Washington City Citadel: A Civil War Romance

By Nikki Stoddard Schofield

Memories of my grandfather, Frederick John Burns (18751956), a homeopathic doctor who graduated from Rush Medical School in Chicago, and his daughter who was my mother, Lois Burns Stoddard (19162003), a graduate of the Henry Ford Nurses Training School in Detroit, stirred my interest in the history of medicine. I have read books on the subject for years and was impressed by my visit to the Civil War Museum of Medicine in Hagerstown, Maryland.

In June 2015, I began volunteering as a guide at the Indiana Medical History Museum, located in the old Pathology Building on the grounds of Central State Hospital. This facility, originally called the Indiana Hospital (never asylum) for the Insane, is now gone, but the science laboratory built in 1896 still stands.

Miss Dorothea Dix spoke to Indiana legislators in 1844 to convince them to build an insane asylum, which they did. The building intended for a hundred mentally ill people was constructed as two connected log cabins in downtown Indianapolis, but it is doubtful that any patients ever used the structure. Instead, the Indiana Hospital for the Insane was built on one hundred sixty acres just three miles west of downtown Indianapolis.

The idea about the two soldiers who, during the Peninsula Campaign, suffered from malaria that resulted in their developing a high fever, and the fever killing the syphilis spirochetes, came from my work at the Indiana Medical History Museum. In that building, the doctors studied the malarial treatment for syphilis. Dr. Walter Bruetsch (18961977) came from Heidelberg, Germany, to Indianapolis in 1925 to further his research on this groundbreaking cure for syphilis. However, only about thirty percent of the patients with syphilis at Central State Hospital were cured. When Dr. Bruetsch also experimented with penicillin, the German doctor concluded that drug to be far superior, and the malarial treatment ended.

The books on the history of insanity, which I used as research, are listed at the end. The possibility of people being incarcerated against their will in an insane asylum was not uncommon in the nineteenth century.

In July 2016, I traveled to Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington, DC, to do research for this book. I was especially interested in historic buildings in order to describe the area. I walked the streets of Alexandria in ninety-degree heat. At the Book Bank Used Books on King Street, I talked to Ms. Becky Squires, who lives on Queen Street and who was very helpful in providing historic information. In Washington, I observed the contrast of the wide streets, so different from Old Town Alexandria. The trip was beneficial in helping me visualize the two locations at the time of the Civil War.

In many languages, story and history are the same word. Therefore, to create a fictional story by using historical characters and events seems a reasonable endeavor. According to his son, John Steinbeck said that the purpose of writing is to reconnect people to their own humanity. My purpose for writing is to connect people to our Civil War and thereby learn how we have become who we are as Americans because of what happened during that four-year period.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524687670

