Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

Buckeye Bill

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Abraham Lincoln was born on this day in 1809 near Hodgenville, Kentucky on the Sinking Spring Farm. Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and he is regarded as one of America's greatest heroes due to his role as savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves. His rise from humble beginnings to achieving the highest office in the land is a remarkable story. He was suddenly and tragically assassinated at a time when his country needed him to complete the great task remaining before the nation. His eloquence of democracy and insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to achieve. Lincoln's distinctively human and humane personality and incredible impact on the nation has endowed him with an enduring legacy.

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Thank you for posting the pictures! I'm assuming the cabin is the real cabin he was born/raised in and it is being preserved. Somehow it is smaller than I thought but it did what it needed to.
 
CBS Sunday Morning yesterday did a segment on the several cabins alleged to be the birthplace or residence of young Lincoln, including dating them by core samples of the wood. It turned out that none of the logs sampled had been cut as early as 1809. One of them was dated to 1861.
 
Our NPS Ranger on our tour in 2014 called this cabin "The Symbolic Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Cabin."

I still love climbing the 56 steps up to this replica cabin. A very impressive NPS venue.

I have had the opportunity to visit Lincoln's birthplace, boyhood homes at Knob Creek and in Indiana, family home in Springfield, Illinois and his final resting spot at the Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Abraham Lincoln was far from a perfect human being. I personally believe he was the right man born at the right time during our nation's history.

Bill

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This is from 1980 Yankee Magazine. This story has always stuck with me.

The name of the man who last saw Lincoln was Fleetwood Lindlay and, not surprisingly, he was from Lincoln’s hometown, Springfield, Illinois. Following the assassination and the long train trip from Washington, Lincoln was buried there, in the Oak Ridge Cemetery. However, over the following 36 years, for various reasons to do with security, construction of new vaults and so forth, Lincoln’s coffin was moved no fewer than ten times. In 1876, for instance, three men almost got away with stealing the coffin and holding Lincoln’s corpse for ransom.

So, in 1886, six prominent Springfield citizens were chosen to form what they called the Lincoln Guard of Honor, the purpose of which was to devise ways to protect the body of the late President.

Well, Fleetwood Lindlay’s father, Joseph, was one of those six.

A year later, in 1887, before burying the coffin in yet another location in the Oak Ridge Cemetery, the Lincoln Guard of Honor opened it to be sure Lincoln was still in there. He was. And Fleetwood Lindlay remembered his father describing Lincoln’s face as being “the color on an old saddle.”

Now we skip ahead fourteen years to 1901. Because of continued body-snatching rumors, Lincoln’s son, Robert, and others continued to be concerned about the security of the gravesite, so it was decided to dig a tremendous pit, lower Lincoln’s casket into a steel cage at the bottom of it and then fill the hole with tons and tons of cement.

Thus it was that the final event in the saga of Abraham Lincoln’s corpse occurred on Thursday morning, September 26, 1901, in a large tomb known as Memorial Hall, in the presence of some twenty very prominent people and, of course, The Lincoln Guard of Honor, including Fleetwood’s father, Joseph. And thirteen-year-old Fleetwood was also present. Joseph had more or less snuck his boy in so he could witness history being made that morning.

Minutes prior to lowering the casket into the pit, some of those present suggested one last look inside the coffin—just to be absolutely sure. So a small group of workmen were summoned to remove the cover.

Here, in the April 1980 issue of Yankee Magazine, is how writer Charles E. Fitzgerald described what happened next…

“All at once the room grew quiet… Voices were muffled to church tones. The chief workman laid his chisel aside and carefully gripped the incised rectangle of lead over Lincoln’s head and tenderly drew it away. The fetid odor that escaped momentarily checked the viewers’ curiosity, fixing them in place. Then quietly they converged to ring the coffin and look in.

“The face of Lincoln was now alabaster white. ‘The features looked exceedingly white to me,’ said Judge B. D. Monroe. ‘Not a natural white but immaculate as a shirt bosom. Anyone who had seen a good picture of Lincoln could identify him.’ The headrest has disintegrated, allowing the head to fall back, and thrusting the chin forward, drawing first attention to the familiar whiskers. Though the eyebrows had vanished, there could be no mistaking the mole on the cheek and the thick black hair.”

