Sleeping in the president's deathbed

This afternoon was spent touring the Peterson House, where Lincoln died, and examining Lincoln's Second Inaugural. More on the speech in a later post.

The Peterson House was a boarding house across the theater and where they look the president after he was shot. The house is narrow and it is hard to imagine the dozens of people who would have been in there. Jake reminded us that is became the seat of power as Lincoln lay dying. Secretary of War Stanton was running the investigation in the room a few yards from Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln was sitting inconsolable in the front room.

The room in which Lincoln died was rented by a young military clerk named Willie Clark. He was out celebrating the end of the war on April 14 and came home to his room being used. Lincoln died the next day and, Willie, with nowhere else to sleep, slept in the bed which, hours before had held the dying president.

The room Mary Todd Lincoln was in when not at the bedside.

Stanton's room.

The back room they took Lincoln to.

Willie Clark's room. Imagine Lincoln's 6'4" body on that small bed.