Category: Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln and the Ironclads Monitor and Merrimack/Virginia

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Abraham Lincoln had a particular affinity for ironclads, and today would bring him closer to both the Union ironclad Monitor and the CSS ironclad Virginia (formerly the Merrimack). On May 5, 1862, Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, and other dignitaries set sail on the revenue cutter Miami. Their destination – destiny.

The day began with a visit from Lieutenant John Worden. Worden was recuperating after receiving wounds while commanding the Monitor against the Virginia at Hampton Roads in early March. The “battle of the ironclads” changed the Navy forever, as it became clear the old wooden sailing ships would not be able to withstand an onslaught from largely unassailable iron vessels. Worden had been in the pilot house of the Monitor when a shell from the Virginia struck, temporarily blinded as the two ships battled to a draw. Still with impaired eyesight (he would eventually recover), Worden stopped by to brief President Lincoln at the White House; tomorrow he would visit the Capitol.

USS Monitor deck

 

That evening Lincoln would be headed for Fort Monroe on the Miami. With driving rain and stormy seas, even Lincoln, who had spent much time on the waters as a flatboatman and river pilot, felt ill and unable to eat, according to Chase, who suffered the same fate. During their trip they stopped off to tour the eponymously-named ocean steamer provided to the navy by wealthy magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt. After arriving at Fort Monroe they sailed out into Hampton Roads and toured the Monitor, now improved with a new steam pump and engines in preparation for their next encounter with the Virginia. According to the Monitor‘s paymaster, William Keeler, Lincoln “examined these vessels with much care, making the most detailed inquiries as to their construction and operation.” He would have seen the dented turret made by the Virginia‘s cannonballs, along with the rebuilt and modified pilothouse where Lt. Worden had been injured.

As the week progressed, Lincoln would get close enough to see the Virginia sitting off Craney Island. The stage was set for another Monitor/Virginia battle, a battle that would never take place, in part due to Lincoln’s actions. In his book Lincoln Takes Command, Steve Norder describes how Lincoln served as his own commanding general in Hampton Roads, directing and pushing for the taking of Norfolk and the Gosport Navy Yard in nearby Portsmouth. He even guided a landing party on Confederate-held soil in search of a spot for the Union Army to make their trek into the city as it was being abandoned by the Confederates.

CSS Virginia

Meanwhile, all this activity being directed by Lincoln created problems for the CSS Virginia. Unwilling to take on the Monitor and its supporting ships, the Virginia‘s commander began preparations to run the ship up into the James River. Unfortunately, removing ballast to reduce how low the ship sat in the water made the Virginia neither capable of moving into shallower water nor in a position to fight its way out to the sea. Facing an unfathomable situation, commander Josiah Tattnall opted to save his crew for the future and destroy the Virginia to keep it out of Union hands. Lincoln and others could see the burning hulk from the Monitor and Fort Monroe. The Confederacy’s first ironclad was no more.

As they made their way back to Washington on the USS Baltimore, Secretary Chase wrote his daughter:

“So ended a brilliant week’s campaign of the President,” Chase wrote. He was “quite certain that if he [Lincoln] had not come down, Norfolk would still have been in the possession of the enemy & the Merrimac as grim & defiant & as much a terror as ever.”

This was the only case of a sitting president taking active command of troops in the field during a time of war. By the time Lincoln had returned to the Washington Navy Yard on May 12th, news of the capture of Norfolk and the destruction of the Virginia had already reached the city. Lincoln was greeted as a conquering hero. The Monitor never did get its second encounter with the Virginia, and it too would find a watery grave not long after in a storm. But the age of wooden sailing ships was over. The age of iron ships had begun.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

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Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War Weatherman

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Weather played a large role in the Civil War. Cold and rain and mud made military movements nearly impossible much of the time, and the woolen uniforms became unbearable in the heat of the summer. A talented weatherman would be invaluable. Since Abraham Lincoln was a magnet for every self-avowed inventor and expert, one man claiming to be a “Certified Practical Meteorologist & Expert in Computing the Changes of the Weather” reached out to “His Excellency, The President.”

Capen weather letter

Francis L. Capen wrote to Lincoln on April 25, 1863. “It would give me great pleasure,” Capen wrote, “to assure you of the fine weather suitable for a visit to the front or for starting an Expedition fraught with momentous interests to the Country….” Offering his services, Capen added, “Please refer me, favorably to the War Department. I will guarantee to furnish Meteorological information that will save many a serious sacrifice.” To nail down his point further, Capen enclosed his calling card, on which he wrote:

Thousands of lives & millions of dollars may be save by the application of Science to the War.

