Did William Coggeshall Save Lincoln's Life?

[L Verge]

(09-29-2016 12:26 AM)John Fazio Wrote:  

(09-28-2016 07:46 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Let us know what you find in Columbus. My concerns are that nothing seems to come from a primary source and that the hand grenade reference just does not match the technology of the time and that it appears to have happened in a vacuum with no other corroborating testimonies from anyone else on or near that train car or platform. Lincoln may have sworn Coggeshall to secrecy, but someone else would surely have reported such an event given the turmoil following Lincoln's election and in preparation for his trip to DC.

I am still trying to mesh it with the Pinkerton reports of Lincoln as an invalid accompanied by Kate Warne, I believe last to enter the train, etc.

IMO, this new kid on the block was a journalist with a bend towards literary fiction, whose verbal report to his wife was also embellished by her.

Laurie:

I will. The grenade does not trouble me as much as it troubles you, but the absence of corroborating testimonies certainly does. After all, it was recorded that a condition of the track between Illinois and Indiana was deemed to be threatening, which is why the train was thereafter preceded by a pilot engine. It was also recorded that a bomb was found in a carpetbag in Lincoln's car near Cincinnati. And, of course, the Baltimore plot is recorded and heavily documented. I will be looking at Coggeshall's diaries and the other files, but I will also be looking at other accounts of the journey and other diaries and memoirs. Stay tuned.

Two final thoughts: How plausible is it that with all the people traveling with Lincoln, everyone else would already have exited the Harrisburg train and were thus already aboard the Baltimore train or in transit between the two trains, leaving only Lincoln himself and Coggeshall in the Harrisburg train? Possible, of course, but unlikely. It is also possible, but unlikely, that those closest to Lincoln resented the attention he was paying to the new kid on the block and may therefore have ignored him. The problem with possibilities is that they are infinite, which is why we must settle for probabilities.

John