Nikki Stoddard Schofield

Nikki Lynne Stoddard Schofield, born during World War II, became seriously interested in the Civil War when she attended her first meeting of the Indianapolis Civil War Round Table and heard Alan Nolan, author of The Iron Brigade, present the program. She has remained an active member of that club of scholars ever since. Serving in various offices, Nikki has been president four times. She organized and led the annual week-long bus tour for several years. Stoddard Schofield began writing Civil War romances shortly before her retirement as law librarian at Bingham Greenbaum Doll, a large law firm in downtown Indianapolis where she worked for 37 years. Her motivation for writing her first novel was reading a bad romance novel and thinking: “I can do better.” Nikki set several criteria for her novel. Most important, the heroine and hero must be kind to each other and always together. Two common plot twists in romance novels which Nikki dislikes are the heroine and hero disliking each other at the beginning and having extensive separations. She resolved to avoid these devices in her story-telling. Being a born-again Christian, Ms. Schofield always brings Christianity into her stories. She writes about people during the Civil War such as you might meet in any era, struggling to resolve the problems they confront. At Speedway Baptist Church, Nikki serves as a deacon, adult Sunday school teacher, business meeting moderator, and assistant treasurer. She is active in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, affiliated with her church. As a tour guide at Crown Hill Cemetery since 1993, she has developed Civil War tours including “Treason in Indianapolis” based on her third book, Treason Afoot. Many of the characters in that novel are buried at Crown Hill. Other tours she has created are “Drama and Disaster” and “Tombstones and Trees.” One day a week, Nikki works as the staff genealogist at Crown Hill, the third largest private cemetery in the country. Stoddard-Schofield is a docent at the Indiana Medical History Museum on the grounds of the former Central State Hospital for the mentally ill. For many years, she volunteered in the Manuscripts and Rare Books Division of the Indiana State Library, creating finding aids for the collection. Nikki portrays several Civil War women for various events and meetings. Annually at Crown Hill, she tells Mary Logan’s story of General John Logan establishing Memorial Day and portrays the second wife of Frederick Douglass for Spirit of Freedom honoring the black soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War. Her most recent portrayal is Clara Barton, known as the Angel of the Battlefield. A member of the Buster Keaton International Fan Club, she attends the annual convention in Muskegon, Michigan, during the first week-end of October, which is close to the silent screen comedian’s birthday. Her other interests are reading, gardening, stamp collecting, old movies (especially film noir), and genealogy. Nikki is the mother of two sons, Rob and Gaven, six grandchildren (Bridget, Stephanie, Nicholas, Abigail, Gabrielle, and Lily), and five great-grandchildren (Gee, Bella, Elias, Sebastian, and Aria). Born in Michigan, she has lived most of her life in Indianapolis.

Book preview

© 2017 Nikki Stoddard Schofield. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/28/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5246-8768-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-8769-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-8767-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017906627

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Cover images courtesy of the Library of Congress as follows:

Washington Birds-eye View – LC-DIG-pga-07219

United States Capitol – LC-USZ62-47735

Ford’s Theatre –LC-DIG-cwpb-02962

Smithsonian Institute – LC-DIG-ppmsca-07310

Soldier Post Card – LC-DIG-ppmsca-26466

Alexandria Cannon – LC-DIG-stereo-1s02420

Sciptures taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE

OTHER NOVELS BY NIKKI STODDARD SCHOFIELD

Praise For Nikki’s Books

Preface

Acknowledgements

About The Author

About The Front Cover Designer

About The Back Cover Photographer

Characters By Chapter

Chronology Of Historic Events

1 Unlikely Meeting

2 She Vacated

3 Bright, Undiscovered World

4 Her Critical Condition

5 Touring The Capitol

6 Running From Wiltsee

7 A Difficult Delivery

8 Poison Ivy

9 Rescuing Thierry And Francy

10 Her Father Is Not Dead

11 The Christmas Ball

12 The Last Holidays Of The War

13 The Articifial Limb Company

14 Detective Durant Arrives

15 Our American Cousin

16 Maison De Sante

Epilogue

Book Club And Classroom Discussion Questions

Resources

Index To Historic End Notes

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Romans 15:7

Dedicated to

the staff of the

Baptist Joint Committee

for Religious Liberty*

who work in our Capital,

protecting America’s legacy of

separation of church and state,

and religious freedom for all.

*Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty

200 Maryland Avenue, N.E.

Washington, D.C. 20002-5797

OTHER NOVELS BY NIKKI

STODDARD SCHOFIELD

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Bondage & Freedom is based in East Tennessee during the last days of the Civil War. Lydia is a nurse suffering from post-traumatic stress and elective mutism. When her wagon overturns, Confederate Captain Brinton Good rescues her. Brinton tenderly cares for Lydia while leading his men in guerrilla warfare.

Alas Richmond tells the story of an Englishman, Giles Tredwell, who meets a Southern belle, Verity Stuart, as she searches for the body of her dead husband. Giles, a spy for the Union, rents a room in Verity’s mansion in the capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia, where they learn each other’s secrets.

Treason Afoot reveals the conspiracies against Indiana government officials and the resulting trials in 1864. Jay Hadley hires Emeline Tanner to work at his Indianapolis bookstore, and attempts to keep his disability of battle fatigue a secret from her. They become involved in the treasonous plots in the city.

