comics in 1938
for $130. Today, the
worth of the Superman
franchise is estimated
to be in the billions.

The Man of Steel reaches a milestoneand

shows no sign of slowing down
by Larry Tye
e live in an era when politicians seldom stay in our good graces for
more than a few months, and sports
figures are lucky if they hold their
star status more than a season or
two. All of which makes it remarkable that Superman has managed to
not just survive but thrive for 75 years and counting.
How has he done it?
It starts with the wrenching story of his birth and the
loss of his family, and his nurturing at the hands of a
parade of young creators yearning for their own absent
fathers. The first was Jerry Siegel, the youngest child
of Lithuanian immigrants in Cleveland, Ohio, who was
devastated when his dad died during a robbery in 1932.
While there was no bringing back his father and role
model, Siegelwho for years had been going to sleep
with a pencil and paper by his side, waiting for just the
right middle-of-the-night musefinally did bring to life a
hero who could run fast and jump high but also, as we see
early on, fend off a robber. Who would publish this fanciful tale? How about Jack Liebowitz, a hardheaded comicbook entrepreneur whose dad died just after he was born
and who needed a champion?
While many baby boomers discovered that costumed
hero in the comics, even more got to know him when he
hurtled onto their television screens in the 1950s. Whitney Ellsworth, the man who wrote, edited and produced
nearly all of those shows, was just 14 when he lost his 45-

48 AMERICAN HISTORY

year-old father to a heart attack. George Reeves, TVs

original Clark Kent and Superman, didnt even know who
his real father was until he was in his 20s. Who better to
create the ultimate childhood fantasy figure than men
whose childhoods were marred by tragedy?
Supermans rivals, too, were more than they seemed,
and more than just fantasy. Many were real-world menaces, which made the Superman stories timely and authentic. He stood up to Hitler and Stalin before America
did. The Metropolis Marvel used his radio broadcast to
expose the savagery of the Ku Klux Klan, and in comic
books he frequently upended slumlords and wife-beaters.
Another key to his success is the way the Man of
Tomorrow has evolved over the decades. The superhero
never revealed how he voted, but during the Great Depression he was a New Dealer hell-bent on truth and justice and, in a reversal, during the Reagan Revolution he
was a patriot trumpeting the American way. For each era
he zeroed in on the threats that scared us most, using
powers that grew or diminished depending on the need.
So did his spectacles, hairstyle, even his job title. Each
generation got the Superman it needed, the hero who
checked its pulse and tapped into its dreams. Superman,
always a beacon of light, remained a work in progress.
Yet if change helped him fit in, his constancy has reeled
fans back. Nobody has a more instinctual sense of right
and wrong than Superman. He sweeps in to solve our
problems, no thank-you needed. He is neither cynical like
Batman nor fraught like Spider-Man. For the religious,

he can reinforce whatever faith they profess; for nonbelievers he is a secular messiah. The more jaded the
era, the more we have been suckered back to his clunky
familiarity. So what if the upshot of his adventures is predictable: The good guy never loses. That is reassuring.
So will he continue to thrive in this new millennium,
and will we continue to be drawn to his story and to him?
Why wouldnt we be? Heroes such as Doc Savage, Ty
Cobb and even Teddy Roosevelt can become dated
interesting reflections of their eras but not ours. Others
like Sherlock Holmes, Babe Ruth and Franklin Roosevelt
still resonate, touching something primal. Superman defines that archetype. Part of it is the irresistible allure
of taking flight. Part of it is the seduction of the love triangle and the heros secret identity. Part of it is just being
10 years old again.
The more that flesh-and-blood role models let us down,
the more we turn to fictional ones who stay true. With
them, and especially with Superman, it is about the possibilityof getting the girl, saving the world (or at least
Lois and Jimmy) and winning, every time. Jerry Siegel
who couldnt get the girl, save the world (or even his
father) or make much of anything go his wayunderstood that he was us, and that his hero could be ours, too.
Superman will endure as long as we need a champion,
which should be until the end of time.

Superman
captured Hitler
and Stalin to end
World War II in
the February
1940 issue of
Look magazine.

Larry Tye is the author of Superman: The High-Flying

History of Americas Most Enduring Hero.

CLOCKWISE FROM ACTION COMICS: COURTESY OF DC ENTERTAINMENT; BETTMANN/CORBIS; COURTESY OF DC ENTERTAINMENT (2); MPTV/THE KOBAL COLLECTION; EVERETT COLLECTION

Feature-length Superman
movies include Superman and
the Mole Men (1951), Superman
(1978) and Man of Steel (2013).

The Adventures
of Superman ran
on radio from
1940-51 and on
TV from 1952-58.
George Reeves
(right) starred
in all 104
TV episodes.

American driver
William Knipper and
mechanician Robert
Muller skid around the
banked Massapequa
turn in a ChalmersDetroit racing car in the
1909 Vanderbilt Cup.
Knipper finished third.

His family owned a railroad empire, but William K.

Vanderbilt II was passionate about cars and started a
premier turn-of-the-century race that galvanized
Americas auto industry by Timothy Messer-Kruse

I NT ERFOTO /A LA MY

OCTOBER 2013

51

n a January day in 1904, two men

sat idling in bulky, big-wheeled
racecars on a stretch of wide, hard
sand on the beach between Daytona and Ormond, Fla., ready for
a one-mile, straight-ahead match
race. The showdown was part of
the Florida Speed Carnivala few days of socializing and
car racing along the beach featuring, mostly, well-to-do
gentlemen-sportsmen. Though the automobile industry
was little more than a decade old, numerous manufacturers in Europe and the United States were scrambling
to establish their reputation, partly by building bigger
engines and faster cars.
The two drivers could not have been more different.
William K. Vanderbilt II, known as Willie K. to his friends,
was the great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt and heir
to a huge transportation fortune. His racer was a custombuilt 90-hp Mercedes hed imported from Germany and
dubbed the Ormond Flier. Vanderbilt had already set a
one-mile speed record in the Flier, covering the distance
in 39 seconds92 mph. Vanderbilts opponent was a mercenarya daring professional driver named Barney
Oldfield. A tenacious Toledo, Ohio, native, Oldfield had
migrated from bicycle to car racing, worked briefly for
Henry Ford, and set speed records that had transformed
the former newsboy into a celebrity. Alexander Winton,
owner of Cleveland-based Winton Carriage Car Company, founded in 1897 and the first firm to sell an automobile in the United States, had hired him to win races.

Oldfield was driving the Winton Bullet II, whose predecessor had set the one-mile speed record at OrmondDaytona two years earlier.
Vanderbilt wore a fur coat and gripped the wheel in tailored gloves. Oldfield chomped on the end of a cheap
cigara trick that helped to preserve his teeth during
bone-jarring races. When the pair roared off, 5,000 spectators (fashionable high-society types and a sprinkling
of open-mouthed crackers, according to one reporter)
strained to see through the morning mist blowing in from
the sea. At the quarter-mile mark Vanderbilt and Oldfield were even, then Oldfield found more speed and
began to pull away. It was the only race Vanderbilt lost all
week. In his thunderous Mercedes, he won the remaining
nine races, including the prestigious 50-mile championship cup. As Motor Age observed, every time Mr. Vanderbilt went over the course he returned with victory and
records dangling from his motor.
Flush from his triumph, the 26-year-old Vanderbilt
returned to New York and announced his intention to
organize a major race on Long Island, where he owned
an estate. It would be the first true international automobile road race in the United States. Vanderbilt had
raced extensively in Europe, in French and German cars,
but now he became focused on promoting the U.S. car
industry. His motivation, he later explained, was that
foreign cars seemed to be always five years ahead of the
American cars. If something could be done to induce foreign manufacturers to race in this country, our manufacturers would benefit.

In 1904 William K. Vanderbilt II set the first

world land-speed record, at OrmondDaytona beach, in his 90-hp Mercedes. He
traveled a mile in 39 seconds, or 92.3 mph.

52 AMERICAN HISTORY

snarled, The public be damned.

