President Abraham Lincoln

Civil War in Washington DC: The Willard Hotel and President Lincoln’s Inauguration

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by Sandra Merville Hart

By 1860, the Willard Hotel, located at 1401 Pennsylvania NW, was a center of activity in the bustling capital then known as Washington City.

The South began seceding after Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. He had to travel from Illinois to Washington City for his inauguration.

Allan Pinkerton, head of Pinkerton National Detective Agency, learned of assassination plots for president-elect Lincoln’s life in Baltimore. He feared that he would be killed. Though Lincoln was reluctant to believe his life was in danger, he agreed to Pinkerton’s alternate travel plans. It meant that his family would come later. Ward Hill Lamon was Lincoln’s bodyguard.

Unfortunately, secrecy was required to ensure Lincoln’s safety. That meant he arrived at dawn in Washington City without the fanfare that normally accompanies such an event.

The president-elect was ushered into the less-crowded ladies’ entrance to Willard Hotel on 14th Street where one of the Willard brothers met him on February 23, 1861.

Many people ridiculed Lincoln for sneaking into the city and he soon regretted his decision.

Mary and the boys arrived and the family stayed in a comfortable second-floor suite.

Henry Willard learned that Lincoln had forgotten to pack his bedroom slippers and talked to his wife. She offered him a colorful pair that she recently knitted for her grandfather. Lincoln borrowed them for the remainder of his stay.

Mary Todd Lincoln didn’t receive the same warm welcome from the Washington society ladies at the hotel. They seemed to dislike her from the beginning.

Abraham Lincoln stayed at Willard Hotel for ten days. Then his Inauguration Day arrived. On March 4, 1861, over 25,000 people gathered at the Capitol to witness the swearing in of the sixteenth president.

No one could have foreseen the turmoil of the next four years on that cloudy, blustery day.

The Willard Hotel is steeped in history. There is a scene at this hotel in my novel, Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1 of my “Spies of the Civil War” series, where the characters dine there. I was thrilled to use such an important location as part of the story.  

Sources

Epstein, Daniel Mark. Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington, Ballantine Books, 2004.

Selected by Dennett, Tyler. Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1939.

“The Willard Hotel,” White House History, 2020/06/11 https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-willard-hotel.

“The Willard Hotel in the 19th Century,” Streets of Washington, 2020/06/11 http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2012/07/the-willard-hotel-in-19th-century.html.

Waller, Douglas. Lincoln’s Spies, Simon & Schuster, 2019.

First Telegraphed Message from a Hot Air Balloon Happened During the Civil War

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by Sandra Merville Hart

Aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe’s test flight on April 19, 1861, from Cincinnati didn’t go as planned. Instead of landing in the Chesapeake Bay area, winds took his balloon south to South Carolina. He was arrested as a possible spy. He was released after being recognized by a local citizen. What started out as a catastrophe ended with Lowe and his balloon on a northbound train to Cincinnati.

Lowe was now determined that he and his balloons would serve the Union army. He took his balloon Enterprise to Washington D.C.

The Columbia Armory occupied the area where the National Air and Space Museum now stand. It was on this spot, in sight of the White House where President Abraham Lincoln lived, that Lowe launched the Enterprise with American Telegraph Company representatives on June 17, 1861.

They ascended to a height of 500 feet. Lowe telegraphed a message to President Lincoln from the air that he could see 50 miles from his position.

President Lincoln met with Lowe that evening in the White House. Though Lowe wasn’t the only aeronaut hoping to serve the army, he had convinced Lincoln that reconnaissance from the balloon would help his generals. Lowe became the chief aeronaut in the U.S. Army Balloon Corps.

Several Federal officers ascended in these balloons, including John Reynolds, Joe Hooker, George McClellan, Fitz John Porter, Baldy Smith, John Sedgwick, and George Custer.

Sources

“Civil War Ballooning,” American Battlefield Trust, 2021/02/05 https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-ballooning.

“Civil War Ballooning,” Smithsonian National Space & Air Museum, 2021/02/05 https://airandspace.si.edu/learn/highlighted-topics-/flight/civil-war-ballooning.

Clifford, Command Sergeant Major James, USA-Ret. “Balloon Operations in the Peninsula Campaign,” The Army Historical Foundation, 2021/02/05 https://armyhistory.org/balloon-operations-in-the-peninsula-campaign/.

