OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 44B

************************************************************************
USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE
     Copyright.  All rights reserved.  
     http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the 
contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US 
Copyright Laws and Regulations.

In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, 
these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research.  They 
may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and 
submitter information is included.

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit.

Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission 
from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites.

The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the 
file permanently for free access.

http://www.usgenwebarchives.org     
**************************************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
May 8, 2005
**************************************************************************

Historical Collections of Ohio
And Then They Went West
Know Your Ohio
by Darlene E. Kelley
Tid Bits - part 44 B.
As written by Corporal Robert W. McBride, company clerk of The Union
Light Guard of Ohio.  reproduced by
S. Kelly. [ Notes ]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Part 44 B.

           Lincoln's Body Guard
           Personal Recollections.

                    by  Robt W. McBride
                         Co., Clerk.

" In connection with the sketch of the company; was published some of
the writer's peronal recollections of Abraham Lincoln."
 
Note+

[ Those who are familiar with the city of Washington during the time of
the Civil War, it is not surprising that Mr. Lincoln was assassinated.
The surprising thing to us was that it was so long delayed. It is
probable that the only man in Washington who, if he thought upon the
subject at all, did not think that Mr. Lincoln was in imminent danger,
was Mr. Lincoln himself. The city was filled with Southern sympathizers,
and could easily be entered by men coming from beyond the rebel lines.
The feeling against Mr Lincoln as the chosen leader of those battling
for the maintenance of the Union was, of course, intensely bitter. Even
in the North, he was constantly abused and villified, characterized as a
tyrant and monster, while articles appeared daily in some newspapers the
tendency of which to incite to his murder. It is said that in great
reluctance, and upon the urgent solicitation of the great War Secretary,
Edwin M. Stanton, and others, that he consented to have a guard
stationed at the White House and a company of cavalry assigned as his
mounted escort.

A company of infantry from one of Pennsylvania's famous regiments of 
" Bucktails " was camped in the grounds just south of the White House,
and a daily detail from its ranks was posted in front of the House, one
on each side of the great portico, the beats of the sentinels beginning
on each side of the entrance and running east and west about as far as
east and west side of the main building. Posted thus, they were more
ornamental than useful. They were not allowed to challenege or stop any
person who sought to enter the White House, and its doors opened then as
freely to visitors as they do today.

A company from a New York regiment of cavalry, known as the " Scott's
Nine Hundred," was his original cavalry escort, but in 1863, Governor
David Tod, of Ohio, tendered the services of a picked company of cavalry
from our State. His offer was accepted, in December of 1863, the company
of 108 men strong, relieving the New York regiment of nine hundred, for
immediate war duty. Reaching Washington in December in 1863, as they
were known as the " Union Light Guard " or " Seventh Independent
Squadron of Ohio Volunteer Cavalry." From that time until it was
mustered out of service, on the ninth day of September, 1865, it was the
mounted escort or bodyguard of Abraham Lincoln and of his successor in
office. ]

McBride writes;

" I was quartered in barracks in what is known as the White Lot, but
which was then known as the Treasury Park. In those days the White House
grounds proper only extended south to a line running east and west from
the south end of the Treasury Department building to Seventeenth street.
It was bounded on the south by a stone wall three or four feet in
height, the top of the wall being on a level with the White House
grounds. South of that, and extending to the old canal, which ran
immediately north of the then unfinished Washington monument, was the
Treasury Park, a great commons with a few small scattering trees and a
half mile race track. The barracks were south of the Treasury
Department, on the west side of Fifteenth street facing D and E.
streets. Our horses were stabled on the grounds now occupied by
Albaugh's Opera House, and were picketed and groomed on Fifteenth
street.

It was while serving as member of this company that I had many
opportunities to see Mr. Lincoln. The utter inadequacy of the measures
taken for his protection will be understood in some measure when I
describe how I first saw him.

It was after midnight of a January night in 1864. The approaches to the
White House and the great portico on its front were lighted by
flickering gas jets, for that was before the days of electric lighting.
The two great iron gates which guarded the driveways from Pennsylvania
avenue were open, but on each side of each gate was a mounted
cavalryman, the detail from the Union Light Guard. Dismounted and
lounging against the stone supports of the portico was a cavalry
corporal of the guard, his horse being picketed in the rear of the
house. ( On that particular evening I happened to be the corporal of the
guard.) The two " Bucktails " were pacing their beats. From the end of
the beat of the sentinel on the east side, a walk ran to the Treasury
Department, and just north of this path stood the White House stables,
inside a square-trimmed hedge of boxwood, probably two and one-half or
three feet high. From the end of the beat of the sentinel on the west
side a path paved with brick ran westward to the old War Department, a
dingy-looking old brick building of the dry goods box style of
architecture, occuping a part of the noth end of the ground now covered
by the magnificent State and War Department building. South of it,
fronting on Seventeeth street, and separated from the War Department a
short distance, was another old-time brick structure, resembling it in
architectual ugliness, and 
occupied by the Navy Department. The space between the White House and
the War Department contained a number of great forest trees, making a
beautiful little park in daylight; but at night, lighted only by the
wavering beams of a solitary gas jet, it was a place of shadows and
gloom.
Te path to the War Department ran along the south end of this little
park, under the shadow of the trees. Just south of the path was a brick
wall, probably five or six feet in height, easily scaled, enclosing what
was then called the White House gardens. Lights shone in only a few of
the wndows of the White House.

