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- Diary of Lucy Breckinridge (Epilogue)
Lucy, in spite of her apprehensions, married her Tommy on 28 January 1865, in a quiet ceremony at Grove Hill. The young couple's life together was poignantly brief. On 16 June 1865, five months after their marriage and just three weeks after the cruel war had departed the "God-scourged South" with the surrender of the last Confederate troops, Lucy died on typhoid fever. Tragically denied the peace and happiness she had longed for, Lucy was buried at the age of twenty-two at Grove Hill beside her beloved brother, Joh.
After the war, Thomas Jefferson Bassett returned to his home in Brenham, Washington County, Texas, where he later remarried and reared a family. He maintained close ties with his Virginia family for many years.
In a letter to Eliza, date 22 January 1868, Tommy mentioned that he was having a portrait made of Lucy from a small photograph. Efforts to locate Lucy's portrait, thus far, have been fruitless. In the course of the search, however, some interesting facts have come to light regarding Jefferson Bassett's life after Lucy's death.
Upon his return to Brenham, Tommy and his older brother, Ben, established the Bank of Bassett and Bassett in 1866. The bank operated successfully for almost twenty years, and was finally dissolved in 1881, shortly before Tommy's death.
Tommy and his second wife, Jodie Roberson, had four daughters, one of who he named after Lucy's mother. His esteem for the Breckinridges was such that he later sent his daughters to Grove Hill for their education in literature, art, and music.
(NOTE: Lt. Thomas Jefferson Bassett was born in Louisiana in 1833, the son of William Henry and brother to Benjamin H. Bassett. He died 25 May 1885 in Brenham, Texas.)
Alexandria Gazette
July 17, 1865
Died
At Grove Hill, the resident of her father, in Botetourt county, Virginia, on Friday, the 16th June, 1865, aged 22 years, Mrs. Lucy Gilmer Bassett, wife of Captain Jefferson Bassett, and daughter of Captain Cary Breckinridge.
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Bassett Family Association Database
Abt 1843 - 1865 (22 years)