Willies sister, Consuelo, married
trophy, made by
Charles Spencer-Churchill, the
Tiffany & Co., features
English Duke of Marlborough.
an engraving of Willie
Vanderbilt was raised in various
K. in his recordfamily mansions on Long Island
setting Mercedes.
and in Newport, R.I., and traveled
frequently to Europe, usually
aboard one of his fathers yachts. He was educated by
tutors and at a private school, and would spend a year at
Harvard, but he had too many passions and too much
money for indulging them to remain a student.
When he was 10, Willies family were guests of the
French Count de Dion, who took Willie for a spin on his
novel three-wheeled, steam-powered contraption. The
scion was entranced. In 1897 Willies stepfather, Oliver
H.P. Belmont, imported a French touring car to Newport.
Two years later, 21-year-old Willie bought his own
machinea De Dion-Bouton motorized tricycle. He tootled around in it before a more powerful steam-engine
car struck his fancy. Roaring around Newport in that
vehicle, he frightened and angered the locals. There were
no speed laws in the late 19th century, so police officers
cited him for operating a steam boiler without an engineers license. Ever on the lookout for a better toy, Willie
soon discarded the steamer and imported a succession of
Mercedes and French Mors cars.
Willies penchant for risk-taking often got him in trouble as a young adult. He flipped a car, racing backward
down a hill in Newport, and was lucky to escape serious
injury. After he took possession of a Daimler Mercedes
that he nicknamed the White Ghost, he had a series of
accidents. He hit a fish delivery wagon in New York City
and ran into a little girl in Rhode Island, injuring her
arm. Feeling persecuted by authorities, he once quipped:
Arrest me every day if you want toit is nothing to pay
fines for such sport.
In 1899 Vanderbilt married Virginia Graham Fair, an
heiress whose father had made a fortune mining the
Comstock Lode. The couple spent a lot of time on a family estate on Long Island, where farms were prevalent
and the roads were fairly flat and straight. There,
Vanderbilt could zip around with fewer worriesor so he
thought. Farmers and workers soon became outraged by
his disregard for their safety.
Vanderbilt organized some five-mile car races at
Aquidneck Park, near Newport, in 1901 and 1902, and
dominated them in a custom-made Daimler he called the
Red Devil. But he found the half-mile horse track less
than fulfillingthe curves demanded that he slow
downand he returned to Europe to race. In 1902
Vanderbilt competed in a time trial at Achres, France,
and set the worlds record for a gasoline car at just under
66 mph. The following year he lined up for the prestigious Paris to Madrid race but broke down shortly after
The 30-pound silver
Vanderbilt Cup

Vanderbilt provided the inducement. His plan was for

a grueling 300-mile race, and he commissioned Tiffany &
Co. to make a 30-pound sterling-silver trophy adorned
with a frieze of himself driving the Ormond Flier to a
worlds record. The race, like the trophy, was called the
Vanderbilt Cup. The inaugural Vanderbilt Cup, in
October 1904, attracted more than 25,000 spectators, and
in the years that followed, the event became a glamorous
happeninga sporting spectacle with huge crowds. The
race attracted the worlds best drivers (George Heath,
Vincenzo Lancia, Louis Chevrolet, Eddie Rickenbacker
and Oldfield, among them) and the worlds top manufacturing marques (Panhard et Levassor, Darracq, Renault,
Mercedes, Fiat). Though it lasted little more than a
decade, the Vanderbilt Cup was one of the biggest sporting events of the early 20th centuryand long before the
Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR, it exerted an outsize
influence on car racing and on Americas automobile
industry. It spurred carmakers to improve their technology, sparked the idea of using race victories to market
cars and pioneered road building: In 1908 Vanderbilt
built a stretch of concrete road for his race that was the
first thoroughfare specifically for automobilesa prototype for future highways. It was a more than credible
legacy for a man of leisure who was largely kept away
from the Vanderbilt family railroad business.
William Kissam Vanderbilt II was born in New York
City in 1878, the second child and first son of William K.
Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith, who divorced in 1895.
His great-grandfather, Cornelius Commodore Vanderbilt, was the shipping and railroad tycoon who, when
asked about the discomfort of his train cars, famously

DIVISION OF WORK & INDUSTRY, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION; OPPOSITE: THE SUFFOLK COUNTY VANDERBILT MUSEUM, CENTERPORT, NY

OCTOBER 2013

53

the start. That might have been a

lucky break: Three spectators and
four racers were killed in a succession of crashes; among the victims
was famed French auto manufacturer Marcel Renault.
When Vanderbilt got back to the
United States, he helped to establish the American Automobile Association (AAA). His Long Island Motor Club
was one of the organizations nine founding clubs, and in
1902 it hosted a 100-mile endurance contest. Billed as an
exhibition of both mechanical progress and civic responsibility, the rules required all contestants to respect a
15 mph speed limit.
The race was plagued
by crowd-control
problems. Fans
along the course
were sometimes hit
and killed.

he 1904 Vanderbilt Cup10 laps around a 30mile course on Long Islands public roads
would have no speed limits. Indeed, the purpose of the race would be to showcase the best
and the speediest cars. I wanted to bring foreign drivers
and their cars over here in the hope that America would
wake up, Vanderbilt later explained.
While sportsmen were excited about the race, Long
Islands farmers had a far different reaction. They resented the haughty millionaire drivers, opposed openroad racing in their counties and were incensed when
signs posted along the race routea triangular course
comprising Jericho Turnpike, Massapequa-Hicksville
Road and the new Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike
warned locals to stay off the roads and pen up their livestock on race day, Saturday, October 4. Saturday was
market day. They filed an injunction against the race,
arguing that it was unconstitutional to deny the use of
the public roads to citizens to gratify the whims of purely pleasure seekers, who sought to do a thing merely to
gratify an aristocratic taste. Whatever the motivation,

54 AMERICAN HISTORY

Vanderbilt got his way: A judge ruled that

the race could go ahead.
According to Howard Kroplick in his 2008
book Vanderbilt Cup Races of Long Island,
The races daybreak start attracted thousands of adventurous souls who streamed
into Long Island from New York City continuously on Friday night and early Saturday.
The swells were dressed to the ninesmen
in fur overcoats and bowlers, women in welltailored gowns. With hotels and roadhouses
overflowing, they camped, gambled, drank,
socialized and established a tradition of revelry that became a hallmark of the event.
The Vanderbilt name drew many leading
car manufacturers and drivers. Among the 18
entrants were six cars from France, five from
Germany, six from the United States and two
from Italy. The French cars included three
90-hp Panhards and an 80-hp De Dietrich. The driver of
the De Dietrich, Fernand Gabriel, had finished second in
the 1903 road race in Ireland organized by New York
Herald publisher Gordon Bennett and was the winner of
the doomed Paris-Madrid race. The German cars were
all Mercedes. The only American car that had anything
close to the power of the European machines was the 75hp Simplex, owned and driven by Frank Croker, son of
Tammany Hall boss Richard Croker.
Each car carried two menthe driver and a so-called
mechanician who made repairs, worked a hand pump to
maintain oil pressure and acted as navigator. Because the
public roads were narrow, the cars were started at twominute intervals to spread them out, and there were
checkpoints at which the drivers were made to stop for
inspections. Tire companies, including Michelin and B.F.
Goodrich, manned outposts on the route to assist with
tire changes. A huge, two-sided scoreboard was built in
1905 to help grandstand fans keep track of driver positions on the course.
The first race was thrilling and dangerous. The cars
were fast but not easy to control. Their suspensions were
rigid, and tire and brake technology had not kept pace
with engine development. There were frequent blowouts
and other mechanical problemsonly nine of the 18 cars
were still running at the halfway mark of the race. The
first serious turn of the course, by the Jericho General
Store and Jericho Hotel, was sharp and narrow, and drivers had to navigate through the surging crowd. Despite
warnings from flagmen, spectators
In the early 1900s,
stepped into the road to get a look
car and parts makers
at the daring drivers and their mabegan using stars
chines. Newspaper writers dubbed
like Barney Oldfield,
it the Curve of Death. George
and race wins, to sell
Heath, driver of a French Panhard,
their products.
had complained before the race of

FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE HENRY FORD, THF109390; OPPOSITE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

OCTOBER 2013

55

exceedingly dangerous roads, adding, If there are not

lives lost at some of those sharp turns I shall be agreeably surprised. He was prescient: George Arents Jr.,
heir to a tobacco fortune, lost a tire on Hempstead
Turnpike, near Queens, and flipped. Arents mechanician, Carl Mensel, was crushed by the car and died.
Arents was knocked unconscious but survived.
Heath, a British citizen, won the first Vanderbilt Cup
in his Panhard. He completed the 10 laps in just under
seven hours, averaging 62 mph. He was followed within a
minute by a French driver, Albert Clment Jr. The
grandstand crowd swarmed the finish line, forcing
organizers to stop the race. American Herb Lytle in his
little Ohio-built Pope-Toledo, the most underpowered car
at the start, surprised everyone by being in third when
the race was called.
New York newspapers trumpeted the race on their
front pages the next day, noting that the event had elevated racing in America to European standards. The
New York World crowed: The winner of to-days race
will be acclaimed the greatest chauffeur in the world; his
car will be proclaimed the best car for speed in the
world.No road race of such importance has ever been
held on this side of the Atlantic. Nothing like the speed
that will be maintained over the 300 miles of the course
has ever been made in the United States over such a
stretch of groundnever before in this country has there
been a contest in which the danger was so widespread.
The next year, the course was modified to eliminate
some of the life-threatening turns, and the competition
got tougher. Fiat entered five carsone driven by the
affable Vincenzo Lancia and another by a Swiss-born
driver named Louis Chevrolet. Both would go on to start
their own car companies. Lancia, in a 120-hp car, dominated the race and had a more than 30-mile lead when he
had a flat tire. Eager to get back on the course after the
repair, he pulled out in front of American driver Walter

56 AMERICAN HISTORY

In 1908 American George Robertson

won the Vanderbilt Cup in this
Locomobile, later to be called Old 16.
It is now at the Henry Ford Museum.

Christie, who hit Lancias car in the rear. The resulting

delay for more fixes cost the popular Italian the race.
Frenchman Victor Hemery, in a Darracq, won the 1905
Vanderbilt Cup, and plucky American Joe Tracy took
third in a Locomobile built in Bridgeport, Conn.

n 1906 the Vanderbilt Cup was the talk of the

sporting worldand New York. The race inspired
a Broadway musical titled The Vanderbilt Cup: 17year-old Elsie Janis was the star, and Barney
Oldfield made an onstage appearance. The race itself
that year was distinguished and plagued by its huge
crowdan estimated quarter of a million people. Police
and new 6-foot-high protective fencing could not keep
fans off the course. Three spectators were struck by
cars. Driver Elliot Shepard, Vanderbilts cousin, hit and
killed a man. Frenchman Louis Wagner, in a Darracq, led
from start to finishthe third straight victory by a
French car. Just before Wagner crossed the finish line, in
front of a cheering grandstand crowd that included race
referee Vanderbilt, starter Fred Wagner waved a checkered flag. By most accounts it was the first time that
symbol of racing triumph was used to end a race. Wagner
called the race certainly the most nerve-wrenching contest in motoring history.
Vanderbilt believed the solution to the crowd problem
was to rebuild the roads to new and higher standards:
make them wider, pave them with concrete and separate
their grades from all other intersecting roadways.
Envisioning a fast road built just for cars, Vanderbilt
organized a company and began construction of the Long
Island Motor Parkway. In many ways it was the forerunner of todays superhighways. The 1907 race was can-

celed while nine miles of the planned 44 were constructed, and Vanderbilt reconstituted the Vanderbilt Cup in
1908. That year about one-third of the race was run along
the new ribbon of highway.
That wasnt the only breakthrough. An American won
the race for the first time. Brash, 23-year-old George
Robertson, driving a Locomobile, won the 1908 race averaging 64 mph. The race was close, and as Robertson
approached the final lap, Henry Ford, a director in
Vanderbilts parkway corporation whose company had
just introduced the Model T, watched from the grandstand and was heard to shout, Id give five hundred dollars to see that American car win! Robertsons win was
testament both to his skill and to the innovations the
races had spurred, including detachable rims that made it
much easier to change tires. After the victory, the
Locomobile Company of America installed tiny replicas of
the Vanderbilt Cup on the hoods of its cars. Other
American companies recognized the publicity potential of
building racers specifically to compete in the
event. Pope-Toledo had been the first carmaker
to do it, and Apperson, Locomobile, Buick,
Christie, Haynes, Knox, Thomas and Marmon all
followed suit.
Harry Grant, driving a six-cylinder ALCO
made by the American Locomotive Company,
won both the 1909 and 1910 races. Like Locomobile before it, ALCO used the victories to sell
its cars, buying advertisements celebrating the
Vanderbilt Cup wins as an unequalled performance by an unequalled car. Other manufacturers, including Oldsmobile, Pope-Hartford and
Abbott-Detroit, did likewise, touting sundry
1910 race achievements in advertisements.
By then, however, enthusiasm for the race was
starting to wane. In fact, 1910 was the last year
the Vanderbilt Cup was held on Long Island.
Bitterly cold weather reduced the crowd in 1909,
and critics said the injuries to drivers, mechanics
and bystanders had turned the race into a blood
sport. Barney Oldfield announced he was retiring because
he no longer wanted to draw crowds primarily interested
in seeing him crash. The New York World published a
scathing cartoon of the grim reaper holding the Vanderbilt
Cup. From 1911 to 1916, the race was moved to other
citiesfirst to Savannah, then Milwaukee, Santa Monica,
San Francisco, then back to Santa Monica for what would
be the final Vanderbilt Cup race.
That was largely the end of Vanderbilts association
with car racing. He was appointed to the board of the
New York Central Railroad in 1910 and was elected
president of the railroad in 1918 but resigned after just
one year. In 1920 his father died, leaving him his estate,
and William K. Vanderbilt II retired to a life of yachting
and travel. He became an amateur naturalist, collecting

NATIONAL MOTOR MUSEUM/HIP/THE IMAGE WORKS; OPPOSITE: FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE HENRY FORD, THF90188

specimens and artifacts from all over the world. In 1927,

following his divorce from Virginia, Vanderbilt married a
former wife of an heir to the John Wanamaker department store fortune. He built a Spanish Revival mansion
on Long Island, named Eagles Nest, which is today the
Vanderbilt Museum. The Long Island Motor Parkway
became the 44-mile toll road it was envisioned to be, but
it was never profitable and in 1938 was turned over to
Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties in lieu of payment
of back taxes. Vanderbilt died in 1944, age 65.
In a 2010 biography of Vanderbilt, Steven H. Gittelman
wrote that in many ways Willie K. was a visionary but did
not possess the same genius for business as [his greatgrandfather], diluting the railroad domination wielded by
the founder. Vanderbilt was a sportsman who didnt have
the desire, or need, to turn his passion for automobiles into
profitable businesses. Still, he made a lasting mark with
his race. Interviewed by the New York Times in 1934, on
the 30th anniversary of the first Vanderbilt Cup, he

French driver Arthur

acknowledged that the race was
Duray rescues his
never the same after it left Long
assistant as he roars
Island, but by then, he noted, it did
through a turn in his
seem that all that could be hoped for
Lorraine-Dietrich car
had been accomplished. American
in the 1906 race.
auto manufacturers got a dramatic
firsthand look at the quality of
European cars, and raised their standards to catch up.
Vanderbilt challenged the home industry to respond,
says Howard Kroplick, who maintains a website devoted
to the race (VanderbiltCupRaces.com), and it did.

Timothy Messer-Kruse is the author of the forthcoming

book Tycoons and Outlaws: The Class War That Shaped
Auto Racing (Pivot Press).

