Charles Forbes Charles Forbes watched Tad on occasion, acted as footman to the presidential carriage, and was driving Mrs. Lincoln from the Soldiers’ Home to the White House on July 3, 1863 when either an accident or sabotage caused her carriage to break apart. In the process, Mrs. Lincoln’s head was badly hurt and she […]

Mary Ann Cuthbert First a maid and seamstress, Mary Ann Cuthbert replaced the personal maid named Ellen who had accompanied Mrs. Lincoln from Springfield. Mrs. Cuthbert later served as chief housekeeper at the White House.   She was charged with confidential assignments for Mary Todd Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln wired Mrs. Cuthbert from Fortress Monroe on […]

William Henry Crook (1839-1915) Washington policeman, William Henry Crook, was assigned as a White House guard starting in January 1865 and remained as a White House employee long after the assassination. He accompanied the First Family when it went to the Richmond front in March 1865. Crook was on duty on April 14, 1865 before […]

Julia Taft The two Taft boys, Bud and Holly, were the constant playmates—and sometime schoolmates—of Willie and Tad Lincoln until Willie’s death in February 1862. When Willie was dying, Bud held a vigil at Willie’s deathbed. “If I go he will call for me,” he told the President when Mr. Lincoln urged Bud to get […]

Leonard Swett (1825-1899) Friend and attorney with whom Lincoln practiced in the Illinois court circuit in the 1850s, Leonard Swett lost the 1856 Republican nomination for Congress to Owen Lovejoy before being elected to the State Legislature in 1858. Swett was a noted criminal lawyer who was one of the originators of the insanity defense. […]

Henry J. Raymond (1820-1869) Henry J. Raymond, editor and owner of the New York Times, was a supporter of Abraham Lincoln and a close friend of both William Seward and Thurlow Weed. He backed Seward in 1860 but helped engineer Lincoln’s renomination at Baltimore Convention in 1864. As an editor, he maintained his editorial… Abraham […]

Anson G. Henry (1804-1865) Close friend and personal doctor of Abraham Lincoln, Anson G. Henry was appointed by President Lincoln as the Surveyor General of Washington State. President Lincoln once described Dr. Henry to a new Oregon congressman: “What a great, big-hearted man he is. Henry is one of the best men I have ever […]

Rev. Phineas D. Gurley (1816-1868) Rev. Phineas D. Gurley was the Pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington where the Lincolns attended church. He and his wife were frequent guests at the White House. He often brought religious delegations and personal requests to the President. In one letter to President Lincoln on March… […]

Horace Greeley (1811-1872) Horace Greeley was the Editor of the New York Tribune, which he founded in 1841 after earlier founding a weekly newspaper, The Jeffersonian, at the request of Thurlow Weed. An eccentric social reformer and erratic political tactician, he pushed Illinois Republicans to back Stephen Douglas in 1858. Later during… Abraham Lincoln’s White […]

Gustavus V. Fox (1821-1883) Gustavus V. Fox was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy who was in charge of the rescue fleet for Fort Sumter and a valued administrator of naval build-up, including the building of iron-clad ships. Fox explained his Sumter rescue plan to President Lincoln shortly after he had taken office. Previously, Fox […]