Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph note signed ("A Lincoln") as President, to General [Richard] Delafield, Chief, Army Corps of Engineers, n.p. [Washington, D.C.], 7 March 1865. Six lines plus signature and date-line on a small oblong card, (2 x 3 5/16 in.), remnants of mounting on verso . THREE DAYS AFTER HIS INAUGURATION AND A MONTH BEFORE HIS ASSASSINATION, LINCOLN REQUESTS "A MAP OR TWO" FOR HIS YOUNGEST SON, TAD "Will Gen. Delafield please allow the bearer, my son, to have a map or two for which he will ask? A Lincoln." A poignant memento of Lincoln as a father and one of a handful of manuscripts which document his relationship with Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, the youngest of Abraham's and Mary's three sons. Tad, named for the President's father, was born in 1853 in Springfield. Perhaps as the result of a cleft palate, he had a speech impediment which resulted in a lisp, "but this only endeared him all the more to Lincoln." Tad was an "impulsive, uninhibited child whom Mary regarded as 'her little sunshine'" (Stephen B. Oates, With Malice Towards None , 1977, p.104). Tad was stricken by typhoid fever at the same time as his older brother Willie, to whom the infection proved fatal, in February 1862. Less than a month before this note, Tad and his father had sat for the famous joint portrait by Anthony Berger of Matthew Brady's studio. Three days prior to addressing the present request to General Delafield, Lincoln had taken the oath of office for his second term, then delivered from the Capitol portico his inaugural address. Tad accompanied his father that day in the carriage. General Robert Delafield (1798-l873), from whom Lincoln requests maps on his son's behalf, attended West Point, graduating first in a class of 23 in 1818. In his long military career, he twice served as Superintendent of the Academy (1838-45 and 1856-1861), the second time succeeding Robert E. Lee. When the war broke out, he was responsible for the elaborate harbor defenses of New York, including Governor's Island and Sandy Hook. In April 1864 he was appointed Chief of Engineers for the Army, a post that gave him access to the most up-to-date maps and surveys of the various combat theaters and battlefields. It was Lincoln's habit to jot requests like this on small cards for Tad. On 5 May 1863, he wrote on a card to the commandant at the Washington Arsenal requesting that he "Let Tad have the pistol, big enough for snap caps -- but no cartridges or powder" (Basler, 10:187). On 7 July 1864 another such note (offered at Hamilton Galleries, 28 May 1981, lot 86) directed an unidentified correspondent to "Let Tad have the wagon, if you can spare it." And, on 7 April 1864, on a card addressed to Captain Allen of the Quartermaster's Department, the President said simply, "Shoe Tad's horse for him" (Basler, 10:235). The present note, longer than the others noted, is of interest for it may relate to plans for the visit of Lincoln, Mary and Tad to the Union lines at Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. While Grant's formal invitation to the President was tendered by telegraph on March 20, Lincoln's acceptance of that day noted that he "had already thought of going immediately after the next rain" perhaps an indication that the visit had been under consideration before Grant's telegram. If that is the case, it is possible that young Tad wished to study maps showing Grant's and Lee's respective entrenchments in that area. The Lincolns departed from Washington on board the steamer River Queen on 23 March. Both Tad and Lincoln were at City Point for the launching of Grant's final offensive, which began on the 30th and culminated in the fall of Richmond on April 3. Father and son returned to Washington on April 9 and the next day Lincoln wrote to Secretary of War Stanton: "Tad wants some flags. Can he be accomodated?" and to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles asking him to "let Master Tad have a Navy sword" (in the Forbes Collection, sold Christie's, 27 March 2002, lot 102