| Show the above little known portrait of lincoln Is from a sketch made by freeman thorp in 1881 and chowe lin coin at the age of thie ie aid to be the only portrait of the war president drawn entirely from life years after lincoln died thorp who was the painter of four presidents studied the existing pictures of lin coin but found none so true to life as his penciled sketch with his vivid i memory of the president as he had known him in 1861 he painted the bovo portrait by ELMO SCOTT WATSON lincoln la undoubtedly the most written about american not even excepting the immortal george washington although more than sixty years have elapsed since he passed from the stage of his tory through all these years there has been no let up in the number of books magazine and newspaper articles and stray bits of information which have been presented to a public apparently always eager for more light upon the personality and career of tills simple illinois backwoodsman alio rose to a position of world importance in fact the mass of new information about lincoln seems to grow instead of dl as time parses and it Is any criterion the bear 1927 will see nn even greater amount of Lincoln lana added to our national lilston lil stor in the pact few years iconoclasts have been busy turning the birch light upon the professed desire to tell the whole truth about them including thomp truths which will show that they were much less great than popular opinion has believed them to have been through all this idol shattering lie great figure of lincoln has stood virtually untouched td the stature of ils greatness apparently any new truths about ailin which be revealed bv tle hotoi lans can not change in the leist either the diet of history upon him I 1 past of all can they change the ime for him of the common people whom as he once said the I 1 ord must love hp cause he made them f the to tin I 1 w lyo ly O mild again that tho amount of new material in alv caie aliat it Is not eideh known i bout bilm seemingly among them peri ape carl sand burgs two volume tuh of the irs and the publication of alip bulther researches of the indefatigable jay allam 13 barton whose life of lincoln of 2 was his hird important contribution fresh biographical material incidentally it might he added that one b of I 1 lincoln lists some books and pamphlets sandburg 8 v aich is doted to sl iouin lincoln in ils time before he ant 0 o alie alte louse I 1 peri aps i one as lias ever been written be abuso as man of t pe lie late squirt in writing a cited of Sand burgs work pointed ut are good companions the wo 0 them and mutu illy ng bogli pi aln people admirable story tellers democrats bogli both ion professing I 1 lincoln perhaps alie comple test specimen tint as appeared in the western t cals chere and poets withal made at times and gentle heart d by asking whit folk re member in the dust in alie tombs cut it Is to ke W barton that americans are hobt indebted for clearing lip about I 1 in coln barton Is historian mho has sought to tell the about lin coln but he is no iconoclast he has legend i which haie grown up in the amazingly short lime of halt a century but alie I 1 lincoln which he K sa uia t t o 0 1 e A ltv jh x h u ef sk ta f f u v 6 f a bic a KV bucu tucu j caf C fr rw u x fc f c f ty t y t A vv fur axy f W ibets ft aw aw u cat jy of 0 awa otter Ott wr f tc y A r j depicts Is none the less admirable nor lovable it anything be Is more so of both and bartons lincoln demonstrates all the more clearly thadlin coln needs no myths or legends to enhance bis fame among the many interesting revelations made by this biographer are those about the five sons of mrs lydia baxby who were the inspiration for the famous baxby letter which was delivered to the boston mother on thanksgiving day with a thanksgiving dinner and a considerable sum of money the inspiration for this letter was a statement from the war department to president lincoln that mrs baxby was the mother of five sons four of whom were killed in battle and the fifth died of wounds the facts which barton lias brought to light are these two sons charles N baxby and oliver baxby killed lo 10 bittle the former at and alie latter in the crater fight before peters burg but they were the bixby sons who were k llred in an other son henry baxby vas cap turca at the battle of geisburg Gets burg but uns paroled in returned to bis lioma discharged from intfen of eighteen ho was to li e died of rounds gaw homesick and deserted to alie enemy in isca after the war he changed hia occue atlon became a sailor and Is known to hae been living with his mother in 1871 lie died in Clil cago in 1900 ceorge nv baxby ed to lieve been killed at petersburg wis captured bv lie confederates there and a fellow froner who returned to boston re that lie had deserted to the enemy but later records state tint died in prison although he 1 known to laue been living as late as virch ISO ills final fate au unknown so of the fhe sons who died gorl in fie fled of bittle as I 1 in coin wrote to their mother onla two actually did die thus one w is a 1 deserter and another may apen but for all tant I 1 letter ans written under a and fajr all that the baxby sons m y not hae been desent ng f all tie honor it gac tapin alie fact tint this letter still stands as a classic of I 1 prose and as barton ins said the facts tn the case ann cnn detract nothing from lie noble and ic spirit of abraham I 1 lincoln tl e I 1 lincoln legend tant mr birton has dai belled Is in icord to the sleeping sentinel sentenced to be ahot whom lincoln Is said to have pardoned ahe satorv book version of abe affair has lincoln riding out at dawn to stop the sitting dotan in a tent with lie cwi iwi looking at the of hie wung sol mother and Ji eiring alie boi s grateful to mortgage the old and tle for saving ills llop then it lias the boy morta ly wounded in battle later a long oration to ills corn rados uttering a braer for abraham I 1 lincoln and sending a dying message to alie president the oab thing the matter with the stori ans barton Is that it Is all strong villani scott of compin of alie third ennant enn ont who biad been detailed as one of three in alie chain bridge oer tie poto mac was found sleeping on ills post i on the night of august SO 1401 thiis cobit and sentenced to be cliot bondu mor 9 the sentence hover wis a bluff and intended by brig gen lellam F smith commander of the brigade to chiow i scare into the brigade and impress upon thew volunteers alic stern necessities of military life the bluff worked mid n tined by lie of the ami clemency for ascott to lie brigade commander general bernill ter nill s recommendation general issued n I 1 lincoln halil little or nothing to di with alip uis it Is true that he was concerned lib ui the case and as a matter of form made the request to mcclellan that scott s life he he lit the fact of his t be known to leipus upon the soldier the urious neb of scott s offense for when he piron was read before the regiment the warning was uttered that nothing short of the presidents re quest had saved this soldier and that the wis w is not likely to do it agian bior did alie dramatic tent scene take the mother did not 1 both of scott s parents aci e living nt the time part of the story about scott s later career 1 truetina true tint part which tells of his deitle he was mor tall wounded nt the battle of I 1 april 10 and died alie next dai hut he did not a ding nor a for the president ilic surgeon who hin stated that he was in a coma toe condition to alie moment of his ecith although I 1 lincoln ans not responsible for saving alic life of this sleeping sentinel ana a case later in alie in he did exercise this clemency in lular of one hundred and cw ork was to le baiot tor fulling asleep ut his post one of his Ilow lund kellog to le writing to his congressman ConR ressman orlando kellogg of bew ork at alie time and in postscript to his letter told of lie sentence that and been passed upon his friend idank orlando kellogg had first known lincoln alien hatli were in con in alie 40 and during the civil war they biad renewed their acquaint ance and become fast friends upon receipt of the let congressman kellogg went to alie hutc house eian it was late at night to plead for ullars life c cording to the tor he told alie adent that the a of alie hun dred and eighteenth dian didn t go to to be shot that wai I 1 lincoln decided to save I 1 ullars life and issued the necessary papers which were circled back to camp by chaplain charles L hagar who had brought young kel boggs letter to alie congressman chaplain arrived just in time to pro vent he execution |
