Speyside ... Yes, I’m still collecting antiquated books. Mostly centered around Georgia. I started collecting after that idiot Dylan Roof shot-up that Church in Charleston. I knew right away that the war on Southern history was on. I started collecting Georgia diaries, then important books, Pulitzer Prize History Books, I really try to focus on books written prior to WWII.
When Confederate Statues started being attacked, I focused my collection on the history of Ladies Memorial Association & United Daughter’s of the Confederacy. The neat thing about this, is today it’s so easy for people to make knee-jerk reactions about subjects, compressing the entire subject into bullet points, when in fact you start digging into the subject, it opens up a panorama of history. Which the LMA & UDC did for me.
Lizzie Rutherford was a founding member of the Soldiers Aid Society, and LMA. It was her idea to commemorate the War Dead with Statues of Remembrance. At this time, she was reading the book, “The Initials” by Baroness von Tautphoeus, 1850. I bought a copy out of a book shop in Harper’s Ferry. (Neat!) It was that Book that inspired her to erect Commemorative Statues, and that idea spread like wildfire throughout the South.
She died in 1873 at age 40. When that Statue in Durham came down, I went and visited her grave in Columbus, GA. (We Southerners tend to look after our dead). But the interesting thing about her, is it was her idea (also) to have a Memorial Day Holiday. It was first started as Confederate Memorial Day, But the US Government co-opted the holiday. So the Memorial Day we observe today, was her idea.
Things like that. You “learn” from history. And these are things that I cherish. But, according to Victor & others, just the mere thought of wanting to look into such subjects means I’m pro-slavery (?). GTFO. Such thinking is an affront to great historians such as Shelby Foote, etc.
I’ve pretty much neared the end of my CSA collecting. There are a lot of reprints from the early 60s, printed prior to the Centennial of the War that I’d like to get, but now I’m focused on 19th century Georgia authors, and mainly books about Poetry.
Oh, one other story is of a man that fascinates me. Richard Malcolm Johnston. He was an educator in Georgia, building post-elementary schools. I believe back then they called high schools, “colleges”, but although I had known a little bit about him, I didn’t know he grew up right across the road from CSA VP Alexander H. Stephens. He was a law partner of AHS brother, Linton. He commanded the GA militia at the end of the war when chaos ensued, and he helped Robert Toombs escape to Cuba after the war. There is a ton more to that story that I find incredibly interesting. After the war he moved to Baltimore and opened a school there, and hired none other than the famous poet, Sidney Lanier, who encouraged him to write, and boy did he ever write. I’ve got three of his books from the 1880s. I’ve *always* been a History buff, and since I started collecting antiquated books, I seem to learn more & more, and to me that is so cool! But to suggest that my interest in Civil War (Era) History is pro-slavery is offensive & absurd. It downright ****** me off.
Right now my focus is on 19th Century Georgia Poets & Authors. I’m getting close to the end of my list with less than 20 books to go, but each one is $50 & Up, averaging $75, so it is a pricey hobby. Then I’ll move onto the Georgia Writer’s Hall of Fame list.
Huck ... I really do not want to get into the analogy of Lincoln’s politics, right now. Besides, this thread has veered off the tracks far enough.
One thing that amuses me about the whole, “Lincoln sharing a bed”, thing is ... as the story goes, Lincoln went to the furniture store to buy a bed, Joshua Speed told him the bed would be $17. Lincoln said he did not have $17. Joshua said, you can share my bed. And they did, for *Four Years*.
Lincoln shared a bed, with a bed salesman, for Four Years. That’s a little more than just a convenience matter. Think about it. Plus, connecting the dots with their “love letters” isn’t too hard of a stretch, either. Now, mind you, there is no exact 100% proof that Lincoln was gay, but it’s really not difficult to see the similarities. Everyone possesses “Gaydar”. Lincoln is a flashing neon sign when it comes to this.
Funny thing is, and I’ll wrap this up, one of my more interesting historical figures is Helen Dortch Longstreet, 2nd wife to CSA Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. I’m completely captivated by her. She’s one of the more truly interesting women of Georgia’s history. Her list of accomplishments is very long. James approached her when she was an archivist at the Georgia State Archives. His house in Gainesville had recently burned down, and he was in the middle of writing his book, “From Mannasas to Appomattox”, and he enlisted her help. One odd thing about them, is she was the college roommate of his eldest daughter.
Helen was a “Speed”, and I still have yet to fully connect the dots on that. Sometimes genealogy never fully connects the dots. I hate that I’m having difficulty finding out if she was a Dortch Speed, or a Speed Dortch, etc., but she was related to James Speed, Lincoln’s Attorney General, and Joshua Speed, Lincoln’s lover. (Funny how *that* worked out).
Last Summer I spent the afternoon at the Atlanta History Center to see if I could find one of Helen’s unpublished manuscripts, and I did! I asked the folks at the archives if I could see any of her papers, and I was dumbfounded & thrilled when they presented me with two boxes “full” of her papers! HOLY **** !! ...I could not get over holding a speech she gave to thousands of people at Gettysburg for the 75th anniversary of the battle, etc. That was so cool.
But I did find the manuscript, and I was allowed to take photos of each page, which I crudely published in a photo book for myself. The manuscript was entitled, “Wooed to the Warrior’s Tent”, (LoL). But in this unpublished manuscript she talks of Lincoln’s & Speed’s relationship in language not used today. Whereas today we would call them *******, but back then they would not. Now say in the 1880-1960s, or thereabouts, they’d say they were “Fancy Nancy’s”, and that sort of thing.
But reading the passages she wrote about them I upset the quiet research room when I let out a loud laugh. Even she knew Lincoln was a homo. LoL.
(Whew)
