The kittens - A story about Abe Lincoln

 

An excellent example of President Abraham Lincoln's tenderness occurred near the end of the Civil War.

Lincoln and his family had been invited to visit General Ulysses S. Grant's headquarters at City Point, Virginia. The trip took place in late March of 1865 about three weeks before he was assassinated. [1]

One morning during his visit, Lincoln wandered into the telegraph tent where several of of General Grant's officers were sitting. He spotted three tiny kittens crawling about the tent at the time. 

General Horace Porter described the scene:

The mother had died, and the little wanderers were expressing their grief by mewing piteously. Mr. Lincoln picked them up, took them on his lap, stroked their soft fur, and murmured: “Poor little creatures, don't cry; you'll be taken good care of,” and turning to Colonel Bowers, an officer on Grant's staff, Lincoln said: “Colonel, I hope you will see that these poor little motherless waifs are given plenty of milk and treated kindly.” 

Bowers replied: “I will see, Mr. President, that they are taken in charge by the cook of our mess, and are well cared for."[2] 

Several times over the next few days of his stay, Mr. Lincoln was found playing with these kittens. He would wipe their eyes tenderly with his handkerchief, stroke their smooth coats, and listen to them purring their gratitude to him. 

Porter was amazed - and touched.

"It was a curious sight at an army headquarters, upon the eve of a great military crisis in the nation's history, to see the hand which had affixed the signature to the Emancipation Proclamation, and had signed the commissions of all the heroic men who served the cause of the Union, from the general-in-chief to the lowest lieutenant, tenderly caressing three stray kittens."[2]

Untouched by the callousness of life and war - or perhaps because of it, "Lincoln," Porter marveled, 

well illustrated the kindness of the his disposition, and showed the childlike simplicity which was mingled with the grandeur of his nature. [2]

This is another anecdote about Abe Lincoln, Storyteller.

Mac

Works Cited

[1] Sandburg, Carl (1939) Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Volume IV. New York, NY:  Harcourt Brace. p.146.

[2] Porter, Horace (1697) Campaigning with Grant. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace. p.410.