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Believe whatever you wish. David Herbert Donald was a distinguished American historian with impeccable credentials. He specialized in the Civil War era and was a Pulitzer Prize winner twice. The Times reporter was a known writer of fables.

David Herbert Donald was a distinguished American historian with impeccable credentials. He specialized in the Civil War era and was a Pulitzer Prize winner twice. The Times reporter was a known writer of fables.

I wonder where you think these "distinguished historians" get their information from. They either see it, it's a giant game of telephone, or they make it up.

Another guy who just happened to see it was Allan Pinkerton. He was Lincoln's security guy. In 1866 he wrote:

Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by Mr. Judd and the rest of the cortege, left Harrisburg and went through to Baltimore. Before she left, however, the news had been telegraphed all over, of the arrival of Mr. Lincoln in Washington. Upon arrival of the party in Baltimore they met with anything but a cordial reception. These things, however, you can glean from the Newspapers of that day.

This paragraph is footnoted in the copy I have which comes from Lincoln and the Baltimore Plot, an edited collection of papers by Norma Cuthbert which I obtained because it was cited by McPherson and others. The footnote gives a much larger excerpt from the same NY Times article I quoted from earlier in this thread. To be fair, I would note that after the two page excerpt from the Times, the footnote includes a short paragraph about the recollections of another member of the party written 45 years after the fact [Cuthbert's observation, not mine] that no incivility was encountered by them in Baltimore.

Of course the issue isn't what happened or didn't happen to Mrs. Lincoln, but rather what Mr. Lincoln thought might happen. He obviously feared for his safety riding on that same train that his wife and family stayed on. Of this there is little doubt.

ML/NJ

The Times reporter was a known writer of fables.

Are you referring to Joe Howard, author of the 'Great Civil War Gold Hoax'?

Now there's a credible source....lol!