Mary Lincoln's Role In The Bloody War

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Finding herself in the spotlight during a tense and bloody war, Mary Lincoln faced the unfortunate coincidence of being both southern born and the wife of a Unionist leader. “An obvious point of attack upon a First Lady with relatives fighting on the Confederate side was disloyalty. She was accused of acting as a rebel spy,” Ruth Painter describes as she further explains how the hatred and spite targeted at Mary Lincoln was reserved specifically for traitors. In addition, William Evans comments how, “the extreme elements in the South, on the other hand, hated Mrs. Lincoln because, in point of fact she was intensely loyal to her husband and to the Union cause.” Just as one feels the effects of a physical wound, so was Mary Lincoln seared by