As I Remember
pieces," was the impatient response. "My dear fellow," replied the
Captain, "do take another sip of that wine--it is delicious!" "But you
are ordered by General ---- to retire, Captain; and you are being cut
up." "Much obliged to you, my dear friend, but if you will only make
yourself comfortable for a few minutes, I will get some sardines and
crackers." "I must go," impatiently remarked the Lieutenant, mounting
his horse; "what shall I report to the General?" "Well, my dear fellow,
if you are determined to go, please present my compliments to General
---- and tell him that, owing to a previous engagement with General
----, I am under the necessity of informing him that before I leave this
spot I will see him in the neighborhood of a certain gentleman whose
name is not to be mentioned in polite society." So, at all events, goes
the story, and I presume we may believe as much or as little of it as we
please.
General Magruder, while our guest in our country home near Frederick, in
Maryland, related to me many interesting incidents connected with
Maury's career. The General seemed to possess an unusual appreciation of
the good things of life and told me with much gusto about the numerous
delicacies with which Mexico abounded. His descriptions served to
recall to my mind the fact that when he was in our regular army he had
the reputation of "faring sumptuously every day." When in command at
Newport, Rhode Island, he gave a ball, during which he employed the
services of some of the soldiers under his command for domestic
purposes, and for this act was reprimanded by the War Department. After
the Civil War he went to Texas and died in Houston in the winter of
1871. He was a brave soldier and was twice brevetted for gallantry and
meritorious conduct on the battlefields of the Mexican War.
General John B. Magruder and his brother, Captain George A. Magruder of
the Navy, who early in life became orphans, were brought up by their
maternal uncle, General James Bankhead, U.S.A. General "Jack" Magruder,
as he was usually called, developed rather lively traits of character,
while his younger brother George was so deeply religious that, during
his naval career, his nickname was "St. George of the Navy." When both
young men had reached manhood, General Bankhead read them a homily,
having special reference, however, to his nephew "Jack." "I have reared
you both with the utmost care and circumspection," he said, "but you,
John, have not my approval in many ways." Jack's response was
characteristic. "Uncle," he said, "I can account for it in the following
manner--George has followed your precepts, but I have followed your
example." At the outbreak of the Civil War, Captain Magruder resigned
from the Navy and went with his family to Canada, where his daughter
Helen married James York MacGregor Scarlett, whose title of nobility was
Lord Abinger, his father having been raised to the peerage as a "lower
Lord."
Another Virginia family of social prominence, whose members mingled much
in Washington society while I was still visiting the Winfield Scotts,
was that of the Masons of "Colross," the name of their old homestead
near Alexandria in Virginia. Mrs. Thomson F. Mason was usually called
Mrs. "Colross" Mason to distinguish her from another family by the same
name, that of James M. Mason, United States Senator from Virginia. The
family thought nothing of the drive to Washington, and no entertainment
was quite complete without the "Mason girls," who were especially bright
and attractive young women. Open house was kept at this delightful
country seat and many were the pleasant parties given there. One of the
daughters, Matilda, married Charles H. Rhett, a representative South
Carolinian, and my friend, Cornelia Scott, was one of her bridesmaids.
Florence, another sister, who was generally called "Folly," married
Captain Thomas G. Rhett of the Army, a brother of her sister's husband.
He resigned at the beginning of the Civil War, as a South Carolinian
would indeed have been a _rara avis_ in the Federal Army in 1861, and
became an officer in the Confederate Army; while from 1870 to 1873 he
was a Colonel of Ordnance in the Army of the Khedive. Miss Betty Mason,
the oldest of these sisters, was a celebrated beauty and became the wife
of St. George Tucker Campbell of Philadelphia.
It was about this time I first made the acquaintance of Emily Virginia
Mason, who recently died in Georgetown after a long and active life. We
were accustomed to have long conversations over the tea table concerning
bygone days, and I sadly miss her bright presence. Her memories of a
varied life both in Washington and Paris were highly entertaining and as
one of her auditors I never grew weary while listening to her graphic
descriptions of persons and things. She was a daughter of John T. Mason
and a sister of Stevens Thompson Mason, the first governor of Michigan,
often called the "Boy Governor." She was very active during the Civil
War as a Confederate nurse and continued her kindly acts thereafter in
other fields of benevolence. She wrote a life of General Robert E. Lee
and several other books, and made a compilation of "Southern Poems of
the War," which was subsequently published under that title.
One may readily turn from Emily Virginia Mason to her life-long friend,
the daughter of Senator William Wright of New Jersey. It was during her
father's official life in Washington that Miss Katharine Maria Wright
met and married Baron Johan Cornelis Gevers, _Charge d'affaires_ from
Holland to the United States. After her marriage she seldom visited her
native country but made her home in Holland until her death a few years
ago. Her son also entered the diplomatic service of his country and a
few years ago was living in Washington.
After my father's death we continued as a family to live in our Houston
Street home in New York, but in 1853 we found the character of the
neighborhood, which had been so pleasant in years gone by, changing so
rapidly that we sold our house and moved to Washington. We secured a
pleasant old-fashioned residence on G Street, between Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Streets, which in subsequent years became the Weather Bureau.
