Fort DeRussy, Rock Creek Park

"My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still" Whitman, the Death of Lincoln, For the Ages & Angels #QotD

And today marks the death of Abraham Lincoln ... the Petersen House across from Ford's Theatre.

* * * * * 

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
    Here Captain! dear father!
      This arm beneath your head;
        It is some dream that on the deck,
          You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
    Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
      But I, with mournful tread,
        Walk the deck my Captain lies,
          Fallen cold and dead.

"Oh Captain! My Captain!"
Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass, 1900 edition)

"O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done" W. Whitman, the assasination of Abraham Lincoln #QotD

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
    But O heart! heart! heart!        
      O the bleeding drops of red,
        Where on the deck my Captain lies,
          Fallen cold and dead.

"Oh Captain! My Captain!"
Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass, 1900 edition)

Virginia Memorial, Gettysburg Battlefield

Little Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield

Blenheim House, Fairfax, Virginia

An historic Civil War site.

Historic Blenheim is a ca. 1859 brick farm house designed in the Greek Revival style and located in City of Fairfax, Virginia. During the American Civil War, Union soldiers were often encamped on the grounds surrounding the house and utilized it as part of a reserve hospital system. As a result, more than 115 of these soldiers inscribed words and pictures on the first and second floor walls, as well as the attic of the house. Blenheim was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. (Wikipedia)

Ft. Ethan Allen, Arlington, Virginia

Built to defend Chain Bridge

QotD: "... government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." A. Lincoln

3D print of Lincoln Life Mask

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

In many ways, it seems that our country is yet again in the midst of a great trial. Not as bloody as the Civil War, but as full of partisan rancor, a paralysis of governing one wonder if the government of/by/for the people shall endure, and a time when liberty and freedom are controlled by governmental forces that at times makes Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus (signed into law just months before the Gettysburg Address) pale.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863

"... the last full measure of devotion ..." Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 150 years later in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the annual World Digital Library meeting at the Library of Congress. There was a dinner reception after the meeting held in the Great Hall of he Library.

After dessert, Librarian of Congress James Billington addressed the group. Now it just so happended that the Library was displaying the Nicolay autograph copy of the Gettysburg Address. This is the copy that is believed to be the copy Lincoln read, exactly 150 years ago today.

As he closed his remarks, Dr. Billington recited the Address in sight of Lincoln's copy. Quite a moving performance.






Lincoln's Gettysburg Event (1863)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth

Charleston Ft. Sumter cruise

Had a good trip on the Spirit of the Low Country from Liberty Square to Ft. Sumter and back. The staff and volunteers on the boat were all very good. The weather was perfect and there were dolphins following along the boat much of the way. The route is below.
View Charleston Ft. Sumter Cruise in a larger map

Charleston, from Ft. Sumter

Ft. Sumter, first shots of the Civil War

Barbara Fritchie house, Frederick, MD

Roger Taney house, Frederick, MD

National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Frederick,  MD

Georgetown ghost tour, Robert Todd Lincoln's house

Lincoln assassination walking tour, Ford's Theatre

Very good tour

Lincoln Cottage, Old Soldiers Home

History on foot, walking tour of downtown Washington

With Elizabeth Keckly, a free Black Woman

That house where Lincoln died, 146 years later