Lincoln's Greatest Journey by Noah Andre Trudeau

Author:Noah Andre Trudeau
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)
ISBN: 9781611213270
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Published: 2016-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

This morning Gen. Grant reports Petersburg evacuated; and he is confident Richmond also is. He is pushing forward to cut off if possible, the retreating army. I start to him in a few minutes.20

President Lincoln and his son, Captain Penrose (watching over Tad), Admiral Porter, and Captain Barnes were still at the telegraph office waiting to hear that the special train was ready when they saw the New York Herald reporter Thomas M. Cook hurrying toward them. “When asked where I came from, and replying Petersburg, the President very dryly asked if I saw anybody there I knew,” Cook noted. “The joke was scarcely perceptible, but still, under the circumstances it will do.” Never at a loss for words, Admiral Porter chimed in that the capture of Petersburg might be reckoned a naval victory, provoking a questioning look from the President. “Why,” explained Porter, “my Monitors up the river the other night scared the rebels away.” Looking conspiratorially at Cook, Porter asked him, ‘Didn’t they tell you so in Petersburg?”

Ever the diplomat, the Herald man answered that he hadn’t heard exactly that remark. “Well,” continued the Admiral, “Mrs. Grant says I can have Petersburg for my victory if I won’t claim Richmond, and I think I had better accept the terms, or Grant will have all the honors.” Here, recalled Cook, President Lincoln “suggested that there was glory enough for all.” The naval officer also advised Cook that he had “ordered such of his vessels as can go to feel their way up to Richmond and open the river.”21

Word arrived that the train was ready and everyone trooped down the bluff to the framework station platform and clambered aboard. The weather was cooperating; it was clear, pleasant, and warm. With word spreading that Petersburg was wide open, every departing train attracted people eager to visit. Admiral Porter prevented a pair of uninvited riders from boarding the President’s car, something he considerably embellished when he wrote about it in later years.

Even as Lincoln was settling in for the ride, Washington officials were receiving the electrifying news that would halt the government for the rest of this day. The confirmation that Richmond had fallen was being flashed throughout the country even as Lincoln was enroute to Petersburg, where telegraph circuits had yet to be reconnected.

In this age before child labor laws it wasn’t unusual that 15-year-old William E. (“Willie”) Kettles was working. What was out of the ordinary was the specialized task he performed. Kettles was a trained and experienced telegraph operator assigned to the War Department in Washington. He was on duty a little before 9:00 a.m. and idly listening to a colleague’s exchange with a field operator when his own instrument came alive. It was Fortress Monroe calling with an urgent instruction for him to “Turn down for Richmond, quick.” Although momentarily taken aback, Kettles did as instructed and made the necessary adjustment for a weak incoming signal.

In another moment he was exchanging identifications with an operator who reported his location as the Rebel capital.

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