By Jan Howard

Admirers of Abraham Lincoln will gain new insight into the man, the husband and father, and President from a new book, Lincoln As I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes & Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies, a collection edited by Harold Holzer.

I have always been fascinated by Abraham Lincoln, perhaps because I am a history buff or because of my long-time interest in the Civil War since an ancestor fought in it. Or perhaps because he was somewhat of an enigma. Whatever the reason, other than that I think he was our greatest President, I have always read everything about him I could lay my hands on.

I thought I knew as much about him as any person could who was not a Lincoln historian, had not lived in his era, or known him personally. But I was wrong.

In this new book, those people who did know him — family, friends, fellow lawyers, military men, foes, journalists, politicians, and White House intimates, among others — told me a lot I didn’t know. After all, they had the great experience of knowing and observing him first hand during various periods of his life. Through their letters, diaries, and excerpts from books and speeches, we can see Abraham Lincoln as his contemporaries saw him. Their memories of him, in praise or criticism, can help us to better understand and appreciate the man historians have said was our greatest President.

Some of the reminiscences in Lincoln As I Knew Him (published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, a division of Workman Publishing, New York City; October 1999, 269 pages, illustrated) have not been published for over a century. They have been packed away, stored in archives, and forgotten, until the research for this book. One, by war correspondent Sylvanus Cadwallader, was never printed until Lincoln scholar Benjamin P. Thomas published it in 1955.

Mr Cadwallader covered Ulysses S. Grant for The Chicago Times and was at the front when President Lincoln visited Gen Grant’s headquarter near the end of the war. In his account, Mr Cadwallader tells how a sentry failed to recognize Lincoln. The President had to give his name, after which the guard saluted and allowed him to pass.

While I initially was surprised that the sentry did not recognize Lincoln, I realized that in that pre-mass media era many people might never have seen the President.

Several references in the book surprised me, though they did not change my overall opinion of Abraham Lincoln.

 I have never read much about his relationship with his father, Thomas Lincoln. I was amazed to learn that he refused to visit his father on his deathbed and never paid to have a headstone erected on his grave.

He also appears not to have been very generous to his stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, though it was she who encouraged him to read and study as a child. He never introduced her to his wife and children and last visited her after the 1860 election. In her memories of him, she recalled that she hadn’t wanted him to run for President because she felt something would happen to him.

Another surprise was that Lincoln was not particularly faithful to friends and family. After he moved from his parents’ cabin, he all but cut himself off from his family. And when he moved on, he tended to leave old friends behind. It appears he only had a handful of close relationships and only one true intimate friend.

I always knew he was a great reader, and several of the people who knew him spoke of his love of books. He apparently read everything he could get his hands on. Though he rarely attended church services, he often read the Bible. He read Shakespeare and had a fondness for poetry, which he would memorize and recite at a much later date word for word.

However, his great love for reading was annoying to several of his contemporaries. He annoyed office colleagues by reading out loud from whatever book or newspaper he happened to be reading at the time. William Herndon, who was his last law partner and is featured in the section “Memories From Fellow Lawyers, remembered how Lincoln read aloud, “much to my discomfort.”

The recollections were not always flattering. Many remembered his lack of style in clothing. It never occurred to me from photographs of him, but apparently Lincoln was a terrible dresser and rarely combed his hair. Apparently it was not until he became President that his attire improved, through the help of a servant who talked him into more fashionable clothing by telling him his appearance had to be “official.”

Lincoln was an eloquent speaker. We also know he loved to tell a story. But one person noted that he never told a story for the mere sake of telling it — it was always to make a point clear.

While we often hear about Lincoln’s preoccupation that he would die in office, one foreign visitor, the Marquis De Chambrun, wrote about how Lincoln looked forward to returning to Springfield, “to return there in peace and tranquility.”

One of Lincoln’s critics was Gen George McClellan, who wrote letters to his wife in which he noted his contempt for the President. In his letters home, the general referred to the President as “an idiot,” “a well meaning baboon” and “the original gorilla.” In one letter, he wrote, “The President very coolly telegraphed me yesterday that he thought I had better break the enemy’s lines at once? I was much tempted to reply that he had better come and do it himself.”

The views of John Wilkes Booth about Lincoln were part of a memoir by Asia Booth, his sister, in 1938. He also prepared a letter for The National Intelligencer a short time before he killed the President. In part, he wrote, “Many, I know — the vulgar herd — will blame me for what I am about to do, but posterity, I am sure, will justify me. Right or wrong, God judge me, not man….”

It was journalist Noah Brooks who recalled the great physical changes in Lincoln during his presidency.

“Though the intellectual man had greatly grown meantime, few persons would recognize the hearty, blithesome, genial, and wiry Abraham Lincoln of earlier days in the sixteenth President of the United States, with his stooping figure, dull eyes, care-worn face, and languid frame. The old, clear laugh never came back.” Imagine what it must have been like for President Lincoln, the only president to see Americans take up arms against each other.

The closing recollection is by William H. Crook, a bodyguard. In an interview, Mr Crook recalled how President Lincoln never failed to say good night to him at the end of the day. The only time Lincoln failed to do so was shortly before he started for Ford’s Theater on that fateful night.

“Mr Lincoln had told me that afternoon of a dream he had had for three successive nights, concerning his impending assassination. Of course, the constant dread of such a calamity made me somewhat nervous, and I almost begged him to remain in the Executive Mansion that night, and not to go to the theater.”

When the President would not disappoint Mrs Lincoln and others who were to attend, Mr Crook said he urged “that he allow me to stay on duty and accompany him; but he would not hear of this either.”

The President told Mr Crook to go home and rest. It was then that he turned and said, “Good-bye, Crook,” and went to his room.

While the facts of Lincoln’s assassination are well known, this poignant account by someone charged with protecting the President, who tried to stop him from going to the theater, even begged him to let him go with him, was more touching than any I have previously read.

The book is a wonderful compilation of memories of some of the people whose lives Lincoln touched, in various ways, at different times of his life and career. It has helped me know him better.