Taller Than Lincoln

[L Verge]

The December issue of Civil War News contains an interesting article on a height "contest" between President Lincoln and a Union soldier. It is based on an article that appeared in the wonderful old Evening Star newspaper that was in circulation in Washington, D.C. from 1852 until 1981:

"At six-feet-five, Clinton Hatcher certainly stood out in a crowd in 1861. His red hair helped to make him a topic of conversation for all who saw him, including the newly elected sixteenth President of the United States at a White House reception on March 10, 1861.
"Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was inaugurated on March 4. He had defeated three other candidates to win the election the previous November. Hatcher had graduated from Columbian University in Washington City [now George Washington University], June 27, 1860 in a ceremony at the First Baptist Church on Thirteenth Street. He apparently went home to the family farm near Purcellville in Loudon County, Va., and traveled throughout the state. He was back in Washington City at the time of the inauguration.
"According to George Wise, a young friend from Accomack County, Va., he and Hatcher attended a reception at the White House shortly after Lincoln was inaugurated. As was the custom, Lincoln was shaking hands with visitors, but Hatcher passed nearby with his hands behind his back. Lincoln asked that he come back because the president said he had noticed Hatcher's height. This version comes from Wise, who was quoted in the Richmond State newspaper and reprinted in the Leesburg Mirror on June 16, 1887. The meeting originally was reported in the Evening Star on March 9, 1861.
"'How tall are you?" Lincoln asked Hatcher. 'Six feet five,' Hatcher replied. 'Well, I believe you top me by a few inches,' Lincoln replied. According to Wise, Hatcher and Lincoln then stood back to back and Hatcher was 'at least a half a head taller.'
"Wise became a captain in a Confederate cavalry regiment while Hatcher joined the Eighth Virginia Infantry Regiment and became the color sergeant. Hatcher was killed leading a charge at the Battle of Ball's Bluff on October 21, 1861, and is buried in Ketoctin Baptist Church Cemetery in Purcellville, Va.
"Wise survived the war and was elected to the United States Congress during the 1880s and 1890s."

The article became even more poignant to me when it stated that Hatcher joined the Eighth Virginia Infantry. Many long years ago, my husband and I were members of the Eighth Virginia reenactment group.