1860: Lincoln Visits Five Points.

[David Lockmiller]

Charles Carleton Coffin was a famous Civil War correspondent. And, he was one of the contributors to the book, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, by Distinguished Men of His Time (Chapter VIII). Coffin was in Richmond at the time President Lincoln entered the city and provided the following account (Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, pages 180-83):

In the afternoon of the same day I was standing on the bank of the James, when I saw a boat pulled by twelve sailors coming up the river, and a moment later recognized the tall form of the President, with Admiral Porter by his side, Captain Adams of the Navy, Lieutenant Clemens of the Signal Corps, and the President's son Tad.

Near at hand was a lieutenant directing the construction of a bridge across the canal. The men under his charge were Negroes who had been impressed into service, and who were eager to work for their rations.

"Would you like to see the man who made you free?" I said to one of the Negroes.

"Yes, massa."

"There he is, that man with the tall hat."

"Be dat Massa Linkinn?"

"That is President Lincoln."

"Hallelujah! Hurrah, boys, Massa Linkinn's come!"

He swung his old straw hat, clapped his hands and jumped into the air. In an instant the fifty Negroes under the lieutenant were shouting it. They ran towards the landing, yelling and shouting like lunatics. I could hear the cry running up the streets and lanes, "Massa Linkinn -- Massa Linkinn," and the next moment there was a crowd of sable-hued men and women and children with wondering white eyeballs rushing pell-mell towards the landing.

President Lincoln recognized me. "Can you direct us to General Wirtzel's head-quarters?" he asked.

I informed him that I could do so. The boat came alongside the landing. Six marines in blue caps and jackets, armed with carbines, stepped on shore, then the President and little Tad, Admiral Porter and the rest, followed by six more marines. I indicated to Captain Adams the direction, and the procession under his lead began its march up the street toward Capitol Hill, the crowd increasing every moment, the cry of the delighted colored people rising like the voice of many waters.

I recall a Negro woman who was jumping in ecstasy, clapping her hands, and shouting, "Glory! glory! glory!" She could find no other words.

Another had for her refrain, "Bress the Lord! bress the Lord! bress the Lord!"

The tropical exuberance of sentiment characteristic of the African race burst into full flower upon the instant, and no wonder. Abraham Lincoln was their Saviour, their Moses, who had brought them through the Red Sea and the desert to the promised land; their Christ; their Redeemer. We who have always had our liberty, we cool-blooded Anglo-Americans, can have no adequate realization of the ecstasy of that moment on the part of those colored people of Richmond. They were drunk with ecstasy. They leaped into the air, hugged and kissed one another, surged around the little group in a wild delirium of joy.

. . . .

Later in the afternoon I saw President Lincoln riding through the streets, taking a hasty glance at the scene of desolation and woe. There was no smile upon his face. Paler than ever his countenance, deeper than ever before the lines upon his forehead. The driver turned his horses towards the landing. The visit to the capital of the Confederacy was ended.

I never saw him again.