Lincoln was intrigued. Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and Lincoln’s unofficial science adviser, had set up a network of weather reporters across the country, but the Civil War put that system on hold for the duration. Having access to a professional meteorologist could provide a much needed advantage to the floundering war effort.  Lincoln invited Capen to visit the White House for what effectively was a job interview. After the meeting, however, Lincoln was less than impressed.

Capen weather Lincoln response

On the back of Capen’s original letter Lincoln vented:

It seems to me Mr. Capen knows nothing about the weather, in advance. He told me three days ago that it would not rain again till the 30th of April or 1st of May. It is raining now & has been for ten hours – I can not spare any more time to Mr. Capen. A. Lincoln

So much for having a professional meteorologist helping the war effort.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

 

 

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The Thomas Edison – Abraham Lincoln Connection

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Thomas Edison was 14 years old when the Civil War broke out, but already learning how to send and received telegraph messages. Which is how he began his Abraham Lincoln connection. During the Civil War, the telegraph had become a critical means of communication, both to get news from the front and to relay strategies and orders from President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton. A popular song of the era captured the essence of the power of the telegraph:

For our mountains, lakes and rivers, are all a blaze of fire
And we send our news by lightning, on the telegraphic wire.

Edison spent the rest of the war working the telegraph lines safely ensconced in northeastern Michigan. After the war, Edison built his own business modifying telegraphs to send and receive on multiple channels, as well as print out the messages and automatically convert the dots and dashes into text. Much of his early work was sold to Western Union, that is until its Superintendent Thomas T. Eckert – who had been in charge of Lincoln’s telegraph office during the war – jumped ship to the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company and convinced Edison to sell his new quadruplex telegraph rights to them.

About ten years later Edison had moved on to invention of the tinfoil phonograph. In April 1878 he took it to Washington, D.C. for a demonstration of the National Academy of Sciences, created in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln. There he met Joseph Henry, then doing double duty as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and President of the National Academy. Henry had been Lincoln’s unofficial science adviser during the Civil War. The demonstration went so well that Edison was asked to bring the phonograph up the road to the White House, where he demonstrated it in a personal audience with President Rutherford B. Hayes and guests into the wee hours of the morning. Lincoln friend and now Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz played a lively tune on the piano. Ironically, Edison was so deaf by this point that his colleague Charles Batchelor had done most of the presentation at the National Academy. At the White House, Edison chimed in with his off-yelled rendition of “Mary had a little lamb” and other ditties.

Still later, Edison invented what became the film projector. One of his most famous early films was The Life of Abraham Lincoln. A silent film (with musical soundtrack) presenting highlights from Lincoln’s life, The Life expanded the length of motion pictures and now took up two reels. The Life was a “two-part drama” that ran “from the scene in front of the log cabin to the assassination at Ford’s Theater in Washington.” The sales catalog claimed, “Nothing has been left undone to make this a consummate review of Lincoln’s life.” For the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth in 1909, Wanamaker’s huge department store in lower Manhattan hosted a screening of Edison’s ten-minute film The Blue and the Grey, or the Boys of ’61, accompanied by “favorite war songs” of the era.

Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln

Edison was so enamored of Lincoln “that he placed Lincoln’s profile on his own letterhead, and wrote out this testimonial in 1880:

” … the life and character of Abraham Lincoln and his great services to this country during the war of the rebellion will stand as a monument long after the granite monuments erected to his memory have crumbled in the dust.”

The photo shown is in the collection of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL.

As I think back on my own admiration of Lincoln it strikes me that there are a number of connections between the three topics of my published books – Tesla, Edison, and Lincoln. Perhaps I was destined to write about all three.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Lincoln in Norway – Wiegers Calendar April

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Wiegers calendar AprilAbraham Lincoln seems to be everywhere in the world. In April of my monthly series, the David Wiegers calendar takes me back to Oslo, Norway, where Lincoln makes an appearance in Frogner Park.

