Kirjahaku

The grave robbing of one of the country's wealthiest Gilded Age merchants—Alexander T. Stewart, the Merchant Prince of Manhattan—set off a firestorm in the media, and one of the most celebrated police investigations in the city's history. Immortalized in Mark Twain's humorous story, The Stolen White Elephant, this crime captured the imagination of the American public. Against the backdrop of high society Manhattan, and Gilded Age decadence, this book chronicles the case of the missing body of the Merchant of Manhattan and reveals some of the more unseemly and unusual sides of nineteenth century urban life. Along with the likes of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Morgan, Alexander T. Stewart made his fortune during the years when America industrialized. By the time of his death in 1876, Stewart, known as the Merchant Prince of Manhattan, had amassed a fortune estimated between $40 and $50 million. Snubbed by other Manhattan elites, he died lonely and miserable, his body interred in a vault at St. Mark's churchyard in Manhattan, awaiting relocation to the Long Island suburb he had dreamed of planning. But on the morning of November 7, 1878, the vault was discovered to have been emptied, the body gone. Few clues remained at the scene, and the public and press began speculating about the identity of the culprits. Grave robbing was not uncommon in the 19th century, as medical schools needed cadavers for their experiments but were often barred from using them; grave robbers seized the opportunity. Others speculated that a ransom was the motive, or that the stunt was meant as a political statement,a backlash against the wealthy. The newspapers fought fiercely for exclusive coverage and stories that could outdo their rivals. Suspects were arrested, but released when it was revealed that publicity had motivated their false confessions. And local clergy took the opportunity to equate the grave robbery with other sinful behavior, such as drinking and prostitution. Spiritualists and clairvoyants offered their services, but were quickly dismissed by the police and the press. The police continued to bungle the investigation, and ultimately the body was never recovered.

Alexander M. McCook, one of the youngest major generals in the Union army, was a member of a patriotic family from Ohio that became known as the "Fighting McCooks." He participated in some of the bloodiest campaigns of the Civil War, including Bull Run, Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River and Chickamauga. In battle, McCook could be rash and reckless, but his personal courage was beyond reproach, even as his career was marked by controversy. Subjected to an inquiry into his conduct at the battle of Chickamauga, he was cleared of all charges but relieved of command to spend the remainder of the war in relatively minor assignments. This biography, focusing especially on McCook's Civil War service, fills out the full picture of a proud if clouded career.

The dramatic battlefield deaths of brother Union Army commanders Robert L. McCook and Daniel McCook, Jr.--members of a prominent Ohio family known as "the Fighting McCooks"--drew the full attention of the news media and a war-weary nation. A veteran of Shiloh and Chickamauga, Colonel Daniel McCook was mortally wounded while leading his brigade in a reckless assault up Kennesaw Mountain in June 1864, on the orders of his friend and former law partner General William Tecumseh Sherman. Brigadier General Robert L. McCook distinguished himself in the western Virginia campaign before he was shot by a Rebel while riding in an ambulance in the summer of 1862. His death, in what was an apparent ambush, set off a firestorm of outrage throughout the North.

If Americans were asked to select the best known and most celebrated outlaws, from among the many bad men produced by the Wild West, chances are Frank and Jesse James would be the choice of most people. The infamous brothers from Missouri, sided with the Confederacy and rode with with maurading guerrillas during the Civil War. Having learned to shoot and kill without moral compunction, they quickly and easily transitioned from Rebel fighters to daring outlaws, making their living by stealing from others. The brothers and their gang, that often included Cole Younger, robbed stage coaches, banks and trains in Missouri and surrounding states. But was the bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, the bank robbery gone wrong, followed by an amazing and improbable escape through Minnesota, Dakota and Iowa, that changed the James brothers from ordinary outlaws to legendary characters. The long, hard ride home, was a journey that took them into both history and folklore. And from time to time, like galloping ghosts, they emerge with guns ablazing.