Next door to us lived Mrs. Graham and her daughter, Mrs. Henry K.
Davenport, the grandmother and mother respectively of Commodore Richard
G. Davenport, U.S.N. Mrs. Graham was the widow of George Graham, who,
for a time during Monroe's administration, acted as Secretary of War.
While he was serving in this capacity, his brother, John Graham, was a
member of the same cabinet, serving as Secretary of State. Mrs.
Davenport was the mother of a family of sons known familiarly to the
neighborhood as Tom, Dick and Harry. In the same block lived Mr.
Jefferson Davis, who was then in the Senate from Mississippi. I remember
hearing Mrs. Davis say that it was worth paying additional rent to live
near Mrs. Graham, as she had such an attractive personality and was such
a kind and attentive neighbor. A few doors the other side of us resided
Captain and Mrs. Henry C. Wayne, the former of whom was in the Army and
was the son of James M. Wayne of Georgia, a Justice of the Supreme
Court; while across the street was the French Legation. Next door, at
the corner of G and Eighteenth Streets, lived Edward Everett. Mr. and
Mrs. Robert D. Wainwright lived on the next block in a house now
occupied by General and Mrs. A. W. Greely. I attended the wedding of
Miss Henrietta Wainwright, soon after we arrived in Washington, to
William F. Syng of the British Legation. She was the aunt of
Rear-Admiral Richard Wainwright, U.S.N., who, as Commanding Officer of
the _Gloucester_, rendered such conspicuous service at the battle of
Santiago. Not far away, on the corner of Twenty-first and G Streets,
lived Lieutenant Maxwell Woodhull of the Navy and his wife; and their
children still reside in the same house. On F Street, near Twenty-first
Street, was the home of Colonel William Turnbull, U.S.A., whose wife was
a sister of General George Douglas Ramsay, U.S.A., who was so well known
to all old Washingtonians. General Ramsay was very social in his tastes,
and many years before this time he and Columbus Monroe were the
groomsmen at the wedding at the White House when John Adams, the son of
John Quincy Adams, married his first cousin, Miss Mary Hellen. General
and Mrs. Ramsay lived on Twenty-first Street, not far from his sister,
Mrs. William Turnbull. Mrs. John Farley (Anna Pearson), a half-sister of
Mrs. Carlisle P. Patterson, lived on F Street, near Twenty-first Street,
and the latter's sister, Mrs. Peter Augustus Jay (Josephine Pearson),
began her matrimonial life on the northwest corner of F and Twenty-first
Streets.
William Thomas Carroll's residence on the corner of Eighteenth and F
Streets witnessed a continuous scene of hospitality. Mrs. Carroll was
never happier than when entertaining. She lived to an advanced age, and
until almost the very last, remained standing while receiving her
guests. I have heard that she retained two sets of servants, one for the
daytime and the other for the night. In her drawing-room hung many
portraits of family ancestors arrayed in the antique dress of olden
times. She was a daughter of Governor Samuel Sprigg of Maryland and was
a handsome and accomplished woman. Her four daughters, who materially
assisted her in dispensing hospitality, were very popular young women.
Violetta Lansdale, the oldest, married Dr. William Swann Mercer of the
well-known Virginia family; Sally is the present Countess Esterhazy;
Carrie married the late T. Dix Bolles of the Navy; and Alida is the wife
of the late John Marshall Brown of Portland, Maine. The Carroll house is
still standing and became the residence of the late Chief Justice
Melville Fuller of the U.S. Supreme Court. I have always heard that the
Carroll house, a substantial structure with large rooms, was built by
Tench Ringgold, who was U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia longer
than any of his predecessors. He occupied this position during the whole
of President Monroe's administration, and I have heard it related in the
Gouverneur family that, when Monroe was retiring from office, he asked
his successor, John Quincy Adams, on personal grounds, to retain Mr.
Ringgold. This request was granted and Mr. Monroe made the same appeal
to Andrew Jackson shortly after the latter's inauguration, and received
the cordial response, "Don't mention it, don't mention it." On the
strength of this interview, Ringgold naturally assumed he was safe for
another term, but, to the surprise of many, he was succeeded two years
later by Henry Ashton, who retained the office for about three years.
"Old Hickory," as everybody knows, had a mind of his own.
It was often very pleasant in my new surroundings to welcome to
Washington some of my early New York friends; and among these none were
more gladly received than Frances and Julia Kellogg of Troy. My
intimacy with these sisters goes back as far as my school days at Madame
Chegaray's, where Frances Kellogg was a boarding pupil and in a class
higher than mine when I was a day-scholar. It was the habit of these
sisters to spend their winters in Washington and their summers at West
Point; and it was during their sojourn at the latter place that Frances
became engaged to George H. Thomas of the Army who, although a Virginian
by birth, rendered such distinguished services during our Civil War as
Commander of the Army of the Cumberland. Many years after General
Thomas's death, his widow built a house on I Street, where she and Miss
Kellogg presided during the remainder of their lives. During one of our
many conversations, Mrs. Thomas told me that when her husband was
informed that a house was about to be presented to him by admiring