Fanton, Ben. “Gas Balloons: View from Above the Civil War Battlefield,” History.net, 2021/02/05 https://www.historynet.com/gas-balloons-view-from-above-the-civil-war-battlefield.htm.

Gould, Kevin. “Balloon Corps,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2021/02/05 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Balloon-Corps.

Mortimer, Gavin. Double Death: The True Story of Pryce Lewis, the Civil War’s Most Daring Spy, Walker & Company, 2010.

“Thaddeus S.C. Lowe,” Wikipedia, 2021/02/05  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus_S._C._Lowe.

Civil War U.S. Balloon Corps

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by Sandra Merville Hart

On June 17, 1861, Aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe’s balloon flight from the Columbia Armory (current location of the National Air and Space Museum) snagged the attention of President Abraham Lincoln when he received a telegraphed message from Lowe—from the balloon in flight at a height of 500 feet!

Lowe’s balloon was tethered to the White House lawn that evening while the two met. Lincoln supported the use of balloons in surveilling Confederate troops from the air.

Lowe became the chief aeronaut in the U.S. Army Balloon Corps. The War Department built military balloons for the corps. The first one was ready in August.

Union and Intrepid could carry 5 people and were the largest balloons used by the Union army. United States and Constitution held 3 people. A couple, Eagle and Excelsior, were manned by one person. The larger balloons had room for telegraphers, an important advantage.

Lowe became a member of Major General George B. McClellan’s staff. In September of 1861, Lowe directed artillery fire from his balloon at Falls Church, Virginia.

The U.S. Balloon Corps had several members: Corporal James Starkweather, Privates William A. Hodges, Albert Trunbull, W.H. Welch, Francis Barrington, Robert Wardell, James F. Case, George W. Fisher, John H. Hall, and Lawrence M. Chickey. Civilians also worked in the corps. Among these were Aeronauts James Allen, John La Mountain, and John Wise, who was considered the “Father of American Aeronautics.” Lowe also hired his father Clovis.

Balloons were used at Washington D.C., Seven Days’ Battle, the Peninsular Campaign, Battle of Seven Pines, and Fort Monroe in Virginia, to name a few.

Also, La Mountain made a tethered balloon ascent on August 3, 1861. It is significant to history because it was launched from the steam-powered gunboat Fanny. There are scholars who believe this first flight to be a precursor of the aircraft carrier.

Confederates shot at the ascended balloons. Fortunately, none were shot down. Their height usually kept them out of range. That didn’t prevent the Southerners from shooting. In fact, Lowe earned the dubious title of “the most shot-at man in the war.”

Several Federal officers ascended in these balloons, including John Reynolds, Joe Hooker, George McClellan, Fitz John Porter, Baldy Smith, John Sedgwick, and George Custer.

Unfortunately, problems with aeronauts receiving pay from the army led to resignations. Conservative generals preferred intelligence from spies, scouts, prisoners, and deserters. Vague reports from aeronauts frustrated field commanders. To top it off, Lowe didn’t get along with his staff supervisor Captain Cyrus B. Comstock and resigned on May 7, 1863.

James and Ezra Allen were then the last members of the U.S. Balloon Corps. They reported Confederate movement from Fredericksburg toward the Blue Ridge Mountains as they marched toward Gettysburg in June. The Balloon Corps ceased to exist in the summer of 1863.

Sources

“Civil War Ballooning,” American Battlefield Trust, 2021/02/05 https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-ballooning.

“Civil War Ballooning,” Smithsonian National Space & Air Museum, 2021/02/05 https://airandspace.si.edu/learn/highlighted-topics-/flight/civil-war-ballooning.

Clifford, Command Sergeant Major James, USA-Ret. “Balloon Operations in the Peninsula Campaign,” The Army Historical Foundation, 2021/02/05 https://armyhistory.org/balloon-operations-in-the-peninsula-campaign/.

Fanton, Ben. “Gas Balloons: View from Above the Civil War Battlefield,” History.net, 2021/02/05 https://www.historynet.com/gas-balloons-view-from-above-the-civil-war-battlefield.htm.

Gould, Kevin. “Balloon Corps,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2021/02/05 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Balloon-Corps.

Mortimer, Gavin. Double Death: The True Story of Pryce Lewis, the Civil War’s Most Daring Spy, Walker & Company, 2010.