Frogner Park includes an area many unofficially (and incorrectly) refer to as Vigeland Sculpture Park because of the more than 200 large sculptures by Gustav Vigeland in bronze, granite, and cast iron. For anyone who hasn’t experienced Vigeland’s work, you’ll be surprised, and perhaps even shocked, by the bizarreness of some of his statues. Favoring grotesquely caricatured nudes, Vigeland’s statues offer a variety of shapes, sizes, and attitudes of the human spirit. Many are of children, including The Angry Boy, a bronze statue that captures well the strife of the terrible twos (or maybe sevens). The vast majority of the sculptures are made of Iddefjord granite, including its most striking sculpture called The Monolith. A museum has more artwork and explanations of Vigeland’s creative process. Here’s some trivia – Vigeland also designed the medal given as the Nobel Peace Prize.

As with January’s Lincoln statue in Edinburgh, I feel foolish for not seeing the Lincoln statue in Oslo because I was there, and indeed spent quite a few hours roaming Frogner Park and the Vigeland statuary. Yet somehow I missed it. Apparently it stands just outside the park. Designed by Norwegian-American sculptor Paul Fjelde and donated in 1914 by the U.S. State of North Dakota, the large bronze bust of Lincoln sits on a granite pedestal flanked on either side by bronze tablets reading: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth” and “Presented to Norway by the people of North Dakota, U.S.A.”

While I missed Lincoln, my visit to Norway was heartwarming and inspirational. Several venues in Oslo brought out my science traveling side. The Viking Ship and Fram Museums highlight the long history of seaborne adventure in Norway. The Kon-Tiki Museum allowed me to relive my marine biology days and fascination with the Thor Heyerdahl’s thrilling adventues on both the Kon-Tiki and the Ra Expeditions. Downtown I got to tour the Nobel Peace Center where the aforementioned Nobel Peace Prize is awarded (I had also visited the Nobel Center in Stockholm, Sweden, where all the other Nobel Prizes are awarded).

Frogner Park Vigeland

A train to the western coast of Norway got me outside of Oslo, along with a side trip via a cog railway into the mountains and a boat trip through the fjords where hundreds of waterfalls from the precipices into the deep waters. The hills around Bergen offered a grand view of the coastline. There was even an aquarium in Bergen to add to my ever-expanding list.

In these days of COVID-19 quarantine, where travel is on perhaps long-term hold, these Wiegers calendar pages provide a chance to see Lincoln sculptures around the world while letting me reminisce about my previous travels. They also give me some ideas of places I want to see once the coronavirus that plagues the world has passed.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

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Lincoln Visits the Ironclad Montauk Hours Before His Assassination

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USS MontaukApril 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln’s last day alive, was a busy one. Included was a visit to the ironclad USS Montauk. Days later his assassins would be held on the same ship.

The day started with a welcome visit. Captain Robert Lincoln, the president’s son, returned to the city in time to join Lincoln for breakfast. With him he brought first-hand witness to the recent surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Many formal interviews later (including with former New Hampshire John P. Hale, whose daughter Lucy was later found to be secretly engaged to John Wilkes Booth), Lincoln held a cabinet meeting in which he related a recurring dream of a ship “moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore.”

Perhaps inspired by the dream or simply his interest in technology, Lincoln and Mary went out for a drive and find their way to the Washington Navy Yard. Lincoln had frequented the Navy Yard to talk strategy with John A. Dahlgren, who by that time had risen to the rank of Admiral. But Lincoln was here today to see three ironclad ships. Recently damaged in action at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, they included the Passaic-class monitor, the USS Montauk. After touring the vessels and talking with Navy Yard staff, the Lincoln’s returned to the White House and shortly thereafter set out again for what they had hoped would be a relaxing night at the theater. Our American Cousin, a comedy, should lift their spirits as this long grueling Civil War appeared to be coming to an end.

A few hours later, Lincoln would be lying in a pool of his guest Major Rathbone’s blood. The next morning he would be dead.

Days later the ironclad Montauk would be the temporary prison for six of the accused assassin’s co-conspirators. All but Doctor Samuel Mudd and Mary Surratt were kept on board before being transferred to the Old Arsenal Penitentiary for trial. That wasn’t the end of the Montauk‘s role. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth, passed over the Navy Bridge on his escape out of Washington, but twelve days later the body of Booth was brought back to the Navy Yard and onto the deck of the Montauk for examination and autopsy.

The Montauk was decommissioned shortly thereafter and stored in Philadelphia until sold for scrap iron in 1904.

