"Stealing Lincoln's Body" - History Channel (2009)

I’d always heard about the attempted abduction of President Lincoln’s body in 1876, but I have never found a book; or a film; which told the story behind it. It was; in effect; relegated to the back of my memory with the rest of the trivia. Then I saw this film.

Abraham Lincoln was the first President who dealt with the problem of counterfeiting currency in a meaningful way. Before the War Between the States; which was anything but “civil”; paper money was a convenience and minted by banks. If you lived near one of those banks; say in the same city; it was no problem to authenticate the bills. But for travelers it was a nightmare. Lincoln set up the Secret Service to combat this crime. His was also the first Presidency to have the motto “In God We Trust” appears on American currency; hard coin or paper.

The reason I mention the counterfeiters is that it was a group of such men who set about; in 1876; to steal Lincoln’s body from its tomb in Springfield, Illinois. The film traces the journey of Lincoln’s body from the moment he is shot at Ford’s theater in 1865 until he was finally permanently entombed in Springfield in 1901.

You read that right. While John Brown’s body was a Moldering in its Grave, Lincolns was stuck in an odyssey which could never have been invented; for the antics of man are greater than any fiction.  James Brown’s body has been in limbo since his death in 2006; but even his 8 year ordeal pales in comparison to what happened with Lincoln. Not wishing to ruin the film for you I will just give you a brief outline of what the film covers, leaving out the best parts.

Mary Todd Lincoln was too grief stricken to make the journey to the President’s funeral. She was actually holed up in the White House for about a month after her husband’s death, unable to leave.

Meantime the largest funeral procession ever undertaken in perhaps the history of the world was unfolding, with the Presidents funeral train traveling from Washington to New York. From there it would take a long route back to Illinois through just about every major stop on the line.

   

Each town had its own funeral procession; requiring that the coffin be removed from the train and paraded through streets and even exhibited in City Halls. New York was one of those places, where the body lay in state indoors at City Hall for 8 hours as almost half a million people attempted to pay their respects. Some towns actually held the ceremonies outdoors to accommodate the crowds.  There were 25 such stops made before the train arrived in Springfield.

It almost didn’t make it that far. Mrs. Lincoln, back in Washington, heard that the plans were for her husband to be buried in town when it arrived in Springfield. She wanted him buried at Oak Lawn Cemetery and if that was unacceptable to the “committee” which had decided upon this, then she would have the President buried in Chicago. The President was buried at Oak Lawn.

That should have been the end of the story. But it wasn’t. In 1876, amid the most contested election in the history of our country; 82% of Americans eligible to vote, did so. This was deemed by the conspirators as the perfect time to snatch the body; election night 1876. The hullabaloo surrounding the election results; which would not be resolved for weeks; pushed the story of the attempted abduction to the back pages of most newspapers; if they were reporting it at all.

One of the conspirators was an informer for the Secret Service and due to his presence in the gang the Service was alerted and arrived at the tomb earlier than the robbers themselves. They would wait for a signal from the informant before making the arrest. The local police were kept out of the affair altogether. When the signal was given there was a terrific gun fight and a chase through the woods, leading to the capture of some of the men. They were later tried for tampering with a body and sentenced to 1 year in prison. And that should have been the end of the story; but again, it wasn’t.

That was in 1876. For what happened over the next 25 years you will need to see the film or look it up. Suffice to say that Lincoln was disinterred 10 more times before he was finally allowed to sleep undisturbed. And when he was finally buried his pallbearers were 6 workmen, and the only witness present was a 13 year old boy.

"Touched by Fire" by James M. Perry

Wars have always given birth to future Presidents of the United States. Our first President was a General. The War of 1812 gave us two more military Presidents, as did the War with Mexico in the 1840's. The Civil War gave us five Presidents who had been "touched by fire." The Spanish-American War gave us one. The First World War gave us at least 2, and the Second World War gave us a string Presidents from Eisenhower through Ford. Almost half of our Presidents have been products of the military. But the Civil War gave us the most number of Presidents who had actually seen combat, in essence, "touched by fire." Their experiences in the war would color their leadership, as well as help to chart the future course of our nation.

