by Meg Groeling – thanks Ann M. for letting us know!
There are times when research seems repetitive. Battles, generals, troop movements, the effects of one thing upon another, and on and on. It is an endless stream, and once one dips one’s toes in it, either you want to do it again or again, or you just get up and go home.
I love research, but even I have to take a break once in a while. For that, my recreational research concerns . . . cats. I had pretty much exhausted the subject of the draft during the Civil War for one day, and I wandered to the search engine and typed in my subject: Cats & the Civil War.
Of course, I had read the anecdote from Mary Lincoln, who had replied, rather tartly, to an early inquiry concerning her husband’s hobbies, that Lincoln’s main one was, “cats.” Ms. Mary followed this up in a letter to her husband, written while she was on a visit to her family home in Kentucky with the children. Apparently young Eddy Lincoln was following “your hobby” by coming home with a stray kitten under his arm.
We know about the gift of Mr. Seward to Lincoln when he was still in Springfield, although President-elect. Some sources say the new Secretary of State brought the Lincoln family two kittens, some say three. No matter–there were plenty of kittens to help Mr. Lincoln ready himself for Washington.
Lincoln allegedly fed his White House cats, Tabby and Dixie, from the dinner table. Mrs. Lincoln didn’t like that, but her husband defended his actions. “If that gold fork was good enough for President Buchanan, it is good enough for Tabby.”