Savannah Bound is the story of English woman Adelaide Draycott and Lanson Barrington, an escapee from Andersonville Prison. They meet in Savannah, share a house, and care for an orphan boy, while awaiting the oncoming Union army marching to the sea.

Confederates in Canada tells about Anathea Brannaman, a divorcee from the Shaker village, and the man she rescues from a burning New York City hotel, Raiford Young. The couple takes two orphans to their grandparents in Guelph, Ontario, where they become involved in Confederate plots against the United States.

PRAISE FOR NIKKI’S BOOKS

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As an historian, I rarely read historic fiction but I made an exception with Nikki Stoddard Schofield’s works Savannah Bound and Confederates in Canada. Why? Because of my deep interest in the subject matter, I am the author of two books about Savannah during the Civil War (civilwarsavannah.org) and my next book City of Secrets deals with Confederate operations in Montreal in 1864/65. Many of the characters Nikki writes about are figures I feel I know intimately. It was marvelous seeing them brought to life on the pages of these two works. Ms. Schofield’s grasp of the history behind these events is sound. She knows her stuff. Both books ring true and the story line draws you in. Well done. Have ordered copies for my neighbors here in Cape Breton.

— Barry Sheehy

Gabarus, Nova Scotia

Nikki Schofield uses her meticulous research to recreate a time and a sensibility for us in her Civil War novels that always leads to a satisfying read. From the first pages, the reader is immersed in the clothes, language, and mores of those times and that peculiar conflict, and stories of struggle and character come through the complicated romances she builds with skill. Whether in Brinton & Merari, Emeline & Jay, Lanson & Adelaide or others, we see honor, suffering, sacrifice, and eventual triumph play out in a time when nothing came easy and no one was exempt from tragedy. I highly recommend these novels – they will entertain and enrich, and you will like her heroes and heroines immensely.

— Kathe Traynham

Falls Church, Virginia

Kirkus review of Confederates in Canada:

A Civil War-era thriller that revolves around espionage and romance.

Despite Canada’s professed neutrality during the Civil War, Confederate spies used it as a safe refuge from which to conduct their operations. Raiford Young, a Union soldier, is tasked with going undercover to gather intelligence about their plans and movements. In New York, his hotel is set ablaze by Lt. John William Headley, a Confederate agent, and Raiford rushes to save a family trapped by the encircling fire. He manages to rescue the two young children, Beatrice and Frederick Cutter, but their father dies. A young woman, Anathea Brannaman, helps Raiford, and the two of them decide to transport the children into the care of their grandparents, who live in Guelph, Ontario. Raiford quickly realizes that traveling with a family provides a perfect cover for his covert mission. Once in Canada, he must contend with foiling dangerous plots meant to compel President Abraham Lincoln into peace talks and concessions. This is the author’s fifth novel, all of them set during the Civil War. Stoddard Schofield (Savannah Bound, 2014, etc.), a trained librarian and archivist, artfully combines events and people both real and imagined in this volume. Her research is remarkably thorough and painstaking. In addition, the plot propels itself like a cannon shot, maintaining a fleet pace from start to finish. Nevertheless, the highlight of the work is the sensitive and nuanced characterization; both Raiford and Anathea contend with past heartache, and struggle to resolve their internal conflicts in order to accept their attraction to each other. Raiford’s wife died just three months after they were wed, and Anathea, who grew up an orphan, flees from a cold, abusive husband who dominated her life. … the book is an entertaining, and sometimes affecting, fusion of fiction and history. … A compelling and historically sound tale that follows a Union spy.

—Kirkus Indie

Kirkus Media LLC

6411 Burleson Rd.

Austin, TX 78744

indie@kirkusreviews

PREFACE

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Memories of my grandfather, Frederick John Burns (1875-1956), a homeopathic doctor who graduated from Rush Medical School in Chicago, and his daughter who was my mother, Lois Burns Stoddard (1916-2003), a graduate of the Henry Ford Nurses Training School in Detroit, stirred my interest in the history of medicine. I have read books on the subject for years, and was impressed by my visit to the Civil War Museum of Medicine in Hagerstown, Maryland.

