Mary Todd Lincoln Injured in an 1863 Carriage Accident.

On July 2, 1863, the second day of the Gettysburg battle raged between Confederate General, Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and George Meade’s Army of the Potomac. 

The Confederate and Union armies faced each other a mile apart in two sweeping parallel arcs. The Union forces were deployed along Cemetery Ridge to Culp's Hill, forming the shape of a fishhook, while the Confederates were spread along Seminary Ridge. Confederate killed, wounded, and missing during the fighting on July 2 total some 6,500. The Union total was approximately 8,750—an unusual case of the defender suffering more casualties than the attacker. The battles fought that day are some of the most famous in military history.

President Lincoln arrived at the War Department telegraph office early that morning to monitor the battle in Pennsylvania. 

Abraham Lincoln's Barouche Carriage (1861-1865)

On July 2, 1863, while Mary Lincoln was traveling on Rock Creek Road near Mount Pleasant Hospital, from the presidential summer retreat, the Soldiers' Home back to the White House, the driver’s seat of the presidential carriage became detached, throwing the driver to the ground. The frightened horses began to run, and Mary leaped from the carriage to save herself. 

The accident occurred near Mount Pleasant Army Hospital where the road bent into Fourteenth Street. A little past that was Carver Army Hospital — just about where Mary Todd Lincoln hit the ground. Help rushed to her immediately. She was personally cared for by Dr. Judson C. Nelson, a surgeon with the Seventy-Sixth Regiment of New York Volunteers, who was on temporary assignment to the U.S. General Hospital Department in Washington. The name of this doctor was discovered because a newspaper reporter of the day erroneously printed his first and last name.

Mary's accident was a minor event of the day and was given only one-paragraph briefs in the Washington newspapers. The papers reported that she was stunned, bruised, and battered, but her injuries, which were immediately administered to, did not appear too serious. She did suffer a gash to the back of her head, apparently caused by a sharp stone, which doctors stitched up.

All this was going on while the President was monitoring the Battle of Gettysburg.

As was common then, Mary's wound became infected and had to be lanced on July 9 to release the large amount of pus that had built up. By July 20, the First Lady was sufficiently healed to leave Washington and head for the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 

Afterward, the first lady, a victim of severe migraine headaches her entire adult life, had them with greater frequency. Robert Lincoln later told his aunt that his mother never fully recovered from her head injury.

Speculations:

Here are some other thoughts about Mary Lincoln's carriage accident. 

From what I gathered, the Lincolns had continued "issues" with the stable personnel. These issues involved behaviors such as excess drinking, tardiness, and not carrying out requests. It is told that Lincoln once asked one of the coachmen to get the morning paper. Although the coachman told Lincoln he'd do it, he didn't because he didn't think it was 'his job to run errands.' Lincoln was not pleased. 

Coachman Patterson McGee was fired by Mary Lincoln on February 10, 1864. That night there was a suspicious fire in the White House stables that tragically killed several horses and ponies, one was Willie's pony (William Wallace Lincoln was 11 years old), who died on February 20, 1862. McGee was arrested but released because of a lack of evidence. It seems likely there were ongoing issues between the stable personnel and Mary.

So who loosened the bolts on the driver's seat? Why was it done? Could have it been some sort of assassination attempt? There may be other possibilities. Perhaps the coachmen themselves had an argument, and one secretly tried to give another a "surprise jolt." Perhaps the anger was actually directed at Mary, and this was a purposeful attempt to hurt her.

The accident remains suspicious. But the possibilities and speculation that it was an assassination attempt seem plausible.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lincoln in Despair—A Time When He Was Tempted To Commit Suicide.

An Instance When he Was More Serious Than the Case Warranted

Story Told by Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.

President Lincoln during the war was very sensitive of the criticisms on his administration by the newspaper press, believing it to be, as he asserted, the true voice of the people. The failures of McDowell, McClellan, Burnside, and Poe with the Army of the Potomac and the criticisms made thereon by the newspapers almost crazed him. Time and again he would free himself from the Executive Mansion and seek my little office, the only place in Washington, he often said, where he could be absolutely free from interruption. When he became closeted with me on these visits Mr. Lincoln would unbosom himself and talk of his cares and woes. Several times he insisted that he ought to resign, and thus give the country an opportunity to secure someone better fitted to accomplish the great task expected of the President. Or, if he did not resign, he thought he ought to impress upon Congress the propriety of giving the absolute control of the army to some purely military man. It was during one of these moods that he conceived the idea of placing Joseph Hooker in command of the Army of the Potomac, and of vesting him with such power that, in his opinion, he could not fail of success.

