An Enterprising Lady

[M.Warren]

Thanks again. It really speaks volumes.

Mrs. Campbell/Van Slyck is shooting ducks with all of these people and Butler is going to court martial her. Right.

Perhaps I've a twisted sense of how the world works, but this is all very entertaining. Wonderful stuff, M. Warren.

It would be very interesting if this thread ended up getting to the bottom of this in detail! The only reason I remembered it was due to Meade's post that mentioned Caroline as Campbell, due to my reading on her husband. I'd have never remembered her by Van Slyck. I'd like to know what else Judge Advocate General Holt Van Slyck had to do with the deal, as well as Major J.L Stackpole's true part in it consisted of. They seem to bring more to the story than meets the eye. I'd also like to get the time to do some research on George Van Slyck concerning his family tree and see just how connected he may have been. I did notice there was a Cpt George Van Slyck in the 124 NY infantry, as well as a Lt. Col. George Slyck in the 12th NY. The name Slyck is very common around NY and also had a number of Native American ties. I have a feeling there is more of this story, yet to be revealed.

 

[M.Warren]

Well, she certainly may have benefitted from those connections but note that her husband's letter pleads for her return home after being forcibly detained for "almost a year". The final documents in the case appear to indicate that it wasn't until April 1865 that she was finally cleared - the relevant fold3 document (not shown here) effectively says "if she hasn't been released already, you're ordered to release her now". Better late than never, I guess

Do you have a link to the relevant fold3 doc. Meade? I have full access and would enjoy reading it. Who gave the order to release her?

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

@M.Warren, curious things happen with fold3.

Curious 1: yesterday p.m. there were only 9 pages in the Adj Genl file with one page missing. This morning there are 31 pages with 2 pages missing and the one missing yesterday is now there. And I just looked again and there are 50 pages with none appearing to be missing.... I think their new look-up has some problems?

Oh now I see how to link https://www.fold3.com/image/301046980/?terms=caroline van slyck

https://www.fold3.com/search/#s_given_name=caroline&s_surname=van+slyck&ocr=1&preview=1&t=782

https://www.fold3.com/search/#s_given_name=caroline&s_surname=campbell&ocr=1&preview=1&t=626

https://www.fold3.com/image/280142524?terms=caroline%20campbell

Curious 2: yesterday when I searched H S Olcott Civil War, I found several Citizen Files marked with Caroline Campbell name in the Baker files. This morning none of those appear at all??????

Turns out she wasn't in prison. She'd been tossed out of the Dept because she couldn't pay the $5,000 fine that the provost court levied. So her husband's letter previously quoted was asking not for her release but for permission to return (I guess).l Although there already was a special order 85 issued in October 1863 countermanding the order for her removal.

George wrote to Stanton in June of 1865 and it was Stanton's office that demanded all the paperwork and finally issued the "let her go if you've got her and return all her stuff" order. It appears that the only "stuff" they could find of hers was... gasp... $9,515 in "rebel money".

It's cute - there's one document where it was written as "Confederate money" and the naughty word "Confederate" was lined out and "rebel" placed above it.

Whatever all the ins and outs, this case dragged on and on for more than two years apparently. Have fun with the documents. Oh... I just experimented and found one can url the photos from the un-enlarged view as well. That makes life easier!

Here's an interesting one re George van Slyck - apparently suing someone (and lost)
https://www.fold3.com/image/291166604?terms=george%2520van%2520slyck

 

[M.Warren]

Wow, Don't feel bad about laying it all out there, first thing in the morning, Meade. lol. It looks like you did your homework without a doubt. I have the same type of issues with Fold3's search function, its not just you. They also like to tell me when people enlisted on my memorial pages, when I have official records that directly contradict their halfassed information and research. I'm not sure how to feel about them, honestly. Well, I'm going to get the kids on the bus, send a couple emails I didn't get out yesterday, drive my tired butt to work, and get started reading, and attempting to search Fold3 for the documents, they decided you couldn't see today. Maybe its my day to see them. We'll trade off until we get them all. Thanks for all the information, Meade. Enjoy your morning, sir.

P.S. I do find it quite predictable that one day this lady is worth up to 250,000, and the next she has 9k in "rebel money" but isn't hanged or rotting in prison. That was one expensive political purchase for the 1860's. We should check Butler's tax info, and see where he parked his new yacht, and hot air balloon.

@M.Warren, curious things happen with fold3.

