BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center

BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LINCOV_211101_01.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2021_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (4 photos from 2021)
2. LINCOV_211101_09.JPG: Lincoln and the Indians Civil War Policy and Politics David A. Nichols "Undoubtedly the best book published on Indian affairs in the years of Lincoln's presidency." -- American Historical Review From https://davidanichols.net/lincoln-and-the-indians/ Lincoln and the Indians First published in 1978, Lincoln and the Indians remains the definitive study of Lincoln's Indian policies and the corrupt "Indian System" of the Civil War period that benefited unscrupulous white politicians at the expense of the tribes. In the broad context of the Civil War and western development, Nichols covers the Dakota-U.S. War of 1862 in Minnesota (including the proposed executions of 303 Dakota men), the government's inept handling of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory and refugees in Kansas, and the movement to reform the Indian System. The third edition was published in July 2012 by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.
3. LINCOV_211101_12.JPG: The Pentagon issued Health Protection Condition Level Delta (highest level) for the Armed Forces Retirement Home to ensure the health and safety of the veteran residents living on campus. Venturing beyond the Cottage and the Visitor Education Center boundaries is not permitted and results in trespassing on federal property.
4. LINCOV_200228_05.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2020_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (20 photos from 2020)
5. LINCOV_200228_20.JPG: "As our case is new, so must we think anew & act anew." -- A. Lincoln, message to Congress, 1862
6. LINCOV_200228_23.JPG: "The struggle of today, is not altogether for today -- it is for a vast future." -- A. Lincoln, message to Congress, 1861
7. LINCOV_200228_30.JPG: A Home for Brave Ideas
8. LINCOV_200228_37.JPG: Did Abraham Lincoln drink coffee? He sure did. And you can too! Espresso, snacks and water available in our store.
9. LINCOV_200228_40.JPG: President Lincoln's Cottage thanks the following supporters for their generous financial and in-kind contributions. January 2018 - December 2018 [somewhat dated!] Names I recognized included Michelle Krowl (footnotes indicated contributions were in memory of Paul Pascal and Coley Hobbie), Thurgood Marshall Jr., Erin Carlson Mast, and Richard Moe.
10. LINCOV_200228_47.JPG: Our Founders * Robert H. Smith, Founding Benefactor * Richard "Dick" Moe, Founder * Lester G. "Ruff" Fant, III, Chairman Emeritus
11. LINCOV_200228_60.JPG: Capital Project Donors The National Trust for Historic Preservation undertook a $15 million Capital Campaign to restore President Lincoln's Cottage and establish the Richard H. Smith Visitor Education Center. The Campaign was completed successfully in 2008 when the Cottage was opened to the public for the first time in history. We are grateful for the generous support of the following donors to the Capital Campaign: $7,000,000 and above Robert H. Smith $5,000,000 and above United States Congress $1,000,000 and above United Technologies Corporation $750,000 and above Save America's Treasures $500,000 and above Matthew and Ellen Simmons $250,000 and above National Endowment for the Humanities $100,000 and above AT&T Foundation 1772 Foundation DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Goldman Sachs John F.W. Rogers Mark S. Taper Foundation National Endowment for the Arts The Malkin Fund Textron, Inc. Winnick Family Foundation Tourism Cares/Trip Mate Insurance $50,000 and above Civil War Preservation Trust- HTR Foundation Ms. Linda B. Bruckheimer Roger S. Firestone Foundation HGTV Kiplinger Foundation National Park Service PEPCO The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Unico, Inc. John and Diana Zentay $10,000 and above Seth, Lynn and Sari Abraham Albert and Lillian Small Foundation Altria Edith Bingham Blum-Kovler Foundation W. Lyons Brown Faye F. and Sheldon S. Cohen Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund Thomas and Linda Daschle Ruff and Susan Fant Fetzer Institute Marshall B. Coyne Foundation Sharon Patrick Phillip L. Graham Fund Samuel G. Rose SavATree Sidney Stern Memorial Trust Patricia Green Thomas in memory of Dr. Daniel Bassuk Timberlane Woodcrafters White House Historical Association Anonymous $1,000 and above Armed Forces Retirement Home Residents Stephen and Margaret Case Polin Cohanne Lynn R. Coleman, Esq Ray and Jo Colvard Brian and Lucy Conboy Cowan & Tout/Colefax Fowler Crescent Development James and Bannia Darrow David R. Macdonald Foundation Discovery Communications ESOP Association Elinor K. Farquhar Fine Paints of Europe Ford Foundation Hunt Alternatives Fund IFDA Washington Chapter (in memory of Loretta Camera) Lee Jofa James and Marilyn Lynch Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Millstone Restoration Richard Moe Richard and Karen Murphy Paul and Brenda Pascal and the Leo Pascal Collection Ellen Ramsey Sanger Scalamandre Ronald and Linda Staley Florence C. Stanley The Christman Company The Little River Foundation William and Margaret Tramposch George L. Wellman
12. LINCOV_200228_64.JPG: View of the Soldiers' Home in Lincoln's Time William Woodward, 2007
13. LINCOV_190412_08.JPG: Keck's Lincoln Sculpture an Important Part of New Exhibit By Jasper Collier 07/21/2008 In 1932, the town of Wabash, Indiana unveiled their newly completed sculpture of Abraham Lincoln on their courthouse lawn. The piece by sculptor Charles Keck remains one of the most realistic and human models of the sixteenth president. A maquette of Keck's seated Lincoln has been on display in the Visitor Education Center at the President Lincoln's Cottage since the site opened in February, but it has recently been moved into the special exhibit gallery. Until December 19th, the piece, which was a gift of Faye F. and Sheldon S. Cohen, will feature prominently in the new exhibit, "A Deep and Subtle Expression: Lincoln in Sculpture." Keck was born in New York City in 1875, and is primarily known for his portraits and sculptures of famed Americans including Lewis and Clark, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, and Booker T. Washington. Though he was an accomplished artist by the time he began work on the Lincoln sculpture, he agonized over every detail and produced numerous studies in hopes of capturing the essence of Lincoln's humanity and compassion. Keck produced a standing and a seated Lincoln, but Alexander New, who had commissioned the piece, preferred the seated version. Many of the objects on display in "A Deep and Subtle Expression" are from other National Trust Historic Sites, and it is fitting that Keck's sculpture represents President Lincoln's Cottage. It is not as heroic or triumphant as the pieces by Daniel Chester French, or as scientific in detail as the life masks or hand sketches, but it is an image of an approachable and understanding individual – exactly who Lincoln was during his summers at the Soldiers' Home. The above was from https://www.lincolncottage.org/kecks-lincoln-sculpture-an-important-part-of-new-exhibit/
14. LINCOV_190412_24.JPG: Charles Keck Sc. Charles Keck From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Keck (September 9, 1875 – April 23, 1951) was an American sculptor from New York City, New York. Early life and education Keck studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York with Philip Martiny, and was an assistant to Augustus Saint-Gaudens from 1893 to 1898. He also attended the American Academy in Rome. In 1921 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1928. He is best known for his monuments and architectural sculpture. His interment was located at Fishkill Rural cemetery. Career Architectural sculpture * Brooklyn Museum, Genius of Islam, McKim, Mead and White, architects, NYC, 1908 * Pennsylvania Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1908 * Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial, Pittsburgh, 1910 * Oakland City Hall, Palmer & Hornbostel architects, Oakland, California, 1914 * Pittsburgh City-County Building, Palmer & Hornbostel architects, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1916 * Wilmington City Hall, Palmer & Hornbostel architects, Wilmington, Delaware, 1917 * Education Building, Albany, New York * Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri * Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Schultze & Weaver architects, NYC, 1931 * Essex County Building Annex, Newark, New Jersey, c. 1930 * Jackson County Court House, Wight & Wight, architects, Kansas City Missouri, 1934 * Bronx County Courthouse, Freedlander & Hausle architects, Bronx, New York, 1933 * Campus gates, Columbia University, New York City Monuments and memorials * Minot Monument, Goshen, New York, with architect Thomas Harlan Ellett, dedicated May, 1912. * The John B. Murphy Memorial, Chicago, Illinois * Amicitia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil * George Washington, Buenos Aires, Argentina * Manchester Bridge statues, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1917 * Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1919 * Thomas Jonathan Jackson, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1921 * Duke Family sarcophagi, Memorial Chapel, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina * John Mitchell, Scranton, PA, 1924 * Liberty Monument, Ticonderoga, New York, 1924 * Angel of Peace, Exhibition Place, Toronto, 1930 * The Lincoln Monument of Wabash, Indiana, 1932 * [[Statue of Francis P. Duffy, Duffy Square, New York City, 1937 * Huey Long Memorial, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1940 * Huey Long, National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol in Washington D.C., 1941 * Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Alabama * Andrew Jackson, Kansas City, Missouri * Ernest Haass Memorial, Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan * George Rogers Clark Memorial, Springfield, Ohio * Listening Post, Lynchburg, Virginia In 1913 Keck designed a memorial plaque that was cast from metal that had been salvaged from the USS Maine after it was raised in Havana harbor the previous year. Over a thousand of the plaques were cast and they are spread unevenly all over the United States. In 1931, Keck completed the Great Seals of the Commonwealth of Virginia which had been commissioned by the Commonwealth. The obverse of the seal is still used to this day and appears on the state flag. Numismatic works * 1915-S Panama-Pacific Exposition Gold Dollar * 1927 Vermont, Battle of Bennington Sesquicentennial Half Dollar * 1936 Lynchburg Sesquicentennial Half Dollar
15. LINCOV_190115_01.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2019_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (9 photos from 2019)
16. LINCOV_181104_01.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2018_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (9 photos from 2018)
17. LINCOV_181104_08.JPG: Cottage Doors North Entrance Board and Batten These doors, which are original to the Cottage's north entrance, were significantly altered over the nearly 140 years since the Lincolns last occupied the Cottage. The lancet arch, which was typical in Gothic Revival style architecture, was cut to allow the top portion of the door to remain stationary, while the lower part could be opened and closed. Additionally, approximately 8 inches were cut off the bottom of the door when the floor was raised in the Cottage vestibule. Ghost lines reveal both the presence of a decorative hinge strap and that the current rim lock is smaller than the original vertical lock and was likely taken from another door in the house to replace the original lock. Paint analysis performed on these doors shows that they originally were faux grained to approximate white oak. Please handle doors gently.
