Did William Coggeshall Save Lincoln's Life?

[RJNorton]

(09-20-2016 08:15 PM)RobertLC Wrote:  However, this is a most intriguing topic. I hope additional sources can be found to dissuade us or persuade us one way or the other.
Bob

Hi Bob. This is exactly why I began this thread. You nailed the essense perfectly.

For years I have had this book by Freda Postle Koch entitled Colonel Coggeshall: The Man Who Saved Lincoln (published in 1985). The book is full of claims that I have never seen anywhere else. These include Coggeshall saving Lincoln's life by throwing live ordnance out the inaugural train's window at Harrisburg, Coggeshall becoming a very special friend to Lincoln and acting as a bodyguard, Coggeshall attending Cabinet meetings and councils of war in the White House, Coggeshall having private conferences with individual Cabinet members, Coggeshall going on secret missions at Lincoln's request, Coggeshall being recommended by Lincoln to head the Secret Service, etc.

The sum of all of this is that the reader feels there was a very close relationship between Abraham Lincoln and William Coggeshall.

I have not seen any corroboration of any of this in other Lincoln books I own. For example, Coggeshall is not mentioned a single time in Lincoln Day By Day. The best Lincoln biographies, such as Donald's, have no mention of Coggeshall in the text. Sandburg mentions him one time, but he uses something Coggeshall himself wrote as his source. There is no known written correspondence between Coggeshall and Lincoln.

In The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia, Coggeshall is not cited a single time by author Mark Neely, Jr.

So I began the thread simply asking others if they had ever come across any independent corroboration of any of Coggeshall's claims.

John Fazio is an outstanding researcher and feels the grenade story is historical. At this point in time, John and I simply disagree on Coggeshall's claim of saving Lincoln by throwing the grenade out the train's window.

In all honesty I have not seen proof/evidence that any of Coggeshall's claims really happened.