Ely S. Parker is known to history as the man who handwrote the terms of surrender formally accepted by Lee. I’d read a little about him, but I’d never noticed this scurrilous gossip which had Washington tongues wagging in 1867! Move over, Kardashians!

Washington was not content only to gossip about the wedding. Its residents came to see it for themselves. On Dec. 17, the Church of the Epiphany was crammed with onlookers. Sackett donned her wedding gown, and Grant arrived.

But the groom never showed.

Source: Civil War romance: The interracial marriage of white woman, Indian man