Lincoln came under enemy fire on a Civil War battlefield.
Although there was a standing order against firing weapons in the District of Columbia, Lincoln even test-fired muskets and repeating rifles on the grassy expanses around the White House, now known as the Ellipse and the National Mall.ħ. Lincoln attended artillery and cannon tests and met at the White House with inventors demonstrating military prototypes. Lincoln was a hands-on commander-in-chief who, given his passion for gadgetry, was keenly interested in the artillery used by his Union troops during the Civil War. Lincoln personally test-fired rifles outside the White House. (In another eerie coincidence, on the day of Edwin Booth’s funeral-June 9, 1893-Ford’s Theatre collapsed, killing 22 people.)Ħ. Robert Todd Lincoln immediately recognized his rescuer: famous actor Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes. Suddenly, a hand reached out and pulled the president’s son to safety by the coat collar. A throng of passengers began to press the young man backwards, and he fell into the open space between the platform and a moving train. John Wilkes Booth’s brother saved the life of Lincoln’s son.Ī few months before John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln, the president’s oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, stood on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. Lincoln’s body was quickly moved to an unmarked grave and eventually encased in a steel cage and entombed under 10 feet of concrete.Ĥ. Secret Service agents, however, infiltrated the gang and were lying in wait to disrupt the operation. Their scheme was to hold the corpse for a ransom of $200,000 and obtain the release of the gang’s best counterfeiter from prison. In 1876 a gang of Chicago counterfeiters attempted to snatch Lincoln’s body from his tomb, which was protected by just a single padlock, in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. Secret Service did come to Lincoln’s protection, but only in death. Grave robbers attempted to steal Lincoln’s corpse.