OCTOBER 2013

57

 EXPLORATIONS

American

Leviathan
Charles Wilkes describes life
aboard a whaling ship

U.S. Navy officer Charles Wilkes is notorious

for his impulsive seizure of Confederate agents
James Mason and John Slidell on a British
steamer headed for England in 1861, an
incident that nearly provoked Britain into
declaring war. Wilkes far more enduring service was as explorer,
circling the globe on scientific expeditions between 1838-42. An
even greater contribution was the 30 years he spent overseeing the
publication of the scientific reports and atlases stemming from these
voyages. In this excerpt from Wilkes personal account, Narrative of
the United States Exploring Expedition, he outlines the hazards of life
on a whaling vessel. In the mid-19th century, when the industry was
at its peak, well over half of all whaling ships sailed from American
ports. Herman Melville is said to have borrowed details from Wilkes
report for Moby Dick and even shaped the character of Captain
Ahab based on Wilkes reputation for harsh discipline.
Charles Wilkes Exploring
Expedition was the last
to circumnavigate the
globe by sail. His reports
are helping scientists
study climate change and
its effects on fisheries.

Above from left: A 3-foot-long

harpoon might have been bent
by a whale trying to escape; a
two-flue harpoon; a lance.

58 AMERICAN HISTORY

FROM TOP LEFT TO RIGHT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; COURTESY OF MARTHAS VINEYARD MUSEUM; DK
LIMITED/CORBIS (2); OPPOSITE: PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM, SALEM, MASS./ THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

Herman Melville
praised this image
The Sperm Whale in
a Flurry, by Ambroise
Louis Garnerayas rare
in its depiction of the
truthful idea of the
living whale as seen by
his living hunters.

 EXPLORATIONS

t is impossible to meet a whale-ship in the ocean

without being struck by her mere appearance. The
vessel under short sail, with look-outs at the masthead, eagerly scanning the wide expanse around
them, has a totally different air from those engaged
in a regular voyage.
But admiration is excited on becoming a looker-on at
the chase and capture. When the cry from aloft of There
she spouts! and the quick response of Where away?
are heard, the bustle on the deck shows a state of animation that would scarcely be supposed possible among
such men. The boats are immediately put in requisition,
lowered and manned, and within minutes the pursuit is
begun. The boats dash on until the boat-steerer comes
within sight of his object; the whale is soon reconnoitered,
and endeavors are made to approach him unobserved,
and plunge the harpoon as near the fin as possible; a
wound in this place is sometimes fatal, and no further
injury is necessary to secure the animals capture.

60 AMERICAN HISTORY

On being struck, the whale at once dives, carrying out

the line (which is kept coiled up in tubs) with great velocity, through a notch in the stem of the boat. The velocity
of the line is at times so great, that in order to prevent the
boat from being set on fire by the friction, water is applied.
After the whale dives, some fifteen or twenty minutes
pass, during which time the fast boat is often carried a
great distance from the others, for the whale in descending generally takes an oblique course. The boat is so much
buried in her rapid flight, that I have at times only been
able to see the persons in her, for the water on each side
was thrown so high as to conceal the hull from a distant
observer, although the sea was otherwise quite smooth.
As the whale rises, a skillful boat-steerer will be ready
at hand, and the moment the animal makes his appearance, lances are plunged in quick succession into his vital
parts; when off he again bounds with the life-blood
streaming from him, and shortly after, this huge monster
is seen to turn over lifeless on his back. The shortness of

strong heat, and is a very economical fire. To prevent

accidents great caution is necessary, and the readiest
mode that has been found to extinguish the burning oil,
is by throwing sand on it; a quantity of sand is, therefore,
generally kept in the try-works. In well-regulated
ships, the oil after boiling is put into reservoirs until it
cools, after which it is drawn off and placed in the proper casks; of each of these a sample is kept, properly
marked and labeled, and these are often shown with
much pride by the master of the ship to his visitors, as
indication of his success and the quality of his oil.

Above: Whalers are in for a Nantucket sleigh ride as

their boat is dragged across the water at speeds of more
than 20 mph by a harpooned whale. The ride ended
when the whale was exhausted, and the crew moved in
for the kill, severing the whales neck arteries with a lance.
Left: Far from Nantucket, American whalers found
bounty in the waters off Hawaii in the 1830s.

time that elapses from the first onset to the capture and
death of so large an animal, is almost inconceivable; and
the apparently insufficient means that are employed to
accomplish it, are likewise remarkable.
The whale being slain, signal is made for the ship, if to
windward, to come down, or if to leeward, the monster is
taken in tow by the boats and brought alongside, when
the fluke hooks and chains are used to secure him; the
operation of baling out the head-matter then begins,
which is followed by stripping of the blubber in large
pieces, called blankets, from four to six feet wide, to
which tackles are applied to draw it up as it is separated
from the carcass. After being taken on board, the blankets are cut up. The next operation is trying out: this is
done by melting the blubber in large pots set in a fireplace of brick-work, which is carefully secured on the
upper deck, with a trough around it, in which water is put
to prevent accidents from fire. The fuel used is blubber
from which the oil has been extracted, which produces a

NORTH WIND PICTURE ARCHIVES/ALAMY; OPPOSITE: COURTESY OF THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 1994.0032.001

he profits of the whaling fishery have been great,

and show what industry and perseverance can
yield when well directed. The small number of
accidents in this large fleet is surprising; for the
total losses for which underwriters have to pay
seldom exceed one per cent, and those from other
accidents are not more than one half per cent. The insurance seldom exceeds two and a half per cent by the year,
and at this low premium the underwriters have derived
good dividends.
Of late years there has been much fluctuation in the
price of oil, which has caused those to make losing voyages who returned at the times of its depression; but at
the steady prices of eighty-five cents per gallon for
sperm oil, and thirty-five cents for whale oil, voyages
would generally yield a handsome return.
It is estimated that about ten per cent of the ships
make losing voyages, as well from the incompetency of
the masters as from accident and ill luck.
The greater proportion of the oil finds a market in
Germany, Holland, and Prussia; consequently the prices
abroad control those at home.
I have stated the number of sperm whales taken at five
thousand, and this may in some years be beyond the
truth. From the best authorities, the whole of both species
annually taken is about ten thousand, including those lost
from accident, and those cut adrift, in consequence of bad
weather or night. These losses may amount to eight or ten
per cent of those mortally wounded.
It is said that an equal proportion of bull and cow
whales are taken. It is, however, admitted that the latter
are the most numerous; and the probable reason for the
equality in the number taken may be that the bull whale
being the largest, is most sought after. The bull whales
yield, on an average, from thirty to one hundred barrels
of oil, while the cows seldom exceed forty-five barrels,
and at times yield no more than five barrels. Bull whales
are never found together, but in small numbers, while the
cows are seen in large herds.
The right whale fisheries occupy the higher latitudes in
both hemispheres, which are their feeding-grounds. As
the winter is setting in, the cows resort to the bays to
bring forth their young, where they remain until the

OCTOBER 2013

61

 EXPLORATIONS

Above: A late-19th-century ad touts a popular household

cleaner and laundry detergent made from whale blubber.
Right: Whalers depicted their adventures in scrimshaw,
intricate carvings made on ivory or bone. These 19th-century
examples are made from the teeth of sperm whales, which
can measure up to 8 inches in length.

spring, when they again resort to the feeding-grounds, to

meet the bulls. It is not known where the latter go during the interval, but it is generally supposed to the high
latitudes, where they find their food in greater plenty.

hile visiting the ports for the purpose of

recruiting, the crews of whale-ships are often
found in a state of lax discipline; both captains
and crew take this opportunity to lay their
complaints before the consuls, who are much
troubled with them, and frequently at a loss to
understand and pass upon the merits of the case. The
crews complain of bad provision, short allowance, and bad
usage; in some cases I have heard them assert that they
felt their lives in danger from the outrageous conduct of
the captain, and in one instance, even the officers joined
in the complaint. The captain, on the other hand, believed
that there was a conspiracy on foot to poison him.
Many Americans are found on the different islands,
who have been turned ashore from the whale-ships, or
left because they have broken their liberty a single time,
near the end of a voyage. Such treatment leaves too
much ground to believe that they are purposely left, in
order to increase the profits of the ship-master or owners. Several of these men were received, in a perfectly
destitute condition, on board the Vincennes; others were
taken out of prison, and all related many of the difficulties and troubles they had to encounter on board the ship