There is some irony that the last ironclad Lincoln had visited became a bier for his assassin and a jail for the co-conspirators. When he related his ship dream to his cabinet the morning of his assassination, he said its earlier occurrences had presaged Union victories. When General Grant pointed out that at least one of the battles Lincoln listed was certainly not a victory, Lincoln noted that he still felt it an omen of something important to occur. His long days on Earth would come to an end.

I discuss this deeper in Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, now available for pre-order.

[Photo source: Wikimedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Montauk_(1862)#/media/File:Uss_Montauk_1862.jpg]

Pre-order Lincoln: The Fire of Genius now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (click on the respective links to pre-order). The price is likely to drop before the final shipment, and any pre-orders will automatically get charged the lower price at fulfillment. Pre-ordering now helps the publisher get a sense of the interest, which could mean a bigger print run. So please go ahead and pre-order without worries. While you’re there, check out my other books.

The book is also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. That will also ensure you get informed of the release date AND will let you try for one of ten free hardcover copies of the book that I’ll be giving away this summer. I’ll also be giving away as many as a hundred e-books. [The book will also be put out on audio]

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I’ll have much more about the book over the next few months, so join my mailing list here to keep informed.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Lincoln’s Last Speech and a Call for Voting Rights

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Abraham Lincoln Library and MuseumOn April 11, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln gave his last speech to the public. In it he called for voting rights for African Americans, both those already free and those freed from slavery. It wasn’t the first time he called for expansion of voting rights.

The speech was occasioned because a few days before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Lincoln had just missed being there himself, having returned that day to Washington, where Secretary of State William Seward was recovering from a carriage accident. On April 10th, crowds gathered outside the White House asking for a speech. Lincoln demurred, saying that such a speech should be thoughtful and prepared, not extemporaneous. Instead he called for the band to play Dixie, a song that he believed the surrender demonstrated “we fairly captured.” The next night he again came to the White House window and read a carefully worded speech, silently dropping the pages behind him as he read to be picked up by his son Tad. Mostly he spoke about reconstruction and the “gladness of heart” that the long ordeal of Civil War was coming to a close. But he also made a rather radical call for voting rights for African Americans. Loyal citizens of Louisiana had passed a new constitution but was missing one aspect Lincoln felt important.

The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana government rests, would be more satisfactory to all, if it contained fifty, thirty, or even twenty thousand, instead of only about twelve thousand, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.

Through letters and telegrams, Lincoln had privately been encouraging Louisiana to give voting rights to the free and newly freed black population, which made up more than half of the total population. He was unsuccessful in convincing them but felt that bringing Louisiana back into the Union was a step in that direction. Of course, the 15th Amendment would shortly ensure that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

But this wasn’t the first time Lincoln encouraged the expansion of voting rights. He also worked to ensure that soldiers had a means to vote during the war. Republicans had lost several congressional seats in the fall 1862 elections, in part due to pushback after Lincoln’s issuance of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, but also because there were a disproportionate number of Republican voters in the field as soldiers volunteering to preserve the Union. At that point most states still required soldiers and sailors to return to their homes to vote in elections, a practical impossibility during wartime. Several, but not all, states made changes to allow field voting for the military. To ensure soldiers were able to vote in the 1864 election, Lincoln worked with field commanders to allow leave for those soldiers living in intransigent states to return home to cast their ballots. The election of 1864 is also special in the fact that it occurred at all. Many suggested to Lincoln that he postpone the election because of the war. Lincoln refused, insisting that elections were necessary for the continuation of the Union. He noted:

If the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have been already conquered and ruined us.

But yet again, this wasn’t the first time Lincoln encouraged the expansion of voting rights. On June 13, 1836 he announced his candidacy for reelection to a second term of the Illinois legislature (he would go on to serve four terms). At this early date, when blacks and women effectively had second-class citizenship, he said:

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government, who assist in bearing its burthens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage, who pay taxes or bear arms, (by no means excluding females.)

While the 15th amendment ensured the right to vote for black men in 1870, women were, contrary to Lincoln’s wishes, excluded until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. [This year is the 100th anniversary of that event]

Abraham Lincoln could be considered today as a prudent progressive, moving progress forward by increments, but steadily. And yet, he moved public sentiment such that we as a nation came to accept emancipation and, eventually, the concept that “all men are created equal” (by no means excluding females, minorities, elderly, disabled, veterans, LGBTQ, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and everyone else). Lincoln didn’t live to see all of these battles won, but he did take what would be considered bold steps for a mid-19th century politician. On this date, April 11, 1865, he stood up for the rights of people once held as slaves to vote.

