President Lincoln's Cottage, D.C.

When President Abraham Lincoln first took office, outgoing President Buchanan made a recommendation to him. The federal government had recently purchased a home with a lot of land about two miles north of the District of Columbia's populated area. It was a nice retreat from the growing city and the very busy life of the president. Lincoln tucked that idea away in the back of his head. 

The house was built by the Riggs family, prominent bankers in the District. So even though it is referred to as a "cottage," the house was built to the highest standards and had enough bedrooms to accommodate the nine children in the Riggs family. In the 1850s, they sold it to the Federal Government, which planned to turn it into a soldiers' home for veterans of the Mexican American War. The first soldiers to arrive lived in the house but moved into a large dormitory constructed nearby on the grounds. The house was used by Buchanan as a summer White House and a place to get away from the heat (literal and metaphorical) of the city. The house is on a hill that overlooks downtown. From the back porch, people could see the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building being finished.

Lincoln brought his family to live there after their son Willy died, to get away from the attention. Mary Todd Lincoln was especially sensitive to the loss. They lived there for three summers (1862, 1863, 1864), hauling a lot of furniture and books from the White House so Lincoln could work and live comfortably there. He still commuted to the White House, about 35 minutes on horseback. Initially, he rode back and forth on his own until one day he came back to the cottage without his hat. When people asked about it, he said it wasn't important. Some soldiers went to investigate the path he took and found the hat with a bullet hole in it. They then insisted that Lincoln have an escort, which he would often try to dodge by leaving early. That commute was his only "alone time" to think and have a break from the pressures of being a war-time president and a grieving father. 

Now known as President Lincoln's Cottage, it was opened to the public in 2008. The buildings nearby still house military veterans (so the rest of the area is not open to visitors). An extensive cemetery, similar to Arlington National Cemetery, is nearby. When we visited on Juneteenth, we were able to park outside on the street. Getting in requires government photo ID since the veterans' part is off-limits. The visitor center and the cottage are not far from the entrance.

Fancy entrance

Visitors Center

Visitors can buy tickets to tour of the cottage at the center, if they haven't bought the tickets online previously. The building also has a gift shop and some exhibits about the Lincolns' life at the cottage. A nice mural is in the foyer.

Click to enlarge the mural

Looking at a 3D view from the time

The exhibit above has a 3D viewer that my children enjoyed. The write-up describes it as a type of View-Master. We had to explain to our children what a View-Master was. 

Portrait of the family after the death of Willy

The matriarch

The boys

A Lincoln statue

Informational signs explained Lincoln's relationship to the military, some of whom were camped at the cottage, partly for Lincoln's safety, partly for the veterans. He interacted with both groups, the young soldiers and the aged veterans.

With the troops

Map skills

When our tour time came, we gathered in a side room where the guide let us know the various rules about the cottage, including two chairs we could not sit in (too fragile). The house has plenty of other benches and furniture that we used. She also said we could not take pictures inside the cottage, so that's a bummer for the blog, more so for you, dear readers.

Some Lincoln quotes prepping us for the visit

The cottage was built in the Gothic Revival Style, with plenty of room for plenty of people. At one point, Secretary of War Stanton came and stayed with his family while the Lincolns were there. The home was a good spot for meetings where fewer prying eyes and spying ears could get information to print in the papers or to sell to the Confederates. 

The tour took us to various rooms, ending in the Lincolns' bedroom. That was where Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation. The furniture from the room is still in the White House (in the Lincoln bedroom, of course) though they recreated Lincoln's desk to display in the cottage bedroom. I was sorely tempted to take a photo but did not. I have bragged that I was in the Lincoln bedroom, however.

Front of the cottage

A door on a side wing

Connecting a wing

The back of the cottage

Back around by the front

Just across from the cottage is a life-size statue of Lincoln. He stood six-foot four-inches, still the tallest president of the United States. His hat was fourteen inches, adding another foot or so to his height. No wonder he's taller than the horse!

Lincoln statue

Nearby is a gazebo that was put in later but I thought it was nice, so I took a picture.

The tour guide said they get a lot of school visits but otherwise the cottage is not as popular as downtown sights. Hopefully they get more attention in the future! It is definitely worth visiting to get a more personal understanding of the Lincolns. And you could say you were in the Lincoln bedroom too!

Book Review: The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation by J. Hennessey et al.

The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation written by Jonathan Hennessey, art by Aaron McConnell, and lettering by Tom Orzechowski

Using the Gettysburg Address as a framework for telling the story of the American Civil War is the conceit governing this book. The premise intrigued me so I picked it up off the library shelf. The narrative starts off with a quick look at the horrors of the Civil War before zeroing in on the Gettysburg Address as an encapsulation of the major issues involved and as a signpost pointing both forward and backward in history. The narrative moves from the American War for Independence all the way into the middle of the twentieth century with the great successes of the Civil Rights Movement. 