62 AMERICAN HISTORY

to which they were attached; although I am not generally disposed to place much reliance on their statements,
yet it cannot but happen that out of so many cases there
must be some in which the seamen were in the right.
It is difficult to suggest any remedy for this state of
things by legislation. The law passed in 1837 has had a
beneficial effect in protecting the crews against a short
supply of provisions, and in causing them to be furnished
with wholesome food. But the quantity as well as the
quality of the rations ought to be fixed by law, that every
one who is restricted in food by his commander may
receive an equivalent in money.
Another cause of complaint arises from the practice of
issuing slops to the crews instead of money, and giving
the supply of these to the master as a perquisite. I was
not a little surprised when I learned that this perquisite
had amounted to eighteen hundred dollars with a crew of
about thirty men. It, in fact, sometimes reaches the
amount of between two and three thousand dollars; and
it will naturally excite some curiosity to know how so
large a net gain could accrue from sailors whose ordinary
dress is about a pair of coarse blue trousers and red flannel shirt. There is, however, no difficulty in the explanation. The crew, in the first place, get an outfit in clothing
as an advance, which is charged to them at a profit of one
hundred per cent; they then when allowed liberty on
shore are obliged to draw these goods or clothing in lieu
of money, and cannot exchange them on shore for more

CLOCKWISE FROM SOAPINE: OXFORD SCIENCE ARCHIVE, OXFORD, GREAT BRITAIN/HIP/ART RESOURCE, NY; DAVID HANCOCK/ALAMY; JAMES L. AMOS/CORBIS

Whalers on a Long Island, N.Y., beach cut blanket pieces of

blubber from a small whale carcass, a process known as flensing.
Whaling on Long Island dates back to the 17th century.

fruit and provisions, of which he had received an ample

supply, and, concluding that his crew would recover, he
continued to cruise until he finally reached Oahu with no
more than three men fit for duty. Several of his men had
died, and the rest were in a very precarious state. This,
in my mind, is a sufficient proof that it is absolutely necessary, not only to give the crew occasional relaxation,
but a change of employment, and additional hours of
rest; it also shows that fresh provisions are not alone a
sufficient preventive against, or cure for the scurvy. A
change of diet must be accompanied by a change of
scene, and cleanliness.

A whaling ship dries its sails in dock at New Bedford, Mass.,

the center of the 19th-century American whaling industry.
A single whaling voyage could last as long as four years.

than one-fourth of what they are charged for them. In

this way a debt is accumulated against the lay of the
seaman, until he finds before the end of the voyages that
the whole amount that ought to accrue to him is dissipated. This naturally leads to discontent against the persons
whom he knows or believes to be the authors of his loss,
and for whose gain all his labours have gone.
The crews of whale-ships are much more prone to
scurvy than I had any idea of: during our stay at Oahu,
several ships arrived, more or less affected with this horrible disorder, which arose from various causes; my
inquiries satisfied me it was in most cases to be imputed
to the long period passed at sea, aggravated by the
despondency arising from want of success. In one case in
particular, the captain had stopped at some islands for

BETTMANN/CORBIS (2)

would strongly urge upon the owners of whale-ships

the necessity of the assignment of a larger and more
airy apartment to the crew. The usual accommodation in the forecastle of a ship is in every respect
unfitted to preserve either cleanliness or comfort.
There is, perhaps, more room for improvement in
this respect than in any other that can engage the attention of the owners of the ships. While they are lavishing
every sort of expense on the cabins and saloons, and
receiving the meed of praise from the civilized world for
the costliness and beauty of the decorations, I would ask
them to bestow some small attention and expenditure to
increase the comforts of the common sailor, by whose aid
alone their business can be carried on.
There is one entreaty I would urge upon all those who
are engaged in the whale and biche de mar fishery, namely that in their intercourse with the natives of the South
Seas they would treat them with justice and honesty. By
so doing, I am satisfied that however much they may be
exposed to dangers, they will escape without harm. I
would not, however, be understood to say, that they
should relax any thing in watchfulness against treachery;
but while this is attended to, all harsh treatment to the
natives should be avoided.

OCTOBER 2013

63

Grover Clevelands 1884 presidential campaign was rocked by

a sex scandal. His unconventional response saved his political
careerand offered a case study in public relations
by Ernest B. Furgurson

The only known photo

of Maria Halpin, the
woman at the center
of the Cleveland
paternity scandal, is
this undated image.

64 AMERICAN HISTORY

rover Cleveland was surely in a jaunty mood on

July 8, 1884, when Democratic Party delegates
gathered in Chicago to nominate a candidate for
president. Cleveland, then the governor of New
York, was favored to win the nomination. Even
better, he stood a good chance of winning the general election, and thus the presidency, against
Republican nominee James G. Blainethe former House speaker, senator and secretary of state. While Blaine possessed a longtime ambition to be president, Cleveland was a political
newcomer. He was mayor of Buffalo just three years earlier, before
Democratic Party leaders spotted his potential and put the burly, mustachioed idealist on the fast track.
Cleveland was a genial bachelor, an attorney and the son of a
Presbyterian minister, with a reputation for hard work and personal
integrity. His father died when he was 16, and Cleveland, who grew
up in upstate New York, spent years supporting his mother and some
of his eight siblings. As New York governor, he impressed the public
and many Democrats when he challenged the Tammany Hall political
machine. A New York newspaper declared that he was not swerved
one jot or tittle by party or personal friendship. That sort of rectitude stood in marked contrast to Blaine, who had a stellar rsum but was called slippery Jim by detractors. Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, continental liar from the
state of Maine, went the gibe from the Democrats. There were lingering suspicions
that Blaine had gotten rich accepting bribes from railroad companies when he was
speaker of the Housea scandal that had divided the Republican Party and prompted reform activists called Mugwumps, who wanted to end the Gilded Age spoils system, to turn against him.
At the convention, Tammany Hall strongmen tried and failed to stop Clevelands
momentum. The straight arrow running on a platform of merit-based civil service
reform, free public education and lower tariffs won the nomination on the second ballot. The race for the presidency was on.
And then came the bombshell. Several days after the Democratic convention, the
Buffalo Evening Telegraph published an expos, headlined A Terrible Tale: A Dark
Chapter in a Public Mans History, which revealed a secret episode in Clevelands life.
The article alleged that Cleveland was the father of an illegitimate 9-year-old child, and
that hed been paying the mother for years to keep her quiet. Republican newspapers
gleefully picked up the story, and Blaine supporters started reciting a jeer of their own:
Ma, ma, wheres my pa?

The allegation stunned Clevelands advisers, and immediately the question arose in
his political camp: How do we respond? That is the make-or-break question facing
every politician hit with scandalous accusations. And more often than not he follows a
time-honored, though dishonorable, tradition: He dodges or denies the charges until
the investigation loses steam or the public loses interest. With the election still 14 weeks
away, Cleveland could have adopted that tactic, but he didnt. In a telegram to his
Buffalo friend Charles Goodyear, who had written asking for instructions, the presidential nominee took the high road. Whatever you do, tell the truth, wrote Cleveland,
who also refused to do any mudslinging.
Was he fatalistic? Delusional? No, said his supporters, just instinctively honest. Clevelands apparent forthrightness would not only set the tone for his bitterly fought campaign against Blaine but also become a textbook case of strategic management. Many
voters ultimately gave him the benefit of the doubt, which, combined with a major lastminute mistake by a Blaine supporter, helped Cleveland win one of Americas closest
presidential elections.
Before his meteoric political rise, Cleveland had been a talented striver. When the
Civil War began, he was a young attorney in Buffalo. In 1863, feeling obligated to keep
supporting his widowed mother and his sisters, he hired a Great Lakes sailor (for $150)
to go to war in his place, a legal and not uncommon practice. During the next six years,
the affable Cleveland worked hard, socialized with friends at Buffalos many beer gardens and made two failed forays into politics. He lost a ward election in 1864 and a year

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; OPPOSITE: COURTESY A SECRET LIFE BY CHARLES LACHMAN

Judge magazine, a
Republican-leaning
publication, skewered
Grover the Good
on its cover on
September 27, 1884.