The front door opened, and a tall, rather slender, angular looking man
came out alone. He wore a long black frock coat, and a silk hat of the
peculiar narrow, high, straight style then in vogue. The hat had
apparently either seen its best days or had been badly cared for, as it
had lost its shine, and the nap was standing on end in many patches. The
long coat and the high hat made him seem taller and more slender than he
really was.

Closing the door, he clasped his hands behind his back, and with head
bent forward, walked slowly toward the front of the portico. As this I
became suddenly alert, came to attention, drew my saber, and brought it
to a carry; for I had approached and recognized in the gaunt figure the
President and commander-in-chief of the army, to whom all military
courtesy was due.

The President came slowly forward until he reached the steps, and there
stopped.
For several minutes he stood, seemingly in deep thought, and apparently
giving no heed to his surroundings. The opportunity to observe him
closely was improved, for he had stopped where one of the gas lights
shone full upon him. He looked carewarn and weary. His features, as well
as his form, were rugged and angular,and there were lines in his face
that do not appear in his portraits, His hat was set back far enough to
show a high, broad forehead. His nose and ears were large, his cheek
bones prominent, his jaws square, his cheeks slightly sunken, his mouth
large, and his lips full and rather prominent. His eyes were bent
downward and could not be distinctly seen. His face, 
around his mouth and a portion of his cheeks, was smoothly shaven, but
his chin and jaws were covered with closely-trimmed dark-colored
whiskers.

He came down the steps, and, without appearing to notice, gravely lifted
his hat in recognition of the salute given, and turned toward the War
Department. With similar gravity he acknowledged the salute I gave, as
he passed me. I at once resumed my beat as he and another cavalryman
anxiously watched the tall figure as it passed into the shadows of the
great trees, and I know my anxiety was relieved when Mr. Lincoln entered
the War Department building. In about half an hour he came back, still
alone. This, while the first, was only one of many similar occurrances,
for as I then learned, it was his frequent and almost nightly practice
thus to visit the War Department before going to bed, that he might have
the latest news from the front. It was also his daily practice to make
an early morning visit to the department. I never saw him attended at
any of these times. He always went and came alone. I think, however,
that late in the fall of 1864, a member of the police force in plain
clothes attended him whenever he left the White House.

>From the discription I have given of the surroundings, it can be seen
how easy it would have been for an assassin to have killed him while he
was on one of these solitary visits to the War Department, and how
little actual protection was given him by the guards as they were
posted.

The evidence on the trial of the conspirators showed that they knew of
his habit of visiting the War Department, and they had at one time
planned to abduct him, by seizing him on a dark night, while in the
shadows of the park, lifting him over the brick wall that bordered the
south side of the parkway, and hurrying him across the Treasury Park to
a vacant house belonging to a rebel sympathizer, where he could be kept
concealed in the cellar until he could be taken across the Potomac in a
boat. The plan was practicable, and I have never understood why it was
abandoned. But this was uncovered before our Company had arrived. 

The next morning I witnessed an interesting scene. Mr. Lincoln came out
and started toward the department, apparently absorbed in thought. The
infantry sentinel presented arms as he approached, but Mr. Lincoln
walked by without returning the salute. The soldier remained standing at
a present arms. When Mr. Lincoln had passed him nearly or quite two
rods, he suddenly stopped, turned clear aound, lifted his hat and bowed.
His manner was significant of his kindly nature. It was that of one
gentleman apologizing to another for an unintentional slight. Mr.
Lincoln was not a
military man, yet his position made him the commander-in-chief of the
army and entitled him to military honors. He understood that the duty of
an officer to return a salute was an imperative as the duty of the
soldier to give it. The humblest private in ranks is entitled to have
his salute returned, and a failure to return it is an affront and a
breach ofmilitary courtesy. When Mr. Lincoln realized that he had failed
to recognize the salute at the proper time he was not content merely to
return it, but in his manner of returning it tendered an ample apology.
I asked the soldier why he continued standing at a present after the
President had passed him so far. He explained that such occurrences were
common; when Mr. Lincoln was absorbed in thought he frequently passed
the sentry without returning the salute, but never failed to remember
before he had gone very far, and invariably stopped, when he did
remember, and returned it.

