This is Part 2 of Robert Todd Lincoln’s Tragic Life.

Click here to read Part 1!

Throughout the Civil War, the president’s oldest son was criticized for not joining the Army. Robert wanted to serve and his father believed he should. It was due to the objections of his mother, Mary Todd Lincoln, that he stayed out of the war. She told a friend, “I have insisted that he should stay in college a little longer as I think an educated man can serve his country with more intelligent purpose than an ignoramus.”

Privately, Mary told Abraham: “I know that Robert’s plea to go into the Army is manly and noble and I want him to go, but I am so frightened he may never come back to us!” One factor in Mary’s reluctance was surely the death of her son Willie in 1862. The boy died of typhoid fever in the White House at the age of 11.

Lincoln protested, “But many a poor mother has given up all her sons and our son is not more dear to us than the sons of other people are to their mothers.”

“That may be; but I cannot bear to have Robert exposed to danger,” Mary insisted. ”His services are not required in the field. The sacrifice would be a needless one.”

“The services of every man who loves his country are required in this war. You should take a liberal instead of a selfish view of the question, mother,” Lincoln told her.

Mary Lincoln did not give in until January 1865. By then the war was nearly over. President Lincoln hastily wrote Ulysses Grant, asking if Robert could be placed on his staff.  In mid-February, Robert Lincoln was commissioned as an assistant adjutant with a captain’s rank and served in the final weeks of the war. Robert Lincoln was present at Appomattox Courthouse when Robert E. Lee surrendered.

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Four days after the surrender, on April 13, Robert accompanied Grant back to Washington DC. The next day, Captain Lincoln breakfasted with the family. Afterwards, he spent two hours with his father, telling him of his experiences in the army, which included witnessing Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. He showed the President a picture of General Robert E. Lee, Mr. Lincoln told Robert: “It is a good face; it is the face of a noble, noble, brave man. I am glad the war is over at last.” Looking up at Robert, he continued: “Well, my son, you have returned safely from the front. The war is now closed, and we soon will live in peace with the brave man that have been fighting against us. I trust that the era of good feeling has returned with the war, and henceforth we shall live in peace.”

Robert’s parents invited him to attend Ford’s Theatre to see Our American Cousin with them that evening. But the young man declined. He was at the White House at 10:15 that night, when his father was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

“Sic semper tyrannis!” the actor shouted as he leapt onto the stage. Thus always to tyrants! 

After the president was shot, he was carried to Petersen House and that is where Robert went to be at his father’s deathbed.

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After Abraham Lincoln’s death, Robert moved with his mother and younger brother Tad to Chicago where he practiced law. In 1868, he married Mary Harlan and they had three children. Tad died suddenly in 1871 at the age of 18. His cause of death is uncertain, having been listed variously as tuberculosis, pneumonia, and congestive heart failure.

Mary Todd Lincoln, whose mental health was already shaky, collapsed after her son Tad’s death. She had always been a heavy spender and in the years following her youngest son’s death, she spent lavishly and far beyond her income. At the same time, she became increasingly paranoid.

Robert initiated proceedings to have her institutionalized, and after a brief trial, a jury committed her to an asylum in May of 1875. Mary attempted suicide by ordering laudanum from several pharmacies. Three months after she was committed, Mary managed to smuggle letters to her lawyer and his wife, as well as to the editor of the Chicago Times. It was the threat of public embarrassment that led the director of the asylum to release Mary to the custody of her sister, with whom she lived for the rest of her life. She never forgave Robert for having her committed and they did not see him again until shortly before her death.

Sixteen years after his father’s death, Robert was to be an eyewitness to the assassination of President James A. Garfield. He was serving as Garfield’s Secretary of War at the time. He was with the president at the Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C. when he was shot by Charles J. Guiteau. Twenty years later, Lincoln was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He was standing outside the Temple of Music where President William McKinley was greeting visitors and was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz. After that, Robert refused to attend presidential invitations saying, “No, I’m not going, and they’d better not ask me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present.”

Robert eventually retired from public life to serve as the president of the Pullman Company. He devoted himself to preserving the memory of his father until his death in 1926.