“Thaddeus S.C. Lowe,” Wikipedia, 2021/02/05  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus_S._C._Lowe.

Ford’s Theatre

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John T. Ford, a successful theatrical entrepreneur, leased the First Baptist Church on Tenth Street in 1861. He turned it into a music hall. The building burned in December of 1862. Ford raised money to rebuild and the first performance in the new Ford’s Theatre was August 27, 1863.

President Abraham Lincoln and Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln arrived at Ford’s Theatre around 8:30 pm with their guests, Major Henry Reed Rathbone and Clara Harris, on April 14, 1865. Our American Cousin was playing and Lincoln enjoyed going to the theater.

This night was different.

John Wilkes Booth stepped into the Presidential Box around 10:15 pm and shot Lincoln. Booth stabbed Major Rathbone and then leaped onto the stage and escaped.

Dr. Charles Augustus Leale was the first person inside the box. He removed a blood clot from Lincoln’s head wound to release pressure and allow him to breathe. Dr. Leale knew it was a mortal wound.

Soldiers carried their President down the stairs and onto Tenth Street. William and Anna Petersen’s boarding house was across the street. They placed the dying President in Willie Clark’s room, who was out celebrating the war’s ending.

It was a dark, gloomy morning. It had started to rain earlier. Large groups of people gathered outside the Petersen house, praying for Lincoln to live … yet fearing the worst.

Throughout that long, tragic night, First Lady Mary Lincoln sometimes sat beside her dying husband with her oldest son nearby. Other times she went to the Front Parlor. Neither family member was in the crowded room when Lincoln died at 7:22 am.

The country that had seen so much death and dying for the past four years experienced a deep tragedy. Leaders turned their attention to apprehending John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, and his conspirators.

Ford’s Theatre was closed by the federal government for the investigation. The owner received permission to reopen after the trial. When threats were made if the theatre reopened, the War Department closed it. They leased the building, in August of 1865, to convert it to an office building and bought it a year later.

Three interior floors collapsed in 1893. Twenty-two clerks were killed and sixty-eight people injured. It was repaired and used again by the government for offices.

Today, about 650,000 visitors tour Lincoln’s Museum, Ford’s Theatre, the Petersen House, and Aftermath Exhibits each year.

Ford’s Theatre still has performances and tours are closed during rehearsals and matinees.

Lincoln has inspired many authors to write books about him. A 34-foot tower of these books stands beside a winding staircase at The Ford’s Theatre Center for Education and Leadership.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Ford’s Theatre,” National Park Service, 2020/01/02 https://www.nps.gov/foth/index.htm.

“Ford’s Theatre Yesterday and Today,” Ford’s Theatre Pamphlet, Last Updated 2008.

“Lincoln’s Death,” Ford’s Theatre, 2020/01/01 https://www.fords.org/lincolns-assassination/lincolns-death/.

First Union Soldiers in Washington Welcomed at the White House

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Union troops poured into Washington near the end of April, 1861. Before long, twenty thousand men added to the city’s prewar population of sixty thousand. The city had 33 militia units with armories where they drilled—not nearly enough to accommodate so many additional soldiers. And where were they to sleep?

President Abraham Lincoln welcomed the first troops as honored guests. On April 18th, Major Hunter took Jim Lane’s Kansas Warriors into the East Room of the White House and allowed them to stay there.

Soon troops were camped on the White House lawn, at the Capitol, and the Washington Arsenal. Area churches as well as schools like Georgetown College and Columbian College.

The government rented other buildings for the soldiers.

Seven thousand troops were in the Capitol, occupying Senate and House chambers, committee rooms, galleries, and halls. This brought its own problems of cleanliness. Congress was set to convene on July 4th —before this meeting, grease, tobacco, and other filth had to be scrubbed from the areas.

Soldiers’ tents surrounded the Capitol for a radius of three miles. Troops bivouacked and drilled in the inaugural ballroom, which was a temporary building near City Hall.

Many of these troops received training in the city and soon marched off to war. Others remained to defend the nation’s capital. Sixty-eight forts had been built around Washington by 1865, and these housed Union troops. The city was protected by these forts that had a combined ninety-three batteries, seven blockhouses, and twenty miles of rifle pits. There were thirty miles of military roads.

The forts were built to last for the war’s duration and many of them are gone now. Traces remain of a few of them, including Fort Chaplin, Fort Davis, Fort DeRussy, Fort Foote, and Fort Stevens.

– Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Civil War Defenses of Washington,” Wikipedia, 2019/12/26 ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_War_Defenses_of_Washington.

Selected by Dennett, Tyler. Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1939.

“The capital can’t be taken!” Civil War Defenses of Washington, National Park Service, 2019/12/26 ttps://www.nps.gov/cwdw/index.htm.

Winkle, Kenneth J. Lincoln’s Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC, W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.

 

Dedication of National Cemetery Where Lincoln Gives Gettysburg Address

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National Cemetery, Gettysburg

Rain and clouds that mark the Pennsylvania skies on the early morning of November 19, 1863, soon clear to give an exhilarating nip in the air in and around Gettysburg. After a lively evening in the crowded streets last night, folks are still entering town for the important occasion of dedicating the new national cemetery.

President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward take a carriage ride to the Lutheran Seminary grounds where fierce fighting took place on July 1, 1863, the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

They return in time to change for the dedication ceremony. Before 10 am, Lincoln emerges from David Wills’ home where he spent the night. He is dressed in black, wears a black frock coat, and carries white gauntlets. Sad. Serious. A wide mourning band adorns his stovepipe hat in memory of his son, Willie, who died of typhoid fever on February 20, 1862.

People press around him, shaking his hand even after he mounts his horse. They cheer for him. The marshals motion the crowd back.

The Marine Band begins the procession followed by a squadron of cavalry, two artillery batteries, and an infantry regiment. President Lincoln rides with several generals, nine governors, Cabinet members, and three foreign ministers among others.

Edward Everett, the main speaker, tours the battlefield and does not participate in the procession.

A 12’ x 20’ platform has been built for the occasion. Honored guests take their place on the three rows of ten chairs each. There are other chairs scattered on the platform and chairs at a table in back for reporters.

A tent stands at the east end of the platform—at Everett’s request and for his use. He emerges from this tent. David Wills, organizer of the event, and New York Governor Seymour escort him to his seat beside Lincoln in the middle of the front row.

Bright sun shines down on the spectators arranged in a semi-circle by the marshals. Many, like Lincoln, wear mourning.

The pleasing array of flags, banners, and costumes of those in attendance do not mask the signs of the recent battle, where the fields are still littered with broken muskets, canteens, and bits of gray or blue uniforms.

The Marshal-in-Chief Ward H. Lamon is not on the platform to begin the ceremony so his assistant, Benjamin B. French, signals the Birgfield’s Band. They play “Homage d’un Heroes,” a funeral dirge.

Lamon nods to Rev. Thomas H. Stockton to pray. The emotional prayer of the chaplain of the House of Representatives brings tears to many eyes, including Everett and Lincoln.

Next, Lamon calls on the Marine Band. They play Martin Luther’s hymn “Old Hundred.”

Lamon then introduces Edward Everett as the speaker of the day.

Everett speaks for about two hours. The President listens with kind, thoughtful attention. Lincoln rises and shakes Everett hand while some in the crowd applaud at the end.

The Maryland Musical Association sings “Consecration Hymn” that was written by Benjamin B. French for the dedication.

Lamon introduces the President of the United States.

National Cemetery, Gettysburg

Lincoln steps forward. He extracts a paper from his pocket. He puts on his spectacles.  The crowd is silent as they look up him.

The President gazes at the solemn mourners … at soldiers who will never forget the battle or their comrades. “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

Gettysburg Address at the Soldiers National Cemetery

“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The crowd gives President Lincoln three cheers and then another three cheers for the Governors.

Birgfield’s Band accompanies a chorus of Gettysburg men and women.

Lamon nods to Rev. Henry L. Baugher, who leads those gathered to close the ceremony with a benediction.

Lincoln participates in the procession that leads back to David Wills’ home, where he eats dinner and then receives guests. He attends a service at the Presbyterian Church and then boards a train. It is time to return to Washington D.C.

Back at the cemetery, some mourners remain until darkness falls.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Carmichael, Orton H. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, The Abingdon Press, 1917.

Gramm, Kent. November: Lincoln’s Elegy at Gettysburg, Indiana University Press, 2001.

Klement, Frank L. The Gettysburg Soldiers’ Cemetery and Lincoln’s Address, White Main Publishing Company, Inc., 1993.

