Montauk

[loetar44]

President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln visited on April 14, 1865 the ironclad USS Montauk. The story goes that Tad accompanied his parents, but is that a true fact? I suspect "no", however a lot of accounts on the net say "yes". Who has the right answer?

[RJNorton]

Kees, the accounts I have seen do not include Tad as being present.

One account is by Francis Durbin Blakeslee. He said, "I saluted Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln at the Navy Yard, the afternoon of the very day that he was assassinated. Some fellow clerks and I had gone there to see the monitors, damaged in the Fort Fisher engagement, which had come to the Navy Yard for repairs. They were "rare birds" to landsmen. As fast as builded, they were rushed into service. All Washington, as it were, turned out to see the ironclads which marked such a revolution in naval warfare. We went all over three of them. The autopsy on the body of the assassin, Booth, was later held in the gun-room of one of these, the "Montauk."

The President and his wife drove up and halted at the end of a platform, similar to a railway platform, upon which my friends and I were standing. We saluted, and the salute was returned."

[Eva Elisabeth]

The visit took place during the afternoon carriage ride, and if Tad was aboard the carriage, too, this is new to me. W. E. Reck in "A. L. - His Last 24 Hours" (love this book) quotes accounts from three witnesses of the incident who all reported/wrote that "the President and his wife" paid the Montauk a visit, no mentioning of Tad.

[loetar44]

Thank you Roger and Eva. You are GREAT!

[L Verge]

I have got to take time to look up an account of the Navy Yard visit that was done by a Dr. George Todd. I know we carried it in a Surratt Courier a few years back, and I believe that it came from Dr. Todd's grandson or great-grandson. If I recall correctly, there was no mention of Tad in that account either.

As much as they loved their son, I do not believe that Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln would want the active young man along on a ride that was meant to be relaxing.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Dr. Todd's account is one of the three in "His Last 24 Hours". (Francis Durbin Blakeslee's is another, the third one is by William H. Flood who was officer on another steamer anchoring in the Navy Yard and who took the Lincolns to the Montauk). Dr. Todd, surgeon on the Montauk, wrote to his brother on April 15: "Yesterday about 3 PM, the President and wife drove down to the Navy Yard and paid out ship a visit, going all over her, accompanied by us all. Both seemed so happy, and so expressed themselves, glad that this war was over, or near its end, and then drove back to the White House." Both Flood and Dr. Todd were at Ford's Theater that night.

[L Verge]

Then I have read that account twice because I have read His Last 24 Hours (and loved it) and also one supplied to Surratt House by a Todd descendant. Thanks, Eva.