Abraham Lincoln II – Military Son

Abraham Lincoln II was the grandson of President Abraham Lincoln and son of Robert Todd and Mary Harlan Lincoln. (1873-1890).  His nickname was “Jack.”

Abraham Lincoln II, Robert’s only son, died on March 5, 1890 at 11:00 AM in London, England at the family residence. At that time Robert Lincoln was the American ambassador to the Court of St. James.) “Jack” had undergone surgery in Paris to lance a carbuncle that had formed under his arm, and had left France on January 17th, accompanied by his parents, Dr. H. Webster Jones, and Charles Isham.  A second surgery was performed on February 27, 1890, though it gave no relief and Jack died six days later.

2, Cromwell Houses. S. W.
London March 30. 1890
My dear Charles

“I want to let you know that your kind note was received. We had a long & most anx-ious struggle and at times had hopes of saving our boy. It would have been done if it had depended only on his own marvelous pluck & pa-tience now that the end has come, there is a great blank in our future lives & an afflic-tion not to be measured.
Give my love to your wife, who is well, I hope, & believe me
Affectionately your cousin
Robert T. Lincoln”

Jack was originally buried in the Lincoln family plot in Springfield, Illinois, was but reinterred years later in his father’s plot in Arlington National Cemetery.

For years his name did not appear in the Arlington site but, through the efforts of a Catholic Priest in Baltimore and with the assistance of U.S. Senator Paul S. Sarbanes, his name was added to his father’s memorial in 1976.

TO REINTER LINCOLN’S GRANDSON

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois, September 7, 1929 – The body of Abraham Lincoln II, grandson of the great emancipator, will be removed from the Lincoln Monument in Oak Ridge Cemetery here to be reinterred beside that of his father, Robert T. Lincoln, in Arlington National Cemetery at Washington, D.C.

Attorney General Oscar Carlstrom has advised Harry Cleaveland, director of the State Department of Public Works, to honor the request of Mrs. Robert Lincoln that her son’s remains be moved to the national burial grounds.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard