“Mary and the children were left to continue on on the train that “Honest” Abe feared would be attacked.”
You are correct she rode on the train without Lincoln. I have not read into the finer details of the event because in the scheme of things it is of little relevance. You are of course researching anything that helps shed a bad light on Lincoln and if that is the best you can do, well, it’s the best you can do. Lincoln had to be convinced by Pinckerton and and aides to switch trains, so the implication he was afraid is your take on it.
What you do is start with a point of view, then accept anything you read that supports that view, and reject anything you read that goes against it. It’s dishonest research. The fact you always refer to Lincoln sarcastically as “Honest” Abe is pretty much a giveaway that for you history is about supporting an agenda and not discovering any truths.
No, Peabrain. You see, I started off like you, northern educated, memorized the Gettysburg Address, worshiped at the Great Memorial in Washington, DC. But then I read some wacko history that said some awful things about the Great Man. This can't be, I thought. But some of those awful things I could verify even with an Encyclopedia Britannica. Since some were true I looked more deeply into the others, including this about Lincoln leaving his family ride on a train he believed might be attacked. The only "awful thing" I haven't verified to my satisfaction is the claim that Lincoln at one point ordered the arrest of Chief Justice Taney. I did eventually obtain George Brown's book which also makes this assertion, but I still have my doubts. The bottom line is that Lincoln was a scumbag and that the histories that most people read have been sanitized to obscure or hide this fact.
(FTR, I have never lived south of the metro NYC area.)
ML/NJ