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Thomas Jefferson’s Family: A Genealogical Chart

First Generation Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) married Second Generation—Thomas Jefferson’s Married Children Martha Jefferson (1772–1836) married Maria Jefferson (1778–1804) married Madison Hemings (1805–1877) married Eston [Hemings] Jefferson (1808–1856) married Third Generation—Thomas Jefferson...

Thomas Mann Randolph to Nicholas P. Trist, 5 June 1820

Your very acceptable favor of the 2d ult. has lain long unanswered from many causes, which I omitt to enumerate from my confidence in the stability of your friendly sentiments, and the consciousness of a permanent reciprocation of them in myself. General Lallemands proposals to publish his...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 24 Oct. 1859

October 24. We hear of the first act which was the forerunner of our Civil War. John Brown of Kansas notoriety attempted, with fifteen men and five negroes, to take forcible possession of the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. They defended themselves for a day or two, but were killed or taken prisoners....

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 6 Nov. 1860

November 6. Election day. Lincoln and Hamlin were chosen. Every Republican member of Congress from Massachusetts has been elected except Burlingame, who was defeated to my great joy by Mr. William Appleton. I had worked so hard that I was attacked by fever and violent cold, brought on by...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 23 Dec. 1860

December 23. South Carolina seceded on Friday, the twentieth, from the United States. The day, I am afraid, will be long remembered. Mr. William Amory, who returned from Washington yesterday, says that the Republicans will make no concessions and he thinks, as I do, that if that is the case the...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 30 Dec. 1860

December 30. Major Anderson has evacuated Fort Moultrie and retired to Fort Sumter. The palmetto flag floats over the Charleston Custom House. In short, they are in open rebellion. The President’s (Buchanan) message took the ground that every State might secede, as there was no law to prevent it,...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Benjamin F. Randolph, 6 Feb. 1861

I have had a little photograph taken which they tell me is not much uglier than I am myself, and I enclose one in this letter for Sally & yourself. I cannot tell you how unhappy I am in the present conflict between the North & South. The idea of Civil war makes all the blood in my body...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 15 Apr. 1861

April 15. President Lincoln called out seventy-five thousand militia to suppress the rebellion, defend the capital, and retake the forts, mints, etc., seized by the insurgents. Two thousand men have been called from Massachusetts. Immense enthusiasm here to defend the flag and the Government. The...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 19 Apr. 1861

April 19. The Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, which came from Lowell and Lawrence, was fired upon and stoned by the mob in Baltimore. The last company appears to have been the only one attacked; the report is that they had two men killed and some wounded, and shot down some ten of the assailants....

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 14 May 1861

May 14. Mr. Appleton reached home, and left for Washington to take his seat in the extra session of Congress called for July fourth. Lord John Russell and the English sympathize with the South and talk of treating their pirates as belligerents, etc. The English have always been guided by their...

Francis Eppes to William E. Eppes, 9 July 1861

Since the recpt of yours conveying to us the sad news of the loss of your little innocent, I have been much hindered and so have not replied as soon as I desired to do, but I am consoled in the disappointment by the reflection that nothing that I could say, could in any wise strengthen the calm...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 22 July 1861

July 22. We went on board the old frigate “Constitution.” About ten feet are said to remain of the original vessel which took the “Guerrière” in the War of 1812. Whilst on board we were alarmed at the report of the complete overthrow of McDowell’s army at Bull Run near Manassas Gap. The fight...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 12 Oct. 1861

October 12. Left for Washington with Mr. Bartlett, William Amory, and Fred d’Hauteville. In New York called on General Burnside with Mr. Amory. He struck me as a very handsome, kind-looking man with the nostril of a race-horse,—what you call a fine fellow. At Washington, where we found Willard’s...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 16 Oct. 1861

October 16. I rode to the farthest outpost of the army at Lewinsville, where we found a captain and twenty men. About two rifle-shots from us was a wood where the enemy’s pickets were placed. On our right we could see ten or twenty men approaching the wood. The captain informed us that they were...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 4 Dec. 1861

Wednesday, December 4. We have the President’s message, a conservative, sensible document in much better English than his former one. The reports of the Secretary of the Navy and of the Army are also very interesting; the former showing that from a navy of five hundred guns, last spring much...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 13 Dec. 1861

= December 13. The rebel steamer “Nashville” is lying at Southampton waiting to be repaired. She burned on her way out the American ship “Harvey Birch,” in ballast, and brought the crew in irons to England. She has no letters of marque and I believe is not a national vessel, though Pegram, the...

Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 14 Dec. 1861

December 14. The English Cabinet, on hearing of the seizure of Mason and Slidell from the mail steamer “Trent,” forbade the export of saltpetre and lead, ordered arms sent to Canada, put several vessels in commission, and sent secret orders to their ambassador, Lord Lyons, as the newspapers state...

Francis Eppes to William E. Eppes, 27 Dec. 1861

I can hardly explain to myself how it has happened that I shld so long have delayed writing, but so it is, and I find there is not a very distant prospect of my entering into another year without a line sent to acknowledge yr. last kind favours. All that I can plead is that I have been unusually...

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