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ROBERT TODD LINCOLN LETTER


cpatrick
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Among the several personality items that I own, this has to be one of my favorites!

 

This is an original letter, penned in ink, by Abraham Lincoln's eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln. This was a man that knew his father better than most any other person in name. The letter was written to Fanny Ricketts, the wife of famed Civil War General, James Brewerton Ricketts, both of whom were close friends of the Lincoln family. Because it is written on War Department stationary, this letter would date from the 1881-1885 period, when Lincoln was Secretary of War under the Garfield administration. It's interesting to see that Robert Lincoln's autograph is strikingly similar to that of his father.

 

He was a graduate of Harvard University, and served on the personal staff of General U. S. Grant during the Civil War.

 

Robert Todd Lincoln lived a life of amazing coincidences. As many of you well know, he was pushed out of the way of an oncoming train, narrowly escaping death. Who was his rescuer? None other than John Wilkes Booth! He was also present at the assasination of President Garfield, and though not an eye witness, he was near by when McKinley was shot as well.

 

Dying in 1926, he was the last member of both the Garfield and Arthur cabinets. He is among the ranks of those distinguished men and women buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

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