Overview

Washington During the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865 presents three manuscript volumes that document daily life in Washington, D.C., through the eyes of U.S. Patent Office examiner Horatio Nelson Taft (1806-1888), including Taft's connection with Abraham Lincoln and his family. Of special interest is Taft's description of Lincoln's assassination, based on the accounts of his friends and his son, who was one of the attending physicians at Ford's Theatre the night Lincoln was shot, on April 14, 1865. Transcriptions for all three volumes have been made by Library of Congress staff and are available online with the digital images.

Related Resources

Bibliography

• Abraham Lincoln Papers: Selected Bibliography
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/albib.html

Library of Congress Resources

Electronic

• Abraham Lincoln Papers
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html
• An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/pehome.html
• Civil War Maps
  http://www.loc.gov/collection/civil-war-maps/
• Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/nhihtml/cwnyhshome.html
• "I Do Solemnly Swear...": Presidential Inaugurations
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pihome.html
• Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mcchtml/corhome.html
• America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864 (Photo Gallery)
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/dags.html
• Band Music from the Civil War Era
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwmhtml/cwmhome.html
• "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!": Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/stern-lincoln/index.html
• The Gettysburg Address
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/
• African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html
• American Treasures
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/

External Resources

Electronic

• The A. Lincoln Bibliophile
  http://www.lincolnbooks.org/
• Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project
  http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/
• Abraham Lincoln Online
  http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln.html
• The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
  http://www.hti.umich.edu/l/lincoln/
• Freedmen and Southern Society Project
  http://www.inform.umd.edu/HIST/Freedman/
• The Lincoln Legal Papers
  http://www.lincolnlegalpapers.org/
• The Martyred President: Sermons Given on the Occasion of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
  http://chaucer.library.emory.edu/lincoln/html/index.html
• The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
  http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/choosepart.html

Rights And Access

The Library of Congress is providing access to the Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, ("Diary"), for educational and research purposes, and makes no warranty with regard to its use for other purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. Copyright (see Title 17 of the United States Code) or other restrictions on use of the Diary. However, responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. See American Memory, Copyright, & Other Restrictions and Privacy & Publicity Rights for additional information.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division.