“It is for us the living,” Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address, “to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here so nobly advanced.” We must “here highly resolve” to ensure voting rights to all Americans even in this current time of turmoil.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

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Lincoln and Viruses on The Railsplitter Podcast

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My interview on “Lincoln and Viruses” is now live on The Railsplitter Podcast. I had been interviewed this past Thursday by Mary, Jeremy, and Nick of the Railsplitter podcast, and the episode (#122) is now on their podcast website. Their podcast has become a “must-listen” site for all things Lincoln. This is the second time I’ve been featured on the podcast. Previously they had selected my book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, as the very first book in their new book club installment. Over the course of three podcasts they reviewed the book and interviewed me. You can read about it and listen starting on this post.

Railsplitter podcast Episode 122_4-5-20

This current podcast was initiated based on my recent post, “That Time Lincoln Got a Virus and Almost Died.” That set us off on a deep dive on Lincoln’s bout with smallpox and how it compares to the 2020 COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic we are all currently going through. For much of an hour we seamlessly shifted back and forth from Lincoln’s time to the current era, talking not only about viruses but other diseases Lincoln had and the acceptance of science by presidents through our history (including Grover Cleveland’s secret surgery at sea). My twin science and historian backgrounds helped inform the discussion, leading Railsplitter Nick to comment that the podcast has its version of “Sanjay Gupta of the Lincoln world.” [Disclaimer: I am not a physician, so nothing I said constitutes medical advice other than “wash your hands and maintain social distancing.”]

I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and have been invited back for future episode(s) on The Railsplitter Podcast. If you haven’t already, check them out.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Lincoln in Japan – Wiegers Calendar March

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Wiegers calendar MarchTravel has been curtailed for the near future due to coronavirus, so I remember my trip to Japan as I look at the March calendar photo from David Wiegers. You can click on these links to see the entries for January (Scotland) and February (Ecuador). March takes us to Asahikawa, Japan. The second largest city on Japan’s norther Hokkaido island, Asahikawa is about a two hour drive northeast of Sapporo. Mount Asahi looms further to the east, while downtown you can slurp the city’s signature ramen noodle soup.

Asahikawa also has a statue of Lincoln.

More than a statue, a full-sized Lincoln with his stove-pipe hat lounges casually on a park bench, his arm outstretched as he gazes the empty seat next to him in anticipation of passersby stopping to chat or tell stories. It might look familiar to you because it is a copy of the statue sitting in front of the McLean County History Museum in Bloomington, Illinois. Bloomington/Normal is a sister city with Asahikawa. The sculptor, Rick Harney, is a Normal resident who also has Lincoln sculptures in Pontiac and Danville, Illinois. The one in Asahikawa is his only one in Japan.

I had the privilege of seeing the statue in Bloomington during a visit with the Lincoln Group of DC a few years ago.

Bloomington Illinois

My whirlwind tour of Japan a few years ago took me to Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, but not as far north as Hokkaido, although it’s on my list for the future. While in Japan I got to ride the Shinkansen bullet train (with a view of the bottom part of Mount Fuji; the top was shrouded in clouds), hike among the gates of the Inari Temple in Kyoto, check out the aquarium in Osaka, and checked out Tokyo’s nightlife in Shibuya and Shinjuku. Then there was the “conversation” I had with a dignified yet tipsy Japanese man on the Yamenote line around Tokyo.

Each month I get to be reminded of overseas travels and how Abraham Lincoln has been revered all over the world. Next month, like January, adds a frustration I’ve experienced several times – sometimes I don’t see the statue even though I was at the location. Stay tuned.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

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That Time Lincoln Got a Virus and Almost Died

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Since everyone’s mind is on the coronavirus, it’s a good time to remember that Abraham Lincoln once caught a life-threatening virus. As wrote in Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, this occurred during and after his trip to Gettysburg to give his famous address:

As he gave his address, Lincoln was already feeling the symptoms of variola, a mild form of smallpox, which kept him bedridden for weeks after his return to Washington. He eventually wrote out several copies of his address, including one sent to Everett to be joined with his own handwritten speech and sold at New York’s Sanitary Commission Fair as a fundraiser for wounded soldiers.

