Chantham

This beautiful house of the eighteenth century stands and is in showcase condition. After Major J. Horace Lacy sold it in 1872, it passed through the hands of a number of owners, finally in 1931 reaching the ownership of Mr. John Lee Pratt. Mr. Pratt was a Virginian who had grown up near Fredericksburg, had gone North, and became a vice-president of General Motors Company. After his retirement in 1937 he and his wife spent most of their time at Chatham, which they had filled with antique furniture. Mrs. Pratt died in 1947, and Mr. Pratt, at the age of ninety-six, on December 20, 1975. He bequeathed the historic estate to the Fredericksburg and Spottsylvania National Military Park. It will become the headquarters of the National Park Service for its tours of the Civil War battlefields.

[Letter regarding the prisoner, the owner of “Chatham]

June 16, 1862

Col. W. W. Whipple, Chief of Staff

Headquarters, Middle Dept.

Baltimore, Maryland

'Colonel:

“I sent today, in pursuance of orders from the Secretary of War, Major J. H. Lacy of the Rebel Army, to be confined in Fort McHenry. This man is one of the most wealthy and influential proprietors in this part of Virginia, and by his persistent efforts last year, in the cause of secession, had great influence in deluding many into its support. He was for a long time Chief of Staff to General Holmes, and more recently to Gustavus H. Smith. While he was acting in that capacity, a number of Union citizens were arrested, and sent to Richmond, and afterwards to Salisbury, North Carolina, where, I am reliably informed, they were exposed to many hardships.

He is regarded by the few remaining Union men here as by far the most dangerous rebel of the County, and one whose release would be a signal for renewed persecution. Great efforts will undoubtedly be made by his influential friends to obtain his release, or some mitigation of his punishment.

'I am, Colonel, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

A. Doubleday, Brig. Gen. Vols., Commanding.’

[Major Lacy was captured in June 1862 and served about three months in federal captivity at Fort Delaware. He was then exchanged for a Union officer.]

STATEMENT OF MAJOR J. HORACE LACY, 1823-1906

“Hon. J. S. Potter,

Hazel Hill.

“Dear Sir:

“I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your kind and complimentary communication requesting me to give my recollections of an interview with Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, Secretary of State for the Confederate States, held immediately after his return from the famous conference had on board a national war ship in Hampton Roads in February 1865, between President Lincoln and Secretary Seward, and Messrs. Campbell, Stephens and Hunter, commissioners, representing the Confederate States. It is widely known that this conference was arranged for the purpose of making an earnest and serious attempt to end the awful and fratricidal war then raging between the two governments represented by these eminent officials.

‘In reply to your request I will state that, although a generation has passed away since the interview, yet it remains indelibly and vividly engraved upon the tablets of memory, and now rises before me with all the clearness of present reality. Therefore, with pleasure, I comply with your request, for I feel it to be high solemn duty to do what I can to vindicate the truth of history.

‘The very extraordinary statements made by Judge Reagan, of Texas, in a elaborate and carefully prepared oration delivered before the Confederate Veterans at Nashville, demands, it seems to me, a recital of the facts covering the important historic event to which you refer. Let me premise by saying, that, for years I had the agreeable privilege of enjoying the friendship and confidence of that great statesman and good man, Hon. R. M. T. Hunter. He generally made my house, “Chatham,” afterwards historic as the “Lacy House,” his stopping place when traveling between Washington and his home in Essex County; and on my then frequent visits to Washington, it was usual for me while remaining there to be his guest. And here let me digress to say, that the most delightful place I ever visited was the large old colonial mansion in Washington, occupied jointly by Sentators Hunter and Mason, the Hon. Muscoe Russell Garnett, nephew of Mr. Hunter, who represented this district in Congress, and Hon. Pocher Miles, of South Carolina.

‘It was, also, my privilege, frequently, to visit Mr. Hunter at his beautiful home in Essex, where surrounded by his charming family, he le the patriarchal life of a Virginia farmer. And I must say that among the most cherished memories and possession of life, I reckon the friendship and intimacy of a gentlemen of such stainless honor and a statesman so cultured, pure, and patriotic. Inheriting a noble landed estate and some hundred slaves, Mr. Hunter was for more than twenty years chairman of the Finance Committee of the U.S. Senate, and yet he was never a rich man. In his old age, robbed and plundered by the ruthless invaders of Virginia, his last days were darkened by care and poverty, and he sleeps now with no monumental stone to mark his grave, and no requiem but the whistle of the partridge in the tall sedge grass that covers it, and the melancholy monotone of the wind that sighs through the old field pines. Pardon this too long digression, but out of the abundance of the heart the mouth with speaketh.”