 

The Day Before President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

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Excitement fills the overcrowded streets of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, November 18, 1863. It’s been a long time since residents had something to celebrate. President Abraham Lincoln and other distinguished guests will soon arrive for tomorrow’s dedication ceremony of the national cemetery.  Preparations  have taken weeks. Thousands come by train and in carriages, buggies, farm carts, and Pennsylvania wagons. Some ride horseback into town. Others walk.

At noon, a special train leaves Washington D.C. on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of State William H. Seward, Secretary of the Interior John P. Usher, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, two foreign ministers, Lincoln’s private secretary and assistant secretary, army officers, Marine Band members, and newspaper correspondents are passengers.

An unusually quiet Lincoln sits in the last car. Sadness marks his face. Perhaps he reflects on the tragic loss of so many soldiers who died at the battle, a loss that reminds him of losing his precious Willie, his third son, a year earlier.

Gettysburg attorney David Wills, Ward H. Lamon (marshal of the event,) and Edward Everett (the dedication’s main speaker) are among those who meet the President’s train at dusk. They and the First Regiment of the Invalid Corps escort him to the Wills’ home where he will spend the night.

The Fifth New York Artillery Band plays and the crowd serenades Lincoln while he eats supper. They request a speech.

Lincoln appears at the front entrance of the home. He bows for the exuberant crowd yet refuses to give a speech. “I have no speech to make.”

The crowd laughs.

“In my position it is somewhat important that I should not say any foolish thing.”

“If you can help it,” someone yells.

“It very often happens,” Lincoln smiles, “that the only way to help it is to say nothing at all.”

The crowd laughs and the President soon goes back inside.

Inns and homes are full. Many visitors remain on the streets late into the night for they have no place to go. They shout and cheer and sing while bands take turns playing patriotic songs and hymns.

Inside, President Lincoln pulls out his speech for tomorrow’s dedication. A few lines are all they’ve asked of him. He must make those “few appropriate remarks” count.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Carmichael, Orton H. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, The Abingdon Press, 1917.

Gramm, Kent. November: Lincoln’s Elegy at Gettysburg, Indiana University Press, 2001.

Klement, Frank L. The Gettysburg Soldiers’ Cemetery and Lincoln’s Address, White Main Publishing Company, Inc., 1993.

 

Gettysburg Attorney David Wills Prepares for National Cemetery

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Over 7,000 soldiers died in Gettysburg at the Civil War battle that lasted from July 1st to July 3rd in 1863. While the Confederates under General Robert E. Lee retreated in the pouring rain on July 4th, some Southerners stayed to bury a small portion of their dead. The rest of the fallen were left for Union soldiers and Gettysburg citizens, who had their hands full caring for the wounded, to bury.

There was little time. Over 5,000 shallow graves were dug along fences, in the Wheatfield, beside the Peach Orchard, on Culp’s Hill, in the fields of Cemetery Ridge and other battle locations.

Gettysburg attorney David Wills wanted to purchase land for a national cemetery as a burial place for those killed in the battle. He requested approval from Pennsylvania Governor Curtin, who granted it. Curtin also requested that Wills write the other 17 Union state governors. Fifteen approved the plan.

Wills bought 17 acres next to the town’s cemetery. A monument was to be erected in the center of a semi-circle of graves. There are 22 sections: 3 sections for unidentified soldiers; 1 for regular army soldiers; and the remaining 18 sections were for the 18 individual Union states’ soldiers.

About 25% of the soldiers were from New York, so that state has the largest section.

They began transferring bodies to the new cemetery on October 27, 1863. Only 50 – 60 were reburied on a daily basis.

Wills wanted to dedicate the new national cemetery in a ceremony. Edward Everett, a well-known orator of the day, was invited as the main speaker. President Lincoln and his Cabinet received invitations. Some notable Union generals were also invited.

President Lincoln accepted. Wills then invited him to make “a few appropriate remarks” at the November 19th dedication ceremony.

History has overshadowed the gifted Everett’s two-hour speech for Lincoln’s two-minute Gettysburg Address.

No one predicted just how much Lincoln’s “few appropriate remarks” would inspire a nation—even today—and deliver a message the people attending desperately needed to hear.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Carmichael, Orton H. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, The Abingdon Press, 1917.

Gramm, Kent. November: Lincoln’s Elegy at Gettysburg, Indiana University Press, 2001.

 

Klement, Frank L. The Gettysburg Soldiers’ Cemetery and Lincoln’s Address, White Main Publishing Company, Inc., 1993.

