Wednesday, February 10, 1864.Washington, DC.
| President devotes morning to courtmartial cases. Receives
public at 1 P.M. Carpenter, Six Months, 39. Delegation of 18 gentlemen from convention at Allegheny City, Pa., calls on President to
discuss amending Constitution in favor of freedom. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 12 February 1864, 3:1; Washington Chronicle, 15 February 1864.
President's private stables, brick building between Executive Mansion and
Treasury Dept., "took fire and burned down" at 8:30 P.M. Nicolay to Hay, 10 February 1864, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library
of Congress, Washington, DC. In the evening, a fire destroys
President Lincoln's "private stables." A newspaper reports, "[Mr.] Cooper, the
President's private coachman, left the stable to get his supper about 8
o'clock, and he was first notified of the fire by the President himself, who
discovered the smoke . . . The building . . . contained . . . six horses, all
of which were burned to death . . . One of these ponies was all the more highly
prized, in consequence of having once been the property of Willie, the deceased
son of Mr. and Mrs. President Lincoln." Robert W. McBride,
Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln (Indianapolis, IN:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1926), 44-46; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 11
February 1864, 3:1. President's two horses, John Nicolay's two
horses, and Tad's two ponies are lost. Washington Chronicle,
11 February 1864. Hours later, "Lincoln and others were
standing in the East Room looking at the still burning stables. Lincoln was
weeping. Tad explained it was because Willie's pony was there."
Robert W. McBride, Personal Recollections of Abraham
Lincoln (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1926), 44-45. Mrs. Lincoln continues to send
flowers to Sanitary Fair. Washington Chronicle, 10 February
1864. |