Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided

Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's childhoods, courtship, and the presidency.

The Lincoln marriage survives Abraham's congressional career and presidency.

On the morning of February 11, 1861, Abraham Lincoln prepared to leave Springfield, Illinois for Washington. The President-Elect had grown a beard since election day -- and was still not quite comfortable with how he looked. Mary Lincoln was just back from New York where she had bought so much finery she did not dare tell her husband how much she had spent. She had accepted lavish gifts of clothing and jewelry, too, and had kept that fact to herself, as well. Despite the heavy rain, a sizable crowd turned out to see Lincoln off. Springfield had nurtured him. He had prospered there. Now, he was saying goodbye.

On March 17, 1862, Abraham Lincoln at last got some good news: General George McClellan's mighty Army of the Potomac was finally on the move. One hundred and twenty-one thousand men, 14,000 horses and mules, 1,100 wagons were heading South. It would take three weeks to get it all to their jumping-off point -- Fort Monroe, Virginia. McClellan promised "great, heroic exertions, rapid and long marches, desperate combats..." all leading to the capture of the Confederate Capital at Richmond -- just 70 miles away.

As 1863 began, the war showed no sign of ending. Hundreds of thousands of Union troops were shivering in winter camp. Every day, more than 100 men deserted, and hundreds more were dying of disease. There was nothing Abraham Lincoln could do about any of it.

Late one August evening in 1864, Abraham Lincoln was riding from the White House to the Soldiers Home where he and Mary were spending their third summer. Lincoln was still convinced he was going to be defeated in the presidential election, now just weeks away. Someone had fired a shot, Lincoln told his wife, but it must have been an accident -- maybe some hunter emptying his gun before going home.