Willie Lincoln, died February 20, 1862

William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln

William Wallace Lincoln was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1850, the third son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln.  "Willie" was named after Mary Todd's brother-in-law, Dr. William Wallace. He was a handsome, smart, serious and thoughtful child who was the favorite of Mary Todd Lincoln and her husband. 

Willie Lincoln was 10 years old when the Civil War began; he, along with his father, mother and younger brother, had just moved into the White House in Washington, D.C.

Willie became ill in early 1862, and his condition fluctuated from day to day. The most likely cause of the illness was typhoid fever, which was usually contracted by consumption of fecally contaminated food/water. The White House drew its water from the Potomac River, along which thousands of soldiers and horses were camped. 

The 11-year-old boy ay ill in a huge carved rosewood bed, now known as the Lincoln Bed. Both parents spent much time at his bedside.

Finally, on Thursday, February 20, 1862, at 5:00 p.m., Willie died. President Lincoln then walked down the hall to his secretary's office. He startled the half-dozing secretary with the news: "Well, Nicolay, my boy is gone -- he is actually gone!" John Nicolay recalled seeing his boss burst into tears before entering his own office.

Elizabeth Keckly, the former slave who worked as a seamstress for Mary Lincoln, washed and dressed him. 

Willie's body was taken downstairs to the Green Room where it remained until burial. Drs. Brown and Alexander handled the embalming, a procedure they would perform three years later after the president's assassination. Willie lay in a flower-covered metallic coffin designed to resemble rosewood, with his name and date of birth and death inscribed on a silver plate. Friends came to pay their respects on February 24, the morning of the funeral.

The funeral began at 2 p.m. in the East Room, where the huge gilt mirrors were draped in mourning, with black fabric covering the frames and white covering the glass. Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, pastor of the nearby New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, conducted the service. The Lincoln family attended Dr. Gurley's church, where Willie recently told his Sunday School teacher he wanted to become a teacher or preacher of the gospel.

President Lincoln, his son Robert, and members of the Cabinet sat in a circle, surrounded by a crowd which included representatives from Congress and foreign countries. The writer Nathaniel Parker Willis recalled the service as "very touching." He saw "[General] McClellan, with a moist eye when he bowed in prayer ... and senators, and ambassadors, and soldiers, all struggling with their tears -- great hearts sorrowing with the president as a stricken man and a brother."

Lincoln said,

My poor boy. He was too good for this earth. God has called him home. I know that he is much better off in heaven, but then we loved him so. It is hard, hard to have him die! 

Both parents were deeply affected. His father did not return to work for three weeks. Willie's younger brother, Tad, cried for nearly a month because he and Willie were very close. Lincoln generated no official correspondence for four days. Mary Lincoln was so distraught that Lincoln feared for her sanity. Tad was sick with the same illness at the same time, though he survived.

In the words of a government official's wife, "The White House is sad and still, for its joy and light have fled with little Willie. He was a very bright child, remarkably precocious for his age, and had endeared himself to every one who knew him." Mary Lincoln's cousin said he was "noble, beautiful ... a counterpart of his father, save that he was handsome." Mary herself called him the "idolized child, of the household."

John Hay, another White House secretary, wrote that the president "was profoundly moved by his death, though he gave no outward sign of his trouble, but kept about his work the same as ever. His bereaved heart seemed afterwards to pour out its fulness on his youngest child." 

On the day President Lincoln was assassinated, he told Mary, "We must both be more cheerful in the future. Between the war and the loss of our darling Willie we have been very miserable."