Did William Coggeshall Save Lincoln's Life?

[John Fazio]

(09-09-2016 11:35 AM)Gene C Wrote:  John - "Most if not all the food sent to him in Springfield was found to be poisoned" ????

I don't recall reading that. What is the source for that, (as well as the bomb in the carpet bag near Cincinnati) or where can I read more?

As far as the Coggeshall story, I still have my doubts, since the story is from someone not there at the time, can not be corroborated, and is mentioned 40+ years after the fact. It's just as likely or very possible Mrs Coggeshall got her facts mixed up about the event. It would be interesting to read the letter she wrote about it.

The book you mentioned has made me curious. It doesn't seem to be a well known book, with only one review on Amazon. It doesn't help me that the one reviewer says "An enjoyable read & good introduction to history for for pre-teen readers
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0961692901/ref...g=UTF8&me=

Have you read this book, if so would you recommend it, and any idea how much of the book is about the attempt on Lincoln's life?

Thanks

Gene:

Reference to congratulatory gifts of packaged food to Lincoln after his election, which were found to be poisonous, appears in many works, including Decapitating the Union (p. 26). I frankly haven't the time to dig them out, but a casual search turned up a reference in The Battlefield and Beyond, by Clayton E. Jewett ("Secessionists tried to poison the President-Elect by sending ostensibly congratulatory gift packages of food to Springfield, Illinois. The suspicious mailings were quickly discovered and disposed of.")

As for the carpetbag bomb near Cincinnati, it too is referred to in Decapitating. The reference cited is Robert S. Harper's
Lincoln and the Press (p. 91) Harper gives his own reference.

Freda Postle Koch's book is indeed an obscure work, self-published in1985. I cannot recommend it, not because I doubt its veracity, but because the business about Coggeshall and Lincoln comprises only a small part of it, the greater part given to Coggeshall's later life and particularly his experiences in South America as U.S. Minister to Ecuador, which I believe will not interest most people very much. Nevertheless, I accept the parts of it that relate to Coggeshall's relationship with Lincoln as historical, for reasons I have already given.

If we raise the bar of historicity too high, such figures as Hammurabi, David, Socrates and a thousand other worthies, as well as the Exodus, the Conquest and a thousand other events, would fade into legend.

John