18. LINCOV_181104_23.JPG: Cottage Doors North Entrance Board and Batten Restoration and preservation are the preferred treatments of historic material at the Cottage. While much of the Cottage's architectural features and materials are original to the house, there are times when replacement of a material or feature is the more appropriate choice. After 163 years of consistent use and exposure to the elements, as well as significant structural alterations, the original front doors were stored for future research and new doors were constructed to match the size and details seen in Lincoln's time. Today, these doors provide an invitation to contemplate both what Lincoln was thinking as he turned its knob each night, and the doors we need to open to make this nation more perfect for all. When you walk through the doors of President Lincoln's Cottage, you are entering a place where Abraham Lincoln wrestled with some of the most divisive issues of his time. We preserve this place not only to gaze on its beautiful features but to keep this home a beacon of hope and a reminder that our country was built on the premise that there still was work to do -- that we are constantly striving for a more perfect union. Please handle doors gently.
19. LINCOV_181104_48.JPG: A Home for Brave Ideas
20. LINCOV_181104_51.JPG: "My thoughts. My solicitude for this great country follow me where ever I go." "We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing." "It is for us, the living rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work."
21. LINCOV_170307_01.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2017_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (2 photos from 2017)
  Mr. Lincoln experienced his share of setbacks before being elected President of the United States. Lincoln's persistence helped him advance in life. "My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."
22. LINCOV_170307_03.JPG: At 6'4", Abraham Lincoln was the tallest president in our nation's history. The average height of an adult male in the 1860s was only 5'7".
23. LINCST_170303_001.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2017_DC_Lincoln_CottageVCS DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center -- Store (18 photos from 2017)
24. LINCOV_131231_08.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2013_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (6 photos from 2013)
25. LINCOV_131231_28.JPG: Tad Lincoln's Photo Album of the 150th Pennsylvania For Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, the Bucktails filled a significant void after the death of his older brother Willie. The Bucktails showed their humor and affection for Tad by declaring him third lieutenant -- inviting him to wear a uniform, drill on his pony, and "take mess" with the soldiers. Private AN See reflected that Tad "seemed as much at home with us as though he was one of us, and we could not have thought more of him if he had been a brother." The Bucktails presented Tad with this album, which includes photographs of each of the one hundred members of Company K, taken at Mathew Brady's Washington DC studio. Many years later See wrote to Robert Lincoln, Tad's only surviving brother, asking if he could have the album. Robert declined, explaining that of all of his youngest brother's possessions the album was Robert's favorite. It reminded him of Tad, and "showed the esteem the men who knew him best placed on him."
26. LINCOV_131231_44.JPG: Abraham Lincoln's Briefcase President Lincoln spent considerable time developing his biggest ideas about emancipation, the Civil War, and the future of the country, often creating several drafts in the process. While living at the Cottage, Lincoln regularly commuted to the White House and War Department, conducting business everywhere he went. It is well documented that Lincoln brought his work home to the Cottage with him each evening. Lincoln used this leather portfolio to carry his papers back and forth on his daily commute.
27. LINCOV_120929_004.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2012_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (16 photos from 2012)
28. LINCOV_120929_049.JPG: Authorized edition of the Emancipation Proclamation Leland and Baker, 1864 Loaned by David M. Rubenstein Signed by Lincoln himself, this special edition was one of several auctioned at the Philadelphia's Sanitary Fair to raise money to care for Union soldiers. Of the 48 copies printed and signed, the whereabouts of only 26 are known today. The Cradle of the Emancipation Proclamation President Lincoln moved his family to the Cottage in June 1862, in the wake of his son Willie's death and a string of military disappointments. Though Lincoln found moments to relax with family and friends, he also conducted important meetings, made crucial military decisions, and developed some of his greatest ideas here. Within weeks of moving to the Cottage, he began to craft the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation paved the way to freedom for millions of slaves in the United States. Supporters of the document viewed it as a crucial step toward greater freedom, while detractors declared it a violation of the U.S. Constitution and civil liberties. The Emancipation Proclamation remains a testament to Lincoln's hope for an America free from slavery.
29. LINCOV_120929_100.JPG: Abraham Lincoln Charles Keck, 1932 In honor of the 2009 bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln Gift of Faye F. and Sheldon S. Cohen, 2007
30. LINCOV_110217_001.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2011_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (67 photos from 2011)
  Behind the Front Lines: Almost overnight, a sleepy southern town became the bustling hub of the northern war effort. The conflicts that sometimes flared openly on battlefields within earshot of the capital, simmered in Washington's parlors, hotels, and offices as Confederate sympathizers mingled with Union loyalists. Encircled by fortifications, Washingtonians braced for attack but went on with everyday life. For relatively provincial newcomers like the Lincolns, the city presented varied social, cultural, and commercial possibilities. Traveling companies of actors performed at Ford's, Grover's, Nixon's, and the National theaters. In the recently completed "Castle," the Smithsonian Institution presented lectures and exhibits. Twice weekly the Marine band performed on the Capitol's west terrace, while Willard's and other hotels held balls and "hops." In the sprawling stalls and sheds of the Center Market at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, white and black vendors sold goods, fresh vegetables, and meats the complemented the wares of shopkeepers along surrounding streets. Nathaniel Hawthorne declared that the Willard Lobby "may be much more justly called the centre of Washington and the Union that either the Capitol, the White House, or the State Department. Everybody may be seen there... You exchange nods with governors of sovereign states, you elbow illustrious men, and tread of the toes of generals, you hear statesmen and orators speaking in their familiar tones. You are mixed up with office-seekers, wire-pullers, inventors, artists, poets, prosers, (including editors, army-correspondents, attaches of foreign journals, and long-winded talkers), clerks, diplomats, mail contractors, railway directors, until your own identify is lost among them."
31. LINCOV_110217_007.JPG: Beef Depot Monument Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, February 1, 1862 Cattle, which would provide meat for Union troops, grazed at the foot of the unfinished Washington Monument. Construction had stalled at about 150 feet in 1856 due to lack of private funding and did not resume until 1879. The monument was completed in 1884.
32. LINCOV_110217_012.JPG: War Department map of Washington's ring forts and military roads, 1865 Julius Bien & Co., Lith., New York By the war's end, 68 forts and batteries and 32 miles of military roads encircled the capital.
33. LINCOV_110217_017.JPG: Note the location of the "US Military Asylum" in the lower right of the map.
34. LINCOV_110217_025.JPG: Arlington Cemetery is identified as "Soldiers Nat Cemetery" in the middle of the picture.
35. LINCOV_110217_028.JPG: Note Ball's Cross Roads, modern day Ballston, in the middle of the map
36. LINCOV_110217_042.JPG: The "US Lunatic Asylum" in the lower right is St Elizabeths
37. LINCOV_110217_051.JPG: Nathaniel Hawthorne declared that the Willard Lobby "may be much more justly called the centre of Washington and the Union that either the Capitol, the White House, or the State Department. Everybody may be seen there... You exchange nods with governors of sovereign states, you elbow illustrious men, and tread of the toes of generals, you hear statesmen and orators speaking in their familiar tones. You are mixed up with office-seekers, wire-pullers, inventors, artists, poets, prosers, (including editors, army-correspondents, attaches of foreign journals, and long-winded talkers), clerks, diplomats, mail contractors, railway directors, until your own identify is lost among them."
38. LINCOV_110217_061.JPG: "I see the President almost every day, as I happen to live where he passes to or from his lodgings out of town. He never sleeps at the White House during the hot season, but has quarters at a healthy location some three miles north of the city, the Soldiers' Home..." -- Walt Whitman, August 12, 1863
39. LINCOV_110217_064.JPG: Before D.C. Emancipation: Prior to the Civil War, there was a large free black population in the District, more than 9,000 in 1860. A black middle class of restaurateurs, seamstresses, barbers, government messengers, and shopkeepers mingled with whites during the daytime but retreated to mostly segregated neighborhoods at night. At the same time, nearly 2,000 enslaved servants and laborers were living in the District. During his term in Congress between 1846 and 1848, Abraham Lincoln had been appalled by slave traders doing business even near the steps of the Capitol. The Compromise of 1850 had ended the sale of slaves within the District of Columbia, but long-held customs and municipal regulations called the "Black Codes" continued to restrict the lives of Washington's free and enslaved black residents. One of the largest attempted escapes of slaves took place in Washington in 1848 when 76 men and women boarded the Pearl and sailed north into the night. The winds were not strong enough to carry them to freedom, and they were captured the next day. Many were sold into the Deep South as punishment.
