Description:

Lincoln Abraham

Four pages of a bi-fold, 5” x 8”; Portland, Maine; April 17, 1865. Signed “Charles”, the letter is neatly written on lined paper. Gently toned, with flattened mail folds; otherwise near fine.

A great letter written just two days after President Lincoln’s assassination, and capturing the pathos felt at the end of the war. Although we cannot identify the writer, he states that he has recently returned home aboard the Canandaigua. He writes:

“…In the first place coming home does not tend to make one calm, nor the fall of Richmond, the event for which we have so long prayed and fought, and for which so many patriots have laid down their lives and among the number my younger brother George who was with Sherman. It does seem hard that after having passed through so many dangers and participated in so many victories, and had arrived so near the end, that he could not have been spared a few months longer… The joy at the capture of Lee’s army followed in so short a time by the deepest sorrow a people ever felt has confounded us all. I have not yet recovered from the shock.

Now what think you of revenge? I do now have feelings of revenge, if I did not before. While Lincoln was using every means (in my opinion) to allow leading rebels to leave the county if they would, that he might be obliged to hang them. They have murdered him in the basest manner. I think that Lincoln wished rather that they should leave, than that they should be put to death…”

Great content capturing the mixture of joy and anguish felt at the close of the war.

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