Chapter 33

"In some cases, Georgetown residents made the ultimate sacrifice," the author had written in 1885, twenty years after the surrender at Appomattox. "Those of us who remained true to the Union were saddened to hear of the death of Major James Lee Bishop, West Point Class of 1840, who bought the Dawkins house on First Street in April and then fell at the first Battle of Bull Run, leaving his young wife, Amanda, a widow. Mrs. Bishop's widowed mother, Mrs. Dorothea North, moved in with her daughter to keep her company. In 1862, the two loyal ladies were once again brides, Mrs. North of a distant cousin, retired Navy Captain Daniel West, and Mrs. Bishop of a young officer assigned to the War Department, Major Matthew Davis. In 1863, Major Davis was transferred to General Grant's staff, where he provided valuable intelligence about the Vicksburg and subsequent campaigns, remaining on General Grant's staff until the final surrender at Appomattox, by which time he had risen to the rank of colonel. It is said that the late and much- lamented hero of the war refused to part with him, saying of Colonel Davis, "without him and his men, I am fighting blind'."

Mrs. Davis and their infant son, Matthew Lee, junior, came back to this house in 1864 and remained here until the end of the war, when they moved back to Illinois, where Colonel Davis resumed the practice of law that had been interrupted when he chose to leave his home to rally to the Union cause in 1861. Colonel and Mrs. Davis sold the house to the widow of another fallen hero, Mrs. Louisa Stetson. Her husband, the late Major William Stetson, West Point Class of 1840, fell at Antietam, leaving a wife and a young son, Frederick, who followed his late father to West Point with the Class of 1872. Lieutenant Stetson served honorably on the frontier with the Fourth Cavalry Regiment, "Mackenzie's Raiders" until ill health due to hard service and wounds forced him to retire in 1883. He and his lady mother continue to live in the house, and we have recently learned that Lieutenant Stetson is to be married to another fair flower of Georgetown, Miss Mary Alice Taylor. As for the Davis family, former owners of the house, their service to the nation did not end with Colonel Matthew Davis; this writer has learned that their son, Matthew Lee Davis, junior, who lived in this house for a short time in the time of his infancy, has now graduated from West Point with the Class of 1884 and is currently serving on the western frontier."

"Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. I have got to tell Amanda about this."

She started to reach for the phone on the library desk and stopped. Although the news was exciting, it hardly warranted interrupting Amanda's work. She turned to another section of the book and read, "Some of the most prominent citizens of Georgetown supported the Southern cause, however. While some of them remained in the city, others chose to spend the war in the southern states, many of them in Virginia. One such family was that of Frank Buchanan, a distant cousin of the former president, James Buchanan. The Buchanan home, one of the oldest in Georgetown, was built more than a hundred years ago, and persons familiar with the family tell tales of a secret passageway that went all the way from the attics to the root cellar below. The story went that it was put in so the family could escape should the British invade the city, and that it was put to good use during the War of 1812. The house, which sat directly across the street from the Bishop-Davis-Stetson house described` earlier, sat empty for some time after the Buchanan family left in early 1861, and in 1865 it burned to the ground. For the last twenty years, the lot has been vacant, but recently a local law firm purchased the property and intends to build on the site."

"If this is the old Bishop-Davis house, then where the Agency sits is where the Buchanan house would have been during the Civil War. I remember thinking the first time I went into the building that it looked more like an office building than a residence."

At ten o'clock, the phone in the library rang. "Guest House, Kendra Davis speaking," she said.

"Hello again, Kendra. Having fun exploring?" Amanda asked.

"Oh, yeah, and I've found a book that gives some very interesting history about this area. It seems that during the Civil War, a Colonel Matthew Davis owned this house – well, he and his wife, whose name was Amanda, by the way, did- and after the war they went back to Illinois to live and sold the house to a family named Stetson."

"Really? Oh, wow. Lee just walked in; I'll tell him. Can you bring the book over?"

"On my way."

"Tell me what?" Lee asked. He would have liked to come over for a kiss, but Amanda was very firm about keeping things professional while they were in the office.

"Deb asked Kendra to go to the guest house and get some things Deb left behind yesterday. Kendra asked permission to explore the house, which I gave her, of course, and just now she called to tell me that she found a book in the library that says that the Davis family owned the guest house during the Civil War."

"Really? Well, the house is certainly old enough. That's fascinating. I've been in that house multiple times, but I never bothered to look at the old dusty books in the library. They came with the house, and we just left them there for decoration and as part of the cover when we bought the place twenty years ago and converted it into the Agency hospital."

Amanda nodded. She'd always assumed that the house across the street from IFF was just another private residence; she'd seen the same car there at various times, consistent with the impression that the house was occupied and that the residents were going about their daily lives. It was only after Lee had been caught in a bomb blast during the Diem case in November 1986 that she'd learned that it was really the Agency hospital, kept for occasions where it wasn't safe for an agent to go to a civilian hospital like Galilee General. When the Agency had come out from behind its cover a few years before, the house had been converted into a guest house for visiting agents.

"There's more, Lee. After the war, the Davis family moved back to Illinois, probably because that's where Matt's family lived, and they sold the house to a family named Stetson."

"It's a coincidence, Amanda; my name is Stetson, but my family never made cowboy hats. That would be like saying that everyone named West is somehow related to your father's family."

"She's bringing the book over for us to see."

"Fine, but as I said, it's just another coincidence."

"Don't you want to know more about your family?"

"I know everything I need to know about my family. I'm certainly not going to waste time chasing rabbits on the outside chance that somebody listed in an old book that used to live in the house across the street- and we don't know that it's even the right house, by the way - might be related to me just because their last name happens to be Stetson."

"All right."

"I know that look, Amanda Stetson; you aren't giving up, not by a long shot; you're just falling back and regrouping."

"Bob Davis was skeptical too, but when the evidence was presented, he accepted that you really are his cousin Matthew's son."

"True. "

The phone on Amanda's desk rang. When she answered, the receptionist told her that Kendra had arrived. "Tell her Lee and I will come up," Amanda said.

"Why are we going up? She's allowed down here," Lee asked.

"The Q is quieter."

"True."