Lincoln's Last Days: March 21, 1865
On March 21, 1865, Abraham Lincoln continued to make plans for his trip to City Point, Virginia, to meet with Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant. He met with Lt. Commander John S. Barnes once again to plan the trip. He decided to charter the steamer "River Queen", which would carry the President and Mrs. Lincoln, along with some friends on the trip. The U.S.S. "Bat", which was Barnes' ship, would travel alongside to provide protection for the Lincolns. The "Bat" was described as a "fast moving gunboat."
Doris Kearns Goodwin, in her wonderful book Team of Rivals describes the plans to ready the Bat for Lincoln's trip, at pages 707-8. She writes:
Work immediately commenced on the interior of the armed ship to make alterations necessary "to insure the personal comfort of the President as long as he desired to make the Bat his home." To discuss the meals and amenities Lincoln might require, [Assistant Navy Secretary] Fox brought Barnes to the White House. Lincoln told Barnes "he wanted no luxuries, but only "plan simple food and ordinary comfort - that what was good enough for me would be good enough for him." Barnes returned to the Navy Yard to supervise the changes.
The next morning Lincoln summoned Barnes back to the White House. Embarrassed at the thought that workers had stayed up all night to make alterations that might require additional work, Lincoln explained apologetically that "Mrs. Lincoln had decided that she would accompany him to City Point, and could the Bat accommodate her and her maid servant?" Barnes was, "in sailor's phrase, 'taken all aback'" knowing that the austere gunboat "was in no respect adapted to the private life of womankind, nor could she be made so." He returned to the Navy Yard "where the alterations to the Bat were stopped and the steamer River Queen was chartered." The change of plans was particularly upsetting to Fox, who "expressed great regret that the determination of Mrs. Lincoln to accompany the President" had forced the shift to "an unarmed, fragile river-boat, so easily assailed and so vulnerable." He directed Barnes to follow Lincoln's steamer in the Bat, but still could not shake his anxiety. Though aware of the danger, Lincoln remained relaxed and cheerful, talking about the problems of accommodating womenfolk at sea "in very funny terms."
At the time, Lincoln's oldest son Robert Todd Lincoln was a captain in the Union army and was serving at City Point under Grant's command. Author David Herbert Donald, in Lincoln writes at page 571, that "Grant made sure that Robert was not exposed to danger, and his principal duty was to escort visitors to the Army of the Potomac from one place to another." On March 21, 1865, Lincoln sent a telegraph to Robert to inform him of the visit. The telegraph read "We now think of starting to you about One P.M. Thursday. Don't make public."
Lincoln also wrote to General Walter B. Scates in Centralia in the Washington Territory. Scates had been Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court before the war, from 1853 to 1857. Lincoln wrote: "If you choose to go to New-Mexico, and reside, I will appoint you Chief Justice there. What say you? Please answer." Scates wrote back on March 25th declining the offer. The letter was received by Attorney General James Speed on April 11th.
That evening the Lincolns went to the opera once again. They saw a performance of Francois-Adrien Boieldieu's opera "La Dame Blanche" at Grover's Theatre. Lincoln was not as fond of opera as he was of the theatre. On one occasion in March, the Lincolns had attended a performance of Mozart's famous opera "The Magic Flute". One of the persons in the President's party, Colonel James Grant Wilson, asked Lincoln if he was enjoying the performance. Lincoln replied "Oh no Colonel, I have not come for the play, but for the rest. I am being hounded to death by office seekers, who pursue me early and late, and it is simply to get two or three hours relief that I am here."
Doris Kearns Goodwin, in her wonderful book Team of Rivals describes the plans to ready the Bat for Lincoln's trip, at pages 707-8. She writes:
Work immediately commenced on the interior of the armed ship to make alterations necessary "to insure the personal comfort of the President as long as he desired to make the Bat his home." To discuss the meals and amenities Lincoln might require, [Assistant Navy Secretary] Fox brought Barnes to the White House. Lincoln told Barnes "he wanted no luxuries, but only "plan simple food and ordinary comfort - that what was good enough for me would be good enough for him." Barnes returned to the Navy Yard to supervise the changes.
The next morning Lincoln summoned Barnes back to the White House. Embarrassed at the thought that workers had stayed up all night to make alterations that might require additional work, Lincoln explained apologetically that "Mrs. Lincoln had decided that she would accompany him to City Point, and could the Bat accommodate her and her maid servant?" Barnes was, "in sailor's phrase, 'taken all aback'" knowing that the austere gunboat "was in no respect adapted to the private life of womankind, nor could she be made so." He returned to the Navy Yard "where the alterations to the Bat were stopped and the steamer River Queen was chartered." The change of plans was particularly upsetting to Fox, who "expressed great regret that the determination of Mrs. Lincoln to accompany the President" had forced the shift to "an unarmed, fragile river-boat, so easily assailed and so vulnerable." He directed Barnes to follow Lincoln's steamer in the Bat, but still could not shake his anxiety. Though aware of the danger, Lincoln remained relaxed and cheerful, talking about the problems of accommodating womenfolk at sea "in very funny terms."
At the time, Lincoln's oldest son Robert Todd Lincoln was a captain in the Union army and was serving at City Point under Grant's command. Author David Herbert Donald, in Lincoln writes at page 571, that "Grant made sure that Robert was not exposed to danger, and his principal duty was to escort visitors to the Army of the Potomac from one place to another." On March 21, 1865, Lincoln sent a telegraph to Robert to inform him of the visit. The telegraph read "We now think of starting to you about One P.M. Thursday. Don't make public."
Lincoln also wrote to General Walter B. Scates in Centralia in the Washington Territory. Scates had been Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court before the war, from 1853 to 1857. Lincoln wrote: "If you choose to go to New-Mexico, and reside, I will appoint you Chief Justice there. What say you? Please answer." Scates wrote back on March 25th declining the offer. The letter was received by Attorney General James Speed on April 11th.
That evening the Lincolns went to the opera once again. They saw a performance of Francois-Adrien Boieldieu's opera "La Dame Blanche" at Grover's Theatre. Lincoln was not as fond of opera as he was of the theatre. On one occasion in March, the Lincolns had attended a performance of Mozart's famous opera "The Magic Flute". One of the persons in the President's party, Colonel James Grant Wilson, asked Lincoln if he was enjoying the performance. Lincoln replied "Oh no Colonel, I have not come for the play, but for the rest. I am being hounded to death by office seekers, who pursue me early and late, and it is simply to get two or three hours relief that I am here."