Recollections of Abraham Lincoln

When President-elect Abraham Lincoln was preparing to go to Washington he appealed to his old friend and law partner Ward Hill Lamon: “I want you to go along with me. . . . In fact I must have you. So get yourself ready and come along.” Lamon journeyed from Springfield to Washington in 1861 and returned to Illinois in mourning in 1865. Lincoln chose Lamon as his bodyguard when he slipped into Washington by night to foil conspirators intent on murder. The president sent him on missions and appointed him marshal of the District of Columbia. During that time of civil war Lincoln was often dispirited, and Lamon tried to cheer him.

These recollections were compiled from Lamon's notes and papers by his daughter, Dorothy, and published in 1895. The expanded second edition of 1911 has been used for this reprinting. Recollections of Abraham Lincoln has often been cited for its firsthand testimony about key episodes and incidents, including at the phantom-like train trip to Washington in 1861, a visit to Charleston during the secession crisis, and Lincoln's foreboding dreams.

As James A. Rawley points out in his introduction, Lamon's recollections of Lincoln's personal qualities an presidency are important to history.

James A. Rawley, a Carl Adolph Happold Professor Emeritus of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is the author of Turning Points of the Civil War (1989), also available as a Bison Book.