40. LINCOV_110217_067.JPG: After D.C. Emancipation: In 1862, President Lincoln pressed for and signed a congressional act emancipating slaves in the District on April 16 of that year, and compensating owners loyal to the Union up to $300 per slave. The prospect of freedom almost immediately led thousands of rural slaves to leave farms and plantations. One year after D.C. emancipation, approximately 10,000 former slaves, mostly from Maryland and Virginia, were living here. By 1865 when the war ended, 40,000 freed men, women, and children had come to the capital. Annual celebrations of D.C. emancipation took place in Washington from 1866 to 1901 and were revived in 2002. In 2005, Emancipation Day became an official holiday in the District of Columbia. Congress created the Freedman's Bureau in March 1865 to assist in protecting, aiding and educating free black Americans. General Oliver Otis Howard, appointed by Lincoln to head the bureau, allocated $500,000 to purchase land and construct buildings for a liberal arts college. Howard University, named in his honor, was established by congressional charter in 1867.
41. LINCOV_110217_072.JPG: Howard University students in front of the "Main Building," 1870
42. LINCOV_110217_076.JPG: Celebration of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia by the colored people, in Washington, April 19, 1866. [Sketched by F. Dielman.]
43. LINCOV_110217_079.JPG: Wartime Washington: The city that greeted the Lincolns was a study in contrasts, which grew as the war dragged on. A southern town, from which many Confederate sympathizers fled, it swelled with Union troops and a flood of northerners. Job seekers and businessmen, doctors and nurses, and abolitionists and ordinary citizens arrived, eager to join the war effort. A reverse migration brought southern deserters, spies, and runaway slaves. And from the battlefields of nearby Virginia and Maryland, wagons bearing the dead and wounded began to pour in. Washington also embodied the nation's most divisive contrast. Although a great majority of the black population living here was already free, the city still stood at the outset of the Civil War as the slaveholding capital of the mostly antislavery Union. This stark contradiction endured until Abraham Lincoln signed the congressional act ending slavery in the District of Columbia on April 16, 1862, almost nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation. "If people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign that we intend the Union shall go on." -- Abraham Lincoln, July 1863 A large Capitol dome, begun in 1835 and still unfinished in 1861, [???] war weary Washington after the federal government halted all non-war construction. In 1862, President Lincoln signaled his determination to preserve the Union by ordering work to resume. The dome was completed on December 3, 1863.
44. LINCOV_110217_093.JPG: Union troops at the Capital, May 1861
45. LINCOV_110217_097.JPG: A contraband camp Photograph by Mathew Brady
46. LINCOV_110217_105.JPG: The Soldiers' Home Cemetery in 1864, the only known image of the cemetery from the 1860s
47. LINCOV_110217_112.JPG: Harewood Hospital, with the Soldiers' Home and its flagpole visible on horizon
48. LINCOV_110217_118.JPG: A City Transformed: With most streets unpaved and many government buildings half-built, Washington in 1861 was ill prepared for the sudden chaos of war. Tens of thousands of soldiers, civilians, escaped slaves, and -- later -- newly emancipated men, women, and children flooded in. Tent Cities and Shantytowns: Wartime tripled the capital's population. In 1861 there were 50,000 people living in Washington City and 75,000 in the entire District of Columbia. By war's end, the count had ballooned to 200,000. The influx brought office seekers, patronage hunters, northern abolitionists, civilian suppliers for the Union war effort, prostitutes, and camp followers (wives, children, nurses, provisioners). Free blacks, "contrabands" (escaped slaves), and recently emancipated slaves came seeking a safe place to live a life of freedom. Newcomers scrambled to find in overcrowded tent cities and shantytowns, or in hastily built shacks lining the city's alleys. Camps and Quarters: Fewer than 500 troops guarded the nation's capital on New Year's Day in 1861, but within a week of the attack on Fort Sumter in mid-April, regiments from Pennsylvania and then Massachusetts and New York arrived. In this "instant" armed camp, Union troops pitched tents on the White House lawn and public squares and turned the Patent Office and other public buildings into military quarters. Civilians learned to live with drumming, bugling, and cannon fire, not to mention flourishing brothels. Hospitals and Cemeteries: Churches, hotels, schools, social halls, and even private homes became makeshift hospitals. The wounded lined the halls of the patent Office and Capitol. Thousands of unmarried northern women streamed into Washington to undertake the difficult work of nursing. On occasion, Mary Lincoln quietly made the rounds visiting the wounded in Union hospitals, several of which were near the White House. At the peak of the war, 50,000 ill and gravely injured soldiers filled 22 hospitals. The beleaguered living buried the dead quickly, with little ceremony, in local cemeteries or the first national cemeteries, located at the Soldiers' Home and then Arlington.
49. LINCOV_110217_122.JPG: "We are in camp 3 miles from Washington guarding the soldiers home where Uncle Abe lives. He goes by every day to the city and we have to salute him... The soldiers home is the nicest place I ever seen." -- Private Willard A Cutter, Company K, 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers, September 10, 1862 Very reluctantly, in 1862 Lincoln accepted a military escort for his trips to and from the White House. The president grew to enjoy the company of the cavalrymen of the 11th New York and the Union Light Guard of Ohio, as well as that of the 150th Pennsylvania infantrymen assigned to protect him. "Mrs. Lincoln moved out to the 'Soldiers Home' about a mile and a half from the city this past week... John [Hay] and I are left almost alone in the house here... the crowd only coming when they know the President to be about." -- John G. Nicolay, private secretary to President Lincoln, on life in the White House, June 15, 1862
50. LINCOV_110217_123.JPG: "My thoughts, my solicitude for this great country follow me where ever I go." -- Abraham Lincoln, August 19, 1864 The soldiers, generals, cabinet members, politicians, aides, friends, foreign visitors, and curious onlookers who met President Lincoln here at the Soldiers' Home witnessed him grappling with momentous issues. Here he confronted the devastating and drawn-out war, the question of emancipation, and his contentious campaign for reelection in 1864. But here he also indulged his love of storytelling and reading Shakespeare, the Bible, or the light works of contemporary humorists. Here he chatted with the soldiers who guarded him and the Soldiers' Home, took leisurely carriage rides with his wife, and played games with his youngest son. Reminders of the war were everywhere, especially in the newly dug graves visible from the cottage, but here the president also found lighter moments. The president enjoyed inviting guests to his "retreat" for relaxing social gatherings as well as politically discreet consultations away from White House scrutiny. Senator Orville Browning, a Republican from Illinois and a family friend of the Lincolns, notes in his diary many meetings in 1862 at the Soldiers' Home with social acquaintances, business leaders, and political figures. Lincoln's fondness for spending time at the Soldiers' Home may have reflected his lifelong desire to talk with and listen to ordinary people. When he encountered wounded soldiers on his commute to the White House and on visits to military hospitals, he could gauge the course of the war at the front, directly from those fighting it. By expressing his genuine interest in the views of his friends and opponents, Lincoln was often able to win over skeptics. But his accessibility also left him vulnerable to "seekers" who pursued him even in his Soldiers' Home parlor. Until 1862, the public could come and go freely on the Soldiers' Home grounds, but following the Union retreat after the second battle at Bull Run, a security detail was ordered for the president, and guards were assigned to control access to the area around the president's cottage at the Soldiers' Home. Even Secretary of War Stanton's family had to have a pass. The Stanton family also occupied a cottage here, at the invitation of the Soldiers' Home commissioners. Once a rival, Stanton became one of Lincoln's closest confidants. Both were also attentive fathers: Stanton indulged Tad almost as much as Lincoln did. "When only one or two were present, he was fond of reading aloud. He passed many of the summer evenings in this way when occupying his cottage at the Soldiers' Home. He would there read from Shakspere [sic] for hours with a single secretary for audience." -- Lincoln's secretary John Hay on the president's pastimes, 1890
51. LINCOV_110217_138.JPG: "We are truly delighted with this retreat. The drives & walks around here are delightful, & each day brings its visitors." -- Mary Todd Lincoln, July 26, 1862 Abraham Lincoln first rode out to see the Soldiers' Home a few days after his inauguration on March 4, 1861. Soon, a local newspaper reported that he and his family planned to summer at the Soldiers' Home. The outbreak of civil war and the unexpected Union defeat at Bull Run kept the commander in chief preoccupied in the White House the rest of 1861 -- but during the warmer months of the next three years, the president commuted to the White House from the Soldiers' Home. Lincoln made the Soldiers' Home his home for a total of thirteen months, roughly a quarter of his presidency. He was last seen riding the grounds in the afternoon of April 13, 1863, just one day before he was assassinated. By the time the Lincolns came to the Soldiers' Home in June 1862, their beloved son Willie had died. Four months earlier, he had succumbed to typhoid fever, probably from polluted drinking water. With thousands of Union troops encamped along the Potomac's banks, sewage fouled the river, which supplied water to the White House. Three miles to the north, the Soldiers' Home occupied the third highest spot in the capital. Its breezes offered a respite away from the unsanitary conditions and sweltering weather of the low-lying city. Ironically, a child's death had touched the Soldiers' Home before. The banker George W Riggs Jr had built the fashionable Gothic Revival cottage for his family on his country estate in 1842. Saddened by the death of his two-year-old daughter, he sold the property to the government in 1851. The White House, with presidential offices just down the hall from "private" rooms, offered little privacy. Even at the Soldiers' Home, government business intruded. To relax, Mary traveled often, taking Tad with her. She attended social gatherings, shopped, visited her son Robert, and wrote home frequently. Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926): Robert rarely came to the Soldiers' Home because he was a student at Harvard until 1864. He wished to enlist in the Union army, despite his mother's terror of losing another son. Finally, his father asked for General Grant's help. Grant made Robert a captain but kept him out of danger. William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln (1850-1862): Abraham Lincoln was a doting father who indulged his youngest sons, allowing them to roughhouse in his office. He was especially fond of eleven-year-old Willie, who he apparently felt was much like him. Thomas "Tad" Lincoln (1853-1871): Only nine when the Lincolns first arrived at the Soldiers' Home, and lonely without his brother and favorite playmate, Tad spent much of his time with the Soldiers' Home troops. They affectionately dubbed him "3rd Lieutenant Lincoln" and welcomed him to share their meals.