OCTOBER 2013

65

later was defeated in a bid for disIn the mid-1870s, Cleveland, then a
trict attorney. In 1870 Clevelands
bachelor in his 30s, had met and
law partner, Oscar Folsom, helped
slept with an attractive 38-year-old
him become the Democratic sheriff
widow named Maria Halpin, who
of Erie County.
worked in a dry goods store. As
As sheriff, the forthright CleveHalpin later told a reporter from
land showed he was pugnaciously
Pulitzers World, she had met
honest and not afraid to handle
Cleveland on December 15, 1874
the hard jobs. When two convicted
and roughly nine months later, a
murderers were sentenced to be
baby was born.
hanged, Cleveland chose to spring
Halpins boy was named Oscar
the trap himself rather than pass
Folsom Cleveland. According to
the unpleasant duty to an underpublished accounts, Cleveland was
ling, as was the custom. After three
not Halpins only lover; shed also
years as sheriff, he returned to
had relations with at least two
work at his law firm.
other men, one being Clevelands
James G. Blaine served 18 years in Congress
As the 1880s began, Buffalo
best friend, Oscar Folsom. Both of
and was twice named secretary of state.
Democrats, seeking a reform canthe other men were married, which
didate, persuaded Cleveland to run
may explain why Halpin chose to
for mayor, and got him elected. In his acceptance speech,
charge Cleveland with the boys paternity when one of
Cleveland vowed to champion the public interest and
the other men could have been the father. She may have
keep an eye out for dubious patronage schemes. And
wanted the successful bachelor to marry her.
thats what he did. In the fearless use of the veto
Cleveland didnt marry her, but he did accept responpowerMayor Cleveland, of necessity, at times antagosibility for the child, supposedly to protect the reputation
nized men and interests that had been accustomed to
of Folsom, who died the same year the baby was born.
have their own way, noted an 1884 biography.
Cleveland made payments to Halpin, but when she began
Only a year after Clevelands election as mayor, the
drinking heavily and neglected the boy, local authorities
Democrats lifted him to a much bigger jobthe stateturned him over to an orphanage. Later, Cleveland set
house in Albany. The Republicans gave him a lift, too:
her up in business in Niagara Falls, but she returned to
They were split over the issue of patronage and civil servBuffalo. Eventually she married again, and a well-to-do
ice reform. Governor Cleveland again put the public welfamily adopted the youngster, who grew up to be a sucfare ahead of party interests, personally
cessful doctor. The whole affair had rested
scrutinized all legislation and was quick to
beneath public notice until the Rev. George
BLAINE,
use his veto power. His no-nonsense govH. Ball of the Hudson Street Baptist
erning style brought him favorable nationChurch, a Republican crusader for morals
BLAINE, JAMES
al attentionand suddenly he was being
and decency, uncovered it and brought it
G. BLAINE,
ushered toward the Democratic presidento the Telegraph.
tial nomination.
Influential supporters and the DemoCONTINENTAL
As the 1884 presidential campaign apcratic newspapers hurried to Clevelands
proached, Joseph Pulitzer, the publisher of
defense. Some papers largely ignored the
LIAR FROM THE
the New York World, lauded Cleveland.
scandal, while others suggested Halpin
When a blathering ward politician objects
was a loose woman. Pulitzers World went
STATE OF
to Cleveland because he is more of a Reon the counterattack, characterizing the
MAINE
former than a Democrat, he furnishes the
GOP jabs at Clevelands character as
best argument in favor of Clevelands nomgross, cowardly and unmanly. Pulitzer
ination and election, wrote Pulitzer. At the Democratic
himself unleashed a salvo: If Grover Cleveland had a
convention in Chicago, one of Clevelands prominent
whole family of illegitimate childrenhe would be more
boosters said that his friends love him and respect him,
worthy of office than Blaine, the beggar at the feet of railnot only for himself, for his character, for his integrity
road jobbers, the prostitute in the Speakers chair
and judgment and iron will, but they love him most for
agent of the corruptionists, monopolists, and enemies of
the enemies he has made.
the Republic.
Many of those enemies were Republicans delighted by
Democrats explained his sexual indiscretion as a tranthe Telegraphs sordid tale of paternity and payoffs.
sient weaknessa one-time personal mistake that had
While Clevelands supporters were outraged by the dirty
been handled honorably. In an interview with the World,
politics, the candidate himself made no attempt to deny it.
Halpin described Cleveland as a good, plain, honest-

66 AMERICAN HISTORY

Clevelands running mate in 1884 was Indiana congressman and

hearted man, who was always friendly to me and used me
governor Thomas Hendricks. Hendricks died in November 1885,
kindly. However, Charles Lachman in his 2011 book A
leaving the vice presidency vacant for the rest of Clevelands term.
Secret Life: The Sex, Lies, and Scandals of President
Grover Cleveland asserts that the conventional wisdom
about Clevelands decent behavior was PR spin and funA delegate from Chicago summed up the situation. I
damentally dishonest. Lachman claims that Halpin was
gather that Mr. Cleveland has shown high character
a respectable woman, not a harlot, and that in a long-forand great capacity in public life but that in private life his
gotten affidavit she claimed that Cleveland assaulted her
conduct is open to question, while on the other hand,
by use of force and with violence and without my conMr. Blaine in public life has been weak and dishonest,
sent, and later tried to cover up the paternity scandal.
while he seems to have been an admirable husband and
Cleveland was mostly quiet during the
father. Everyone nodded, and the delecampaign. He made only two set speeches,
gate went on. The conclusion I draw from
MA, MA,
and when a packet of papers impugning
these facts is that we should elect Mr.
Blaines personal life was offered to him,
Cleveland to the public office for which he
WHERES MY PA?
he paid for it, then shredded and burned
is admirably qualified to fill and remand
the papers without reading them.
Mr. Blaine to the private life which he is so
GONE TO THE
The looming election question was how
eminently fitted to adorn. The MugWHITE HOUSE,
would the Mugwumps react? According to
wumps would stick with Cleveland.
author Scott C. James, the GOP defectors
Pundits surmised that the outcome of
HA HA HA!
had been an important component in
the tight race would hinge on New York
Clevelands victories in the Buffalo mayoral
State, with its 33 electoral votes. And then
race and the New York gubernatorial election. Lachman
Cleveland got a huge break. On October 29, six days
notes in his book that on July 22, 1884, days after the
before the vote, New York City Presbyterian minister
Democratic convention, 800 Mugwump delegates from 16
Samuel D. Burchard spoke at a gathering of the Relistates gathered in New York to make official a resolution
gious Bureau of the Republican National Committee in
to cross party lines and vote for Cleveland. At the meetNew York. We are Republicans, he thundered, and
ing, Blaine was denounced as unfit for office, while
dont propose to leave our party and identify ourselves
Grover Cleveland was praised as incorruptible. The vote
with the party whose antecedents have been rum,
to endorse Cleveland was unanimous. But when the scanRomanism and rebellion!
dal broke just hours later, bewildered Mugwumps faced a
Burchard had not only reignited the old issues of prodilemma: Should they reconsider their endorsement?
hibition, religion and secession, his words evoked the anti-

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2)

OCTOBER 2013

67

immigrant, and especially anti-Irish bigotry, of recent

decades. That Sunday, thousands of New York Catholics
heard about his remarks at Mass. This late GOP blunder
gave Cleveland a boost, and he carried New York by a
mere 1,047 votes and won the election with 219 electoral
votes to Blaines 182. He was the first Democrat to win
the White House since before the Civil War. Jubilant
Democrats took to the streets, shouting: Ma, Ma, wheres
my pa? Gone to the White House, ha ha ha! Cleveland
biographer Allan Nevins wrote in 1933 that only once or
twice in our political history has victory or defeat hung on
so delicate a hair, for the change of 600 votes in a single
state would have reversed the verdict.

