LGBTQ America

Tracy Baim
the soldiers, drilling them in fighting together as a unit (Figure 3). He was
also General George Washington’s chief of staff near the end of the war.
And under today’s definitions, von Steuben would be considered
homosexual because he had documentable relationships with men
including his aides, Captains Benjamin Walker and William North; he left
his estate to both men. 46
President Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality is hotly debated. Awkward
around women, Lincoln had several intense relationships with men. While
some of these were likely chaste, there are suggestions of sexual intimacy
between Lincoln and at least two of these men: Joshua Fry Speed and
later, Lincoln’s bodyguard, Captain David Derickson. Before his presidency,
Lincoln shared a home and bed with Joshua Fry Speed in Springfield,
Illinois from 1837 through 1841. The nature of the relationship between
Lincoln and Speed has been debated. In 1926, Lincoln biographer Carl
Sandburg described both Lincoln and Speed as each having “a streak of
lavender” and “spots soft as May violets”—euphemisms for effeminacy
and homosexual behavior. 47 Speed himself said, “No two men were ever
so intimate.” 48 During his presidency, Lincoln was known to share a bed
with his bodyguard, Captain David Derickson, when Mrs. Lincoln was out
of town. Contemporary reports describe the Captain wearing the
46
Randy Shilts, Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military (New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 2005), 7-10; William E. Benemann, Male-Male Intimacy in Early America; William B. Skelton,
North, William, American National Biography Online; Paul Douglas Lockhart, The Drillmaster of Valley
Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army (New York: HarperCollins, 2008).
There are many places associated with von Steuben—including the Revolutionary War battlefields
where he fought—on the NRHP and designated as NHLs. Some of these include: Valley Forge National
Historical Park near King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, added to the NRHP on October 15, 1966,
designated an NHL Historic District on January 20, 1961, and designated a National Historical Park
(an NPS unit) on July 4, 1976; Mount Gulian in Fishkill, New York (listed on the NRHP on November
19, 1982) which served as von Steuben’s headquarters at the end of the Revolutionary War and was
the place where he was instrumental in founding the Society of the Cincinnati; and the Steuben House
in River Edge, New Jersey (listed on the NRHP on December 18, 1970), which served as General
George Washington’s headquarters for several days in 1780, and following the war, was given to von
Steuben who occupied it from 1783 through 1788. For more information on von Steuben’s sexuality
see Estes (this volume).
47
Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, vol. 1 (New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1926),
166-167; for a discussion, see Jonathan Ned Katz, Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before
Homosexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 3-25.
48
C. A. Tripp, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Free Press, 2005), xx.
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