In June 2015, I began volunteering as a guide at the Indiana Medical History Museum, located in the old Pathology Building on the grounds of Central State Hospital. This facility, originally called the Indiana Hospital (never asylum) for the Insane, is now gone, but the science laboratory built in 1896 still stands.

Miss Dorothea Dix spoke to Indiana legislators in 1844 to convince them to build an insane asylum which they did. The building intended for a hundred mentally ill people was constructed as two connected log cabins in downtown Indianapolis, but it is doubtful that any patients ever used the structure. Instead, the Indiana Hospital for the Insane was built on 160 acres just three miles west of downtown Indianapolis.

The idea about the two soldiers who, during the Peninsula Campaign, suffered from malaria which resulted in their developing a high fever, and the fever killing the syphilis spirochetes, came from my work at the Indiana Medical History Museum. In that building, the doctors studied the malarial treatment for syphilis. Dr. Walter Bruetsch (1896-1977) came from Heidelberg, Germany, to Indianapolis in 1925 to further his research on this ground-breaking cure for syphilis. However, only about thirty percent of the patients with syphilis at Central State Hospital were cured. When Dr. Bruetsch also experimented with penicillin, the German doctor concluded that drug to be far superior, and the malarial treatment ended.

The books on the history of insanity, which I used as research, are listed at the end. The possibility of people being incarcerated against their will in an insane asylum was not uncommon in the 19th century.

In July 2016, I traveled to Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., to do research for this book. I was especially interested in historic buildings in order to describe the area. I walked the streets of Alexandria in ninety degree heat. At the Book Bank Used Books on King Street, I talked to Ms. Becky Squires, who lives on Queen Street, and who was very helpful in providing historic information. In Washington, I observed the contrast of the wide streets, so different from Old Town Alexandria. The trip was beneficial in helping me to visualize the two locations at the time of the Civil War.

In many languages, story and history are the same word. Therefore, to create a fictional story by using historical characters and events seems a reasonable endeavor. John Steinbeck, according to his son, said that the purpose of writing is to reconnect people to their own humanity. My purpose for writing is to connect people to our Civil War and, thereby, learn how we have become who we are as Americans because of what happened during that four-year period of time.

* * *

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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My contacts at the Indiana Medical History Museum as well as the Indianapolis Civil War Round Table, where I have been a member since 1983, have provided help in writing this story.

I want to thank my granddaughter Stephanie Schofield who advised me concerning the Caesarian birth scene, based on her personal experience with her third delivery, Sebastian. My daughter-in-law, Vicki Eymer Schofield, a pharmacist at Proctor and Gamble, provided valuable information about medicine. Dr. John Wernert, a fellow member of the Indianapolis Civil War Round Table, advised me on addiction, which was not well understood at this time.

Rev. Howard Jones, now living in Pontrhydyrun, Cwmbran, Gwent, England, helped me with information about the Welsh family, because he and his wife Linda lived in Holyhead, Wales, where I visited them in 2005. Howard and I met in 1998 when he was a student at Bristol Baptist College and I was serving as a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) missionary cataloging their library.

I must also thank the librarians at the Library of Congress for answering my emailed questions promptly. They usually gave me more information than I needed.

My proofreaders have my utmost gratitude. They do a valuable service in looking at every detail of the manuscript for typos and flaws. The first proofreader was Renee Bennett in Macon, Georgia, who has become my friend as we serve the CBF in various capacities. My second proofreader was John Gilmore, a member of my church and the Indianapolis Civil War Round Table, who checked for any mistakes I might make in the military aspects of the story. Third to read the manuscript was Mary Donahue, another member of Speedway Baptist Church, who is a retired Registered Nurse. She was a careful proofreader who watched for accuracy in the medical sections. The fourth person to proofread was my long-time (since 1955) friend, Martha McDonald, who not only corrects punctuation but also gives advice on plot and characters. Christine Wernert Geswein was next to read the book. She is the daughter of Dr. Wernert and the true Civil War buff in the Wernert family. Her comments were very helpful. The final proofreader was my friend, Velma Dobbins, who faithfully attends the Sunday school class I teach. She is a retired recorder from the Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indianapolis.

