3rd lieutenant

This past Sunday my wife and I visited Lincoln’s Summer Cottage in Washington D.C. The cottage shares space with the Soldiers Home, which is a home for retired veterans, even today.

I learned a lot during our tour of the building, things I had never heard of before. For example, President Lincoln spent about 1/4th of his presidency living at the cottage. It was a place where he could escape the summer heat as well as the stress of the White House. It was in a room on the second floor where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. He loved visiting the soldiers at the soldiers home, and he loved talking to the infantry guards that were camped across the yard.

Historian Matthew Pinsker writes that Lincoln’s son, Tad, was a frequent visitor to the camp. He would participate in drills and even eat with the soldiers. Their sergeant wrote that he was a great favorite among the men, and they bestowed upon him the title “3rd Lieutenant”, even providing him with his own uniform. He is the only 3rd lieutenant in the history of the U.S. Army.

One of the reasons Lincoln spent so much time at the cottage was that his son, Willy, had died at the White House in 1862, probably of Typhoid Fever. Naturally, his death at age 11 had a profound effect on Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. The cottage gave them a respite from the place where Willy died.

I was touched by this story and the soldiers’ affection for Tad. I can imagine how they could have reacted to this eight year-old showing up for drills and “getting in the way.” But the child was treated with respect and dignity, and it seems that he was genuinely loved by the soldiers. There is something in the heart of man that is warmed by the presence of a child. Especially when that child appears during the ghastly circumstances of civil war. Maybe that’s why our preschoolers have come to mean so much to me. When we are surrounded by hatred, cruelty, and death, it’s good to spend time with a kid.