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains, smallpox, like coronavirus, is an infectious disease. Caused by two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor, initial symptoms of smallpox include fever and vomiting, followed in extreme cases by sores in the mouth and a skin rash. As it worsens, large fluid-filled bumps appear on the skin, which result in characteristic and deforming scars. Like coronavirus, the smallpox virus was spread as people coughed or sneezed and droplets from their infected nose or mouth spread to other people. The smallpox scabs forming on the skin remained contagious until the last scab fell off. Coronavirus doesn’t form the scabs – it attacks the lung tissue rather than the skin – but both smallpox and coronavirus can be spread by residues left on surfaces from bedding and clothes to handrails and elevator buttons. Which is why it is so important during this coronavirus pandemic to practice social distancing, wash your hands often, and avoid touching your face.

Most scholars treated Lincoln’s case of variola as a mild case of smallpox, but some recent researchers suggest it was much more serious and that he could have died. In 2007, for example, two researchers reported that:

When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, he was weak and dizzy; his face had a ghastly colour. That evening on the train to Washington, DC, he was febrile and weak, and suffered severe headaches. The symptoms continued; back pains developed. On the fourth day of the illness, a widespread scarlet rash appeared that soon became vesicular. By the tenth day, the lesions itched and peeled. The illness lasted three weeks. The final diagnosis, a touch of varioloid, was an old name for smallpox that was later used in the 20th century to denote mild smallpox in a partially immune individual. It was unclear whether Lincoln had been immunized against smallpox. In that regard, this review suggests that Lincoln had unmodified smallpox and that Lincoln’s physicians tried to reassure the public that Lincoln was not seriously ill. Indeed, the successful conclusion of the Civil War and reunification of the country were dependent upon Lincoln’s presidency.

Indeed, Lincoln’s free African American valet, William H. Johnson, contracted the disease while caring for Lincoln after they had returned from Gettysburg. Johnson ultimately died a few months later. He had traveled with Lincoln from Springfield and, having no other family, Lincoln arranged and paid for Johnson to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Like most 19th-century personages, this wasn’t the first time Lincoln had been seriously sick. At nine years old he was kicked in the head by a horse and “apparently killed for a time.” He also had malaria at least twice. His melancholy (depression) was infamous, especially on a few occasions where friends worried for his life. Debate still roils about whether he had Marfan syndrome or Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2B (MEN2B). Neither of these last two seems likely, but that doesn’t stop people from debating the ideas. There is no question, however, over whether he had variola/smallpox, although the severity of it remains undecided.

Lincoln survived his smallpox infection; William Johnson and many others did not. As much of the world today battles the current coronavirus pandemic, it is critical that we follow the advice of health professionals. As I write this, most of the USA is under some form of lockdown, from “social distancing” to “shelter-in-place.” Follow medical advice, stay away from people, and wash your hands frequently. Lincoln would agree.

 

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

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David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity andEdison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

 

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Coronavirus Cancellations

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Lincoln RoomWell, the worldwide coronavirus outbreak has certainly caused a lot of disruption lately. Like everyone else, I’m social distancing (even more than usual), which means tons of cancellations of upcoming appearances and presentations.

I keep a running list on my Media page, but here’s a rundown of my immediate schedule:

 

March 21st: The Abraham Lincoln Institute symposium has been cancelled. I was expecting to be on stage to introduce the first speaker. We will begin planning for next year.

April 4th: My presentation at the Rock Creek Civil War Roundtable, “Abraham Lincoln’s Long Road to Emancipation,” has been rescheduled for September 5, 2020.

April 17th: Invited speaker at the Cosmos Club Civil War Roundtable, “Abraham Lincoln and Technology of the Civil War,” is awaiting a final decision. I’ll update shortly.

April 21st: The Lincoln Group of DC dinner featuring Garrett Peck on “Lincoln and Walt Whitman” is cancelled. The speaker will be rescheduled for a later date.

May 19th: The Lincoln Group of DC dinner featuring Burrus Carnahan on “Lincoln and the Use of Presidential Pardons” will continue as scheduled.

September 5th: New date for my presentation at the Rock Creek Civil War Roundtable, “Abraham Lincoln’s Long Road to Emancipation.”

January 15, 2021: Invited to chair a panel on different methods used to teach Abraham Lincoln. Cosmos Club Civil War Roundtable. Continue as scheduled.

 

I’ll update as new information becomes available. For now, please stay home and flatten the curve. Pay attention to health officials. Stay healthy.

 

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!