After everyone, including young Fleetwood, gazed for several minutes at the face of Abraham Lincoln for the very last time, the casket was closed and lowered into its final—truly final—resting place.

Why, you might wonder, was Lincoln’s face “alabaster white” when back in 1887 it had been the color of “an old saddle?” According to the Illinois State Journal, that was due to a white mold that had covered the entire face during the intervening fourteen years.

As to Fleetwood Lindlay, he went on to live out a full life, passing on in 1963 at the age of 75. By then, of course, he really was the last person to have gazed upon the face of Abraham Lincoln.
 
On this day in 1865, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shoots President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. The assassination occurred five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.

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Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, April 29th, 1865. Booth shot a man from behind. 5 out of 5 in this illustration perished as a result of this act of cowardice. Although Rathbone lived until 1911, his madness, slipping into insanity because he felt he should have been able to stop Booth, caused him to murder his wife, Clara Harris, seen here. He died in an asylum in Hanover, Germany, buried next to her. The couple's remains were disposed of by cemetery officials, in 1952. It was thought no family was around to care.

Well, Mary Todd Lincoln gave up. At her funeral in 1882 the minister said that when her husband died, so did she.

Lincoln's last words, to his wife, " The place I would most like to see, is Jerusalem ". I realize this becomes contentious among Lincoln scholars but for once, it would be great to believe Mary Todd Lincoln. She was there. They were not.
 
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Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, April 29th, 1865. Booth shot a man from behind. 5 out of 5 in this illustration perished as a result of this act of cowardice. Although Rathbone lived until 1911, his madness, slipping into insanity because he felt he should have been able to stop Booth, caused him to murder his wife, Clara Harris, seen here. He died in an asylum in Hanover, Germany, buried next to her. The couple's remains were disposed of by cemetery officials, in 1952. It was thought no family was around to care.

Well, Mary Todd Lincoln gave up. At her funeral in 1882 the minister said that when her husband died, so did she.

Lincoln's last words, to his wife, " The place I would most like to see, is Jerusalem ". I realize this becomes contentious among Lincoln scholars but for once, it would be great to believe Mary Todd Lincoln. She was there. They were not.

Thanks for sharing!

Bill
 
This is my nephew and I at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, on the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's death. The chair, behind me, of course, is that which Lincoln was sitting in when he was hit by the assassin's bullet.

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It's pretty clear that I'm a Confederate guy, and not a fan of Lincoln at all. I personally view Lincoln's assassination unfavorably; not because he deserved better, but because the South did. It would have been better if he had been charged with war crimes, tried in a court of law, and justly executed.

Better still would it have been if, at some time before November 1842, Abe had died from the flu, or been bitten by a poisonous snake, or killed by Native Americans during the Black Hawk War. If you are wondering why I say before Nov. of 1842, it's because Lincoln was married on the fourth day of that month & year, and if he had not lived to see that date then he never would have had a wife to widow or children to leave fatherless... he certainly would not have ever entered the realm of American politics, and thus there (possibly) would have been no war, and the South would not have suffered as it did during four years of war & the aftermath. Millions of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, relatives & friends would not have had to bury loved ones who died as a result of the unnecessary conflict.

These, of course, are just my own thoughts, and are just another among the millions of others written about the matter for public consumption.
 
On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, dies from a bullet wound inflicted the night before by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln's death occurred six days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Federal Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

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They would not allow poor Mary Todd to be with him, as he died. She became hysterical, sitting there, her ears still ringing, dress splattered, her husband fading in front of her- Stanton removed her from the room, the swine. You still read blogs where it seems he is justified, ' constant weeping ', ' hysterical sobs ', annoyed him. Compassion of a gerbil.

It's pretty clear that I'm a Confederate guy, and not a fan of Lincoln at all. I personally view Lincoln's assassination unfavorably; not because he deserved better, but because the South did. It would have been better if he had been charged with war crimes, tried in a court of law, and justly executed.