52. LINCOV_110217_161.JPG: A Quieter Place: What brought Abraham Lincoln to the Soldiers' Home? When the Lincolns first came to stay here in June 1862, they were mourning their son Willie. Mary was despondent and in her own words "in need of quiet." The president may have hoped for some relief from his grief and the stress of pressing the Union's war effort while calming political discord. As it turned out, the Soldiers' Home was not as far removed from the war and White House hubbub as Mary had hoped. Union troop tents dotted the grounds. Soldiers' graves multiplied in plain view. Favor seekers and casual visitors learned the route to the Lincolns' door. Nonetheless, the president found time here to concentrate on the war, to consider emancipation, and to sustain his vision of the nation. "When we are in sorrow, quiet is very necessary to us." -- Mary Todd Lincoln, May 29, 1862
53. LINCOV_110217_165.JPG: The Pragmatic Emancipator: Lincoln was a lifelong opponent of slavery -- but he felt he lacked not only the constitutional authority to abolish it but also a national mandate, since he had been elected president with only 40 percent of the popular vote. Instead, he first promoted gradual emancipation, with monetary compensation for slaveholders. "If I could save the Union without freeing ANY slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing ALL the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery... I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do NOT believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do LESS whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do MORE whenever I believe doing more will help the cause." -- Abraham Lincoln, August 1862. Lincoln saw slavery as the root of the Southern rebellion -- but he proceeded carefully, partly to avoid alienating Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, where slavery was legal. He felt that these border states were critical to the success of the fragile Union coalition. Lincoln's personal antipathy to slavery changed little -- but his approach to ending it changed significantly. As the war dragged on during the summer of 1862, he began to view "the prospect of emancipation as a military tool for subduing the rebellion," since it would deprive the South of laborers and open a new pool of fighting men for the Union cause. Lincoln believed his only power to end slavery existing in the war powers of the commander in chief. Consequently, his early drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation and the final decree itself applied only to "all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state... in rebellion against the United States." Border states and areas under Union control were exempt. Lincoln fought to give emancipation the force of Constitutional law. In April 1864, when the House of Representatives at first failed to pass a proposed Thirteenth Amendment abolishing all slavery, the president insisted that passage of the amendment be added to the Republican party platform during his reelection campaign, and he turned his great political skill to persuading enough Democratic congressmen to join Republicans in passing it. The House passed it on January 31, 1865, and three-quarters of the state legislatures ratified it by December 6, 1865. The amendment guaranteed a permanent, legally binding end to slavery throughout the United States. 1861: August 6: Congress passes the First Confiscation Act, authorizing seizure of slaves employed in the Confederate states. August 30: General John C. Fremont issues an order to free slaves of Confederates in Missouri -- Lincoln cancels the order. 1862: April 16: Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, offering financial compensation to owners who pledge loyalty to the Union, and appropriating money for voluntary colonization of former slaves outside of the United States. Lincoln supports the measure. May 19: Lincoln cancels General David Hunter's order to free slaves in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. July 12: Reading from a carefully prepared paper, Lincoln urges congressmen from border states to embrace gradual compensated emancipation. July 17: Congress passes the Second Confiscation Act defining the rebels as traitors and ordering the confiscation of their property sixty days after a presidential "public proclamation and order." This act also declared rebel slaves "forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves." July 22: Lincoln reads the first draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. Secretary of State Seward urges him to wait for a victory on the battlefield to issue it. September 17: The Union Army of the Potomac commanded by McClellan defeats Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Antietam, Maryland. September 22: The Second Confiscation Act's call for a presidential proclamation spurs Lincoln to act on the plan he has been formulating for many weeks. He issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation declaring that slaves in state in rebellion as of January 1, 1863 "shall forever be free." 1864: April 8: With Lincoln's support, the Senate passes a constitutional amendment calling for the immediate and uncompensated end of slavery across the country. When the House defeats it, Lincoln presses for its passage throughout 1864. July 18: Lincoln writes a general letter stating that his conditions for beginning any negotiations on ending the war include "the abandonment of slavery." 1865: January 31: The House of Representatives passes and sends the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to the state legislatures. The necessary three-quarters of the states ratify it within the year, ending slavery throughout the United States.
54. LINCOV_110217_191.JPG: Abraham Lincoln Entering Richmond, engraved by JC Buttre, after a drawing by L Hollis, 1865 On April 4, 1865, two days after the capital of the Confederacy fell, Lincoln visited Richmond. When a group of black laborers fell on their knees upon seeing him, Lincoln said "Don't kneel to me. That is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy."
55. LINCOV_110217_200.JPG: Come Join Us Brothers The Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, Philadelphia, ca 1863
56. LINCOV_110217_205.JPG: Waiting for the Hour, watch meeting on the eve of emancipation, December 31, 1862 Heard & Mosely, 1863 Lincoln saw slavery as the root of the Southern rebellion -- but he proceeded carefully, partly to avoid alienating Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, where slavery was legal. He felt that these border states were critical to the success of the fragile Union coalition. MEN OF COLOR: At length the opportunity is offered for which you have waited so long and so patiently. A gigantic contest, in which the interests of your race are so largely involved, threatens with destruction the land which for centuries has been your home. At the very commencement of the struggle, you eagerly offered your services. They were rejected for reasons which, whether well or ill founded, were all powerful at the time. These reasons exist no longer, and your country now invites you to arms in her defense. -- Supervisory Committee on Colored Enlistments, June 27, 1863
57. LINCOV_110217_207.JPG: African-American soldiers return home, greeted by women and children, Little Rock, Arkansas A.R. Waud, ca 1866
58. LINCOV_110217_210.JPG: Contrabands Coming into Camp in Consequence of the Proclamation A. R. Waud, Harper's Weekly, January 31, 1863
59. LINCOV_110217_214.JPG: Scene in the House on the Passage of the Proposition to Amend the Constitution, January 31, 1865 Harper's Weekly, February 18, 1865 Without a constitutional amendment, there was no guarantee that Lincoln's emancipation proclamation would be upheld by the courts or not reversed by a later president. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery as a legal institution. By the time it was ratified in December 1865, slavery had already been eliminated by the Emancipation Proclamation or state action everywhere except in Delaware and Kentucky.
60. LINCOV_110217_219.JPG: "I have always thought that all men should be free: but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever [I] hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." -- Abraham Lincoln, speech to the 140th Indiana regiment, Mary 17, 1865
61. LINCOV_110217_222.JPG: "He was the first great man that I talked with in the United States freely, who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference of color, and I thought that all the more remarkable because he came from a State where there were black laws." -- Frederick Douglass, remembering Abraham Lincoln, 1885
62. LINCOV_110217_228.JPG: Lincoln and his chief private secretaries, John Hay (right) and John G Nicolay (left), 1863 "The Tycoon is in fine whack. I have rarely seen him more serene & busy." -- Letter from John Nicolay, August 7, 1863 Lincoln's principal aides enjoyed close relationships with him. Nicolay acted as gatekeeper to the president's office, while Hay read and answered his mail. In this letter, Hay continues his admiration for his boss the Tycoon, "There is no man in the country, so wise, so gentle, and so firm."