Brigadier General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker of The Army of the Potomac. It was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in April.

He had a great idea of Hooker's ability as a soldier, and in addition, he believed him to be an honest man and a sincere patriot. He wanted him to fight what he intended should be and what he felt would be, the closing battle of the war. Accordingly, when Hooker got underway, and the news came that at Chancellorsville he would make his fight, Mr. Lincoln was in the greatest state of mental excitement. From the time that Hooker's army began its march until the smoke of battle had cleared from the fatal field of Chancellorsville, he scarcely knew what it was to sleep.

It will be remembered that the fight lasted three days. During the first two days it looked as if Hooker was about to accomplish what so many generals before him had failed to do; but, early on the third day, the usual half-hour dispatches began to make matters look dark and ominous of defeat. The whole day Mr. Lincoln was miserable. He ate nothing and would see no one but me. As it grew dark the dispatches ceased coming at all. 

White House, 1865

Mr. Lincoln would walk from the White House to my apartment and anxiously inquire for news from Hooker. With the going down of the sun a cold and drenching rain set in, which lasted through the night. At about 7 o'clock Mr. Lincoln ceased his visits to my apartment and gave orders at the Executive Mansion that he, would see no one before morning. An hour afterward a dispatch of indefinite character was received from Hooker, and I hurried with it to Mr. Lincoln's apartments. When I entered I found him walking the floor, and his agonized appearance so terrified me that it was with difficulty that I could speak. Mr. Lincoln approached me like a man wild with excitement, seized the dispatch from my hand, read it, and, his face slightly brightening, remarked: "Stanton, there is hope yet!" At my solicitation, Mr. Lincoln accompanied me to the War Department, where he agreed to spend the night, or until something definite was heard from Hooker. For five hours, the longest and most wearisome of my life, I waited before a dispatch announcing the retreat of Hooker was received. When Mr. Lincoln read it he threw up his hands and exclaimed, "My God, Stanton, our cause is lost! We are ruined—we are ruined; and such a fearful loss of life! My God! this is more than I can endure!" He stood, trembling visibly, his face of a ghastly hue, the perspiration standing out in big spots on his brow. He put on his hat and coat and began to pace the floor. For five or ten minutes he was silent and then, turning to me, he said: "If I am not around early tomorrow, do not send for me, nor allow anyone to disturb me. Defeated again, and so many of our noble countrymen killed! What will the people say?"

As he finished he started for the door. I was alarmed. There was something indescribable about the President's face and manner that made me feel that my chief should not be left alone. How to approach him without creating suspicion was the thought of a second. Going up to him and laying my hand on his shoulder I said: "Mr. President, I, too, am feeling that I would rather be dead than alive; but is it manly—It is brave—that we should be the first to succumb? I have an idea: "You remain here with me tonight. Lie down on yonder lounge, and by the time you have had a few hours' sleep, I will have a vessel at the wharf, and we will go to the front and see for ourselves the condition of the army."

The idea of visiting the army in person acted like a tonic. Mr. Lincoln immediately adopted the suggestion. The next morning we left Washington on a gunboat for Hooker's command. On our return trip Mr, Lincoln told me that when he started to leave the War Department on that evening he had fully made up his mind to go immediately to the Potomac River and there end his life, as many a poor creature—but none half so miserable as he was at that time. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Precise Location of Lincoln's Birthplace Farm.

When Abraham Lincoln prepared a brief sketch for the artist, Thomas Hicks on June 14, 1860, he wrote in referring to his birthplace, "I know no means of identifying the precise locality." It was not until the editor of Lincoln Lore made his documentary researches in Hardin County, Kentucky that the "precise locality" of the Lincoln farm was established by duly authorized court records.

The Lincoln's log cabin in Kentucky where Abraham was born. Illustrative purposes only.

When Richard J. Collier purchased what was known as the birthplace farm in 1905, he had no assurance but tradition and folklore that the land he acquired was once in possession of Thomas Lincoln, father of the 16th President. One newspaper account of the Collier purchase stated that "Since the birth of Lincoln on February 12, 1809, the farm has changed hands only twice. 

Thomas Lincoln sold the land to Richard Creal about the time the family moved to Indiana in 1816." Richard Creal did not acquire the part of the Lincoln farm where the cabin stood until August 26, 1867, fifty years after the Lincolns left Kentucky. By that time the cabin tract had changed hands eleven times. Creal added this tract to a hundred-acre survey he had previously acquired and after some changes in the boundary sold 110½ acres to A. W. Dennett in 1894, specifying in the deed that it was the farm on which Abraham Lincoln was born.

