History comes to life and is so much more fun, understandable, and real when you are in the places where events took place. Such is the case with Lincoln. It is around 150 years ago that the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Lincoln’s death occurred. Our visiting Springfield Illinois, Washington DC, Gettysburg, Richmond, Petersburg, and City Point Virginia allowed us to walk and stand where he was. The release of the movie Lincoln this November was a pleasant surprise and we learned that it was filmed in Virginia where we were. The movie was based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s novel Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln and covers the final four months of Lincoln’s life.
Old Soldier’s home also known as “Lincoln’s Cottage” was mentioned in the movie. Lincoln stayed there for three summers and he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation there. His cottage was 3 miles from the White House and had a good view of Washington DC. He could see the progress on the construction of the Capitol dome from there. He rode back and forth in a carriage without guards since he cherished the all too scant private time. His personal risk was not real enough for him to give it up. One time a wheel came off the carriage when Mary Todd Lincoln was driving it. She was thrown, hit her head on a rock, and was badly hurt. She did not think it was an accident at all, but that the carriage had been sabotaged to hurt Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth mentions that he actually hid out on the road to the White House lying in wait to attack Lincoln, but had poor timing.
Abraham Lincoln had many prophetic dreams, saw ghostly images, and seemed to be enlightened beyond the times. After he won the re-election, he wanted a new portrait photo taken. He went across the street to a gallery. The photo glass was cracked, so the photographer made one copy and destroyed the glass. His thought was that there would be plenty of photographs of Lincoln in the future. Lincoln was killed that night and the crack in the glass followed the path of the bullet across Lincoln’s head.
The contents of Lincoln’s pockets are on display in the Library of Congress. The contents included a confederate $5 bill. What he was doing with it will remain a mystery.
We had synchronicity with visiting DC, the Civil War sites, and the film coming out all at the same time. When viewing the movie, we were able to identify specific buildings and even rooms used for filming. Our timing was all really good.
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