63. LINCOV_110217_233.JPG: A Persuasive Leader: Abraham Lincoln's honesty and trustworthiness undergirded his effectiveness as a leader -- even his enemies conceded he was an honest man. A key to his persuasiveness was logic. He constantly sought occasions to make his case in writing, weighing his words carefully in order to define the terms of the debate. Lincoln persuaded by his generosity, his refusal to take offense, his insistence on bipartisan military and judicial appointments, his focus on the common cause, and his quick comprehension of his opponents' arguments and points of view. Lincoln's generous consideration and understanding of others, grounded in his own upbringing and rise in life, led him to defend the right to self-improvement for all, including those who were enslaved. And, finally, though he was not formally religious, a sense of the divine will upheld him as he strove to preserve the Union. Whether going to the front to consult with his generals or dropping in the War Department to read the latest telegrams from the front, Lincoln wanted to see for himself. When the Confederate general Jubal Early attacked the capital in 1864, Fort Stevens was unprepared. Government clerks and wounded soldiers were called to help until reinforcements arrived. Lincoln twice rode out to the fort, becoming the only president to put himself under fire during wartime. "[The President] is managing this war, the draft, foreign relations, and planning a reconstruction of the union, all at once. I never knew with what Tyrannous authority he rules the Cabinet, till now. The most important things he decides & there is no cavil, I am growing more and more firmly convinced that the good of the country absolutely demands that he should be kept where he is till this thing is over." -- John Hay to John Nicolay, August 7, 1863. ... Some observers perceived Lincoln as unrefined upon his arrival in Washington. In political cartoons, he was often depicted as a hayseed, even when the cartoons were "on his side." Nevertheless, he became known for his wit and used storytelling to his own advantage to make political points. "It has been said that Lincoln is only a straw man, a puppet whose strings are pulled by Seward. On the contrary, it appears that, under his rough exterior and naive good humor, Mr. Lincoln is a true statesman, more supple and more adept at political intrigue than many a veteran of behind-the-scenes political warfare. He has been able, without ever departing from his own principles, to keep his balance between the two hostile factions of the Republican party." -- Ernest Duvergler de Hauranne, December 24, 1864
64. LINCOV_110217_238.JPG: Company K, 3rd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Fort Stevens, August 1865 Photograph by William Morris Smith
65. LINCOV_110217_243.JPG: The National Game. Three "outs" and one "run". Abraham winning the ball. Currier & Ives, pro-Lincoln satirical editorial cartoon, ca. 1860 Batting with a rail labeled "Equal Rights and Free Territory," Lincoln has "skunked" his opponents -- a Southern Democrat, and a member of the Constitutional Union party, and Stephen Douglas, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1860. The bats of the losers are labeled "Slavery Extension," "Fusion," and "Non Intervention."
66. LINCOV_110217_246.JPG: The Schoolmaster Abroad at Last, anti-secessionist cartoon, March 12, 1861 Strong's Dime Caricatures -- No. 4 Dressed as Uncle Sam, Lincoln chides boys playing in the muddy swimming hole "Secession." At his feet lie a toy pistol, paper hat, and South Carolina flag.
67. LINCOV_110217_259.JPG: First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet Engraving by Alexander Hay Ritcher, 1866 On July 22, 1862, Lincoln met with his cabinet and read them his draft of an emancipation proclamation -- to the surprise and resentment of some. While the president had made his intentions known to several of them a few weeks earlier, most were hearing his determination for the first time. Lincoln listened to their concerns, agreeing to add a phrase or two and to postpone the announcement until Union troops secured a victory. On September 22, 1862, days after the win at Antietam, Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, ordering emancipation on January 1, 1863.
68. LINCOV_110217_264.JPG: The Peacemakers, Lincoln meeting with Generals Sherman and Grand and Admiral Porter aboard the River Queen, March 1865 George P.A. Healy
69. LINCOV_110217_270.JPG: Commander In Chief: Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington in February 1861 with a firm set of principles upon which he would govern. Some, however, saw him as untested and even ill equipped for the presidency. As the Union army suffered setbacks, popular support for the war flagged. Lincoln understood the power of politics and tried various approaches to rally the public and his troops to win the war. His dismissed generals from command until he found one who would carry the fight to the enemy. In an age before radio and television, he carefully worded his speeches, which were transcribed and widely reported in newspapers. He astutely timed his addresses to the public as he moved deliberately to link the end of slavery with the Union war effort. "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union." -- Abraham Lincoln, August 22, 1862. Choosing to regard the Union victory at Antietam in September as a "divine sign," Lincoln announced publicly he would proceed with emancipation -- a move that would ultimately bolster Union forces by authorizing free blacks and former slaves to enlist. But he was aghast as McClellan's failure to follow up the victory, even after the president traveled from the Soldiers' Home to urge his general to act. "I said I would remove him if he let Lee's army get away from him... He has got the slows." Shortly after the midterm elections, Lincoln fired McClellan.
70. LINCOV_110217_273.JPG: Lincoln meeting with General George McClellan, Antietam, Maryland, October 3, 1862 Choosing to regard the Union victory at Antietam in September as a "divine sign," Lincoln announced publicly he would proceed with emancipation -- a move that would ultimately bolster Union forces by authorizing free blacks and former slaves to enlist. But he was aghast at McClellan's failure to follow up the victory, even after the president traveled from the Soldiers' Home to urge his general to act. "I said I would remove him if he let Lee's army get away from him... He has got the slows." Shortly after the midterm elections, Lincoln fired McClellan.
71. LINCOV_110217_293.JPG: Retirement Home: Post-Civil War: During Lincoln's time, most Soldiers' Home residents were foreign-born, mainly Irish or German. Far from their families, these immigrant veterans of the War of 1812 or Mexican War needed institutional care. The influx of Civil War veterans reversed the ethnic mix and swelled the population. By 1890, more than 1,000 mostly native-born men were living here. The 20th century brought many changes to the Soldiers' Home, which was renamed the Soldiers' and Airmen's Home in 1947. The first women were admitted in the mid-1950s, and racial segregation officially ended in 1963. Renamed again in 2001, the Armed Forces Retirement Home continues to offer a retirement community to veterans who have served 20 years on active duty or were disabled while on active duty or due to wartime service. As of 2007, nearly 1,100 veterans were living here. Much of the funding has always come from the soldiers themselves, through monthly active duty payroll deductions of enlisted men and women.
72. LINCOV_110217_296.JPG: A National Monument: July 7, 2000: In the years since the Lincolns resided on the grounds, the cottage served for a time as a dormitory for the Soldiers' Home band, an infirmary, a guest house, the first women's dorm, a bar and lounge for residents, and most recently the AFRH public affairs office. In 1974, the cottage and six other pre-Civil War buildings, along with six surrounding acres, became a National Historic Landmark. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the staff and residents of the Soldiers' Home lobbied for more ambitious preservation in order to more widely share the Lincoln legacy. Their efforts drew the attention of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, whose president, Richard Moe, secured the support of First Lady Hillary Rodman Clinton. In July 2000, President William J. Clinton declared the Anderson Cottage -- now known as the Lincoln Cottage -- a national monument, and the National Trust moved ahead with preserving it and opening it to the public. During Lincoln's time, the cottage was referred to by several names, including Rigg's Mansion, the Governor's Residence, and simply the Soldiers' Home. In 1889, the cottage was officially named for General Robert Anderson, one of the founders of the Soldiers' Home. The exterior of the cottage has been restored to the period of the Lincoln's occupancy, with stucco mixed to match surviving examples of the original stucco. The veranda has been reconfigured to the design shown in historic images, including one in Mary Todd Lincoln's family album.
73. LINCOV_110217_299.JPG: US Green Building Council LEED Gold 2009 The building you are standing in is the first at a National Trust Historic Site to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the US Green Building Council. The Robert H Smith Visitor Education Center received 44 credits, earning LEED Gold certification in April 2009. The Visitor Education Center is an Italianate Renaissance Revival style building designed by architect William Poindexter. The building was constructed in 1905, as the Administration Building for the Soldiers' Home. In 2007, the National Trust sustainably rehabilitated the building and adapted it for use as a welcome center, exhibit space, and staff officers for President Lincoln's Cottage. Thanks to a $1 million contribution and technical expertise provided by United Technologies Corporation, green practices became an integral part of the rehabilitation of this building. To learn more, take the self-guided tour of this building and visit us online at www.lincolncottage.org .
74. LINCOV_110217_302.JPG: A Military Asylum: 1851 - Civil War: The Soldiers' Home came into being only after decades of frustrated urging by the military, countered by congressional reluctance to fund services for disabled veterans. It reflected the efforts -- remarkable in retrospect -- of three men. Kentucky-born Robert Anderson, a veteran of the Black Hawk War, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran, and later commander of Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the Civil War, passionately called for a "soldiers' retreat" throughout the 1840s. General Winfield Scott, hero of the Mexican War of 1846-1848, challenged the War Department and Congress by depositing $100,000 of the tribute he had exacted from Mexico City into an account "to the credit of the Army Asylum." But it was the Democratic senator from Mississippi, Jefferson Davis -- later the president of the Confederacy -- who introduced the bill that established the long-awaited "Military Asylum" on March 3, 1851. Originally intended as a final resting place for residents of the Soldiers' Home, the cemetery became a temporary graveyard for Civil War soldiers fallen in nearby battles. More than 5,000 men were interred between 1861 and 1864, when Robert E. Lee's Arlington farm was established as a new, larger national cemetery. The earliest inmates, as residents were known until 1859, when the "asylum" officially became the Soldiers' Home, were required to wear uniforms and work for their keep -- which prompted some to drink or run away. Despite calls to close the home in 1864, it grew dramatically after the Civil War. For $58,111, Congress purchased some 200 acres and a country cottage from the banker George W. Riggs Jr. A larger main hall, later known as the Scott Hall and now as the Sherman Building, was built to house 250 enlisted veterans, along with several other residences to house officers who ran the home.
