Team of Rivals_ The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - Doris Kearns Goodwin [294]
AS THE SUMMER PROGRESSED, Lincoln and his family found some respite from the pressure and grief that had seemed so relentless throughout the cruel spring. At last, Mary’s intense depression began to lift. Reporters noted that she had begun riding with her husband once more in the late afternoons. On Sundays, she returned to Dr. Gurley’s church, though a parishioner seated behind her observed that “she was so hid behind her immense black veil—and very deep black flounces—that one could scarcely tell she was there.”
Commissioner French reported that “she seemed to be in excellent spirits” as she prepared to take up residence for the summer at the Soldiers’ Home, situated on almost 300 acres in the hills three miles north of the city. Created in the 1850s as a retirement community for disabled veterans, the Soldiers’ Home consisted of a main building that could accommodate 150 boarders, an infirmary, a dining hall, and administrative offices. The property also encompassed a number of spacious cottages, including the two-story brick house where the Lincoln family would stay. Known as the Anderson Cottage, it had served as a country residence for George Riggs, founder of the Riggs Bank, before the federal government purchased the property.
Buchanan had been the first president to summer at the Soldiers’ Home, where the cooling breeze brought relief from the oppressive heat of the city. Surrounded by abundant flowers, shrubs, and trees, it seemed almost “an earthly paradise,” one visitor recalled. The beautiful gravel walks and winding carriage ways, all of which were open to the public, had become a choice destination for Washingtonians out for weekend rides in their carriages. Another visitor in the summer of 1862 claimed he had seen nothing in the capital more charming than “this quiet and beautiful retreat,” from which “we look down upon the city and see the whole at a glance”—the Capitol dome, “huge, grand, gloomy, ragged and unfinished, like the war now waging for its preservation,” the Potomac River, “stretching away plainly visible for twelve miles, Alexandria, Arlington, Georgetown, and the long line of forts that bristle along the hills.”
At Mary’s urging, Lincoln agreed to settle in with his family for the summer, riding his horse the three miles to the White House each morning and returning at night. “We are truly delighted, with this retreat,” Mary wrote her friend Fanny Eames, “the drives & walks around here are delightful, & each day, brings its visitors. Then too, our boy Robert [home from Harvard], is with us, whom you may remember. We consider it a ‘pleasant time’ for us, when his vacations, roll around, he is very companionable, and I shall dread when he has to return to Cambridge.” For Tad, whose companionship and daily routine had been obliterated by the death of his brother and the banishment of the Taft boys, the Soldiers’ Home was a godsend. His lively, cheerful disposition earned him the affection of the soldiers assigned to guard his father. They dubbed him a “3rd Lieutenant,” allowing him to join in their drills during the day and their meals around the campfire at night.
In the evenings, the Lincolns could entertain guests on the wide porch overlooking the grounds or in a formal parlor illuminated by gas lamps. Relaxing in his slippers, Lincoln was fond of reciting poetry or reading aloud from favorite authors. Though intermittent cannonfire was audible in the distance, the idyllic retreat provided precious privacy and space for conversation among family and friends. For Lincoln, the historian Matthew Pinsker observes, the soldiers assigned to his security detail “helped him recreate some of the spirit of fraternity that he had once enjoyed as a younger politician and circuit-riding