The south did not do it. I am not being contentious. A coward who studiously avoided service, but claimed to be dedicated to his cause, did it. Since Lincoln's greatest wish was to glue this country back together, without further barbarities which would only have served to rub the proverbial salt, it seems provocative to speak of his death by some, vindictive manner.

Here is what Lincoln said, a year before his death. A Frank Leslie's reporter took note.

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April 29th, 1865
 
They would not allow poor Mary Todd to be with him, as he died. She became hysterical, sitting there, her ears still ringing, dress splattered, her husband fading in front of her- Stanton removed her from the room, the swine. You still read blogs where it seems he is justified, ' constant weeping ', ' hysterical sobs ', annoyed him. Compassion of a gerbil.




The south did not do it. I am not being contentious. A coward who studiously avoided service, but claimed to be dedicated to his cause, did it. Since Lincoln's greatest wish was to glue this country back together, without further barbarities which would only have served to rub the proverbial salt, it seems provocative to speak of his death by some, vindictive manner.

Here is what Lincoln said, a year before his death. A Frank Leslie's reporter took note.

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April 29th, 1865

Thanks for sharing!

Bill
 
It's pretty clear that I'm a Confederate guy, and not a fan of Lincoln at all. I personally view Lincoln's assassination unfavorably; not because he deserved better, but because the South did. It would have been better if he had been charged with war crimes, tried in a court of law, and justly executed.

The south did not do it. I am not being contentious. A coward who studiously avoided service, but claimed to be dedicated to his cause, did it. Since Lincoln's greatest wish was to glue this country back together, without further barbarities which would only have served to rub the proverbial salt, it seems provocative to speak of his death by some, vindictive manner.

Here is what Lincoln said, a year before his death. A Frank Leslie's reporter took note.

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April 29th, 1865

Thanks for sharing that, though it seems that you misunderstood what I meant.

I did not, in any way, mean to imply that "the South" or the Confederacy (the gov't, the military, or any of their officials) were responsible for Mr. Lincoln's death.

What I said was an allusion to the hell that got rained down upon the South as a response to Mr. Lincoln's murder, as well as the idea that the post-war treatment of the South was probably worse than it would have been if Mr. Lincoln had remained a player throughout the rest of his term. The actions of an assassin robbed of knowing whether that would have been the case, though President Davis certainly believed that way.

It was April 19, 1865, when President Davis learned of Lincoln's assassination. As The President was about to enter a Charlotte, NC home to take lodging while fleeing from his Union Army pursuers, a telegram from John C. Breckinridge (Confederate general & former U.S. Vice-President) was brought informing him of Lincoln's fate. According to Davis biographer Hudson Strode, Davis was shocked, and had to read it again before handing it off to the person next to him, saying, "Here is a very extraordinary communication. It is sad news."

A column of Kentucky's Confederate Cavalry rode up to the house at that moment, and when someone read the dispatch aloud, one cavalryman shouted in jubilation, but Davis raised his hand to silence any further cheering before entering into the house. Inside, the President commented further to his personal secretary, Burton Harrison, saying, "I am sorry. We have lost our best friend in the court of the enemy."

Also traveling with the President was Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory, who recorded in his diary the following conversation with Davis about the assassination:
"I expressed my deep regret, expressing among other views, my conviction of Mr. Lincoln's moderation, his sense of justice, and my apprehension that the South would be accused of instigating his death. To this Mr. Davis replied sadly, 'I certainly have no special regard for Mr. Lincoln; but there are a great many men of whose end I would much rather have heard than his. I fear it will be disastrous to our people and I regret it deeply.'"

Years later, in Rise & Fall of the Confederate Government, The President would reflect on the event by saying, "For an enemy so relentless in the war for our subjugation, we could not be expected to mourn; yet, in view of its political consequences, it could not be regarded otherwise than as a great misfortune to the South. [Lincoln] had power over the Northern people, and was without personal malignity towards the people of the South; his successor was without power in the North, and the embodiment of malignity towards the Southern people."
 
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