Pictorial representations Lincoln’s deathbed

[LincolnToddFan]

(08-31-2014 05:53 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  On p. 114 of Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse author James Swanson is critical of Mary and Robert for not going to the White House during the night to comfort Tad. He writes that it was only a five minute carriage ride. Mr. Swanson is also critical of Robert and Mary for not having Tad brought from the White House to be at his father's deathbed.

I am curious how folks feel about this - should Tad have been brought to the Petersen House to be with his dying father?

Roger,

Only a few paragraphs down from his criticism of Mary and Robert for NOT having Tad brought to Petersen House, James Swanson mentions Mary's famous plea "Fetch Taddie, the president loves him so..." I simply do not know what to make of Swanson for such sloppy and inconsistent writing.

The scene at Petersen House was terrible, chaotic. It was not at all like the rather serene paintings and sketches. Lincoln's face was discolored, his blackened right eye bulging and distorted. He was making horrible grunting noises at one point. The pillows were blood soaked, and there were bloody towels strewn over the floor. Grown men were sobbing, Tad's mother was wailing and hysterical. For Tad to have seen his powerful, adored father laid low like that might have shattered such a sensitive, immature, high strung kid. Bloody, bruised, and struggling for breath should not be any child's final memory of a beloved parent, especially not one with Tad's emotional temperament.

He was so traumatized by the death of his brother Willie he cried for weeks and was only consoled by being permitted to sleep with his father from then on out.

And as for Mary leaving the side of her dying husband to go to the WH and comfort Tad...what???!!

The same historians who rip her for being a lousy wife and First Lady-Swanson is one of them-would have had a FIELD DAY if she'd left Lincoln to return to the WH that night!!

Swanson was very harsh on MTL throughout the "Bloody Crimes" book but I could not believe he was serious for suggesting such a thing.