Civil War Quilts: Washington Whirlwind #10: President's Block

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Washington Whirlwind #10: President's Block

Washington Whirlwind #10: President's Block by Elsie Ridgley

We know all too well that the Lincoln family was heading for more tragedy soon after the Union victory. Five days after Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army in April, 1865, Southern zealot John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in the head while Mary sat beside her husband.

Her long-expressed refrain that no one suffered more than she was just a prelude to the disaster that would have traumatized anybody. Her dying husband was moved to a boarding house bedroom across the street from the theater where he was shot. The Petersen House at 516 East 10th Street became the site of an overnight death watch.

The Petersen House was a museum in 1925

as it is today, part of the Ford's Theater National Historic Site.

Imaginary deathbed scene with Cabinet members in attendance

The spool bed and striped wallpaper were accurate.

Washington's prominent preachers came to console family, friends and colleagues; Washington's most respected physicians to administer to the unconscious President.

Dr. Charles Sabin Taft (1835-1900)

Among the doctors was an army surgeon in the audience at Ford's Theater that night, Julia, Bud & Holly Taft's older half-brother. Charles was lifted into the Presidential box where he quickly realized
the situation was hopeless. His father recorded in his journal: "When Chas reached the Box the President was lying upon the floor. Water and stimulants were used immediately but without avail in attempts to revive him."

President's Block by Elsie Ridgley

The 30-year-old doctor was among those who carried Lincoln to the house across the street and stayed with him until he died in the early morning. Sister Julia Taft remembered that her older brother associated that terrible night with the lilacs blooming in Washington and as long as he lived "the scent of lilacs would turn him sick and faint."

Petersen's small back bedroom expanded to accommodate 20 onlookers in this Leslie's Illustrated representation. Despite his actual absence from the scene, Tad is pictured near the foot of the bed, Mary sobbing in the background. Charles Taft's father Horatio Taft recalled that Mary rejected the idea of calling in her youngest son. "Do not send for him, his violent grief would disturb the House." Tad remained at the White House.

President's Block by Becky Brown

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles & Mary Jane Hale Welles

Mary Jane was born the same year as Mary Todd Lincoln and gave birth to 9 children. Six of her young children died before the Civil War. She was Mary Lincoln's friend and often offered consolation for the Lincoln's losses, but the First Lady would not be consoled. Mary Jane may have waited with Mary at the Petersen House.

Gideon Welles, recognizable with his white beard (in the right side in the drawing above) wrote in his diary:

"The giant sufferer lay extended diagonally across the bed, which was not long enough for him. He had been stripped of his clothes. His large arms, which were occasionally exposed, were of a size which one would scarce have expected from his spare appearance. His slow, full respiration lifted the clothes with each breath that he took. His features were calm and striking. I had never seen them appear to better advantage than for the first hour, perhaps, that I was there."

President's Block by Jeanne Arnieri

Photographers Julius Uhlke and his brother Henry boarded at Petersen's.

After a night supplying hot water to the doctors Julius recorded the room

where Lincoln had died. The bed is now in the Chicago Historical Society.

The woven coverlet was often pictured with some artistic license.

Horatio Taft wrote that Mrs. Lincoln occupied a separate room at Petersen's "with some of her friends ... She went in frequently to see the President with Doct Gurley (The family Pastor)....She was not in the room when he died. Robert Lincoln was there ... Upon one occasion when Mrs L went in and saw her husband she fainted and was carried out insensible. It was thought best for her not to be there when he died."

Diarist Benjamin Brown French (1800-1872)

Benjamin French, who'd been planning victory celebrations for the Capitol city, joined the vigil at Petersen's extending his hand to Mary Lincoln who "wrung it in an agony of grief." As Director of Public Buildings he then began preparing another funeral and national mourning.