Looking for Chandler

In the published version of Elizabeth Lindsay Lomax's diary there is a young man named Chandler (Mrs. Lomax does not give his last name). Chandler is courting Victoria Lomax and in fact proposes to her several times, only to be rejected.

Here is what I know about Chandler from the diary:

• Chandler is living in Washington from at least 1854 to 1861.
  
• December 22, 1854: Chandler is going to Philadelphia for the holidays to join his father, "who is our ambassador to Spain". (page 30) The US Ambassador to Spain at that time is Pierre Soule, but I can find no record of him having a son named Chandler or of any Chandler Soule.
  
• April 6, 1858, page 85: Chandler is to attend Mrs. Senator Gwin's fancy dress ball on April 9, 1858 costumed as Sir Walter Raleigh. I have checked the NY Times article of 4-12-1858 about the ball, and neither Chandler nor Sir Walter Raleigh is mentioned.
• July 1, 1858: Chandler is going to South America (page 88).
• Entry for April 22, 1861, page 151: Chandler joined the Federal Army, commissioned as a 1st lieutenant.
• Entry for June 19, 1862, page 200: Chandler was in the hospital in Fredericksburg severely wounded.
• July 21, 1862, page 205: Chandler is still desperately ill.
• August 2, 1862, page 206: implies that Chandler died. If he died in Fredericksburg, it is possible he is buried there in the National Cemetery. No person with the given name Chandler appears on the list of Union soldiers buried at the Fredericksburg National Cemetery.

Does anyone have any idea who this Chandler is?

A Visit to "Professor" Maury

The following is from A Belle of the Fifties by Virginia Clay-Clopton. She doesn't give a date, but the event clearly took place before June 1861. "Professor" Maury (she seems to have forgotten his full name, Matthew Fontaine Maury) was still the director of the Naval Observatory in Washington at the time of the visit she describes. I find her description of Mr. Maury rather unkind.

I remember an amusing visit paid by a party from our mess to the observatory of Professor Maury. It was an occasion of special interest. Jupiter was displaying his brilliancy in a marvelous way. For no particular reason, in so far as I could see, the Professor's great telescope seemed to require adjusting for the benefit of each of the bevy present. I noticed Professor Maury's eye twinkling as he went on with this necessary (?) preliminary, asking betimes: "What do you see? Nothing clearly? Well, permit me!" And after several experiments he would secure, at last, the right focus. When all of his guests had been treated to a satisfactory view of the wonders of the sky, Professor Maury delivered himself somewhat as follows:

"Now, ladies, whilst you have been studying the heavenly bodies, I have been studying you!" and the quizzical expression deepened in his eye.

"Go on," we assented.

"Well," said the Professor, "I have a bill before Congress," (mentioning its nature) "and if you ladies don't influence your husbands to vote for it, I intend to publish the ages of each and every one of you to the whole of Washington!"

Reminder - Betty's Diary published

A reminder that the Civil War Diary of Betty Herndon Maury, newly transcribed and annotated, has been published by the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust in its journal Fredericksburg History and Biography, Volume 9. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see Betty's portrait on the cover. Instructions for ordering are on the left column

Literature in the South Since the War - Thomas Nelson Page

Literature in the South Since the War
by Thomas Nelson Page
Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 48, 1891, page 740

Along the Lower James

Along the Lower James
by Charles Washington Coleman
Century Magazine, Volume 41, page 323, January 1891

A long article about historic homes along the James River in Virginia with beautiful illustrations.

Virginia Illustrated by David Hunter Strother

Virginia Illustrated
by David Hunter Strother
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1857

Some wonderful illustrations!

Mr. Corbin Courts Nannie

The following is from Leaves From an Old Washington Diary, 1854-1863 by Elizabeth Lindsay Lomax, first published in 1943, edited by Lindsay Lomax Wood.

Friday, February 29, 1856
. . . Mr. Corbin is on a courting expedition and seems a trifle nervous -- He is very attentive to Nannie Maury, but as yet no one knows if she smiles upon his suit or not -- I imagine he is uncertain of his own fate.

