ly
good faith, was signed E. F. M. Fachtz. I was receiving many letters on
the subject daily. I supposed that my correspondent was concealing her
name, and was really "Eager for More Facts." When in reality I had the
pleasure of meeting her a year or two afterwards, the two widowed
sisters of the real Phil Nolan were both dead.
But in 1876 I was fortunate enough, on the kind invitation of Mr. Miner,
to visit his family in their beautiful plantation at Terre Bonne. There
I saw an old negro who was a boy when Master Phil Nolan left the old
plantation on the Mississippi River for the last time. Master Phil Nolan
had then married Miss Fanny Lintot, who was, I think, the aunt of my
host. He permitted me to copy the miniature of the young adventurer.
I have since done my best to repair the error by which I gave Philip
Nolan's name to another person, by telling the story of his fate in a
book called "Philip Nolan's Friends." For the purpose of that book, I
studied the history of Miranda's attempt against Spain, and of John
Adams's preparations for a descent of the Mississippi River. The
professional historians of the United States are very reticent in their
treatment of these themes. At the time when John Adams had a little army
at Cincinnati, ready to go down and take New Orleans, there were no
Western correspondents to the Eastern Press.
Within a year after the publication of the "Man without a Country" in
the "Atlantic" more than half a million copies of the story had been
printed in America and in England. I had curious accounts from the army
and navy, of the interest with which it was read by gentlemen on duty.
One of our officers in the State of Mississippi lent the "Atlantic" to a
lady in the Miner family. She ran into the parlor, crying out, "Here is
a man who knows all about uncle Phil Nolan." An Ohio officer, who
entered the city of Jackson, in Mississippi, with Grant, told me that he
went at once to the State House. Matters were in a good deal of
confusion there, and he picked up from the floor a paper containing the
examination of _Philip Nolan_, at Walnut Springs, the old name of
Vicksburg. This was before the real Philip's last expedition. The United
States authorities, in the execution of the neutrality laws, had called
him to account, and had made him show the evidence that he had the
permission of the Governor of New Orleans for his expedition.
In 1876 I visited Louisiana and Texas, to obtain material f
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