75. LINCOV_110217_306.JPG: A Popular Destination: 1880 - 1920: "It was the summer home of the martyr President Lincoln during the stirring times of the civil war, and for this reason allow should be carefully preserved and revered by all, though other Presidents of the United States, like Buchanan, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur were wont to spend a portion of their summers here." -- Inspector General J.C. Breckenridge, USSH 1901 Annual Report "The Soldiers' Home drive is the most popular, as it is the most accessible, and it bears repeated visiting without tiring the visitor... As the carriages turn into a shaded lane where the roadway is bowered by the trees at each side, the visitor sees that the city he has left is spread out before him far to the east and west." -- Harper's Weekly, June 1886.
76. LINCOV_110217_313.JPG: A Presidential Retreat, 1850s - 1880s: Beginning in 1857, in order to build political support for the Soldiers' Home, the commissioners began inviting the president and secretary of war to occupy officers' cottages during the summer. James Buchanan, the first president to accept, wrote from the White House in October 1858, "I sleep much better now, but not near so well as at the Soldiers' Home." He may have recommended the Soldiers' Home to Lincoln, who lived here for thirteen months between 1862 and 1864. Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant did not stay here, but Rutherford Hayes renewed the tradition in the late 1870s. James Garfield intended to stay here but was assassinated in 1881. Chester Arthur used this summer retreat and also spent the winter 1882-1883 here while the White House was renovated. The traditional probably ended because of the Soldiers' Home growing resident population.
77. LINCOV_080211_001.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2008_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (24 photos from 2008)
  1861: Limiting the Expansion of Slavery: Because he believed that the Constitution did not give the president the power to abolish slavery, Lincoln vowed in his inaugural address on March 4, 1861, to uphold the Constitution: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so." For decades before 1861, debate raged over whether to protect slavery, to allow it in new territories, or to abolish it. While Congress argued, many slaves chose to emancipate themselves, sometimes with the help of abolitionists -- to escape slavery's brutality or the fear of being sold into the Deep South, or to reunite their family. (Document) Letter from Lincoln to the governor of California, transmitting a proposed constitutional amendment to protect slavery, never adopted. March 16, 1861. Trying to forestall war, President James Buchanan encouraged and signed a joint congressional resolution to protect slavery; "No Amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." After taking office, Lincoln forwarded it, without comment, to the states to consider for ratification.
78. LINCOV_080211_008.JPG: 1862: Executing a Slave Trader: Early in the war, Lincoln approached the issue of slavery with caution. He focused on his stated purpose, to maintain the Union, and on not losing the support of the "border" states in which slavery was legal. He did, however, become the only president to approve the execution of a slave trader. (Document) Abraham Lincoln's respite of execution for the slaver Nathaniel Gordon, countersigned by Secretary of State William H. Seward, February 2, 1862. In this document, Lincoln refuses to commute the sentence of Nathaniel Gordon, convinced of engaging in the international slave trade (which the Constitution prohibited after 1808), but grants him a brief period of leave to prepare for his execution on February 21, 1862.
79. LINCOV_080211_023.JPG: Richard Moe, head of the National Trust, doing a last-minute inspection
80. LINCOV_080211_028.JPG: A National Monument: July 7, 2000: In the years since the Lincolns resided on the grounds, the cottage served for a time as a dormitory for the Soldiers' Home band, an infirmary, a guest house, the first women's dorm, a bar and lounge for residents, and most recently the AFRH public affairs office. In 1974, the cottage and six other pre-Civil War buildings, along with six surrounding acres, became a National Historic Landmark. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the staff and residents of the Soldiers' Home lobbied for more ambitious preservation in order to more widely share the Lincoln legacy. Their efforts drew the attention of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, whose president, Richard Moe, secured the support of First Lady Hillary Rodman Clinton. In July 2000, President William J. Clinton declared the Anderson Cottage -- now known as the Lincoln Cottage -- a national monument, and the National Trust moved ahead with preserving it and opening it to the public. During Lincoln's time, the cottage was referred to by several names, including Rigg's Mansion, the Governor's Residence, and simply the Soldiers' Home. In 1889, the cottage was officially named for General Robert Anderson, one of the founders of the Soldiers' Home. The exterior of the cottage has been restored to the period of the Lincoln's occupancy, with stucco mixed to match surviving examples of the original stucco. The veranda has been reconfigured to the design shown in historic images, including one in Mary Todd Lincoln's family album.
81. LINCOV_080211_029.JPG: A Presidential Retreat, 1850s - 1880s: Beginning in 1857, in order to build political support for the Soldiers' Home, the commissioners began inviting the president and secretary of war to occupy officers' cottages during the summer. James Buchanan, the first president to accept, wrote from the White House in October 1858, "I sleep much better now, but not near so well as at the Soldiers' Home." He may have recommended the Soldiers' Home to Lincoln, who lived here for thirteen months between 1862 and 1864. Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant did not stay here, but Rutherford Hayes renewed the tradition in the late 1870s. James Garfield intended to stay here but was assassinated in 1881. Chester Arthur used this summer retreat and also spent the winter 1882-1883 here while the White House was renovated. The traditional probably ended because of the Soldiers' Home growing resident population.
82. LINCOV_080211_032.JPG: A Popular Destination: 1880 - 1920: "It was the summer home of the martyr President Lincoln during the stirring times of the civil war, and for this reason allow should be carefully preserved and revered by all, though other Presidents of the United States, like Buchanan, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur were wont to spend a portion of their summers here." -- Inspector General J.C. Breckenridge, USSH 1901 Annual Report "The Soldiers' Home drive is the most popular, as it is the most accessible, and it bears repeated visiting without tiring the visitor... As the carriages turn into a shaded lane where the roadway is bowered by the trees at each side, the visitor sees that the city he has left is spread out before him far to the east and west." -- Harper's Weekly, June 1886.
83. LINCOV_080211_035.JPG: A Military Asylum: 1851 - Civil War: The Soldiers' Home came into being only after decades of frustrated urging by the military, countered by congressional reluctance to fund services for disabled veterans. It reflected the efforts -- remarkable in retrospect -- of three men. Kentucky-born Robert Anderson, a veteran of the Black Hawk War, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran, and later commander of Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the Civil War, passionately called for a "soldiers' retreat" throughout the 1840s. General Winfield Scott, hero of the Mexican War of 1846-1848, challenged the War Department and Congress by depositing $100,000 of the tribute he had exacted from Mexico City into an account "to the credit of the Army Asylum." But it was the Democratic senator from Mississippi, Jefferson Davis -- later the president of the Confederacy -- who introduced the bill that established the long-awaited "Military Asylum" on March 3, 1851. Originally intended as a final resting place for residents of the Soldiers' Home, the cemetery became a temporary graveyard for Civil War soldiers fallen in nearby battles. More than 5,000 men were interred between 1861 and 1864, when Robert E. Lee's Arlington farm was established as a new, larger national cemetery. The earliest inmates, as residents were known until 1859, when the "asylum" officially became the Soldiers' Home, were required to wear uniforms and work for their keep -- which prompted some to drink or run away. Despite calls to close the home in 1864, it grew dramatically after the Civil War. For $58,111, Congress purchased some 200 acres and a country cottage from the banker George W. Riggs Jr. A larger main hall, later known as the Scott Hall and now as the Sherman Building, was built to house 250 enlisted veterans, along with several other residences to house officers who ran the home.
84. LINCOV_080211_047.JPG: "He was the first great man I talked with in the United States freely, who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference of color, and I thought that all the more remarkable because he came from a State where there were black laws." -- Frederick Douglass, remembering Abraham Lincoln, 1885.
85. LINCOV_080211_048.JPG: The Pragmatic Emancipator: Lincoln was a lifelong opponent of slavery -- but he felt he lacked not only the constitutional authority to abolish it but also a national mandate, since he had been elected president with only 40 percent of the popular vote. Instead, he first promoted gradual emancipation, with monetary compensation for slaveholders.
86. LINCOV_080211_053.JPG: "I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever [I] hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." -- Abraham Lincoln, speech to the 140th Indiana regiment, March 17, 1865.
87. LINCOV_080211_054.JPG: "The Tycoon is in fine whack. I have rarely seen him more serene & busy." -- Letter from John Hay to John Nicolay, August 7, 1863. Lincoln's principal aides enjoyed close relationships with him. Nicolay acted as gatekeeper to the president's office, while Hay read and answered his mail. In this letter, Hay continues, his admiration for his boss the Tycoon, "There is no man in the country, so wise, so gentle and so firm."
88. LINCOV_080211_067.JPG: Wartime Washington with the half-completed Capitol dome. It was finished December 3, 1863.
89. LINCOV_080211_070.JPG: Before D.C. Emancipation: Prior to the Civil War, there was a large free black population in the District, more than 9,000 in 1860. A black middle class of restaurateurs, seamstresses, barbers, government messengers, and shopkeepers mingled with whites during the daytime but retreated to mostly segregated neighborhoods at night. At the same time, nearly 2,000 enslaved servants and laborers were living in the District. During his term in Congress between 1846 and 1848, Abraham Lincoln had been appalled by slave traders doing business even near the steps of the Capitol. The Compromise of 1850 had ended the sale of slaves within the District of Columbia, but long-held customs and municipal regulations called the "Black Codes" continued to restrict the lives of Washington's free and enslaved black residents. One of the largest attempted escapes of slaves took place in Washington in 1848 when 76 men and women boarded the Pearl and sailed north into the night. The winds were not strong enough to carry them to freedom, and they were captured the next day. Many were sold into the Deep South as punishment.