I have been told that my novels read like movie scripts with believable dialogue, and hope someday these books will be put on film. However, until that day comes, you are invited to envision the story in your head instead of on the movie screen.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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An avid Civil War scholar, Nikki Schofield has served three terms as president of the Indianapolis Civil War Round Table from 1996-97, 2008-2009, and 2014-15. She has been the club’s secretary, newsletter editor, and director of the annual trip for many years. In 2000, she was co-chairman of the Midwest Civil War Conference.

In 1995, Nikki began portraying Civil War women, giving speeches to Round Tables and other groups. Some of her living-history presentations have been as Mary Anne Morrison Jackson, wife of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson; Southern spy Belle Boyd; nurse Clara Barton; Lincoln-conspirator Mary Surratt; incarcerated abolitionist Delia Webster; actress Laura Keene; Lucinda Morton, wife of Indiana’s Civil War governor; Helen Pitts Douglass, second wife of orator, author, and abolitionist Frederick Douglass; and Mary Logan, wife of Union General John Logan, who started Memorial Day.

Ms. Schofield has been the library director at Bingham McHale LLP since 1974. Soon after she entered phased retirement, she was hired by Crown Hill Cemetery as their staff genealogist. Since 1993, she has been a tour guide at Crown Hill, which was established in the midst of the Civil War.

An ordained deacon, Ms. Schofield is active in Speedway Baptist Church, where she is an adult Sunday school teacher, moderator, and assistant treasurer. She served twice as chairman of deacons at her church, and five years on the Coordinating Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

She volunteers as a guide at the Indiana Medical History Museum. Nikki writes finding-aids describing collections at the Indiana State Library, Manuscript and Rare Book Division. These finding-aids are posted on the Internet.

Nikki is the mother of two sons, Robert who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Gaven who lives in Richmond, Virginia. She has six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Nikki’s novels are romances sprinkled with historic facts, making them both entertaining and educational. Unlike other novels, her books have a cast of characters listed as either fictional or historical, plus chronology of historic events, historic end notes, book club and classroom discussion questions, and resources.

Ms. Schofield resides in Indianapolis. Her web site is maintained by her grandson, Nicholas. www.civilwarromances.com. Her granddaughter Stephanie prepares her Facebook page announcing her new books. You can contact her at [e-mail].

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ABOUT THE FRONT

COVER DESIGNER

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Abigail Jordan Schofield, granddaughter of the author, created the cover, using images from the Library of Congress. Abigail is a high school student at a math and science specialty center. Her favorite subjects are math and history. A resident of Richmond, Virginia, Abigail is a violinist in multiple orchestral ensembles and also participates in church choral groups. This is her first book cover.

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ABOUT THE BACK COVER

PHOTOGRAPHER

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Wilbur Tague Studio made the photograph of the author on their property in Brownsburg, Indiana.

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CHARACTERS BY CHAPTER

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Historical characters have an asterisk before their name. Those mentioned in the Historic Notes are not included here. Names are listed in the order when first mentioned. Years of death are not recorded unless it was before the time of this story.