Beginning in 1869, at age 46 years old, General Grant would become the youngest President elected up to that time. That record would not be broken until Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest President-elect at age 42, and that would not be surpassed until John Kennedy's election, at age 43, in 1960. (The discrepancy in who was actually elected at a younger age, versus being inaguarated, comes from the change in the date of inaguaration, which changed from March to January, in 1933 with the swearing in of Franklin Roosevelt.)

Grant was a natural choice for the office after Lincoln's Vice President had finished the slain President's term in 1868. Grant was, after all, the hero of the Civil War. He did, however, make a lousy President, and his administration was marked by scandal after scandal as he was manipulated by the Barons of the Gilded Age. Only Mark Twain, by assisting Grant in the writing of his memoirs, would save Grant from poverty. He died shortly after completing the book.

Grant was a product, like his nemesis General Lee, of West Point. He had failed at everything prior to that endeavor, and even in that he graduated at the bottom of his class. After the Mexican War he left the Army and tried his hand at everything imagineable, failing at them all. The outbreak of the Civil War brought him back into the Army, and with his daring tactics and agresssive leadership, he was able to prosecute the war to a speedy conclusion.

Grant was followed into office by Rutherford Hayes, who had served in the Civil War as a Major in the 23rd Ohio Regiment. These men were all volunteers, including an 18 year old Private named William McKinley. That he would actually form a bond with the future, and much older, Major Hayes, would seem unlikely, but is nonetheless true.

Major Hayes won the hearts of his men the day that the 23rd received their weapons. Due to the actions of President Buchanan's last Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, a Southerner, most of the modern weapons had been shipped South in the days leading up to the outbreak of the war, leaving the North short on modern rifles. The boys of the 23rd refused, at first, to accept the old weapons and were actually threatened with being shot for doing so. That order came from Lieutenant Colonel Matthews. Major Hayes took a different tact, going from tent to tent, lecturing the boys in a kindly way and reminding them of the lack of weaponry at the outbreak of the American Revolution, inspiring them to return to the arsenal and take up their arms. The 23rd would go on to extinguish itself in the West Virginia campaign.

The next, and third, President to spring from the Civil War was James Garfield. He was an inspired leader of men, and would go on to fight in the the Big Sandy campaign, which though crucial to the sucess of the war, gets surprisingly little note in the history books. The Big Sandy was critical due to the fact that the valley, and the river named for it, ran along the line between West Virginia, which was Union, and Kentucky, which was not officially a Confederate state, but so conflicted in it's loyalties, that it was essential that the Union maintain hold of it. And with the help of future President Garfield, it remained a part of the Union. Garfield's exploits in the Big Sandy made his future career. That he was only President for six months, dying at the hands of an assassin during his first year in office, in no way diminishes this accomplishment.

After Garfield there was a period of 8 years before another Civil War veteran was elected to the Presidency. This was Benjamin Harrison, who was the grandson of William Henry Harrison, who had also been a General in the Mexican War before he became President. That Benjamin Harrison would follow so closely in the career path of his grandfather was surprising, as prior to the war he had no political ambitions at all. His contribution to the war came during the infamous March to the Sea under General Sherman. He lead the 70th Indiana into battle in Northwestern Georgia, as well as the neighboring states of Tennessee and Alabama.

After Harrison's reign in the White House there was another 8 year spell between a Civil War Veteran becoming President. William McKilnley, who had entered the war as an 18 year old Private, would be the last of the Civil War Presidents. Elected 38 years after the war had ended, he presided over the nation in the middle years of "Jim Crow" laws down South. Like Garfield, he too was shot by an assassin. Present at both assassinations was President Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln. It remains one of the most unusual facts of American history that he was present at the deaths of 3 American Presidents, including his father's.

This was a very insightful read, with much information about the battles in which each man made his mark. The battles fought, and sacrifices made, by these men, and the admiration of the men who served under them, paved the way for their eventual elections as President. And their experiences in that war would color their leadership in office, while shaping the nation in which we still live today.