In researching this book, early on, I went to the Chicago Historical Society and found Isaac Burch’s obituary.  I discovered that Isaac had died in Nice, France in 1883.  According to the obituary, his daughter had married a French politician, a Monsieur Ribot.  I always wondered which daughter was meant, the older, Mary (“Minnie), named after her mother Mary, or the younger, Harriet (“Hattie”).  Burch had at various times accused his wife Mary of having had Harriet by David Stuart.  My research as to matters in France ended at this point and I focused on the Illinois trial in 1860.  

Articles in Northern papers about the ongoing trial gave me insight into the editorial pressures that beset reporters like Thomas and James.  For much of the character of David Stuart I relied on the accounts of his statements and action in “The Story of the 55^th Illinois Infantry” that was written in 1887 by a committee of the regiment.  His nomination to be a brigadier general was turned down by Congress in March of 1863, and he retired from the army.  He then practiced law in Detroit and after the war continued his practice for several years in New Orleans, returning to Detroit in the spring of 1868.  He died September 11, 1868.

Following the completion of the book my husband and I researched the later lives of the Burches – Mary, Isaac and their two daughters.  Our search through the archives of The New York Times and the Chicago Daily Tribune revealed several intriguing articles. 

First, in November of 1866 Isaac H. Burch wrote to the Times and demanded a retraction of the publication of a libel saying that he had recently married a Miss Spaulding in Paris.  (Mary Spaulding was “Anna” in my novel.) Isaac protested that, in fact, Miss Spaulding had traveled independently in Europe and that he had not seen her during her travels.  The Times published the correction.  

Then, on August 28, 1886 there was an article in the Chicago paper describing a lawsuit that had been recently filed by the younger Burch daughter, Harriet Corning Burch Morgan.  The daughter related that Isaac Burch had died on April 16, 1883 in Nice, France leaving a fortune of $400,000.  In the lawsuit she sought to set aside the will of Mr. Burch on the grounds of undue influence and “artifices” exerted upon him by his older daughter, Mary Wood Burch, and by one Mary T. Spaulding.  After the divorce between Isaac and Mary Burch, Mrs. Burch had remarried and her new husband was Thomas F. Pomeroy.  It was further alleged that Miss Spaulding had lived in the French household of Mr. Burch until his death.  Under the terms of the Isaac Burch will the oldest daughter was to receive the bulk of the estate, the American Bible Society was to receive $1,000, and the youngest daughter was to receive $1,000. 

In tracing the name “Ribot” we found that the older daughter, schooled in France (probably Isaac wanted to keep his daughter from any contact with his ex-wife) had first married Armand Demongeot, had had a child during this marriage, and after the death of her husband, had married one Alexandre Ribot, executor of her husband’s estate.  The younger daughter explained in the lawsuit that she, too, would have been taken to Europe by her father had not her mother intervened. Finally she explained that she had delayed making these accusations because she had little means to carry out an investigation of the facts.  We found nothing later in the Tribune that described the outcome of this lawsuit.