CHAPTER ONE – UNLIKELY MEETING

Rosalane Ashmore, heroine, born 1844 in Alexandria, Virginia, daughter of George Ashmore and Zeffie Barkley

Aidan Syme Brookston, hero, born 1836 in Edinburgh, Scotland, graduate of the Edinburgh Medical College

Dr. Harold Wiltsee, born 1812, administrator at Campbell General Hospital

*General Jubal Anderson Early, born 1816 in Virginia, Commanding General II Corps

*General Ulysses Simpson Grant, born 1822, General in Chief of the Armies of the United States

*Dorothea Lynde Dix, born 1802 in Hampden, Maine, to Joseph and Mary Bigelow Dix, reformer of insane asylums and superintendent of nurses during the Civil War

Mehitabel Ashmore, born 1819 in Alexandria, Virginia, adoptive mother of Rosalane, wife of George

Sholla Mackay, born about 1842 on a Virginia plantation, slave of Mehitabel Ashmore, wife of Oliver

Edgar Baird, born 1820, attorney in Alexandria, Virginia, brother of Abner

Oliver Mackay, born about 1840 on a Georgia plantation, slave of Mehitabel Ashmore, husband of Sholla

*Florence Nightingale, born 1820 in Florence, Tuscany, founder of modern nursing

Abner Baird, born 1825, attorney in law firm of Baird & Crouch, Washington City, brother of Edgar

Stellina Ferris, born 1840, former lady friend of Aidan Brookston

*George Hadfield, architect

HISTORIC NOTE: GENERAL JUBAL EARLY’S RAID

CHAPTER TWO – SHE VACATED

Carson Tidwell, judge of U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia

* Dr. Joseph K. Barnes, born 1817, Surgeon General of the United States Army beginning in 1864

* Allan Pinkerton, born 1819 in Glasgow, Scotland, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency

* General George Brinton McClellan, born 1826, Union general

* President Abraham Lincoln, born 1809 in Kentucky, 16th U.S. President

George Ashmore, born 1820, husband of Pauline, father of Rosalane, Worth, Hayes, and Yola Pauline

Pauline Ashmore, born 1828, wife of George Ashmore, mother of Worth, Hayes, and Yola Pauline

Lucas Bridgewater, born 1834, Metropolitan policeman, boarder at Dr. Brookston’s house

Dalia Merrick, born 1822, owner of the Velvet Arms Music Salon, a house of prostitution on Marble Alley

Francy Beal, born 1847, employed at the Velvet Arms Music Salon

Hank Steel, wounded private, 7th Michigan Infantry

Rachel Woods, born 1939, nurse, friend and roommate of Rosalane

Delwyn Leyshon, boarder at Dr. Brookston’s house, cab driver, husband of Gwyneth and father of AledBryn and Bronwen

Gwyneth Leyshon, wife of Delwyn, mother of AledBryn and Bronwen

Mack Collins, born 1848, son of Irving and Comely Collins

Hall Collins, born 1855, son of Irving and Comely Collins

HISTORIC NOTE: WASHINGTON CITY DESIGN AND POPULATION

CHAPTER THREE – BRIGHT, UNDISCOVERED WORLD

Hunter Severance, born 1838, clerk at the War Department, boarder at Dr. Brookston’s house, brother of Tappan, husband of Bette Jane

Tappan Severance, born 1840, clerk at the Treasury Department, boarder at Dr. Brookston’s house, brother of Hunter

Amelita Smith, born 1846, free black, servant of Dr. Brookston

Hattie Whitby, born 1834, boarder at Dr. Brookston’s house, works at the Elegant Hats Emporium

Montrell Monty Penry-Burns, born 1841, Englishman, journalist from Yorkshire, boarder at Dr. Brookston’s house

*Edwin McMasters Stanton, born 1814, Secretary of War under President Lincoln

Enoria Elizabeth Mathison, born 1842, free-lance journalist and women’s rights advocate

AledBryn Leyshon, born 1859, son of Delwyn and Gwyneth

Bronwen Leyshon, born 1861, daughter of Delwyn and Gwyneth

HISTORIC NOTE: PRESIDENT LINCOLN DID NOT EXPECT RE-ELECTION

CHAPTER FOUR – HER CRITICAL CONDITION

Deborah Collins, born 1849, daughter of Irving and Comely Collins

HISTORIC NOTE: PROSTITUTION

CHAPTER FIVE – TOURING THE CAPITOL

Rev. Murray Burrows, born about 1825, pastor of the African Methodist Church, Alexandria, Virginia