 

Sheldon, George. When the Smoke Cleared at Gettysburg: The Tragic Aftermath of the Bloodiest Battle of the Civil War, Cumberland House, 2003.

 

Future President Abraham Lincoln Visits Cincinnati

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September 17, 1859 was a warm, sultry Saturday night in Cincinnati. Drummers played. Rockets glared reddish-yellow above Fifth Street residences. A Union flag waved above the Fifth Street Market House. Youngsters fed several bonfires to light the night for a crowd of over 4,000 who gazed at a man speaking from a 2nd floor balcony.

Abraham Lincoln of Illinois spoke from a building on the north side of the street where the Federal Courthouse stands. Earnest and, at time, humorous, Lincoln spoke against the expansion of slavery.

Reverend Moncure Conway was used to political gatherings. This one was a campaign specifically for Cincinnati attorney William Dennison who was running for Governor. Yet there was something compelling about Lincoln. He said that slavery was wrong. In that border city where slavery was legal across the Ohio River into Kentucky, a few folks in the crowd hissed their disapproval.

Lincoln waited for outbursts to subside a little. Then he replied that everyone was born with two hands and a mouth to be fed and he inferred it was the job of those two hands to feed that mouth.

The Republicans didn’t ask Lincoln to be their nominee until six months later on May 23, 1860. When someone in the Cincinnati crowd asked who Lincoln recommended they vote for, he didn’t have a choice for candidate. His advice was to vote for a man who’d fight slavery’s expansion.

Front-Porch Campaigns of the era preferred that presidential candidates allow the Republican Party to give their message to citizens.

Seventeen months later on February 18, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln, on his way to Washington, was back in Cincinnati. City buildings were decorated in red, white, and blue bunting. Wearing black with a gray shawl over his shoulders, Lincoln smiled at the train station’s enthusiastic crowd. Cannons boomed in welcome on his procession to center of the city. Young girls sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hail Columbia.” Officials made patriotic speeches. He went to Cincinnati’s Burnet House while there but it’s not clear where these speeches were made.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Tucker, Louis Leonard. Cincinnati during the Civil War, Ohio State University Press, 1962.

Wimberg, Robert J. Cincinnati and the Civil War: Off to Battle, Ohio Book Store, 1992.

“With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition,” Library of Congress Exhibitions, 2019/04/01 https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lincoln/the-run-for-president.html.

 

 

Civil War Women: Annie Turner Wittenmyer, Diet Kitchen

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Annie Turner Wittenmyer, a wealthy widow by the time the Civil War began, threw her efforts into providing hospital supplies needed by Union soldiers. The Iowa resident visited soldiers in army camps.

She established local aid societies throughout Iowa to collect hospital supplies. Her efforts were recognized. She was appointed the leadership of the Iowa State Sanitary Commission in September of 1862.

Annie continued to bring food and blankets to soldiers in army camps, field hospitals, riverboats, and on the battlefields. While there, she saw the food given to soldiers, such as hardtack and greasy bacon, and it distressed her. The men suffered from scurvy and typhoid.

Her brother, David Turner, was in an army hospital in Sedalia, Missouri. While she was with him, David was given fried bacon, bread, and strong coffee. Though she nursed him back to health, the problem of the food given to wounded and sick men remained on her mind.

An idea for a Diet Kitchen at army hospitals came to her in December of 1863. She proposed her idea to Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, and President Abraham Lincoln.

Receiving charge of kitchens in all Union army hospitals, Annie started in Nashville, Tennessee. She trained female workers to prepare light meals with individual attention to each patient’s needs. By working with each patient’s doctor, the ladies gave nourishing meals.

Over 100 Diet Kitchens, staffed by two trained women, had been established by the end of the Civil War. By then the army’s medical department had generally adopted the Diet Kitchen.

These kitchens offered another way for women to serve.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Annie Turner Wittenmyer,” Brittanica.com, 2018/12/28 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Annie-Turner-Wittenmyer.

Longden, Tom. “Annie Wittenmyer,” Des Moines Register, 2018/12/28 https://data.desmoinesregister.com/famous-iowans/annie-wittenmyer.

Williams, Rachel. “The United States Sanitary and Christian Commissions and the Union War Effort,” National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 2018/12/27 http://www.civilwarmed.org/commissions/.