Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln

[David Lockmiller]

In his book at pages 30-31, Francis B. Carpenter made this personal observation of President Abraham Lincoln:

"There was a satisfaction to me, differing from that of any other experience, in simply sitting with him. Absorbed in his papers, he would become unconscious of my presence, while I intently studied every line and shade of expression in that furrowed face. In repose, it was the saddest face I ever knew. There were days when I could scarcely look into it without crying.

During the first week of the battles of the Wilderness, he scarcely slept at all. Passing through the main hall of the domestic apartment on one of these days, I met him, clad in a long morning wrapper, pacing back and forth in a narrow passage leading to one of the windows, his hands behind him, great black rings under his eyes, his head bent forward upon his breast, -- altogether a picture of the effects of sorrow, care, and anxiety."