Did William Coggeshall Save Lincoln's Life?

[John Fazio]

Howdy everyone:

I thought you would like to know that I quickly read 13 Desperate Days, a 1964 account, by John Mason Potter, of the journey to Washington from Springfield in 1861. Regrettably, it contains no index or references and has only a perfunctory bibliography. Still, as nearly as I can tell, there is no reference to Coggeshall. There is, however, something more important, and it is that the author does not describe a switch of trains in Harrisburg as is described (apparently) by Coggeshall. Rather, he describes a scene in which Lincoln is taken by carriage to a train that is waiting for him on a siding, away from the railroad station. The train consists only of a baggage car and a passenger car in addition to the locomotive. Ostensibly, it is waiting to take officials of the railroad back to Philadelphia, but in fact its real purpose is to take Lincoln to Washington ahead of schedule, to foil the Baltimore plot. Sad to say, this is another nail in the coffin of Coggeshall's story, as related by his wife, Mary, in 1908. But there is more.

In Victor Searcher's book, Lincoln's Journey to Greatness, etc., there is a reference to Coggeshall, but only to his book on the journey, which is described by Searcher as a "slim volume" consisting of a compilation of newspaper accounts. If this is so, then it would suggest most strongly that Coggeshall wasn't even on the train, because if he were on the train, he could and would relate a first-hand account without the need of help from newspapers. Another nail.

These two items tip the balance, for me, against authenticity of Coggeshall's account. But I'm not finished yet. I still do not regard the issue as conclusively settled.

I was not able to visit the Ohio Historical Society yesterday, as planned, to study the Coggeshall papers, but I'll get there.

John