I really like diaries, particularly ladies’s diaries from the Civil Struggle period, so once I noticed a point out of the diary of Rachel Rosalie Phillips and came upon the place a transcript was held, I needed to get a replica of it. It’s an account of a younger girl’s keep in Washington, D.C., in 1864, when a sojourn in a battle capital may very well be a grand journey.
Eighteen-year-old Rachel Rosalie Phillips, the oldest daughter of Jonas L. Phillips and Esther Peixotto, was from a distinguished Sephardic Jewish household. Jonas, listed first as a ship chandler after which as a surveyor in directories and censuses, was energetic in New York Metropolis affairs, notably the hearth division.
In late 1863, Rachel left her residence in Manhattan to go to her uncle, Adolphus Solomons, who together with an Englishman named Franklin Philp owned a well known stationery enterprise and bookstore/publishing home in Washington. Solomons, whose enterprise had a contract to provide the federal government, was distinguished in each the Jewish group and in Washington civic affairs. Philp and Solomons’ operations included a photographic gallery, below the supervision of Alexander Gardner, and one among Abraham Lincoln’s final pictures was taken there. Amongst his many accomplishments, Solomons would later help Clara Barton in founding the American Purple Cross. The 1864 metropolis listing lists his residence as 507 E Road North; the enterprise was situated on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Rachel started writing her diary on January 1, 1864, when she famous that she had spent Christmas visiting army hospitals with journalist Benjmain Perley Poore, Senator Charles Sumner, and Miss Philp from England. (Elizabeth Philp, Franklin Philp’s sister, was a singer and songwriter who made her residence in London.) There, Rachel noticed “a number of Rebels,” who obtained the identical dinner because the Union troopers. On New Yr’s Day, the Solomons youngsters obtained presents from Santa Claus. Because it was Friday, Solomons, an observant Jew, led the household in Sabbath prayers that night, and the household went to synagogue the following morning. (Solomons usually gave Rachel Hebrew classes as nicely.) On Saturday night, Rachel went to Ford’s Theatre, the place she tried out the opera glasses, “the prettiest pair I’ve ever seen,” that she had obtained as a New Yr’s current. (Rachel information a number of visits to Ford’s in her diary.)
Having sewn the morning of January 5, Rachel amused herself that night by dressing herself in her uncle’s garments and presenting herself within the parlor, the place Miss Philp “thought I made a capital man.”
Rachel visited the White Home on January 9, the place she was “launched to the President, and Mrs. Lincoln and shook arms with each of them. Mrs. Lincoln was handsomely attired in a Black Velvet costume gored with white satin; she wore white and black velvet flowers in her hair. The jewellery she wore was Onyx set round with pearls she appeared remarkably nicely. Mr. Lincoln seems to be an excellent natured man, and was very sociable with all his friends. He at all times leaves impression. All people is happy with him.” Three days later, Rachel noticed Mrs. Lincoln once more at a reception. The First Woman “wore a really good-looking White Satin with black lace flowers.”
Late on January 13, Rachel went to a “hop” at Willard’s resort, to which she wore a inexperienced silk costume. She organized her hair in a modern “waterfall” with “puffs.” On January 21, she went to a different “hop,” this time on the Nationwide Resort, the place she quaffed 5 glasses of champagne, spent half of the night dancing with a Mr. Briggs, and stayed till 3:00 a.m. Rachel wore a white tarlatan costume and ornamented her hair with pink flowers. “I don’t assume I ever appeared higher,” she advised her diary. “I believe I’m having fun with myself an amazing deal greater than if I used to be in New York.” The Washington Chronicle additionally reported on the “hop”: “Diamonds flashed and silks rustled the dwell lengthy night! The cheeks of many a good one have been all aglow with the roseate hues of well being, whereas these of others rivalled the purity of Parian marble!”
Not all of Rachel’s Washington keep, nonetheless, was taken up with frivolities. Rachel went to the Home of Representatives on January 16 to listen to a lecture by Anna Dickinson, a younger abolitionist who was having fun with nice success as a public speaker on the time. The Lincolns have been there, together with Vice President Hamlin and the Speaker of the Home. Rachel additionally heard Raphael De Cordova, a Jamaican-born Sephardic Jew who was a preferred speaker of the day, give a humorous speak on “Love and Courtship.” She sniffed, “I didn’t prefer it being essentially the most depressing lecture I ever heard him give.”
Having spent Saturday, January 23, strolling and studying The Scarlet Letter, Rachel obtained an invite to journey to Virginia, the place the Third Corps of the Military of the Potomac was making ready to placed on a ball. On January 25, together with her white costume packed in a small trunk, Rachel, in firm that included her uncle and the British author George Augustus Sala, boarded a practice of the Orange and Alexandria Rail Highway and traveled to Brandy Station, from which the corporate was transported by wagon to the military headquarters.