We soon learned to know from Mr. Lincoln's manner, as he returned from
the Wa Department, whether the news from the front was good or
otherwise. If good, he would come back with head erect and arms
swinging. His countenance was bright, and he usually smiled as he
acknowledged the salute. If the news from the front was not encouraging,
we could read it in his manner. His countenance was clouded, and he
frequently walked with his hands clasped behind his back.
One night there was analarm of fire. The White House stables were
burning. Those of us who were early on the ground saw a tall hatless man
come running from the direction of the White House. When he reached the
boxwood hedge that served as an enclosure to the stables he sprang over
it like a deer. As he approached the stable he inquired if the horses
had been taken out. On learning that they had not, he asked impatiently
why they had not, and with his own hands burst open the stable door. A
glance within showed that the whole interior of the stable was in
flames; and with that the rescue of the horses was imposible.
Notwithstanding this, he would apparently have rushed in had not those
standing around caught and restrained him. It had suddenly occurred to
some one that possibly the stables had been fired for the purpose of
bringing him out of the White House and giving an opportunity to
assassinate him. Captain Bennett, of the Union Light Guard, and some
others immediately hurried him into the White House, while, Captain
Bennet's ordered a detail of men of our Company. I took charge of the
entrance, remaining there on duty for several hours.

After posting the sentinels, I went inside. Mr. Lincoln, with others,
was standing in the East room, looking at the still smouldering stables.
He was weeping. Little " Tad." his youngest son, explained his father's
emotion. His son Willie had died a short time before. He was his
father's favorite, and the stable contained a pony that had belonged to
the dead boy.
The thought of his dead child had come to his mind as soon as he learned
the stables were on fire, and he had rushed out to try and save the
little pony from the flames.

The presidential receptions offered another opportunity for the
assassin. The recent death of President McKinley shows that it was
indeed a real danger. With feeling running so high, it speaks well for
American character that some fanatic did not take advantage of the
license afforded by the Presidential receptions to assassinate him as
President McKinley was assassinated.

At those receptions, Mr. Lincoln, like other Presidents, would stand for
hours shaking the hands of all who came. For hours a constant stream of
mixed humanity passed him. The clerk, the mechanic and the laborer from
the streets would elbow the millionaire or the high official, as they
crowded through, and the President greeted all with the same courtesy.

During a public reception at the White House, on an evening in March of
1864, while standing near the entrance watching the crowds as they came,
I noticed two officers come in quietly and join the throng passing
around to the right to reach the President. One wore a close
cropped brownish colored mustache and beard that covered his entire
face. His uniform showed the slight purplish tinge taken on by military
uniform in those days when it has seen much service in the field. His
shoulder straps were those of a major-general. The other, who followed
him closely, also wore a full beard, which,
as I remember it, was darker than that of his companion, and was not
trimmed. His shoulder straps were those of a brigadier-
general. Some one asked : " Who are they?" Most of those present were
familiar with the general officers of the Army of the Potomac, but these
were strangers.
Suddenly some one whispered: " That looks like the picture of Grant in
Harper's Weekly," and then the word went around that it was General
Grant, with General Rawlings, his chief of staff. General Grant had just
been nominated and confirmed as lieutenant-general, and had come East to
receive his commission and take command of the armies. This was his
first visit to the White House during the War, and his first meeting
with Mr. Lincoln.  I had the privilege of seeing them meet. Mr. Lincoln
recognized General Grant before he reached him, and, contrary to his
usual custom, stepped forward to greet him. He was much taller than
General Grant, and when he clasped his hand his head bent downward as he
looked into the General's eyes. I could not hear what they said. The
crush became terrific, as the crowd tried to get near enough to witness
the meeting. With other members of my company, I assisted in clearing
the way for General Grant to escape from the crush. Placing him and
Secretary of State
William Seward in the center, we formed a sort of football wedge, and
thus forced our way through the crowd and across the East room. On the
east side of the East room was a sofa, on which Mr. Seward and General
Grant climbed. A little speech from Mr. Seward and a little energetic
pushing by the guard started the throng past General Grant, who shook
hands with them as they passed.

Mr. Lincoln spent the summer of 1864 at the Soldier's Home, going out
from the city in the evening and returning in the morning. A detachment
of the guard accompanied him as his escort and remained at the Soldier's
Home over night. Occassionally Mr. Lincoln would go among the men and
chat familiarly with them.

Mr. Lincoln's manner on such occasions was that of one having a genuine,
kindly interest in members of the company and a wish to learn how
matters looked from their point of view. There was nothing patronizing
about it, nor anything savoring of condescension or superciliousness. My
first impression on seeing Mr. Lincoln was that he was ungainly, awkward
and ugly. Memory recalls him as being rugged, strong, plain and kind."


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

To be continued in Tid Bits part 44 C.