n Washington, Cleveland stood as stout as he had

in Buffalo and Albany. He used the veto, defied
special interests and held fast in conflicts over tariffs, government jobs, silver, railroad land grants
and Indian rights. But what endeared him to
many, and no doubt scandalized others, was a personal act.
After Folsom died, Cleveland took control of his former partners estate and helped to guide the future of
Folsoms daughter Frances, then 11 years old. Clevelands interest in her seemed that of a devoted uncle until
after she went away to Wells College. Then it became
romantic. Before her graduation in 1885, the president
started sending her flowers. And then, in August, he
wrote a letter proposing marriage. Frances accepted, they
set a date nine months away
and kept their engagement
secret until shortly before their
wedding.
On June 2, 1886, Grover
Cleveland became the only
president ever to be married in
the White House, and 21-yearold Frances Folsom became the
youngest first lady in the
nations history. Their wedding
was in the Blue Room, before a
select gathering of friends, relatives and Cabinet members.
According to the New York
Times, the tall, poised bride
looked like she had gone to
bed early, like a sensible young
woman, and had a good nights
rest. Her superb diamond necklace was a gift from
the groom. She made a striking contrast to the proud, 49year-old Cleveland, his double-breasted coat tight about
his massive body. The couple would later spend many
nights at the northwest Washington estate (in what is
now called Cleveland Park) that the president bought to
get away from the heat and fuss of the White House.

68 AMERICAN HISTORY

First lady Frances Folsom Cleveland turned heads, and her

image was appropriated to advertise everything from corsets
to liver pills, much to the chagrin of the president (left).

With the Democratic Party split over tariffs, Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison defeated Clevelands
bid for reelection in the 1888 campaign. Over the next
four years, Cleveland practiced law in New York, and
Frances gave birth to the first of their five children. Then
in 1892 he ran for president and defeated Harrison,
becoming the only president ever elected to two nonconsecutive terms.
Cleveland wasnt always honest. He had long held a
grudge against the press, and during his second term he
and aides covered up the news of a tumor in his jaw and
surgeries to repair it. However, that did not dent his reputation for personal integrity and putting the public
before politics. He died in Princeton, N.J., in 1908, and on
his tombstone at the Nassau Presbyterian Church are
carved the words: I have tried so hard to do right.
Ernest B. Furgurson is the author of Chancellorsville
1863 and Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War.

LEFT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; RIGHT: BETTMANN/CORBIS

Reviews

Through the Perilous Fight:

Six Weeks That Saved the Nation
by Steve Vogel
Random House

Edited by Gene Santoro

John Bull, a symbol of

Britain, issues terms of
capitulation to cowering
residents of Alexandria,
Va., while a British soldier
and sailor walk off with
supplies of tobacco and
rum. This 1814 cartoon was
published in the United
States as a rebuke against
the city, which surrendered
without a fight.

The dawns early light on

September 14, 1814, showed an

exultant Francis Scott Key that the
flag was still there at Baltimores
Fort McHenry. In the darkness
before that dawn, Steve Vogel writes
in his compelling account of the
battle for the Chesapeake, every
vestige of American leadership,
power, or authority hadvanished.
Washington had fallen to the
British with embarrassing ease on
August 24, and a humiliated
President James Madison and his
bumbling administration looked on
as the Capitol and other public
buildings burned. Baltimore, home
port for American privateers who
harassed British shipping from 1812
on, was next on the hit list. But the
flags survival there meant that the
city had been defended successfully,
and that the United States would

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

survive, too. The famous lines of

Keys Star-Spangled Banner, set
to a familiar British club song, were
a massive sigh of relief.
Vogel captures this desperate
moment in the new nations short
history by tracing the movements
of his many American and British
protagonists. But he draws back at
critical points to offer a panoramic
perspective on developments in
London and in Ghent, where British
and American negotiators wasted
months in fruitless talks, waiting for
news of definitive developments
across the Atlantic. The approach is
effective and revealing.
Key and his contemporaries had
reason to fear for the countrys
future in the summer of 1814, but not
because of the threat to Baltimore.
In fact, the Chesapeake Campaign
was a sideshow, a series of punitive

raids to improve Britains bargaining

position at Ghent, not a war of
conquest. Admiral Alexander
Cochranes main objective was to
move his fleet and British forces
southward, where conquering New
Orleans would have a decisive
impact on the postwar settlement.
Ready to beat a prudent retreat
from the Chesapeake, the British
were astonished at the weakness of
American resistance, though
Cochrane fatefully resisted the
temptation to attack Baltimore for
two weeks, giving the city precious
time to prepare. By the time
Cochranes fleet won the Battle
of Lake Borgne in mid-December,
then sent the British army to New
Orleans to suffer a devastating loss
at the hands of Andrew Jackson,
war-weary negotiators at Ghent had
already come to terms.

OCTOBER 2013

69

Reviews

Parsing the Civil War

Fresh takes on America's self-inflicted tragedy
by Gene Santoro

The mixed results of the

Chesapeake Campaign combined
with American successes at
Plattsburg and Lake Champlain in
September to mark a stunning
turnaround for British fortunes in
North America. The subsequent
peace settlement at Ghent secured
U.S. territorial claimsand left
Indian country vulnerable to
encroachment. The outcome
reflected the wars fundamental
asymmetry. Britain had been in a
war for its survival, fighting the
French in Europe. Americans
thought the War of 1812 was a
second war for independence, but
the British had absolutely no
interest in re-colonizing the
clearly ungovernableif not
unconquerablerebels.
Yet Americans did find themselves
standing at the edge of an abyss, in
the darkness that Keys dawn
evokes. Perhaps they were incapable
of defendingand governing
themselves. Perhaps their always
tenuous union would collapse,
blowing the lid off of their peculiar
institution: Thousands of former
slaves joined the British during the
Chesapeake Campaign.
Vogels superb study enables us
to grasp both the immediate danger
and its broader implications for
Americas future. Recognizing the
perils, Madison and his National
Republican allies launched a reform
program to prepare the country for
the next war. Tragically, opposition
to their agenda, mounting sectional
tensions and an expanding empire
of slavery instead set the stage for
the Civil War, the great and
destructive conflict that has left the
War of 1812 in the shadows.
Peter Onuf

70 AMERICAN HISTORY

Copperhead
Swordspoint Productions
Directed by Ron Maxwell
In select theaters nationwide

The final episode in Ron

Maxwells Civil War trilogy

(Gettysburg, Gods and Generals)
takes us to upstate New York in
spring 1862, when the Norths
internal divisions over the war are
coming to a boil. Abner Beech (Billy
Campbell), a Democrat, insists the
war is an unconstitutional Republican
coup; he is labeled, as antiwar
Northerners were, a Copperhead.
Blessed are the peacemakersis
that still in the Bible? he asks. One
townsman speaks for many when he
declares, A Copperhead is a snake.
This growing enmity is the movies
main theme.
At its heart is a Romeo-and-Juliet
pair in a bucolic setting of parlor
sing-alongs and church meetings.
Thomas Jefferson Beech (Casey

Till Babcock (Andrea Lee Norwood) and

Warner Pitts (Franois Arnaud) embrace.

Brown), Abners son, loves Esther

Hagadorn (Lucy Boynton), a staunch
war supporter from an antislavery
family. Conflict escalates when the
local preacher attacks leading
Democrats as satanic, and the
community boycotts Beechs dairy
and timber businesses. Even son Jeff
turns his back, enlisting in the Union
Army. Events take fairly predictable
turns, ending in violence.
Copperheads actors are good
enough. But its strengths are
beautiful cinematography and a
meticulous attention to historical
detail: white pine landscapes and
crystal lakes, intricate mill works,
blacksmith tools, clothing, even the
New York Tribune feel authentic.
Still, the movie is basically a costume
melodrama, so its take on internal
Northern strifea truly thorny
issue well worth a lookis often
less telling than it aspires to be. Jee
Hagadorn comes off as a thundering
cartoon William Lloyd Garrison who
dismisses his daughters worries
over her boyfriend by exulting in
the Emancipation Proclamation.
Abner Beech, faced with broken
business deals, declaims, This is
what happens when you tear up the
Constitution, which makes him
seem less tragic than blinkered.
Copperhead can be genuinely
moving. Jees son Ni goes south to
find his friend Jeff Beech, badly
wounded at Antietam, and brings
him home, only to discover his own
father dead and the Beech house
burned down. Ni delivers a moving
eulogy on love thy neighbor that
should echo meaningfully in todays
divided America. But even moments
like that cant keep the movie from
frequently seeming contrived.

