Explanatory Notes        Apparatus Notes (Ⓐ)

Source: CU-MARK ([CU-MARK])

Cue: "The woman is a fraud—her assertions are without any foundation whatever"

Source format: "MS"

Letter type: "[standard letter]"

Notes:

Last modified: 2017-01-05T10:52:58

Revision History: AB | RHH 2017-01-05

MTPDocEd
To Owen S. McKinney
13 October 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01138)
slc/mt                        farmington avenue, hartford.
Oct. 13.
My Dear Sir:

The woman is a fraud—her assertions are without any foundation whatever. I am very glad you wrote me.1explanatory note I have sent a note to the Courier-Journal in which I took the liberty of saying you had inquired of me about Mrs. Bonner—& I then went on to say that I was not in co-partnership with any woman in a book. I asked Mr. Watterson to print my note in case Mrs. B. had been imposing the same story upon him. —& if I think she must be the same woman who wrote & asked me once to help her write her book. I declined very positively—& behold she has forged my handwriting, now, I suppose. I thank you very much for writing me about this matter.2explanatory note

Yrs Truly
Samℓ. L. Clemens 3explanatory note
Textual Commentary
13 October 1874 • To Owen S. McKinney • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01138
Source text(s):

MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).

Previous Publication:

L6 , 254–56.

Provenance:

donated by Margaret McKinney.

Explanatory Notes
1 

See the previous letter, n. 6.

2 

Eventually Bonner did find a collaborator, “C. J. Worthington, Late of the United States Navy,” whom she credited on the title page of her book and whom she thanked in her “Author’s Prefatory Note”:

In the preparation of this book for the press, I have been greatly aided by the gentleman who has consented to act as my editor. Although during the war he was on the other side, he has interested himself most heartily in assisting me to get my narrative into the best shape for presentation to the public, and has shown a remarkable skill in detecting and correcting errors into which I had inadvertently fallen. I take pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to him. (Velazquez, 6)

The title page gave this summary of the book’s contents:

Full Descriptions of the numerous Battles in which she participated as a Confederate Officer; of her Perilous Performances as a Spy, as a Bearer of Despatches, as a Secret-Service Agent, and as a Blockade-Runner; of her Adventures Behind the Scenes at Washington, including the Bond Swindle; of her Career as a Bounty and Substitute Broker in New York; of her Travels in Europe and South America; her Mining Adventures on the Pacific Slope; her Residence among the Mormons; her Love Affairs, Courtships, Marriages, &c., &c.

Bonner’s book has long been accepted as reliable, and she is now thought to have been one of “as many as 250 women in the ranks of the Confederate army” (Blanton). Worthington, for example, wrote in his “Editor’s Prefatory Note”:

Madame Velazquez, whose enthusiasm for the cause of Southern independence induced her to discard the garments of her sex, and to assume male attire for the purpose of appearing upon the battle-field, is a typical Southern woman of the war period; and there are thousands of officers and soldiers who fought in the Confederate armies who can bear testimony, not only to the valor she displayed in battle, and under many circumstances of difficulty and danger, but to her integrity, her energy, her ability, and her unblemished reputation. Upon these points, however, it is not necessary to dilate; her story will speak for itself, and that it is a true story in every particular, there are abundant witnesses whose testimony will not be disputed. (Velazquez, 10)

A year passed before Bonner replied to Clemens’s “note to the Courier-Journal” (that is, the enclosure with the previous letter). She wrote a protest on the letterhead of the Southern Publishing Company of Atlanta, printers and publishers of “Standard Subscription Books,” which included an advertisement for “The Woman in Battle, The Greatest War Book Ever Published—Agents Wanted” (CU-MARK):

UCLC32217

office of southern publishing company, wm. a. ramsay, pres’t.

atlanta, ga., October 7 187 5  

Editors of the Corier Journal

Gentleman

I have before me an Article published in the Constitution purporting to be a Letter Published in the Colums of the Courier Journal last winter, from Mark Twain, denying any knowledge of my history, the Constitution claim they clipped it from your paper. I therefore ask you to Produce Said Letter, as I am in Posession of Several Letters from Mark Twain denying the writing said Letters, to your Paper. As to his writing my Book, he had nothing to do with it. Now in justice, I either wish you to forward to my Publisher the Letter from Sam. Clemens or Mark Twain. Or correct the statement you have made. My marriage name is Mrs. E. H. Bonner, and Velazquez is my fathers name, which I have chose for the Title of my Book, now in Prep. the Woman in Battle, let me hear from you at Your Earliest

Yours Respectfully
mad L. J. Velazquez

Watterson forwarded Bonner’s letter to Clemens on 22 November 1875, with the following note on the back:

UCLC48243

Dear Clemens,

What have you been doing to this woman

H. W.

On Watterson’s envelope Clemens wrote, “Female fraud.”

3 

McKinney answered this letter on plain stationery, mailing it on 5 November (CU-MARK):

UCLC32063
Grafton, W. Va, Oct. 31st, 1874.

S. L. Clemens:

Dear Sir:—Your favors received in due time. Permit me to return thanks for your kindness in furnishing desired information. I was not much surprised to learn the woman is a fraud, though her representations were of the most plausible character. She had in her possession letters from various illustrious persons, commending her to the courtesy of the members of the press to whom she might apply during her travels. Among her credentials was a letter from Gen’l Casey—bearing the letter-head of the Collector’s office, Port of New Orleans—to Gen’l Grant, asking the President to assist Mrs. Bonner in securing some mineral specimens from Smithsonian Institute. Of course this letter as well as the one purporting to come from you was a forgery; but the tale she tells is well calculated from its plausibility—and from the documents she exhibits —to obtain credence. She claimed to be acting in behalf of a Colonization Society in the Ghila valley to induce Southern immigration to that place, and desired mineral specimens of the various Southern States to illustrate the subject of an address she was to deliver before the Atlanta State Fair—entitled “The Agricultural and Mineral Resources of New Mexico and Arizona as compared with those of the Southern States.” She is one of the most intelligent as well as one of the “cheekiest” women I ever saw. The Courier-Journal published a lengthy article setting forth her claims to respectability and her exploits during the war, which paper she had in her possession. The Mobile Register also published a column of her exploits. The publication of those articles seemed to indicate the truthfulness of her claim to be connected with you in the publication of the book. She said she knew you personally in California. She is an impostor of no ordinary rank. I shall send you the extract from the Register in a few days, as I saw it was copied in the Pittsburgh Dispatch and Wheeling Standard, and I will get one of the papers containing it.

Thanking you for the information,

I am very truly yours, &c.

Owen S. McKinney

From this necessarily brief letter, you will scarcely be able to see, perhaps, why I was so easily “taken in” however, her story is admirably constructed, and remarkably well told—being connected and coherent in all its details.

The United States collector of customs at New Orleans was James F. Casey, appointed by Grant in March 1873; his wife was Mrs. Grant’s sister. Clemens wrote on the envelope of McKinney’s letter: “Concerning Mrs Bonner the fraud.” If McKinney did write again, enclosing a reprint of the 25 August Mobile Register article (see the previous letter, n. 7), his letter is not known to survive (Soards, 204, 926; New York Times: “The Public Service,” 15 Mar 73, 7; “Dispatch to the Associated Press,” 23 Mar 73, 1; “The wife of Collector Casey . . . ,” Mobile [Ala.] Register, 18 Oct 74, 1).

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