Notes and Queries

NOTES AND QUERIES Edited by Boyd B. Stutler 517 Main Street Charleston, West Virginia this department is DESiCNED as an open forum for researchers into Civil War themes and for readers of Civil War History in general. It is open for questions on and discussions of phases of the Great Conflict and its personnel. Also, we welcome notes on newly discovered, Uttle known, or other sidehghts on the war. Contributions are invited; aU correspondence should be addressed to: Notes and Queries Editor, 517 Main Street, Charleston, West Virginia. QUERIES No. 63—Isaac Sherman and Lincoln's Proclamation: An unanswered query in the September, 1956, number is repeated: "I have a framed engraving (copyright 1895) of Frank H. Carpenter's painting "Lincoln and His Cabinet,' inscribed by Carpenter to RusseU Sage. The text ofthe inscription is: To Honorable RusseU Sage with the compliments ofthe artist, Frank B. Carpenter, New York, December 18, 1897.' Below the engraved picture is a facsimüe of the Emancipation Proclamation of September, 1862. Inserted with the facsimile is a handwritten sUp which reads: Tlevised in the private office of Sherman & Wibert, No. 1, Hanover Square, New York, by Isaac Sherman at the request of President Lincoln.' Query: Does anyoneknow the background for the unsupported statement that Isaac Sherman revised the September draft of the Emancipation Proclamation?" Carl Haverlin ANSWERS No. 57—Major Henry Zarah Curtis, Baxter Springs Massacre: An answer inpart to the query of Ray S. Schulz (September, 1959), is suppUed byAlbert Castel, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania: 1. The Unionpost at Baxter Springs, Kansas, was estabhshed by Major Curtis, acting as General Blunt's Assistant Adjutant General, in late 87 88BOYDB. STUTLER August, 1863. Its purpose was to protect and faciUtate communications between Fort Scott and Fort Blunt (Fort Gibson ). IronicaUy, had not Major Curtis estabh'shed this post, he would not have been küled by QuantriU's guerriUas, for Quantrill was attacking it when Blunt's men unexpectedly appeared on the scene. 2.There exists in the Thomas Moonlight Papers, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, a letter from Blunt to Major Curtis, August 10, 1863, in which Blunt mentions taking along "female servants" during the müitary campaigns. Moonlight was closely associated with Blunt and Curtis, and perhaps his papers contain other items bearing on Curtis. 3.Blunt's memoirs, in Volume 1, Kansas Historical Quarterly, perhaps contain information on Curtis. As to what happened to Curtis at Baxter Springs, W. E. ConneUey's Quantrill and the Border Wars is of value, along with A. T. Andreas' History of Kansas, pp. 1,152-53. Aside from these sources there is the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, which have no doubt been consulted. NOTES Third National Assembly for Civil War Centennial: A third national assembly and conference of people from aU organizations and agencies interested in the upcoming Civü War centennial observances wiU be held at St. Louis, Missouri, on May 5 and 6. CaUed bythe National Civü War Centennial Commission, the major purpose of the gathering is to discuss and add final touches to state program planning , re-enactments, and educational features. AU sessions wiU be held in the historic Sheraton-Jefferson Hotel, buüt on the site where General U. S. Grant once sold cord wood from his farm on Gravois Road, now the Busch estate. The first assembly in 1958 was held in Washington, D.C., and the second in the spring of 1959 at Richmond, Virginia, thus visiting both capitals involved in the war. The midwestern meeting is planned to give representatives from the Mississippi VaUey and western areas opportunity to participate in the planning. The fourth and final assembly in thespring of 1961 willbe held in thedeep South, where much of the war was fought. Colonel Karl S. Berts, executive director of the National Commission, has announced that aU meetings at St. Louis wiU be open to the pubhc, with no restriction on the number of representatives from any one organization. "This assembly," says Colonel Betts, "should be our largest and most fruitful. Last spring at Richmond we had more than 300 delegates from 32 states and 116 organizations The centennial years are now so close upon us...