Arriving in Richmond on Tuesday, April 4, 1865 Abraham Lincoln with Admiral David Porter, three other officers, and ten armed sailors immediately made their way to the Confederate White House. During the visit, the president’s bodyguards realized that they had let the president out of their sight; a frantic search of that building found Lincoln upstairs in the Davis bedroom, standing before an armoire of Davis’ clothes which had been abandoned by the Confederate president. Lincoln was reputedly running his hands over one of Davis’ suits; it seemed as if he was attempting to understand in some psychic way what motivated the Confederate president to resist Union control for four long and painful years. The same armoire still remains in Davis’ bedroom but now devoid of the Confederate president’s clothes.
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.