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RE: escort to Springfield
Methinks that the problem here is that the descendants of Capt. McCalmly misstated the provenance of the glasses. Without re-reading the posts, wasn't McCalmly of the Washington City Guards and more likely to have cleared a path to Petersen's (if on duty at all) and, as Mike Kauffman stated, served to secure the theater? It would be interesting to see his military and pension records -- if serving with the Washington City Guard, was he eligible for a U.S. pension?
Interesting to see that Ralph Newman, original owner of the famous Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago, was in on the transactions. Personally, I have a hard time envisioning Abraham Lincoln holding a small pair of opera glasses up to his eyes in any public setting... I think it is much more likely that the glasses belonged to Mary Lincoln.
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