90. LINCOV_080211_075.JPG: After D.C. Emancipation: In 1862, President Lincoln pressed for and signed a congressional act emancipating slaves in the District on April 16 of that year, and compensating owners loyal to the Union up to $300 per slave. The prospect of freedom almost immediately led thousands of rural slaves to leave farms and plantations. One year after D.C. emancipation, approximately 10,000 former slaves, mostly from Maryland and Virginia, were living here. By 1865 when the war ended, 40,000 freed men, women, and children had come to the capital. Annual celebrations of D.C. emancipation took place in Washington from 1866 to 1901 and were revived in 2002. In 2005, Emancipation Day became an official holiday in the District of Columbia. Congress created the Freedman's Bureau in March 1865 to assist in protecting, aiding and educating free black Americans. General Oliver Otis Howard, appointed by Lincoln to head the bureau, allocated $500,000 to purchase land and construct buildings for a liberal arts college. Howard University, named in his honor, was established by congressional charter in 1867.
91. LINCOV_080211_080.JPG: A wartime map of Washington DC. The arrow-looking things on the upper right are magnets which you can move to indicate various items on the map -- such as bridges, Alexandria, the road to the Soldiers' Home, etc. The magnifying glasses are there to examine the map more closely. I'm hoping these items don't disappear after opening day.
92. LINCOV_071106_01.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2007_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (18 photos from 2007)
93. LINCOV_071106_06.JPG: Retirement Home: Post-Civil War: During Lincoln's time, most Soldiers' Home residents were foreign-born, mainly Irish or German. Far from their families, these immigrant veterans of the War of 1812 or Mexican War needed institutional care. The influx of Civil War veterans reversed the ethnic mix and swelled the population. By 1890, more than 1,000 mostly native-born men were living here. The 20th century brought many changes to the Soldiers' Home, which was renamed the Soldiers' and Airmen's Home in 1947. The first women were admitted in the mid-1950s, and racial segregation officially ended in 1963. Renamed again in 2001, the Armed Forces Retirement Home continues to offer a retirement community to veterans who have served 20 years on active duty or were disabled while on active duty or due to wartime service. As of 2007, nearly 1,100 veterans were living here. Much of the funding has always come from the soldiers themselves, through monthly active duty payroll deductions of enlisted men and women.
94. LINCOV_071106_11.JPG: A Persuasive Leader: Abraham Lincoln's honesty and trustworthiness undergirded his effectiveness as a leader -- even his enemies conceded he was an honest man. A key to his persuasiveness was logic. He constantly sought occasions to make his case in writing, weighing his words carefully in order to define the terms of the debate. Lincoln persuaded by his generosity, his refusal to take offense, his insistence on bipartisan military and judicial appointments, his focus on the common cause, and his quick comprehension of his opponents' arguments and points of view. Lincoln's generous consideration and understanding of others, grounded in his own upbringing and rise in life, led him to defend the right to self-improvement for all, including those who were enslaved. And, finally, though he was not formally religious, a sense of the divine will upheld him as he strove to preserve the Union. Whether going to the front to consult with his generals or dropping in the War Department to read the latest telegrams from the front, Lincoln wanted to see for himself. When the Confederate general Jubal Early attacked the capital in 1864, Fort Stevens was unprepared. Government clerks and wounded soldiers were called to help until reinforcements arrived. Lincoln twice rode out to the fort, becoming the only president to put himself under fire during wartime. "[The President] is managing this war, the draft, foreign relations, and planning a reconstruction of the union, all at once. I never knew with what Tyrannous authority he rules the Cabinet, till now. The most important things he decides & there is no cavil, I am growing more and more firmly convinced that the good of the country absolutely demands that he should be kept where he is till this thing is over." -- John Hay to John Nicolay, August 7, 1863. ...
95. LINCOV_071106_14.JPG: Commander In Chief: Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington in February 1861 with a firm set of principles upon which he would govern. Some, however, saw him as untested and even ill equipped for the presidency. As the Union army suffered setbacks, popular support for the war flagged. Lincoln understood the power of politics and tried various approaches to rally the public and his troops to win the war. His dismissed generals from command until he found one who would carry the fight to the enemy. In an age before radio and television, he carefully worded his speeches, which were transcribed and widely reported in newspapers. He astutely timed his addresses to the public as he moved deliberately to link the end of slavery with the Union war effort. "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union." -- Abraham Lincoln, August 22, 1862. Choosing to regard the Union victory at Antietam in September as a "divine sign," Lincoln announced publicly he would proceed with emancipation -- a move that would ultimately bolster Union forces by authorizing free blacks and former slaves to enlist. But he was aghast as McClellan's failure to follow up the victory, even after the president traveled from the Soldiers' Home to urge his general to act. "I said I would remove him if he let Lee's army get away from him... He has got the slows." Shortly after the midterm elections, Lincoln fired McClellan.
96. LINCOV_071106_17.JPG: "If I could save the Union without freeing ANY slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing ALL the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery... I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do NOT believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do LESS whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do MORE whenever I believe doing more will help the cause." -- Abraham Lincoln, August 1862. Lincoln saw slavery as the root of the Southern rebellion -- but he proceeded carefully, partly to avoid alienating Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, where slavery was legal. He felt that these border states were critical to the success of the fragile Union coalition. Lincoln's personal antipathy to slavery changed little -- but his approach to ending it changed significantly. As the war dragged on during the summer of 1862, he began to view "the prospect of emancipation as a military tool for subduing the rebellion," since it would deprive the South of laborers and open a new pool of fighting men for the Union cause. Lincoln believed his only power to end slavery existing in the war powers of the commander in chief. Consequently, his early drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation and the final decree itself applied only to "all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state... in rebellion against the United States." Border states and areas under Union control were exempt. Lincoln fought to give emancipation the force of Constitutional law. In April 1864, when the House of Representatives at first failed to pass a proposed Thirteenth Amendment abolishing all slavery, the president insisted that passage of the amendment be added to the Republican party platform during his reelection campaign, and he turned his great political skill to persuading enough Democratic congressmen to join Republicans in passing it. The House passed it on January 31, 1865, and three-quarters of the state legislatures ratified it by December 6, 1865. The amendment guaranteed a permanent, legally binding end to slavery throughout the United States. 1861: August 6: Congress passes the First Confiscation Act, authorizing seizure of slaves employed in the Confederate states. August 30: General John C. Fremont issues an order to free slaves of Confederates in Missouri -- Lincoln cancels the order. 1862: April 16: Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, offering financial compensation to owners who pledge loyalty to the Union, and appropriating money for voluntary colonization of former slaves outside of the United States. Lincoln supports the measure. May 19: Lincoln cancels General David Hunter's order to free slaves in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. July 12: Reading from a carefully prepared paper, Lincoln urges congressmen from border states to embrace gradual compensated emancipation. July 17: Congress passes the Second Confiscation Act defining the rebels as traitors and ordering the confiscation of their property sixty days after a presidential "public proclamation and order." This act also declared rebel slaves "forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves." July 22: Lincoln reads the first draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. Secretary of State Seward urges him to wait for a victory on the battlefield to issue it. September 17: The Union Army of the Potomac commanded by McClellan defeats Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Antietam, Maryland. September 22: The Second Confiscation Act's call for a presidential proclamation spurs Lincoln to act on the plan he has been formulating for many weeks. He issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation declaring that slaves in state in rebellion as of January 1, 1863 "shall forever be free." 1864: April 8: With Lincoln's support, the Senate passes a constitutional amendment calling for the immediate and uncompensated end of slavery across the country. When the House defeats it, Lincoln presses for its passage throughout 1864. July 18: Lincoln writes a general letter stating that his conditions for beginning any negotiations on ending the war include "the abandonment of slavery." 1865: January 31: The House of Representatives passes and sends the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to the state legislatures. The necessary three-quarters of the states ratify it within the year, ending slavery throughout the United States.