Comely Collins, wife of Irving, mother of five children

Claudine Collins, born 1859, daughter of Irving and Comely Collins

Nelson Collins, born 1863, son of Irving and Comely Collins

Abner Baird, attorney in Washington City, brother of Edgar Baird

*George Washington, 1732-1799, first president of the United States

*Pierre L’Enfant, 1754-1825, architect who designed the streets of Washington

*Jefferson Finis Davis, born 1808, president of the Confederate States of America

*Robert Mills, 1781-1855, architect who designed buildings in Washington

Irving Collins, plasterer at the Capitol, neighbor of Dr. Brookston, husband of Comely, father of five children

Wilkens Shanklin, born 1842, son of Wilson and Esme Shanklin, friend of Rosalane

HISTORIC NOTE: ALCOHOLISM

CHAPTER SIX – RUNNING FROM WILTSEE

Dr. Abel Vorprima, graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, doctor at

Campbell General Hospital

Dr. Keslow Kimball, doctor at Campbell General Hospital

Ambrose Fately, Ohio private, deceased and dissected

Gordon Grimes, steward at Campbell General Hospital

Herschel Redman, steward at Campbell General Hospital

Esme Shanklin, born 1820, wife of Wilson, mother of Wilkens

Roberta Hobbs, acquaintance of Mehitabel Ashmore

Zillah Jenkins, new acquaintance of Mehitabel Ashmore

Dr. Aloysius Alcorn, born in 1812, father of Hallam and doctor to Mehitabel Ashmore

Hallam Alcorn, born 1844, son of Dr. Aloysius Alcorn

E. J. Yeatman, owner and superintendent of the Yeatman Maison de Sante

Margot Yeatman, wife of E. J. Yeatman

Alice, maid of the Shanklin family

Wilson Shanklin, born 1818, husband of Esme, father of Wilkens, banker

* William Burke, 1792-1829, grave robber in Edinburgh, Scotland; hanged

* William Hare, 1792-1859(?), grave robber in Edinburgh, Scotland

* Dr. Robert Knox, 1791-1862, doctor in England

*Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, born 1821, in Bristol, England; first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States in 1849

*Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, born 1832, in Oswego, New York; earned a medical degree in 1855 at the Syracuse Medical College

* Dr. William Alexander Hammond, born 1828, Surgeon General in the United States Army from 1862-1864

*Helen Hammond, born 1829, wife of Dr. William A. Hammond

*Sommerville Hammond, born 1853, son of William and Helen Hammond

*Clara Hammond, born 1856, daughter of William and Helen Hammond

*Graham Hammond, born 1858, son of William and Helen Hammond

*Edwin McMasters Stanton, born 1814, Secretary of War

HISTORIC NOTE: SYPHILIS

CHAPTER SEVEN – A DIFFICULT DELIVERY

*William Wilson Corcoran, born 1798, banker, collector, philanthropist

Delneth called Delney, born 1865, daughter of Delwyn and Gwyneth Leyshon

*William Tecumseh Sherman, born 1820, Union General

HISTORIC NOTE: HOSPITALS AND FORTS IN WASHINGTON

CHAPTER EIGHT – POISON IVY

*Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849, short-story writer and poet

*William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, English playwright, poet, and actor

*James J. Gifford, architect who designed Ford’s Theatre in Washington City

Thierry Brooks a/k/a Wiley, born 1840 or 1841, runaway slave

HISTORIC NOTE: OPIUM

CHAPTER NINE – RESCUING THIERRY AND FRANCY

*Frederick Douglass, born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey about 1818, runaway slave, orator, writer, editor, ambassador to Haiti

HISTORIC NOTE: PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S RE-ELECTION

CHAPTER TEN – HER FATHER IS NOT DEAD

Zeffie Barkley, born 1820, mistress of George Ashmore, mother of Rosalane

*John Bell Hood, born 1831, Confederate General

*John McAllister Schofield, born 1831, Union General

*Lucy Lambert Hale, born 1842, daughter of Senator John Parker Hale of New Hampshire