Curious 1: yesterday p.m. there were only 9 pages in the Adj Genl file with one page missing. This morning there are 31 pages with 2 pages missing and the one missing yesterday is now there. And I just looked again and there are 50 pages with none appearing to be missing.... I think their new look-up has some problems?

Oh now I see how to link https://www.fold3.com/image/301046980/?terms=caroline van slyck

https://www.fold3.com/search/#s_given_name=caroline&s_surname=van+slyck&ocr=1&preview=1&t=782

https://www.fold3.com/search/#s_given_name=caroline&s_surname=campbell&ocr=1&preview=1&t=626

https://www.fold3.com/image/280142524?terms=caroline%20campbell

Curious 2: yesterday when I searched H S Olcott Civil War, I found several Citizen Files marked with Caroline Campbell name in the Baker files. This morning none of those appear at all??????

Turns out she wasn't in prison. She'd been tossed out of the Dept because she couldn't pay the $5,000 fine that the provost court levied. So her husband's letter previously quoted was asking not for her release but for permission to return (I guess).l Although there already was a special order 85 issued in October 1863 countermanding the order for her removal.

George wrote to Stanton in June of 1865 and it was Stanton's office that demanded all the paperwork and finally issued the "let her go if you've got her and return all her stuff" order. It appears that the only "stuff" they could find of hers was... gasp... $9,515 in "rebel money".

It's cute - there's one document where it was written as "Confederate money" and the naughty word "Confederate" was lined out and "rebel" placed above it.

Whatever all the ins and outs, this case dragged on and on for more than two years apparently. Have fun with the documents. Oh... I just experimented and found one can url the photos from the un-enlarged view as well. That makes life easier!

Here's an interesting one re George van Slyck - apparently suing someone (and lost)
https://www.fold3.com/image/291166604?terms=george%2520van%2520slyck

 

[FarawayFriend]

Indeed they did. You're welcome. I hope it leads somewhere. Grand Duke Alexander Aleksandrovich (second son of Tsar Alexander II), who would become Tsar Alexander III, of Russia, in 1881 and The Grand Duke Konstantin (the younger), Prince Stcherbaton were just a few of their not so American connections. When this gaggle of royalty visited the shooting club/Inn/mansion, Max Strakosch, a renown opera manager in New York, brought Lillian Adelaide Neilson to Norfolk to perform for the imperial visitors at the Church Street Opera House. The Hygeia Hotel at Old Point Comfort hosted the imperial visitors with a seven course dinner. There was a train trip to Washington, DC, to meet with the president and government officials. Some of the people of the borough of Norfolk were not as excited as others about the imperial visit, and some dowagers began complaining to city officials that certain members of the entourage had "relieved themselves" in their flower pots. The visitors were quickly escorted to Poplar Branch and were hosted at the Van Slyck inn where they shot ducks. William Henry Walker was their guide, and the Grand Duke Alexander tried to persuade him to come home to Russia and offered him a lucrative position on one of the royal estates, but he declined the offer. The Grand Duke Alexander (1845 - 1894) married Princess Dagmar of Denmark, who was known as Empress Maria Fedorovna in Russia. Their son became Tsar Nicholas II, and he was the last Romanov emperor of Russia, and he and his family were assassinated at Ekaiterinberg in 1918.

Its also worth noting that on 16 May 1878 Caroline Campbell Van Slyck was again remarried to David B. Nye, in Boston, at the residence of J. C. Curtis, by Rev. James Freeman.

Wow, @M.Warren, as always I'm deeply impressed by this wealth of information you are able to provide!
Thank you so much!

 

[M.Warren]

Wow, @M.Warren, as always I'm deeply impressed by this wealth of information you are able to provide!
Thank you so much!

You give me far more credit than Im due. I found that some time ago, and somehow managed to remember it when I needed to, lol. Doesn't happen that way too often.

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

Somewhere in those links I gave, there's a letter from Caroline to the Federal government unrelated to the arrest and trial. Apparently she was shipping a load of tobacco when the boat was requisitioned by the army to transport some troops. Lo and behold, when the boat was done with that duty and returned home... guess what? A large amount of the tobacco had mysteriously disappeared! Caroline wanted the Feds to compensate her for the loss. I didn't see any disposition but likely they replied "mice?"

ETA I see that using the un-enlarged photo URL doesn't work. They can't be expanded to read here. The only way I've found to post 'em then is to save the enlarged photo to my PC then use the Snipping Tool to paste it in - either that upload the photo to Facebook which can then be URLd to here. Is there a better way?