But the book has a lot of problems.

 

The book establishes a false division between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Their claim is that the Declaration is full of philosophical “unionist” ideas that are different from the Constitution's concepts that the states contractually join a union that they can leave (the defense made by the "secessionists"). The book asks where did States Rights go in the Constitution, a question that implies that the Constitution is more "unionist" than the Declaration. The authors completely leave out the Bill of Rights, the tenth of which explicitly says "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The two documents are not in opposition. The Constitution is an outgrowth or a fruition of the Declaration of Independence, especially after the disastrous Articles of Confederation, which crafted a too weak federal government that clearly was not working. This book does talk about the Articles of Confederation but fails to draw the line between the Declaration and the Constitution that runs through the Articles.

The book also does a great disservice to Abraham Lincoln. They insist that he always harbored the idea that the slaves should be freed and sent to another country, their own country. He did consider this scheme but quickly rejected it as impractical and unjust. Also, after quoting Lincoln saying, "There is no reason in the world why the Negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," [p. 97] the authors claim that Lincoln thought of these as Civil Rights and did not want the former slaves to to have Political Rights, i.e. the right to vote, hold office, and serve on juries. The whole point of the Declaration is that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are rights held prior to, above, and beyond the political system under which people live. They are natural rights, not granted by a civil or a political body. Men and women possess these rights because of their basic humanity (just as the white men possess these rights). Lincoln clearly argues that a government denying these natural rights is wrong.

I liked the idea of this book but was very disappointed in the execution.

Not recommended.

Harriet Tubman on Maryland's Eastern Shore

Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most famous woman from the American Civil War era. She was born a slave on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and ran away to freedom in her twenties. Soon enough, she went back to Maryland to help other slaves (including friends and family) escape along the Underground Railroad. When the Civil War broke out, she joined the army, eventually working as a spy and leading a raid. After the war, she lived on a farm she had in New York. She was involved in the women's suffrage movement. 

The town of Salisbury has a memorial garden to Tubman, featuring a small mural of her and some informational signs.

Harriet Tubman Garden Mural

The fall isn't the best time to visit the garden

In front of Dorchester's County Courthouse is a statue of Tubman called "The Beacon of Hope." 

Pic with me blocking, whoops!

The downtown Harriet Tubman Museum in Cambridge is closed for repairs. The famous mural outside is still visible. It's called "Take My Hand," and was painted by Michael Rosato. 

"Take My Hand"

We did a Adventure Lab-inspired tour of some historic sites in Dorchester County, including the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park. 

Our first stop was at the Stanley Institute, a classic "one room" school that opened in 1867 to teach blacks since it became legal to do so in post-war Maryland. Ten years earlier, two large groups fled from slavery in this area, making the locals more vigilant in patrolling and keeping watch on blacks, free or slave, in the area. Tubman was not able to come back to this particular area for three years. The building is now a museum which wasn't open when we visited.

Stanley Institute

The Church Creek area south of Cambridge was a hub of shipbuilding which allowed enslaved people to learn valuable skills in crafting boats and piloting them, enabling them to escape through the many waterways on Maryland's eastern shore.

Info about Church Creek

The next stop was the NPS Visitor Center, which has very fine exhibits on the life of Harriet Tubman, from her birth as a slave, though her career as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and on to her activism for women's suffrage. 

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center

She was born Araminta "Minty" Ross in March of 1822 to slaveholders in the area. Her father Ben lived on a different plantation from his wife and children. He could only visit them when time allowed (hardly ever). 

Model of a slave cabin

Artist's rendition of family reunions

Minty was hired out by the Brodess family (who owned her mother) on several different jobs, including setting traps and retrieving muskrats for their pelts. 

Child trapper

As she grew older, an altercation at a nearby drygoods store made a profound change in her life. A slave was escaping from his master. Araminta did nothing to stop him, so the clerk threw a two-pound scale weight at the fleeing slave and accidentally hit Minty. She was knocked down and had a severe injury but still had to return to work in the fields. She started having epileptic fits and visions that she attributed to God. In 1844, she married the free black man John Tubman but still had to remain a slave. In 1849 Brodess died and his widow planned to sell off the slaves to repay debts. Tubman (who changed her name to Harriet in honor of her mother) decided to run. When she finally fled north from slavery, her crossing into Pennsylvania was a religious experience too.

Artist's rendition of Harriet crossing into Pennsylvania

A mockup of a slaves house with a barrel of corn in front

While "up North," Harriet's visions convinced her to go back and bring family and friends North too. She became a very active and highly successful conductor on the Underground Railroad, a network of homes and hiding places where fleeing slaves could get respite and help on the perilous journey north. Historical documents show over seventy people she led to freedom, though obviously records were not kept in any detail, so it could have been more.