‘I also deem it proper that I should state that I was, at the beginning of the war, commissioned Major and Chief of Staff for Gen. Daniel Ruggles, and served in a similar capacity with Gen. Holmes and Gen. Gustavus W. Smith. I was also Major and Inspector of Field Transportation.

‘After serving in many departments, I was detained in Richmond on public business at the time of the Hampton Roads conference. I have deemed it proper that I should state all this, that I may be regarded as a credible witness to whom it was natural that Secretary Hunter would give his unreserved confidence in a matter of such consequence.

‘I met Mr. Hunter on the evening of his return from the Hampton Roads conference. He begged me to go with him to his room, and said: “I am sick at heart; all is up with us! President Davis is obdurate and inflexible. God save our poor people from a probable doom worse than death.” At his earnest request I spent that night with him, and he gave me the following account of the abortive conference:

‘Messrs. Campbell, Stephens, and Hunter, Confederate commissioners, were conducted quietly through our lines under flags of truce; a proper escort and carriages received them when they entered the Federal lines. Cheering, shouting, and great demonstration of rejoicing greeted them as they passed through the ranks of the Federal army. Arriving at Fortress Monroe they were transported to a man-of-war, where, on the deck, they were met most cordially by President Lincoln, and Secretary Seward. All the members of the Confederate commission had been members of Congress for years with both Lincoln and Seward.

‘After a cordial greeting, the first words of the President were--”Hunter, you look fat and well fed, but the Democrats always knew how to take good care of themselves. My old Whig friends here seem, as usual, rather under the weather. Campbell has a lean and hungry look,' and, laying his hand caressingly on his shoulder, he said: “Stephens, you might well impersonate the genius of famine. I don't believe, from your looks, that you have had a square meal for four years. To-day, I propose to give you a right royal dinner, and no business until that is over. Now come in and we will all take something cheering.’ Very soon an elegant dinner was served. Mr. Lincoln talked about old times; the exciting political contests in which they had all been engaged, and, with a strange pathos that made a most dramatic contrast with many broad, very humorous and char. acteristic anecdotes, he greatly moved the sensibilities of all by some touching, and even tender allusions to their mutual friends, who had gone to join the great majority. He played the part of a genial host and interspersed his almost continuous talk with stories which “put the table in a roar.'

"All the company seemed greatly oppressed by a solemn sense of the tremendous and awful responsibility resting upon them. After the cloth was removed and the attendants had retired, Mr. Lincoln rose with great dignity and a manner almost oppressively serious, and spoke substantially as follows:

“I am willing that four hundred millions of national bonds shall be paid to the slave owners, as compensated emancipation for the Southern slaves which I recognize as your property by the compact of the Constitution and the decision of the Supreme Court, the ultimate arbiter.

“This I can not absolutely guarantee, but I pledge myself to use the whole power of my administration to accomplish that end, and Mr. Seward is in full accord with me, and we are morally certain, from a canvass of Congress that such legislation can be speedily secured. The autonomy of the States will be admitted and each star of our lost Pleiades again shine in our glorious constellation, and upon our national banners. In a word, I repeat to my old friend, Stephens -write Union' at the top of the page and you may fill up the other conditions. What say you gentlemen in the interest of peace and humanity?'

“Very sadly Judge Campbell replied that the terms for peace were more just and generous than we anticipated, but the commissioners were instructed by President Davis to make the recognition of the independence of the Confederate States, a sine qua non. “Then,” said Mr. Lincoln “our conference is ended, for I make the Union a sine qua non. So this vexed question can only be settled by the sword, the cannon must again be the orator, buck and ball cartridges, and the bayonet, the arguments, and God defend the right. Gentlemen, the conference is ended.'

The above is my clear and distinct recollection of the interview in which Mr. Hunter, Secretary of State and Confederate Commissioner, told me all that passed at the famous but abortive Hampton Roads conference the first night after his return therefrom.

"This may be but a single strand, yet it may be woven into the woof and warp of history.

"At any rate, I have honestly attempted to meet a solemn duty to tell to the world what was told to me, in the confidence of friendship, by one of the most prominent actors in this eventful drama and saddest tragedy that was ever enacted on the trembling stage of human affairs. I have given without fear, favor or affection, a candid and truthful statement of the interview with Mr. Hunter.

“Whatever actually occurred the night after, at that famous but futile conference, Clio, muse of history, will place the responsibility for this failure where it justly belongs. And men like Judge Reagan will see that they harm where they would help, and had far better

‘“Die with a voiceless thought, And sheath it like a sword.’

J. Horace Lacy.

Fredericksburg, Va.

A copy of this letter, not dated, is owned by Miss Ellen Tootle Lacy of St. Joseph (1978).