We all know what happened to President Abraham Lincoln the night he give out to watchOur American Cousinat Ford ’s Theater . But what you may not know is that he came perilously close to being assassinated eight month before John Wilkes Booth fired those fateful shot .
Abe and the Lincoln fam had what you might call a summertime bungalow – a place to relocate when Washington , D.C. , got too blistering and humid . It was on the ground of Soldiers ’ Home , a regime - run adroitness about three miles north of the White House . ( It’sstill bear , by the way . )
Interestingly , the itinerary , which Lincoln often took on horseback by himself , went decent by Walt Whitman ’s house at 394 L Street . “ I see the President almost every day , ” Whitman compose in 1863 . “ I see very plainly Abraham Lincoln ’s dark dark-brown facial expression , with the deep cut lines , the eyes , always to me with a inscrutable latent sadness in the expression . We have perplex so that we always exchange bows , and very cordial ones . ”
A few of those lines on his face were probably triggered by Honest Abe ’s habit of solve late into the evening at the White House , heading to Soldiers ’ abode later for a few hour ’ rest before coming back to do it all again the next day . It was one of those night in August of 1864 when Lincoln get at the logic gate of the cottage around 11 p.m. Private John Nichols , the guard duty posted at the gate , was surprised to hear Lincoln complain that a gunshot had spooked his horse Old Abe , send him escape so fast that Lincoln ’s famous stovepipe hat had been whisk decent off his heading .
A couple of soldier , conversant with Lincoln ’s favour route , went back to find the missing hat . When they regain it , there was a bullet hole directly through the textile . They alert the President , who asked them to please keep their discovery tranquil : it was in all probability just a careless hunting watch and he did n’t need to worry Mary .
According to historian Charles Bracelen Flood’s1864 : Lincoln at the Gates of History , Lincoln later told the chronicle as if it were a put-on , point out that Old Abe had amount closer to killing him than the would - be assassin did . “ I was forget in doubtfulness whether death was more suitable from being confuse from a runaway Union buck , or as the tragical result of a rifle - ball send away by a disloyal hillbilly in the centre of the dark . "