Ben Clark, a steward at Finley Hospital

*John Wilkes Booth, 1838-1865, actor, born in Harford County, Maryland, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln

HISTORIC NOTE: DEATH TOLL DURING THE CIVIL WAR

CHAPTER ELEVEN – THE CHRISTMAS BALL

HISTORIC NOTE: INSANE ASYLUMS

CHAPTER TWELVE – THE LAST HOLIDAYS OF THE WAR

Bently Robbins, soldier in the United States Colored Troops, friend of Hank Steel

Worth Ashmore, born 1846, son of George and Pauline Ashmore

Hayes Ashmore, born 1848, son of George and Pauline Ashmore

Yola Pauline, born 1850, daughter of George and Pauline Ashmore

Bette Jane Severance, wife of Hunter Severance

Eunice Severance, wife of Tappan Severance

HISTORIC NOTE: JOHN WILKES BOOTH PLANNED TO ABDUCT PRESIDENT LINCOLN

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – THE ARTIFICIAL LIMB COMPANY

Seally Crouch, born 1835, attorney in the firm of Baird and Crouch, Washington City

Dudley Bascomb, combative patient in the hospital

Dougray Reed, friend of Hallam Alcorn, assistant to Asa Woodley

Asa Woodley, owner of the Woodley Photographic Gallery

Dewitt Brown, gentleman friend of Hattie Whitby

HISTORIC NOTE: JOHN WILKES BOOTH’S BIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER FOURTEEN – DETECTIVE DURANT ARRIVES

Stillman Durant, born 1841, Pinkerton Detective

*Laura Keene, born 1826, actress, theater owner

*Jane Austen, 1775-1817, English novelist

HISTORIC NOTE: THE CIVIL WAR ENDED

CHAPTER FIFTEEN – OUR AMERICAN COUSIN

*Mary Ann Booth, born 1803, mother of John Wilkes Booth

*Julia Grant, born 1826, wife of General Ulysses S. Grant

*Mary Todd Lincoln, born 1818, wife of President Abraham Lincoln

*Major Henry Rathbone, guest of the Lincolns at Ford’s Theatre

*Miss Clara Harris, guest of the Lincolns at Ford’s Theatre

*John T. Ford, owner of Ford’s Theatre in Washington City

*John F. Drill, Metropolitan policeman

*Harry Hawk, actor in Our American Cousin

*Charles S. Taft, doctor who treated President Lincoln the night he died

HISTORIC NOTE: JOHN WILKES BOOTH WAS INJURED

CHAPTER SIXTEEN – MAISON DE SANTE

HISTORIC NOTE: RESULTS OF THE CIVIL WAR

EPILOGUE

Lincoln Brookston, born 1869, son of Rosalane and Aidan Brookston, a lawyer

Grant Brookston, born 1871, son of Rosalane and Aidan Brookston, a merchant

Sherman Brookston, born 1873, son of Rosalane and Aidan Brookston, a college professor of English literature

Thomas Brookston, born 1878, son of Rosalane and Aidan Brookston, the treasurer of the Washington Artificial Limb Company

Katherine Brookston, born 1867, daughter of Rosalane and Aidan Brookston, a social worker

Susanna Brookston, born 1875, daughter of Rosalane and Aidan Brookston, a medical doctor

* * *

CHRONOLOGY OF

HISTORIC EVENTS

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1864

July 9 – Confederate General Jubal Early defeated Federal General Lew Wallace at the Battle of Monocacy, Monocacy Junction, Maryland

July 10 – Confederates marched toward Washington City

July 11 – The Confederate Army advanced down Seventh Street Pike and battled federal forces at Fort Stevens

July 12 – Confederate cavalry stole horses and cattle, raided farms, burned houses, and pillaged country estates north of Washington and into Maryland

July 28 – The Siege of Atlanta commenced

July 30 – The Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia,