Abraham Lincoln and the Death of His Son Willie (2024)

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What happened to Lincoln's son Willie? ›

William Wallace Lincoln (December 21, 1850 – February 20, 1862) was the third son of President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. He was named after Mary's brother-in-law, Dr. William Smith Wallace. He died of typhoid fever at the White House, during his father's presidency.

Abraham Lincoln was famously a “man of sorrows.” Few things did more to intensify his sorrow than the death of his favorite son, eleven-year-old Willie, in February 1862.

After Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Willie's casket was exhumed and placed aboard the presidential funeral train for the journey back to Illinois. Father and son headed home together. To walk through the gates of Oak Hill today is to slip back in time.

When you visit Arlington National Cemetery, you can see the tomb of Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of President Lincoln. It's a short walk up the hill from the main gate.

Willie's body was taken downstairs to the Green Room where it remained until burial. Drs. Brown and Alexander handled the embalming, a procedure they would perform three years later after the president's assassination.

Abraham Lincoln has no direct descendants alive today. Of his four sons he had with Mary Todd Lincoln — Eddie, Willie, and Tad — three died young. His only child who survived into adulthood, Robert Todd Lincoln, had several children and grandchildren.

Abraham and Mary Lincoln had four sons together – Robert, Edward, William, and Thomas. Robert was born in 1843; just nine months after Abe and Mary were married.

Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd, had four sons, but only one survived to manhood. Edward died in infancy, William Wallace died in 1862 at age 11, and Thomas died in 1871 at age 18. The eldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, had a law career in Chicago, served as secretary of war under President James A.

Mary Todd married Abraham Lincoln on November 4, 1842, at her sister Elizabeth's home in Springfield. She was 23 years old and he was 33 years of age. Their four sons, all born in Springfield, Illinois, were: Robert Todd Lincoln (1843–1926), lawyer, diplomat (U.S. Secretary of War), businessman.

Did President Lincoln have a twin brother? ›

Booth conceived a plan to kidnap Lincoln in order to blackmail the Union into resuming prisoner exchanges, and he recruited Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O'Laughlen, Lewis Powell (also known as "Lewis Paine"), and John Surratt to help him.

Today it is one of the Institution's most treasured objects. The hat is on view in “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden” exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

President Lincoln died the next morning at 7:22 AM. Robert, Mary, and Tad all moved to Chicago after the President's death where Robert earned his license to practice law in 1867. He married Mary Harlan the following year and they had three children together.

Robert had a great appreciation for his father's talents and character even if he had sensibilities more akin to his mother. One telling insight into Robert's consideration of his father took place during his first year at Harvard.

Robert Todd Lincoln, the eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln, was born August 1, 1843. He was twenty-one years old when his father was assassinated. Robert was the only one of the Lincoln sons who lived into adulthood, and he distinguished himself in many ways. He graduated from Harvard College in 1864.

On March 20, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln's sons, Willie and Tad, are diagnosed with the measles, adding to the president's many troubles. Few U.S. presidents worked as hard in office as Abraham Lincoln did during the Civil War.

Robert Todd, the eldest, was the only one of the children to survive to adulthood, though Lincoln's favorite, Thomas (“Tad”), who had a cleft palate and a lisp, outlived his father. Lincoln left the upbringing of his children largely to their mother, who was alternately strict and lenient in her treatment of them.