Thankfully the American Civil War ended in 1865. Apparently the federal government felt it could let down its defenses a bit on the nation’s northeast corner. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch December 30, 1865:
The coast batteries in Maine dismantled.
Belfast, Me., December27.
–Under the supervision of Major Gardner, United States army, the batteries in this city and at other points on the coast of Maine are being dismantled. The guns have been carried to Fort Knox.
Chautauqua Democrat Extra, April 15, 1865 (Library of Congress)
Thankfully the war ended in 1865, but Secretary of State William H. Seward endured a devastating year:
Seward was tested in 1865 as few men are ever tested: by the carriage accident, by the attack of the assassin, by the near death of his son Frederick, by the death of his good friend and leader Lincoln, and then by the death of his wife Frances [on June 21st]. Although he attended church regularly, he was not an especially religious man, and it does not seem that that he found much solace in religion in this hour of trial. He seems instead to have found comfort in his work, to which he returned as soon as possible after his own injuries and his wife’s funeral. …[1]
Seward’s bad 1865 started with a carriage accident
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“New Year’s Eve ” (c1876, Library of Congress)
The image of the carriage is licensed by Creative Commons. According to the Wikipedia article about the William H. Seward House Museum: “This carriage was involved in an accident that severely injured Seward leaving him bed ridden the night Lincoln was shot, when another conspirator attacked Seward with a knife.”
- [1]Stahr, Walter Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man. 2012. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2013. Print. page 440.↩