Elizabeth Lindsay Lomax was a widow living on G Street near Lafayette Square in Washington DC when she wrote these lines in 1856. She had several unmarried daughters at home, and so she was in the loop on the events in their circles of friends.

The "Mr. Corbin" referred to is probably Spotswood Wellford Corbin. Nannie Maury is Betty Herndon Maury's younger sister Diana. Diana was most likely living at the Naval Observatory in Washington at this time where her father, Matthew Fontaine Maury, was its first director. Diana/Nannie does eventually accept Mr. Corbin's proposal and they were married on April 28, 1858. Their home near Fredericksburg, Virginia, known as Farley Vale, is mentioned frequently in Betty's diary, as is, of course, Diana/Nannie.

William Maury's actions during the war

I have found more information about the actions of Betty Herndon Maury's husband, William Arden Maury, during the opening months of the American Civil War. He was involved in procuring land patents and certificates for land patents, as revealed by seizure of contraband mail by the U.S. Government in December 1861. See The War of the Rebellion, Series II Volume II, page 1309. This link will take you to page 1307; Will is mentioned on page 1309.

Note that the text of The War of the Rebellion text is unclear about the relationship of Rutson Maury to Betty's father - or to her husband. The Rutson Maury who was arrested for mail and document smuggling in November 1861 was most likely the Rutson Maury born in 1835. His brother, another Matthew Fontaine Maury, born in 1834, was also arrested and imprisoned for mail and document smuggling. On November 24, 1861 Betty reports the arrest of "Fontaine Maury, Nannie's old sweetheart . . ."

From Betty's diary it appears that Will was not sharing with her much about what he was doing.

Publication of Betty's Diary

This is to announce that The Civil War Diary of Betty Herndon Maury will be published by the journal Fredericksburg History and Biography. The entire diary, together with annotations, will be available in early 2011.

Mrs. Gwin

This is a photo of Mrs. Gwin, she who gave the famous costume ball described in Virginia Clopton Clay's memoir, A Belle of the Fifties. I wrote about this ball in an earlier post, which you can read by clicking here. In the earlier post there is a link to a New York Times article describing the ball.

A Southern Girl in '61 [1861]

Publisher's Weekly, Volume 68, page 567
Review of A Southern Girl in '61 by Louise Wigfall Wright

Four Remarkable Biographies

Confederate Veteran, Volume 28, 1920, page 420
Four Remarkable Biographies

Reviews of the books of four southern women of the 1860s who have written biographies and memoirs:

• Memoirs of Jefferson Davis by Varina Davis
• Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson by Mary Anna Jackson
• Reminiscences of Peace and War by Sara Agnes Pryor
• Recollections Grave and Gay by Constance Cary Harrison
  

Lincoln in Richmond in 1865

The President Enters the Confederate Capital
Part II of With Lincoln From Washington to Richmond in 1865
by John S. Barnes
Appleton's Magazine, Volume 9, January - June 1907, page 742,

Matthew Fontaine Maury's war work

The work done by Matthew Fontaine Maury, Betty's father, during the American Civil War is chronicled in this book by his son, Richard L. Maury, the brother referred to as Dick in Betty's diary.

A Brief Sketch of the Work of Matthew Fontaine Maury During the War 1861-1865
by Richard L. Maury
Richmond, Whittet & Shepperson, 1915

Clicking on the link in the book's title will take you to Google Books where the book may be downloaded (free).

Charles and Ann Hite McGruder

Finally I have found the McGruders' graves at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. I went looking for them once before but without success. I was hoping to get more information about the McGruders from the gravestones, but unfortunately the stone(s) were so worn I could not read a word. I know I found the right place, for I had the Section and Lot identifiers (Section K, Lot 44) from the cemetery's web site; and there was another McGruder buried in the same lot whose name I could read.

