A HOUSE
DIVIDED
The Lincolns’ Confederate Relatives
Did you know ... Lincoln’s Confederate in-laws
requested favors from him throughout the war?
Many of Mary Todd Lincoln’s siblings did not disguise their Confederate
sympathies—two attended Jefferson Davis’ inauguration. Nevertheless, they still
appealed to Lincoln for favors. They wrote Lincoln asking permission to travel and to
sell cotton; they even requested the parole of Confederate prisoners.
Kitty Todd wrote from Lexington in September 1864 to request the parole of a
Confederate general captured the previous summer in Mississippi. General William
Beall’s family, she wrote, had “always been old and warm friends of my Father’s. ”
Lincoln did not release Beall from custody, but did allow the prisoner to travel to New
Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama
Brigadier General
William Beall
A native of Bardstown,
Kentucky, Brigadier General
William Beall was captured
by Union forces on July 9,
1863. Although Lincoln did
not grant Kitty Todd’s plea to
free the general, he did allow
Beall to open an office in New
York to sell blockaded cotton
through Southern ports. Beall
used the money to purchase
clothing and other items for
Confederate prisoners held in
the North.
Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
Emilie T. Helm letter
to Abraham Lincoln, 1864
In October 1864 Emilie Todd
Helm wrote to Lincoln requesting
permission to ship cotton
and travel south. A personal
appeal in Washington had
been unsuccessful. Emilie now
attempted to influence Lincoln via
letter. “I have been a quiet citizen,”
she wrote, “I would also remind
you that your minnie bullets
have made us what we are ... If
you think I give way to excess of
feeling, I beg you will make some
excuse for a woman almost crazed
with misfortune.” Lincoln did not
respond to her request.
Mary Todd Lincoln House Collection
York state to purchase supplies for Confederate prisoners of war.
Kitty Todd
In September 1862, Kitty Todd attempted to
return to Kentucky after being stranded at
a sister’s home in Alabama since the start
of the war. She made it as far as Louisville
before she was arrested by Union troops
for traveling without a pass. Lincoln came
to her aid, however, ordering her freed.
“We are not making war on women,” he
telegraphed.
Sponsored by:
Lexington Public Library
This program was funded in part by the
Kentucky Humanities Council, Inc., and the
National Endowment for the Humanities,
the Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial
Commission (www.kylincoln.org), and the
Mary Todd Lincoln House.