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Grant's Headquarters
A Deadly Premonition
During the first week of April 1865, encouraging
news came from the battle lines. Grant and his
army were on the verge of complete victory.
This news came as a welcome reprieve for the
worried President, who had slept little and
often paced the deck of the River Queen
as he awaited word. When President Lincoln was
actually able to sleep during this stressful
time, he experienced a most prophetic dream.
The President had a horrid premonition of his
own assassination.
Later, the President recounted the dream to
his wife and colleagues:
"I
could not have been long in bed when I fell
into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began
to dream. There seemed to be a death-like
stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs,
as if a number of people were weeping. I thought
I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There
the silence was broken by the same pitiful
sobbing, but the mourners were invisible.
. . . Determined to find the cause of a state
of things so mysterious and so shocking, I
kept on until I arrived at the East Room,
which I entered. There I met with a sickening
surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which
rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments.
Around it were stationed soldiers who were
acting as guards; and there was a throng of
people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse,
whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully.
'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded
of one of the soldiers. 'The President,' was
his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin!'
Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd,
which awoke me from my dream. I slept no more
that night; and although it was only a dream,
I have been strangely annoyed by it since."
(Pfanz.)
Learn
more about Grant's Headuarters at City Point,
VA:
Setting
Up Camp
President Lincoln Comes to
City Point
The Meeting That Changed
the Course of History
A Vision For Peace
Lincoln Waits For the War's
End
A Deadly Premonition
The Siege of Petersburg
Lincoln's Plans For Reunification
Lincoln's Dream Comes to
Life
Preserving Grant's Cabin
Visiting Grant's Headquarters
at City Point, Petersburg National Battlefield,
Hopewell, VA
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