Charles and Ann Hite (Maury) McGruder were relatives with whom Betty and Will Maury stayed in 1861-2. They lived in Henrico County, Virginia, which is next to Richmond. In February 1862 the McGruders told Betty and Will that they must leave and live somewhere else. According to Betty, the McGruders offered no explanation for the eviction.

I have not had much success in learning more about the McGruders. They apparently had no children, so genealogical research has yielded no results other than to tell me the names of Charles McGruder's parents. I know more about Ann, as she was a Maury by birth, but that doesn't tell me anything about what happened to her and her husband after the Civil War.


I'm not quite sure who this Mary L. McGruder is. The dates of birth and death are wrong for it to be Charles' mother, Mary Mallory (Woolfolk), who was born in 1799 and who died in 1833.
Perhaps Charles' father, Sublett B. McGruder (1781-1853) married again after the death of Charles' mother. It won't have much, if any, impact on the Maury family history, but my curiosity is aroused and I will try to track it down at some point.

And I want to express my gratitude to the man and woman at Hollywood Cemetery today who took the time to help me locate the McGruders' graves. Thank you!

Sarah Mytton Maury

Tombstone of Sarah Mytton Maury,
her husband and son.

City Cemetery
Fredericksburg VA

Inscription transcribed below.









IN
MEMORY OF
WILLIAM MAURY
OF LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND;
BORN Feb. 5, 1799,
DIED OCT. 15, 1849
ALSO HIS WIFE,
SARAH MYTTON MAURY
BORN NOV. 1, 1801.
DIED SETP. 21, 1849
THEIR REMAINS LIE HERE
ALSO THEIR SON
CHARLES WILLIAMS MAURY
BORN DEC. 8, 1837.
DIED OCT. 30, 1857;
WHOSE REMAINS LIE
IN THE STRAITS OF SUNDA
_________
There remaineth therefore a rest,
To the people of God.
_________
"And the sea gave up the dead
Which were in it."

A New Blog - Fredericksburg Remembered

A new blog called Fredericksburg Remembered has been created. The first two posts concern the slave auction block at the corner of Charles and William Streets in Fredericksburg and present a fascinating discussion of the disputes over this stone. This blog will surely become a valuable resource for preserving and disseminating the history of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Mrs. Hart Identified

I have been working on annotating the Civil War Diary of Betty Herndon Maury, and as an aid to that effort I have been compiling genealogical charts in an effort to identify various people Betty mentions. It is a difficult task, as so many names are repeated through the generations; and Betty sometimes uses the words cousin, aunt, uncle and so on in ways other than those I am familiar with.

Betty several times refers to a Mrs. Hart in Fredericksburg, and I had not been able to figure out who she was until I discovered Betty had given a clue as to her identity: Mrs. Hart was Susan Crutchfield's cousin. Using this clue and the genealogy charts I was finally able to identify Mrs. Hart as Jane Blake (Minor) Hart (1830-1900), wife of William Timothy Hart (1822-1885). Susan's father (Oscar Minor Crutchfield) and Janes mother (Malvina (Crutchfield) Minor) were brother and sister.

Susan, who later married Betty's brother Richard was staying with Jane and William Hart at the time Betty was writing her diary there.

As small a matter as is the identity of Mrs. Hart in the grand scheme of things, it has given me a great sense of satisfaction to be able to pin down her identity. I wish I knew more about her!

Civil War Graffiti

Today's posting at the Mysteries and Conundrum's blog addresses graffiti created by Civil War soldiers. I have noticed such graffiti in many locations I have visited in Virginia. The author of today's post has asked: ". . . there must be many antebellum structures in the Fredericksburg area that still retain names, messages, and drawings from soldiers who visited them so long ago. If you are aware of any surviving graffiti in the area, and would like to share it, please let us know." I, for one, will now start collecting such information to relay to the National Park Service historians.

Ashes of Glory - Richmond at War

I am reading Ashes of Glory - Richmond at War by Ernest B. Furguson. It is a fascinating view of how Richmond and her citizens fared during the American Civil War. Highly recommended.