When the United States came in possession of the traditional birthplace farm in 1916, there was no abstract title available which proved that the farm was once in possession of Thomas Lincoln. In fact, there were those primarily interested in the project who claimed that Lincoln lived on a squatter's domain so the boundaries of any specific piece of ground surrounding the cabin were of no importance. 

But Abraham Lincoln was not born on a squatter's domain. Thomas Lincoln paid $200, "cash in hand" in December 1808 for a 300-acre tract on which the birthplace cabin stood. The document showing Thomas Lincoln's ownership of the land is in the Hardin County Circuit Court records, a copy of which follows with the endorsements of David Vance and Isaac Bush:

MATHER TO VANCE — BOND

"Articles of agreement made this First Day of May 1805 between Richard Mather of the County of Hardin, and the State of Kentucky and David Vance of the County and State aforesaid witnesseth that I have sold to the said David Vance a certain parcel or tract of land on the waters of the South Fork of Nolin containing 300 acres beginning near or at a spring called the Sinking Spring, to be twice as long as wide and including as much of a grove called the Little Turkey Grove, as will fall within the boundary as aforesaid and I do obligate myself to make a deed with a general warranty to the said David Vance when the said David Vance has made full payment to Richard Mather or his order for the aforesaid land, in witness whereof we have inter-changeably set our hands the day and year above written. Signed Richard Mather. Witnesses: John Gum, Shepherd Gum."

Endorsement. No. 1. "For value received I assign the within the agreement to Isaac Bush, given under my hand and seal this 2nd Day of November 1805. Signed David Vance. Witnesses: Ben Helm, John Miller."

Endorsement. No. 2. "For Value received I assign the within the article to Thomas Lincoln. Witness my hand and seal the 12th Day of December 1808. Signed: Isaac Bush; witness, Sam Haycraft."

It was not long after Thomas Lincoln acquired the land that it was in litigation over payments Vance had failed to make to Mather. The court decreed Thomas Lincoln should receive from William Bush the $200.00 he had paid for the land, and he moved from the premises in 1811. This tract of land, originally in possession of Thomas Lincoln, was surveyed by order of the court in 1837 and was found to contain 348½ acres instead of the designated 300 acres. 

The boundaries follow: 

"Beginning at a large white oak (1) 13 poles (214.5 feet) above the sinking spring, running thence North 9½ degrees West 155 poles (2,557.5 feet) to a stake (2) in John Taylor's field, thence South 89½ degrees East 155 poles (2,557.5 feet) to a forked blackjack oak (a small red oak tree) (3), thence South 9½ degrees East 310 poles ( 5,115 feet) to a blackjack oak (4), thence North 89½ degrees West 155 poles (2,557.5 feet) to the beginning." (Poles or rods: multiply the length value by 16.5 to get feet.)

The above survey was divided into several smaller tracts including one of nine acres surrounding the Lincoln cabin, which at the time designated has been in possession of the following property holders since it was first patented as part of a 30,000-acre survey:

William Geenough, February 20, 1786; 

John Dewhurst, June 15, 1786; 

William Weymouth, October 15, 1791; 

Joseph James, June 11, 1798; 

Richard Mather, December 23, 1802; 

David Vance, May 1, 1805; 

Isaac Bush, November 2, 1805; 

Thomas Lincoln, December 12, 1808; 

Commander Benjamin Wright, September 12, 1816; 

Gabriel Kirkpatrick, December 19, 1816; 

John Welsh and William Duckworth, December 19, 1816; 

George Burkhart, July 16, 1822; 

Henry Thomas, January 28, 1824; 

John Gash, October 14, 1830; 

Henry Brothers, April 7, 1835; 

Charles F. Huss, March 25, 1840; 

William Huss and William J. Thomas, February 15, 1845; 

Henry D. Horn, September 27, 1852; 

R. P. Hankla, December 14, 1853; 

Richard Creal, August 26, 1867; 

Alfred W. Dennett, November 23, 1894; 

Commander L. B. Hanley, May 1905; 

R. J. Collier, August 28, 1905; 

Lincoln Farm Ass'n., November 9, 1907; 

United States of America, April 11, 1916.

The titles to the other tracts cut out of the original Thomas Lincoln 348½ acre survey have been traced through the court records so that it is now, documented proof for the "precise location" of the Lincoln Birthplace Farm.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.