Lincoln's son

A footnote on the life of Robert Todd Lincoln.

Sometime in the year of 1864, 21-year-old Robert Lincoln, the son of President Abraham Lincoln was standing on a railroad station platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was a large crowd, and he was accidentally forced off the platform, falling toward the wheels of a train. An arm reached down and pulled young Lincoln to safety. The man who saved him was the famous Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth. The brother of John Wilke Booth, who a year later was to assassinate President Lincoln at Fords Theatre.

Robert Lincoln as at the White House the night of April 14th, 1865, when his father was shot. He rushed to his father’s side and was with him when he died.

Robert went on to become a successful lawyer, a businessman; He was an ambassador to Great Britain and a Secretary of War. On July 2nd, 1881 Robert Lincoln went to the Washington D.C. railroad station to see President James Garfield off on a trip. Two shots rang out. Garfield was mortally wounded. Lincoln was at his side.

In 1901, as a guest at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, Nee York, Robert Lincoln was just about to enter the hall to meet President William McKinley. Again two shot were fired. Again Robert Lincoln was with a dying president.

He became a recluse in later life and died just shy of his 83 birthday in 1926. His wife had him buried on a quiet knoll in Arlington National Cemetery. 43-years later President John Kennedy would be laid to rest on the same hillside.


(For an audio read go to www.rollandgsmith.com)