 

[M.Warren]

Somewhere in those links I gave, there's a letter from Caroline to the Federal government unrelated to the arrest and trial. Apparently she was shipping a load of tobacco when the boat was requisitioned by the army to transport some troops. Lo and behold, when the boat was done with that duty and returned home... guess what? A large amount of the tobacco had mysteriously disappeared! Caroline wanted the Feds to compensate her for the loss. I didn't see any disposition but likely they replied "mice?"

ETA I see that using the un-enlarged photo URL doesn't work. They can't be expanded to read here. The only way I've found to post 'em then is to save the enlarged photo to my PC then use the Snipping Tool to paste it in - either that upload the photo to Facebook which can then be URLd to here. Is there a better way?

Direct link as you've done above works fine for me. I have an account so it takes me directly to the image filmstrip etc. I've had a little to so Im just now getting back to this, and trying to get caught up. I hadn't realized you'd even made this post until now.

 

[M.Warren]

I found this in Blood and War at my Doorstep by Brenda Chambers McKean

View attachment 81281

She is also mentioned in Confederate Heroines: 120 Southern Women Convicted by Union Military Justice
by Thomas Power Lowry

Also fold3 has her in Letters Received by the Attorney General - 9 pages with one missing - under Caroline van Slyck. Final decision seems to be that the government was embarrassed by provost courts assuming too much power and moving out of their jurisdiction

I've been meaning to mention this for 2 days, and it keeps slipping my mind. I just saw the Lincoln painting thread and it clicked again, so I'll do it before I forget. As far as the book, you've mentioned here, Meade, I went to research it a couple days ago and realized that the Author Lowry had confessed on January 12, 2011, to altering an Abraham Lincoln Presidential pardon for Patrick Murphy that is part of the permanent records of the U.S. National Archives. This was supposed to have been the final action, pardoning Murphy that Lincoln took as President before his death. Lowry admitted he had in fact changed the 4 or a 5 in 1865, and the pardon had actually been signed in 1864, a year prior to Lincolns death. That in its self made me think that informing anyone that might not have already known this, but plans to use his work for research, of this information, and the chance this could have happened before as well as, his, "history", or work should be considered at least questionable.

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2011/nr11-57.html

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

Well.... he has issued a denial. It's a long one involving coercion, cover-up and ... something. Read the full thing here: https://tomlowry.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/hello-world/ He makes some very cogent points about the National Archives. But the issue for him is why he "confessed" and why he was made to do so. Interesting that he and his wife moved from California and bought a house in Virginia so they could go to the Archives for ten years straight to make a database of courts-martial (and write books about 'em).

The Dark Clouds Gather

One of the Lincoln notes that caught our attention was squeezed into the margin of the trial of Private Patrick Murphy of the Second California Infantry. He had been sentenced to death. Lincoln reprieved him in a note dated April 14, 1865. This of course was also the date of the assassination. We immediately called this note to the attention of several Archives employees. They thought it so important that the page was removed from the usual files and was exhibited in the Rotunda of the National Archives, where it was seen by thousands. The date looked like "1865" to us. It looked like "1865" to the special Archives curator assigned to examine it. It looked like "1865" to all the tourists who viewed it.

The Storm Breaks

After studying this document for fourteen years, the Archives staff "suddenly" discovered, under powerful magnification, that the "5" had been written over a fainter "4." (So faint it is hard to tell if there ever had been a "4.") Indeed, in the enlarged images provided to the media, the overwriting is visible. In ordinary light, without magnification, the change is very hard to see. We missed it, they missed it. Sometime in 2010 the Archives staff noticed the overwrite. They claim that they tried to reach me and that I was "evasive." That is simply a falsehood, a fabrication. We have been at the same address for thirteen years, with the same phone number and same e-mail address for those same thirteen years. We rarely travel. We have voice mail. Neither of us would forget a query from the National Archives. The first we knew of this "discovery" was the unannounced knock on our front door. And the two grim men standing there.

It's to be expected someone would deny something like this, even if they had done it (or admitted doing it). But the question remains - why would anyone do it? There was one genuine pardon on April 14, 1865 - was there need for a second one? And why did the Archives not do due diligence before trumpeting this document? Apparently the Murphy pardon does appear in a common index to an early history of Lincoln and it gives the date as April 14, 1864 - not 1865. It's obvious that NARA's embarrassment has a lot to do with how heavily they came down on this one.