97. LINCOV_071106_21.JPG: A Quieter Place: What brought Abraham Lincoln to the Soldiers' Home? When the Lincolns first came to stay here in June 1862, they were mourning their son Willie. Mary was despondent and in her own words "in need of quiet." The president may have hoped for some relief from his grief and the stress of pressing the Union's war effort while calming political discord. As it turned out, the Soldiers' Home was not as far removed from the war and White House hubbub as Mary had hoped. Union troop tents dotted the grounds. Soldiers' graves multiplied in plain view. Favor seekers and casual visitors learned the route to the Lincolns' door. Nonetheless, the president found time here to concentrate on the war, to consider emancipation, and to sustain his vision of the nation. "When we are in sorrow, quiet is very necessary to us." -- Mary Todd Lincoln, May 29, 1862
98. LINCOV_071106_24.JPG: "My thoughts, my solicitude for this great country follow me where ever I go." -- Abraham Lincoln, August 19, 1864 The soldiers, generals, cabinet members, politicians, aides, friends, foreign visitors, and curious onlookers who met President Lincoln here at the Soldiers' Home witnessed him grappling with momentous issues. Here he confronted the devastating and drawn-out war, the question of emancipation, and his contentious campaign for reelection in 1864. But here he also indulged his love of storytelling and reading Shakespeare, the Bible, or the light works of contemporary humorists. Here he chatted with the soldiers who guarded him and the Soldiers' Home, took leisurely carriage rides with his wife, and played games with his youngest son. Reminders of the war were everywhere, especially in the newly dug graves visible from the cottage, but here the president also found lighter moments. The president enjoyed inviting guests to his "retreat" for relaxing social gatherings as well as politically discreet consultations away from White House scrutiny. Senator Orville Browning, a Republican from Illinois and a family friend of the Lincolns, notes in his diary many meetings in 1862 at the Soldiers' Home with social acquaintances, business leaders, and political figures. Lincoln's fondness for spending time at the Soldiers' Home may have reflected his lifelong desire to talk with and listen to ordinary people. When he encountered wounded soldiers on his commute to the White House and on visits to military hospitals, he could gauge the course of the war at the front, directly from those fighting it. By expressing his genuine interest in the views of his friends and opponents, Lincoln was often able to win over skeptics. But his accessibility also left him vulnerable to "seekers" who pursued him even in his Soldiers' Home parlor. Until 1862, the public could come and go freely on the Soldiers' Home grounds, but following the Union retreat after the second battle at Bull Run, a security detail was ordered for the president, and guards were assigned to control access to the area around the president's cottage at the Soldiers' Home. Even Secretary of War Stanton's family had to have a pass. The Stanton family also occupied a cottage here, at the invitation of the Soldiers' Home commissioners. Once a rival, Stanton became one of Lincoln's closest confidants. Both were also attentive fathers: Stanton indulged Tad almost as much as Lincoln did. "When only one or two were present, he was fond of reading aloud. He passed many of the summer evenings in this way when occupying his cottage at the Soldiers' Home. He would there read from Shakspere [sic] for hours with a single secretary for audience." -- Lincoln's secretary John Hay on the president's pastimes, 1890
99. LINCOV_071106_33.JPG: "We are truly delighted with this retreat. The drives & walks around here are delightful, & each day brings its visitors." -- Mary Todd Lincoln, July 26, 1862 Abraham Lincoln first rode out to see the Soldiers' Home a few days after his inauguration on March 4, 1861. Soon, a local newspaper reported that he and his family planned to summer at the Soldiers' Home. The outbreak of civil war and the unexpected Union defeat at Bull Run kept the commander in chief preoccupied in the White House the rest of 1861 -- but during the warmer months of the next three years, the president commuted to the White House from the Soldiers' Home. Lincoln made the Soldiers' Home his home for a total of thirteen months, roughly a quarter of his presidency. He was last seen riding the grounds in the afternoon of April 13, 1863, just one day before he was assassinated. By the time the Lincolns came to the Soldiers' Home in June 1862, their beloved son Willie had died. Four months earlier, he had succumbed to typhoid fever, probably from polluted drinking water. With thousands of Union troops encamped along the Potomac's banks, sewage fouled the river, which supplied water to the White House. Three miles to the north, the Soldiers' Home occupied the third highest spot in the capital. Its breezes offered a respite away from the unsanitary conditions and sweltering weather of the low-lying city. Ironically, a child's death had touched the Soldiers' Home before. The banker George W Riggs Jr had built the fashionable Gothic Revival cottage for his family on his country estate in 1842. Saddened by the death of his two-year-old daughter, he sold the property to the government in 1851. The White House, with presidential offices just down the hall from "private" rooms, offered little privacy. Even at the Soldiers' Home, government business intruded. To relax, Mary traveled often, taking Tad with her. She attended social gatherings, shopped, visited her son Robert, and wrote home frequently. Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926): Robert rarely came to the Soldiers' Home because he was a student at Harvard until 1864. He wished to enlist in the Union army, despite his mother's terror of losing another son. Finally, his father asked for General Grant's help. Grant made Robert a captain but kept him out of danger. William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln (1850-1862): Abraham Lincoln was a doting father who indulged his youngest sons, allowing them to roughhouse in his office. He was especially fond of eleven-year-old Willie, who he apparently felt was much like him. Thomas "Tad" Lincoln (1853-1871): Only nine when the Lincolns first arrived at the Soldiers' Home, and lonely without his brother and favorite playmate, Tad spent much of his time with the Soldiers' Home troops. They affectionately dubbed him "3rd Lieutenant Lincoln" and welcomed him to share their meals.
100. LINCOV_071106_34.JPG: Wartime Washington: The city that greeted the Lincolns was a study in contrasts, which grew as the war dragged on. A southern town, from which many Confederate sympathizers fled, it swelled with Union troops and a flood of northerners. Job seekers and businessmen, doctors and nurses, and abolitionists and ordinary citizens arrived, eager to join the war effort. A reverse migration brought southern deserters, spies, and runaway slaves. And from the battlefields of nearby Virginia and Maryland, wagons bearing the dead and wounded began to pour in. Washington also embodied the nation's most divisive contrast. Although a great majority of the black population living here was already free, the city still stood at the outset of the Civil War as the slaveholding capital of the mostly antislavery Union. This stark contradiction endured until Abraham Lincoln signed the congressional act ending slavery in the District of Columbia on April 16, 1862, almost nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation. "If people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign that we intend the Union shall go on." -- Abraham Lincoln, July 1863 A large Capitol dome, begun in 1835 and still unfinished in 1861, [???] war weary Washington after the federal government halted all non-war construction. In 1862, President Lincoln signaled his determination to preserve the Union by ordering work to resume. The dome was completed on December 3, 1863.
101. LINCOV_071106_37.JPG: A City Transformed: With most streets unpaved and many government buildings half-built, Washington in 1861 was ill prepared for the sudden chaos of war. Tens of thousands of soldiers, civilians, escaped slaves, and -- later -- newly emancipated men, women, and children flooded in. Tent Cities and Shantytowns: Wartime tripled the capital's population. In 1861 there were 50,000 people living in Washington City and 75,000 in the entire District of Columbia. By war's end, the count had ballooned to 200,000. The influx brought office seekers, patronage hunters, northern abolitionists, civilian suppliers for the Union war effort, prostitutes, and camp followers (wives, children, nurses, provisioners). Free blacks, "contrabands" (escaped slaves), and recently emancipated slaves came seeking a safe place to live a life of freedom. Newcomers scrambled to find in overcrowded tent cities and shantytowns, or in hastily built shacks lining the city's alleys. Camps and Quarters: Fewer than 500 troops guarded the nation's capital on New Year's Day in 1861, but within a week of the attack on Fort Sumter in mid-April, regiments from Pennsylvania and then Massachusetts and New York arrived. In this "instant" armed camp, Union troops pitched tents on the White House lawn and public squares and turned the Patent Office and other public buildings into military quarters. Civilians learned to live with drumming, bugling, and cannon fire, not to mention flourishing brothels. Hospitals and Cemeteries: Churches, hotels, schools, social halls, and even private homes became makeshift hospitals. The wounded lined the halls of the patent Office and Capitol. Thousands of unmarried northern women streamed into Washington to undertake the difficult work of nursing. On occasion, Mary Lincoln quietly made the rounds visiting the wounded in Union hospitals, several of which were near the White House. At the peak of the war, 50,000 ill and gravely injured soldiers filled 22 hospitals. The beleaguered living buried the dead quickly, with little ceremony, in local cemeteries or the first national cemeteries, located at the Soldiers' Home and then Arlington.
102. LINCOV_071106_41.JPG: Behind the Front Lines: Almost overnight, a sleepy southern town became the bustling hub of the northern war effort. The conflicts that sometimes flared openly on battlefields within earshot of the capital, simmered in Washington's parlors, hotels, and offices as Confederate sympathizers mingled with Union loyalists. Encircled by fortifications, Washingtonians braced for attack but went on with everyday life. For relatively provincial newcomers like the Lincolns, the city presented varied social, cultural, and commercial possibilities. Traveling companies of actors performed at Ford's, Grover's, Nixon's, and the National theaters. In the recently completed "Castle," the Smithsonian Institution presented lectures and exhibits. Twice weekly the Marine band performed on the Capitol's west terrace, while Willard's and other hotels held balls and "hops." In the sprawling stalls and sheds of the Center Market at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, white and black vendors sold goods, fresh vegetables, and meats the complemented the wares of shopkeepers along surrounding streets. Nathaniel Hawthorne declared that the Willard Lobby "may be much more justly called the centre of Washington and the Union that either the Capitol, the White House, or the State Department. Everybody may be seen there... You exchange nods with governors of sovereign states, you elbow illustrious men, and tread of the toes of generals, you hear statesmen and orators speaking in their familiar tones. You are mixed up with office-seekers, wire-pullers, inventors, artists, poets, prosers, (including editors, army-correspondents, attaches of foreign journals, and long-winded talkers), clerks, diplomats, mail contractors, railway directors, until your own identify is lost among them."
103. LINCOV_060421_02.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2006_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (1 photo from 2006)
104. LINCOV_050718_06.JPG: The following pictures are from the page 2005_DC_Lincoln_CottageVC DC -- Lincoln Cottage -- Visitor Center (3 photos from 2005)
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