Hi, I'm the History Guy. I have a degree
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On April 9th 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to
Union General Ulysses S. Grant following the defeat of the Confederate Army at the Battle of
Appomattox Courthouse. The surrender documents were actually signed in the parlor of a home
owned by a man named Wilmer McLean and they were witnessed by both Grant and Lee's staff.
The last survivor among those witnesses lived all the way until 1926, and by coincidence was
a very famous person, one of the most important statesmen of his day, this is him later in life.
Don't recognize him? Maybe you recognize his dad. Robert Todd Lincoln was Abraham Lincoln's
firstborn son and the only one of Abraham Lincoln's children to survive to adulthood. His
younger brother Edward died of a fever just the age of three. Robert grew up at a time when his
father was practicing law on a circuit and thus was traveling, gone most of the time, and so
their relationship was distant not very close; Robert once noted that his most vivid memories
of his father growing up was Abraham packing his saddlebags. By the time that Roberts
father was elected President, Robert was attending Harvard University. He described his
father's being so busy that they scarcely had ten minutes quiet time together during his
entire presidency. Robert graduated Harvard in 1864 and briefly attended law school
there, but he felt compelled to join the Union Army and share the risk that everybody
else was taking. At first his mother resisted, his little brother Willie had died in the
White House of a fever in 1862, and his mother, Mary Todd Lincoln, feared that she could not
withstand another loss. But Robert eventually prevailed and his father asked General Grant if
Robert could be assigned to his staff. Robert was made an assistant adjutant and given the
rank of captain and that is why he was present to witness Lee's surrender. Robert had traveled
to Washington to visit his parents on April 15th, and his parents invited him to go to the theater
with them but he declined, he had been traveling on horseback all day and needed a rest. And so
Robert narrowly missed his father's assassination. Robert moved with his mother and his younger
brother Tad to Chicago and he continued his law studies, he was admitted to the bar in 1867.
In 1868 he married the daughter of a United States Senator; they had three children.
In 1876 Robert was elected town supervisor of the town of South Chicago, a town that was
eventually absorbed into the city of Chicago; that was his only elected office of his career.
In 1877 he was offered the position of Assistant Secretary of State by President Rutherford B.
Hayes but he declined, although he remained active in Republican politics. And then in 1881, he
accepted a cabinet appointment as Secretary of War in the new cabinet of President James Garfield.
He was with Garfield in the train station in July of 1881 and witnessed Garfield's assassination.
Robert continued to serve as Secretary of War in the cabinet of President Chester A. Arthur
where he was involved in many military reforms, he left the position in 1885. And then in 1889,
he was appointed to the important position of Minister to the United Kingdom under President
Benjamin Harrison where he served for four years. When he returned to the United States he became
General Counsel of the Pullman Palace Car Company, the world famous maker of railway cars. And
when the founder George Pullman died in 1897, Robert was made president of the Pullman Car
Company. He served in that position until 1911 when he left due to ill health but he stayed
on as chairman of the board clear until 1922. Despite his very accomplished life Robert Todd
Lincoln has often remembered for three things, the first was a coincidence. Somewhere in 1863
or 1864 Robert Todd Lincoln was riding a train from New York City to Washington DC, and while
in Jersey City, New Jersey, he was bumped off a train platform landing in the dangerous spot
between the platform and the train. A stranger reached down and pulled him out and when Robert
looked up he realized that his savior was the most famous actor of the day, a man named
Edwin Booth. Only later did Edwin Booth find out that the young man that he had saved was
President Lincoln's son and that, it is said, to have offered Edwin Booth some solace as he was
personally devastated when his younger brother, John Wilkes Booth murdered President Lincoln.
Second, in 1875 Robert had his mother, Mary Todd Lincoln committed to an asylum, he was concerned
about erratic behavior after the death of his younger brother Tad at the age of 18. Mary was
able to get some letters out to her attorney who was able to convince Robert to let her leave the
asylum and live with her sister but it included some public embarrassment for Robert, and he and
his mother never fully reconciled. And finally, Robert Todd Lincoln is sometimes described as
being somewhat unlucky because of his proximity to three presidential assassinations. He
just missed his father's assassination, he was there when James A. Garfield was
assassinated and he was just getting off a train going to visit president William
McKinley when McKinley was shot in 1901. It is tragic that a man who lived such an
accomplished life is remembered for coincidences, he was there for three presidential
assassinations because he was proximate to power during a tumultuous time. But Robert
Todd Lincoln lived an extraordinary life, he was born poor and found great success and
died very wealthy. He was an elder statesman, he was a leader in his party who was suggested as
a candidate for president or vice president many times but always declined. He was the president
of one of the largest corporations in the country, he was frankly one of the most accomplished men of
his era. His last public appearance was May 30th of 1922 when he appeared with President Warren
G. Harding and former president and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William Howard Taft, at the
dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. He passed away in 1926 just a few days shy of his 83rd birthday.
He was the last surviving member of the Garfield and Arthur administration's and the last surviving
witness to Lee's surrender. Robert Todd Lincoln lived an amazing extraordinary accomplished
life during one of the most dynamic periods in American history and darn it, he deserves to
be remembered as more than just his father's son. I'm the History Guy. I hope you enjoyed this
edition of my series 5 minutes of history, short snippets of forgotten history 5 to 10
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