Did William Coggeshall Save Lincoln's Life?

[John Fazio]

(09-23-2016 12:09 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I am home on leave while my chariot is getting a tune-up, so I have poked around online for more information on Herr Coggeshall. Some interesting statements: Wikipedia (which lists a number of sources) refers to him as the "self-appointed" bodyguard of Lincoln on Feb. 13, 1861, in Cincinnatti. At that time, he's listed as a reporter for the Ohio State Journal en route to D.C. for the Inauguration and part of Lincoln's guard (an early Brian Williams-Hillary Clinton style of reporting while embedded?). No mention of his heroics. It goes on to say that he often served Lincoln as a bodyguard in D.C. -- John, didn't you report that he wasn't in D.C. that much?

Coggeshall also claimed to be on the dais with Lincoln at Gettysburg and to have met with him "privately" (did Hay know that?) on April 14, 1865. He was supposedly part of the guard on the funeral train.

Other elements of Coggeshall's life are interesting, if true. He is said to have accompanied Gen. Lajos (Louis) Kossuth on his speaking tours in the U.S. in the 1850s. From 1854-56, he edited and published (by default when the head of the paper resigned) The Genius of the West, a literary magazine. He soon sold it because he needed cash and he had secured the job of State Librarian for Ohio.

His diplomatic posting as Ambassador to Ecuador came about because he lobbied strongly for it. He had contracted tuberculosis and wanted a less stressful job and a healthier environment. It appears that President Andrew Johnson had other things to worry about and granted him the appointment. Off he went to Ecuador with his 15-year-old daughter, Jesse. He died a year later, and Jesse was caught in Ecuador with red tape. She actually did the ambassador's work for four months before she contracted yellow fever and died.

Other than his newspaper work, I found only one publication that he is credited with having authored. The brief histories of the Ohio State Library System that I found do not even mention him.

CORRECTION: Just found three other publications - Poets and Poetry of the West, Stories of Frontier Adventure, and Protective Policy in Literature

Laurie:

Eva's citations above are valuable. The first lists seven books (not eight--my mistake) written by Coggeshall:

1. Signs of the Times (1851)
2. Easy Warren and His Contemporaries (1854)
3. Oakshaw, Or the Victim of Avarice (1855)
4. Home Hits and Hints (1859)
5. Poets and Poetry of the West (1860)
6. Stories of Frontier Adventure (1863)
7. The Journeys of A. Lincoln as President-Elect and as President Martyred (1865)

Protective Policy in Literature, if bona fide, would be eight.

in addition to contributions to periodical literature.

Your information is also valuable. I do not know how much time he spent in Washington. I surmise only that it wasn't too much inasmuch as he is said to have been assigned secret service missions in Virginia and Ohio.

I can believe he lobbied for the position in Ecuador, but Koch also records, without citation, that his candidacy was supported by Postmaster General, formerly Governor, William Dennison, Governor Jacob D. Cox, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase and U.S. Senator John Sherman (p. 102)

John