The Civil War in 50 Objects

funeral bier. In individual miniessays, Holzers easy, expansive

prose explores each objects
significance and illuminates how it
refracts our countrys explosive
try at self-destruction. But even
without the words, the images aura
of pain and loss is eerily palpable.

by Harold Holzer
Viking

This acclaimed Lincoln scholar

burrowed through the New-York

Historical Societys almost
bottomless trove of Civil War
memorabilia to cull 50 pieces he
thought could encapsulate the Civil
War. His selections traverse
regions, race and gender; they are
usually surprising, stamped with
personality and often heartbreaking.
The first stark image sets the tone:
Its caption reads Slave Shackles
Intended for a Child, ca. 1800.
Among the others: a prewar
daguerreotype of a striking old
slave named Caesar; John Browns
pike; a soldiers diary; another
soldiers still-full footlocker; a
prison newspaper started by

An appeal for volunteers promises a bounty

to be paid for a nine-month enlistment.

Confederate POWs; Grants

handwritten terms of surrender
for Lee; the original model for the
USS Monitor; leaves from Lincolns

Photography and
the American Civil War
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Through September 2

At the heart of this sprawling

exhibit of 200-plus images is an

engrossing question: How did the
Civil War change what Americans
thought ofand did with
photography? To illustrate, the displays run the gamut
from mounted large-format shots of battlefields to cases
filled with tiny tintype portraits, keepsakes of loved
ones pulled into the bloody maw of war.
Early photography was static; action shots would just
be blurs. But entrepreneurial photographers like
Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner suggested
battlefield violence by focusing on the macabre
aftermath and proved the public would buy what
Brady termed his fearful reproductions.
Brady marketed these battle images, singly and
bound into books, but he took very few of them himself.
Alexander Gardner, who started his career managing
Bradys gallery, was appointed staff photographer for
the Army of the Potomac and began his own business.
Like Brady, he employed teams of photographers to
shoot scenes now etched into our memories. Unlike
Brady, who put his own name on all the resulting work,
Abraham Lincoln
tintype campaign
medal, 1860.

A Union snare drum signaled troop

movements during chaotic battles.

Gardner allotted his workers, including the sharp-eyed

George Barnard, full credit. Nevertheless, Bradys
books of Civil War photos far outsold his.
On the exhibit walls, key wartime areas from Fort
Sumter to Lookout Mountain to Cold Spring, from
Edisto Island to Antietam to Atlanta to Richmond,
are stark, eerie ruins, often strewn with carcasses (at
times artfully rearranged), often with superimposed
cloudscapes filling a sky whited out by the long
camera exposuresthe wars big picture. In the
display cases, the parade of faces reminds you who
the fighters, the wounded and the dead wereeach
familys investment in the war. The unspoken dialog
between these two themes infuses the exhibition with
deep emotional and historical resonance.

An anesthetized
Union soldier
undergoes an
amputation.

TOP: NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY (2); BOTTOM: THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK (2); OPPOSITE: SWORDSPOINT PRODUCTIONS LLC

OCTOBER 2013

71

Reviews
On DVD

We Also Like
The Men Who Lost America:
British Leadership, the American
Revolution, and the Fate of the
Empire by Andrew Jackson
OShaughnessy (Yale). Or, why our
independence wasnt all due to British
military and political half-wits. The
10 men who oversaw the British war
effort are profiled, providing a clearer
picture of the conflicts within England
that ultimately made the American
colonies not worth fighting for.

JFK in the Senate: Pathway to the

Presidency by John T. Shaw (Palgrave
Macmillan). Kennedy never fit into the
old-boys club the way arm-twisting
majority leader Lyndon Johnson did, but
he didnt really want to. JFK saw the
Senate as a way to study policy questions
and as a bully pulpit to build political
backing. Heres how he did both.

Custer, Cody, and Grand Duke

Alexis: Historical Archaeology of
the Royal Buffalo Hunt by Douglas
D. Scott, Peter Bleed and Stephen
Damm (Oklahoma). The Grand Dukes
visit was a huge deal in 1871; its been
largely forgotten. Combining new
archaeological information and
interesting historical extrapolations,
this book brings it back closer to the
fore. Non-specialists should skip the
opening chapter on methodology.

The junior senator from Massachusetts

(left) and brother Robert Kennedy in 1957.

Citizen Hearst
Leslie Iwerks Productions, 90 minutes

Before there was Citizen Kane, there

was his larger-than-life model,
William Randolph Hearst. Son of a
tycoon-turned-senator, Willie dove
deep into the dark side of the social
pool when he left high society to
pioneer yellow journalism. He started
tiny with the San Francisco Examiner,
a rag his father won in a poker game.
It became the flagship of his national
newspaper chainand more. For the
power-loving Hearst, his audience of
millions became a club he used to
beat anyone or anything he opposed.
Academy Awardnominated director
Leslie Iwerks has plenty of meaty
material to work with during the
Hearst empires first 50 years, and
does it justice. Hearst popularized
newspaper comics, feuded with
fellow mogul Joseph Pulitzer, and
backed offbeat ventures in magazines
(like Cosmopolitan) and animation.
After that, even with interviewees
like Oprah Winfrey, Ralph Lauren
and assorted Hearst family members
and editors, its like watching a
documentary about News Corp after
the death of Rupert Murdoch
interesting, but nowhere near as
much fun. Gene Santoro

Empire on Display: San

Franciscos Panama-Pacific
International Exposition of 1915
by Sarah J. Moore (Oklahoma).
Interesting research is made less
user-friendly by academic jargon.

Everybody Ought to Be Rich:

The Life and Times of John J. Raskob,
Capitalist by David Farber (Oxford).
A teenage candy-seller from Rochester,
N.Y., grew up to make millions for
DuPont and General Motors, build
the Empire State Building, bitterly
oppose the New Deal and create
mass consumer creditthe lifeblood
of our America.

72 AMERICAN HISTORY

LEFT: COURTESY LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD NATIONAL MONUMENT; CENTER: LOOK MAGAZINE/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON

Custer (left) and Grand Duke Alexis.

From
Americas Attic

1876

Big Box Telephone

No one believed Alexander

U.S. patent for improvements in telegraphy hours

Graham Bells electric

before Elisha Gray on February 14, 1876. And in turn,

telephone could transmit

Western Union hired Gray and Thomas Edison to

the human voice. On June 25, 1876, at the Centennial

create a rival system. This big box telephone (pictured

International Exhibition in Philadelphia, Bell unveiled

without its wooden case) was one of Bells first

what he called his invention in embryo, a prototype

commercial telephones. It features a mouthpiece that

telephone. Bell recited lines from Shakespeare, while

doubled as an earpiece, and a thumper that signaled

the guest of honor, the Emperor of Brazil Dom Pedro,

an incoming call when it hit a metal diaphragm located

listening to a receiving unit a few hundred feet away,

behind the mouthpiece. By 1880 the telephone

cheered and exclaimed, I hear, I hear. The device

revolution had taken off and Bell controlled over

used sound waves from the voice to activate an

60,000 American telephones. One issue still under

electromagnet, which turned the waves into an electric

debate was how to answer the telephone correctly.

current that was transmitted by wire to a receiver.

Bell always preferred Ahoy! but Edison coined the

From the beginning, the development of the telephone

phrase Hello!a lasting legacy of the great rivalry.

was fiercely competitive. Bell narrowly secured the

Sarah Cokeley

Image courtesy of Smithsonians National Museum of American History.

Alexander Graham Bells telephone is on view in the exhibition Treasures of American History.

74 AMERICAN HISTORY