Book Description

Excerpt from Reminiscences of the Last Year of President Lincoln's Life On the morning of the second of February, 1865, between nine and ten o'clock, as I was ascending the stairs to the second story, to reach my room, I met Forbes, an intelligent servant, descending with a small valise in his hand, and I asked, Where are you going? Look ing up to see that no one was near, he whispered, Fortress Monroe, and hurried on. When I reached the upper hall I met the president with his overcoat, and going to my room looked out of the window and saw him quietly walking around the curved pavement which leads to Pennsylvania Avenue, while Forbes was following at a dis tance of two or three hundred feet, as his valet. Waiting for some time I then crossed the hall to the room of the principal secretary, Mr. John G. N icolay, and quietly said, The president has left the city What do you mean? He asked; and I replied, Just what I have said. Rising quickly, he opened the door which communi cated with the president's room, and was astonished to find the chair of Mr. Lincoln vacant. The president had received a dispatch which convinced him that it was proper to go to Fortress Monroe and confer with the rebel commissioners, Alexander Stephens, R. M. T. Hunterand J. A. Campbell, and at nine o'clock that morning sent the follow ing telegram to Secretary Seward, already there: Induced by a dis patch from Gen. Grant, I join you at Fortress Monroe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.