Kate Chase

           In the eyes of many, the most accomplished hostess in wartime Washington was Kate Chase, the beautiful young daughter of Treasury Secretery Salmon P. Chase. She was arguably the most ambitious as well. Like her father, who long coveted the presidency, she wanted badly to live in the White House.
           Described by an observer as "tall and slender, and exceedingly well-formed", Kate arrived in the capital from her native Ohio in 1861 at the age of 20. She was soon hosting parties for her widower father, beaming her considerable charms on anyone who could help him gain the 1864 Republican nomination. To help finance her endeavor, Kate married William Sprague IV, a Rhode Island politician and textile manufacturer, said to be worth $25 million.
           Despite Kate's efforts, her father's presidential designs were thwarted. After he died in 1873, her life began to unravel. Sprague, who had proved to be a drunken philanderer, lost his fortune, and Kate was linked in a scandel with New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. Before her death in 1899, she had fallen into poverty, subsisting by raising chickens and vegetables and peddling them door to door.
           The picture shows her and her husband shortly after their marriage.

"The Civil War, 20 Million Yankees", Time - Life books, page 150