Lists of people she saved from slavery

The museum has a bust of Frederick Douglass, another freed slave who worked with abolitionists to expose the horrors of chattel slavery. Douglass also grew up on Maryland's eastern shore.

Frederick Douglass

Other exhibits show her many collaborators on the Underground Railroad.

Fellow travelers

When the Civil War began, she joined the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, later as a spy and a commander for a raid. After the war, she moved to Auburn, New York, where she had bought a farm. She still remained active, even working with Susan B. Anthony on women's suffrage in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Susan B. Anthony and a family photo

Tubman was the first black woman to be honored by appearing on a United States postage stamp and by having a Navy vessel named after her. The effort to put her on the twenty-dollar bill has been recently renewed (in March 2025) after being tossed around like a hot potato for the past ten years. 

Tubman cultural impact

A last memorial

Back out on the trail, the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge presents the kind of land fleeing slaves typically traveled through. A sign talks about Tubman's brother Moses, who was hidden by their mother in Greenbrier Swamp so he would not be sold into slavery when they were children.

Tubman info sign

We did not visit this visitor center

Further down the road is the area that was Brodess's plantation where Tubman was born. It was an empty field when we visited in late November, though I am sure it is probably still farmed today.

Info on Tubman

The Tubman trail sign

In nearby Bucktown (less than a mile away), the stores look like they could be from the ante-bellum days.

A store in Bucktown, maybe the store

The weather was very cold when we visited and a couple of us were under the weather, so we did not do much more exploring. Such an important history is well worth visiting.

Sunken Road Trail, Fredericksburg, Maryland

On our way south for Spring Break, we stopped in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to visit one of the battlefields. Right by the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center is the Sunken Road, the site of one of the bloodiest and most futile engagements of the war. 

By the sign

The actual visitor center

The center has several exhibits describing the battles around the town, though the main focus is on the Battle of Fredericksburg, where the Union army charged across the Rappahannock River into the town. The devastation was enormous, with many buildings destroyed and nearly 13,000 casualties on the Union side. The Confederate army had only 5000 casualties. Nine generals were wounded or killed during the conflict which raged from December 11 to 15, 1862.

Diorama of damage based on a photo

The uniforms in the early part of the war were less uniform--many units had their own. Below are some examples. 

From a Pennsylvania unit

Confederate chaplain's coat

A drum used on the battlefield

Weapons

Outside the center, the trail starts at the back of the parking lot with a view up to the cemetery lodge. A large national cemetery was made on Marye's Heights overlooking the Sunken Road and the town.

Cemetery lodge

The road actually is lower than the surrounding terrain, with the hill of Marye's Heights on one side and a retaining wall on the other. The wall near the visitor's center is a reconstruction from the 1930s (there's also a reconstruction from 2004 and some of the original wall).

Not the actual wall, but what it looked like

The ridge of Marye's Heights (looks taller in person)

The Stephens House is no longer present along the road. It was not destroyed in the battle but removed after the war. The foundation was discovered later by archeologists.

Stephens house area

The Innis House is a survivor of the battle though it was so riddled with bullets that Confederate General McLaws quipped that the house "had no space as large as two hands on it that had not been pierced." 

Innis House

A moving memorial is dedicated to Richard Rowland Kirkland, a Confederate soldier. During a lull in the fighting, the land between the Sunken Road and the Union line was littered with the dead and dying. The sounds of their agony inspired him to crawl out with canteens of water to provide some relief to the wounded. He gave water to all the soldiers, Confederate and Union. No soldiers ever fired on him.

Kirkland memorial

Back of the memorial

Also on the Heights is Brompton, a home that is now the private residence of the president of the University of Mary Washington. The university is named after George Washington's mom, who lived in Fredericksburg for a long time.

Brompton

By the Kirkland Monument some of original wall is extant, with a sign describing it.

Original wall

The trail goes up onto the Heights with a view of the town. The Confederates put their artillery up here, a relatively safe spot in the battle that let them easily fire on the Union troops.

Looking into town

Parking lot and visitor center

Some guns

The National Cemetery has mostly soldiers who died in the area, along with some wives. No more burials are happening since it is now full!

Entrance to the cemetery

Small grave markers

A well-funded marker

A New Jersey soldier!

Humphreys Monument commemorates the last charge of the Union on December 13. Humphreys' division was entirely Pennsylvania recruits and lost a quarter of its men in the assault. The State of Pennsylvania funded the monument.

Humphreys Monument

The Fifth Corps Monument was erected in 1901 by General Butterfield, the Union commander at the battle.

Fifth Corps monument

List of various units in the Fifth--see details here

The history of the battle is sobering and marks how the war was a long, frustrating conflict that cost the country a lot.