Distribution of Some of the Death Clothes

[Houmes]

[quote='Laurie Verge' pid='4276' dateline='1347053462']
Under the Trivia topic, I promised to highlight parts of a letter of April 17, 1865, which can be found in the National Park Service files. It was written by Mose Sandford, who was employed (I think) in the War Department's division that handled carpentry work.

The letter by Mose Sandford is interesting, but besides being a tad boastful his statement contradicts the experience of the six soldiers assigned by Major General Daniel Rucker (second in command under Major General Montgomery Meigs of the Quartermaster Department) to remove Lincoln's body and escort it to the White House. In a newspaper interview (circa 1890s) John C. Weaver recalled he was one of those soldiers and that "...General Rucker gave to these six men the white linen shirt taken off Mr. Lincoln as a souvenir..." Weaver is documented as being one of those soldiers, but his memory may have been a little foggy later on, as he also claimed at other times to have been one of the soldiers carrying Mr. Lincoln across the street to the Petersen house. The soldiers taking the president's body to the White House cut up the shirt and each took sections. Lincoln was known to wear a bosom--it's apparent in several of his photographs in the Ostendorf books--and he even joked once about wearing a bosom when belittling an opposing attorney during a trial. Weaver's account doesn't say the shirt his cohorts acquired was whole, but that he obtained his share of the trophy upon returning the wooden coffin to the Quartermaster's office; Sandford's account claims he obtained at least one or part of one sleeve during his scavenger hunt. I know of one individual with part of a sleeve, but have never learned of other shirt or bosom relics. I have to admire Mr. Sandford's restraint in not confiscating the rest of Mr. Lincoln's suit.