The Lincoln Conspiracy

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy:  July 12

President Lincoln at Antietam battlefield, 1862

President Lincoln was vitally interested in news from the front lines of the Civil War.  He would regularly visit the War Department telegraph office -- located next door to the White House -- to review dispatches from Union commanders.  In 1862, he visited the battlefield at Antietam in Maryland shortly after the Union victory.  On July 12, 1864, Lincoln became the first sitting U.S. president to witness a battle involving forces he commanded.  He watched from a parapet at Fort Stephens, just outside Washington, as his army repelled a Confederate attack.