Not like the teenage Rachel, who not surprisingly targeted on the ball, Sala, who was sending dispatches to London’s Each day Telegraph, described the journey to headquarters in some element. Though he loved the provisions Solomons had laid on for the vacationers, together with anchovy and beef sandwiches, a plum cake, Stilton cheese, crackers, and chilly milk punch, Sala wrote that this was the primary time he had been “within the absolute and visual presence of battle.” He famous the “total nakedness and desolation” of his environment, and was notably affected by the useless horses left to decay. Sarcastically, the occasion was greeted at Brandy Station by Philp’s spouse and sister on horseback; the English women, who had gotten a head begin over the Solomons occasion, had taken their sidesaddles and driving habits with them. The ball was held at a canvassed-in backyard at Normal Carr’s headquarters, an bizarre farmhouse.
As for Rachel, she had a “splendid time” on the ball, and no surprise: Sala estimated that solely about sixty ladies have been current, as contrasted to about 300 officers. Certainly, an illustration from Harper’s Weekly reveals that these males with no woman associate for supper indulged in a “gander dance” with one another as a substitute. Sala additionally recorded that the women have been supplied with cologne, bouquets, and black servants to attend upon them. A Virginian and two of his daughters have been current; Sala famous that one of many women abruptly stopped dancing when the band started to play “Yankee Doodle.”
Having danced till 4 within the morning, Rachel, together with the Philp ladies, retired to Normal Rufus Ingalls’ tent. The following morning, she chatted with some officers and reluctantly advised them that she needed to go away together with her uncle that very same day. In the course of the practice journey again to Washington, the occasion stopped at Manassas and spent an hour strolling round. Rachel could have been extra affected by her environment than she let on in her diary, as a result of on February 1, when she heard that there was to be one other ball given by the Third Corps, she wrote, “I don’t assume I shall go as it’s too harmful.”
In March, a “Captain Fassit” took Rachel without warning by proposing to her, even providing to alter his faith. Rachel knowledgeable him that “he was very impertinent to ask such a query.” (If this was Captain John Barclay Fassitt, he was awarded a Medal of Honor in 1894 for his heroism on the Battle of Gettysburg.)
Having met the President and First Woman, visited a military camp, worn out her dancing footwear, and obtained a proposal of marriage, Rachel returned later in March to her dad and mom’ residence in New York, the place over the following few weeks she went to quite a few performs, noticed the household’s future new residence at 36 West Twelfth Road, and attended a Purim ball, dressed patriotically because the Little one of the Regiment. (She additionally obtained some pictures of herself that had been taken throughout her final day in Washington, however though Rachel mentions having her {photograph} taken on a number of events in her diary, I’ve not discovered one among her.) On April 11, she wrote, “What an Fool I used to be to write down a Diary.” After just a few extra entries for 1864, recording a go to to a Sanitary Honest and the household’s transfer to the brand new home, her diary trails off till 1866, when she talked about going to the library and being waited on by a male pal.
Sadly, Rachel’s story doesn’t have a cheerful ending. On December 24, 1870, at age twenty-four, she died of sub-acute meningitis and was buried in Beth Olom Cemetery in Queens. The Jewish Messenger eulogized her thus: “Sturdy in precept, religious in sentiment, and benevolent in coronary heart, she was energetic in charity and repair to all who wanted assist or sympathy. So certified in thoughts and individual to take the best step in life, she was betrothed, and would have been married in just a few weeks, however for the illness which proved as deadly because it was mysterious.”
As Rachel did have a humorousness, nonetheless, it appears unfair to depart on a dark notice. At the start of the diary, Rachel writes, “When you want to know all my secrets and techniques, flip to web page Thursday Feb 18 1864.” The reader who obeys can be advised, “You’re a greater idiot than I believed you was.”
Sources:
Rachel Rosalie Phillips diary transcript in David M. Klein Assortment, MS-695, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Discover-A-Grave, John Barclay Fassitt.
Harper’s Weekly, “A Navy Ball,” February 20, 1864.
Jewish Messenger, December 30, 1870.
George Augustus Sala, “America within the Midst of Struggle,” Each day Telegraph, March 15, March 17, and April 6, 1864.
George William Sheldon, The Story of the Volunteer Hearth Division of the Metropolis of New York.
“Raphael J. de Cordova, 1822-1901,” in Jamaicans Overseas.
Washington Chronicle, January 28, 1864.
Gary Phillip Zola, We Referred to as Him Rabbi Abraham: Lincoln and American Jewry, A Documentary Historical past.
