The Writings of Carl Schurz/To Heinrich Meyer, June 10th, 1866

by Carl Schurz and others

 

TO HEINRICH MEYER

Detroit, June 10, 1866.^[1] 

We had our household goods sent from the East by rail.^[2] Two large boxes had just arrived at the station when a fire broke out and destroyed not only the buildings but all the goods there. Among these were our boxes. They contained our most valued possessions and their loss is irreparable. You may know how M. [Mrs. Schurz] valued the letters which she had received from me. A box containing all these was destroyed. They contained not only a record of all the closest mutual relations of our lives, but, in part, a very detailed sketchy diary-account of all the important and interesting events I have been connected with during the past fourteen years. M. had collected and arranged them with the greatest care, even to the scraps of paper on which I had written to her during the war, on the battlefield or on the march. The letters were of quite indescribable value to us. They would have been the most splendid legacy to our children. When they were lost, we felt as though part of our lives had been taken from us, and as though we could see our past only dimly, through a veil. You can imagine how severe the blow was to us, and even now, when we speak of it, we can hardly repress our tears. I do not believe that we shall ever become reconciled to this loss.

And there were other heavy losses. First among these are all my manuscripts, collected materials and notes, extracts etc. etc.; then a lot of letters from prominent persons, for example, from Lincoln,^[3] then all our pictures, large photographs, of which we had a very pretty collection—fortunately the albums with the portraits were in the trunks; then all our music, and the most valuable of my war relics, my old, shot-riddled Division flag, my sword; then my entire military library and the greater part of my books on political economy and history . . . and my entire, very valuable, collection of military and geographic maps, among them complete sets of atlases with detailed maps of all the campaigns of Frederick the Great, Napoleon, the Arch-Duke Charles, the Russian-Turkish wars and large maps of all parts of Europe; finally, the entire little collection of books, etc.,—all gone.

1. Translated from the German.
2. After passing the winter of 1865-66 in Washington as correspondent of the New York Tribune, Schurz became editor-in-chief of the Detroit Post.
3. Fortunately about a dozen Lincoln letters were not among the lost treasures, and a few of them are first published in this work.