Some questioned how long before the Confederates invaded and raised their flag in Washington. Given that day’s typography, Lincoln could look out a second floor White House window and see a Confederate flag waving in the distance. He was like a young brother or son to the Lincolns and a beloved “older brother” to Lincoln’s two youngest sons.Īcross the Potomac River lay Virginia and the Confederacy - the rebels! Early in the war, the District of Columbia was poorly defended and fortified. Ellsworth had studied law with Lincoln in Springfield and had accompanied the family to Washington. Eddie, age 4, died during an epidemic in 1850 in Springfield.Īlso weighing on Lincoln’s soul was the death of Col. In fact, the Lincolns had named their second son Edward Baker Lincoln. Edward Baker, a senator who had long been Lincoln’s friend and political ally. The first Union general officer killed in the war, on Oct. He had little idea how much money she was spending until he wrote checks to cover her overdrafts. The president agonized over her spending on items he dismissed as “flub-a-dubs,” such as china and imported French wallpaper. Quickly, she spent the $20,000 Congressional appropriation for redecorating. Mary Lincoln had assessed the interior of the White House as an “old worn-out hotel.” She dreamed of a palace awed by Europeans and cherished by Washingtonians. Was she unaware that on winter nights, too many Union soldiers shivered without blankets, some without boots, most hungry? Lincoln’s gleeful shopping sprees in New York City stimulated vivid criticism and outrage. She spent extravagant amounts of money on fashionable clothes. Mary vowed to prove to the Washington elites - and gossips - that she had class and deserved respect as “Mrs. Although born into the aristocratic Todd family in Kentucky, Mary was derided as a “woman of the prairies,” uncultured, coarse and worse, some whispered, a secret Southern sympathizer after all, three of her stepbrothers were serving in the Confederate army and her brother-in-law, Benjamin Helm, was a Southern general. Lincoln - Mary, wife of almost 20 years and the mother of his four sons.

They are laid to rest in the Lincoln family tomb beside Willie's siblings and his mother.And then there was Mrs. Where is Willie Lincoln Buried? Abraham Lincoln's TombĪfter President Lincoln died three years later, the family had the bodies of both father and son sent to Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Ill. Willie's hearse to Oak Hill Cemetery for temporary interment. The ceremony took place in the East Room of the White House where the mirrors were covered in black drapery. President Lincoln attended Willie's funeral without his wife, who was incapacitated. Mary Todd Lincoln's mourning often verged on the edge of insanity. Nevertheless, he could not surrender himself to sorrow as the boy's He certainly mourned, sobbing as he viewed the lifeless body of his young son. The President did not have the luxury of indulging his grief after Willie's death. How Did the Death of His Son Affect President Lincoln? Ninth president, William Henry Harrison, had similarly died of typhoid fever after serving just one month as the nation's leader. They believe he and his brother had contracted the bacterial disease from the contaminated White House water supply. Looking through the lens of history, scholars speculate that Willie died of typhoid fever. Over the next few days, Willie's condition deteriorated, and he died. The evening of the reception, her son took a turn for the worse. He was so ill that his mother wanted to postpone an upcoming White House reception, but on their doctor's word that the boy was rallying, she went ahead with the event. The cold brought on a fever, and the boy was very sick for several days. According to an 1868 account by Elizabeth Keckley, a dressmaker who spent much of her time with Mary Todd Lincoln, Willie hadĬaught cold while riding his pony in changeable weather. Losing him at such a young age was a blow that both parents struggled to overcome with varied degreesĪt the time of his death in February 1962, those around him believed he suffered from a severe cold. Like Abraham Lincoln as a boy, Willie was a sweet, noble lad who liked to read and write. By all accounts, Willie Lincoln shared many He was the cherished middle son of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. The only child of a first family to die while living in the White House, William Wallace Lincoln made tragic history.

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