Inside Lincoln's White House

Description:

On 18 April 1861, assistant presidential secretary John Hay recorded in his diary the report of several women that "some young Virginian long-haired swaggering chivalrous of course ... and half a dozen others including a daredevil guerrilla from Richmond named Ficklin would do a thing within forty eight hours that would ring through the world.". The women feared that the Virginian planned either to assassinate or to capture the president. Calling this a "harrowing communication," Hay continued his entry: "They went away and I went to the bedside of the Chief couche. I told him the yarn; he quietly grinned." This is but one of the dramatic entries in Hay's Civil War diary, presented here in a definitive edition by Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger.

subjects: Diaries,  Friends and associates,  History,  Personal narratives,  Statesmen,  United States Civil War, 1861-1865,  Hay, john, 1838-1905,  Lincoln, abraham, 1809-1865,  United states, history, civil war, 1861-1865, personal narratives,  Hommes d'État,  Journaux intimes,  Récits personnels,  Histoire,  Friendship

People: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865),  John Hay (1838-1905)

Places: United States

Times: Civil War, 1861-1865