A question for Lincoln/Civil War scholars--?

Question

The Lincolns' son Willie died of typhus at the White House early in 1862.

Although I imagine press coverage of this event was muted out of sympathy for the grief-stricken family, I am wondering if any prominent Confederate newspaper expressed any sympathy in print to the family.

Does anyone know, or can provide a quote or extract?

I've just finished reading an excellent bio of the Lincolns, and was very curious.

Answer 1

You might try writing directly to the author of the biography or to any of several Lincoln scholars.  

Answer 2

There were four newspapers being published in Richmond during the war, and these, along with the Charleston (SC) Mercury are those usually cited in Civil War books.  Newspapers at the time were generally closely associated with one political faction, and were the mouthpiece of the editor.  The ideal of "objective journalism" was far in the future.  Though one of the Richmond newspapers was consistently critical of the Confederate government, these arrows were usually directed at the government's conduct of the war.  By the time Lincoln's son died attitudes on both sides had hardened considerably.  I do not know the specific answer to your question, but I would be surprised if any sympathy was expressed in the southern press.  This would hardly be consistent with the usual portrayal of his father as "Abrahamus Africanus", or "Abraham I", or "the original gorilla".

Within the same year Jefferson Davis had also lost a son, who fell from a balcony at the Confederate White House while playing.  This continued a remarkable series of parallels between the lives of the two men, both born in Kentucky, less than one year and one hundred miles apart, taking office within weeks of each other...  The southern press did not go overboard in its reporting of the Davis tragedy either.  Grief was very widespread at the time and considered a private thing.  Childhood deaths were a common occurrence.

Answer 3

The disease was "typhoid fever" not typhus.