Great Grandfather Brig Gen Henry L. Burnett's Memories of the Lincoln Assassination and Investigation

My website ^ | Henry L. Burnett

[mairdie]

While making the closing argument in this [Camp Douglas] case, on the 17th of April, 1865, I received a dispatch from the Secretary of War, directing me to report in person immediately to the War Department to aid in the examinations respecting the murder of the President. I started for Washington the same evening, reached there on the morning of the 19th, and was "specially assigned by the Secretary of War for duty on the investigation of the murder of President Lincoln and the attempted assassination of Mr. Seward", and a room was assigned to me in the War Department.

The gloom of that journey to Washington and the feeling of vague terror and sorrow with which I traversed its streets, I cannot adequately describe, and shall never forget. To this day, I never visit that City without some shadow of that dark time settling over my spirit. All the public buildings and a large portion of the private houses were heavily draped in black. The people moved about the streets with bowed heads and sorrow-stricken faces, as though some Herod had robbed each home of its first born.

When men spoke to each other in the streets, there were tremulous tones in their voices, and a quivering of the lips, as though tears and violent expression of grief were held back only by great effort. In the faces of those in authority -- Cabinet ministers, officers of the army, -- there was an anxious expression of the eye as though a dagger's gleam in a strange hand was to be expected; and a pale determined expression, a set of the jaw that said: "The truth about this conspiracy shall be made clear and the assassins found and punished: we will stand guard and the Government shall not die."

[mairdie]

My 5th great grandfather was also in the military from Dutchess County in 1775. He joined up to invade Canada after Bunker Hill. I’ve also got a line of Quebec Canadians from the 1600s so we might have some connections there.

I lived in MA and worked in NY for 10 years, husband for 20, commuting weekly, so we passed Sturbridge constantly. Always stopped to eat at Rein’s Deli in Vernon NY. Not getting out traveling, that’s the place I miss the most.

[PGR88]

One was that the family had entertained Lafayette and they still had the wine glasses unwashed

You could have had Lafayette's DNA on that goblet!

But then again, what could one do with it?

[mairdie]

Maybe French DNA would be discernable among all the New York DNAs that drank with him.

I’d LOVE to have DNA from older relatives, closer to even older ones. I have my mother’s baby hair but it’s cut off with no roots. Waiting for them to get past the roots constraint.

[mairdie]

I did track down DNA trying to tie up a family story. Grandmother always said that her half sister was Lucille Mulhall, the daughter of Colonel Zack Mulhall of the Wild West Show. The part that made it make sense was that Uncle Jack remembered when she received tickets to the opening of Soldiers’ Field Stadium for the Wild West show that was a box on the rail. Lucille rode over to talk to grandmother while another cowgirl in a short skirt talked to him. That skirt made an indelible impression on the kid.

So I tracked down another illegitimate descendant of Zack’s and got her DNA. But no connection. I still have no idea if I’ve got the wrong illegitimate line or what.

[mass55th]

My 5th great-grandfather was Francis B. Way, Lieutenant, 2nd Regiment Dutchess County Militia. He originally lived in Newtown, New York, which at that time was part of Long Island. It's now Elmhurst, a borough of Queens. After he married Elizabeth Gorsline in 1741, they moved to Fishkill, NY. He was a mason by trade and mostly built their home himself. His great-grandfather was James Way, born in Bridport, Dorset, England. It's said he came to this country as a child with his parents in what is known as the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). I also had Quakers on my mother's side. They lived in Canada.

Francis Way's son Daniel was in the same Dutchess County Regiment as his father. After the war he left the country and headed to Canada. Married the daughter of a Loyalist, and Francis wrote him out of his Will.

[mairdie]

I don’t have Ways or Gorslines. Henry was in Poughkeepsie though the family was educated in Fishkill. Yours is older than my Henry, who was born in 1748. Henry was Scottish thru Holland and Dutch Reform Church but educated in Fishkill by a Protestant minister. Everybody around him was Dutch.

[rxh4n1]

“His vision post war was far preferable to his radical cohorts and their in some cases Marxist buddy ups”

indeed, though he was the most ruthless of them all while waging the war, he approved Grant’s generous surrender terms and would likely have been more merciful to the South than the radicals.

[fruser1]

I hang my head

Don't sweat it.

You were only off by four score. :)