Strange Fates of Lincoln 

“Actress Saves Lincoln!” Can that be true? The Lincoln was Mary, widow of the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. The actress was Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in the world, known for her onstage performances playing both male and female roles, from Hamlet to Cleopatra. 

  “Actress Saves Lincoln!” is Sarah’s account of the rescue on the ocean liner L’Amerique as it traveled from Paris to New York in October 1880. In “My Double Life, The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt”, she describes walking one morning on the ship’s cold, slippery deck:

 

  “ ... I met a lady dressed in black with a sad, resigned face. The sea looked gloomy and colorless and there were no waves. Suddenly a wild billow dashed so violently against our boat that we were both thrown down. I immediately clutched hold of the leg of one of the benches, but the unfortunate lady was flung forward. Springing to my feet with a bound I was just in time to seize hold of her dress, and with the help of my maid and a sailor, we managed to prevent the poor woman from falling head first down the staircase. Very much hurt though, she was, and a trifle confused; she thanked me in such a gentle, dreamy voice that my heart began to beat with emotion.

  “You might have been killed, Madame...down that horrible staircase.”

  “Yes,” she answered, with a sigh of regret, “but it was not God’s will.”

Sarah introduced herself.  Mary, who didn’t know of the actress, replied mournfully,

  “I am the widow of President Lincoln.”

​

When L’Amerique docked in New York, Sarah Bernhardt was swarmed by adoring fans and newspaper reporters. It was her first trip to America where she would earn an astounding six million dollars from her tour of sold-out performances. No one recognized the frail, white-haired former First Lady. She was met only by her grandnephew who accompanied her to to the home of her dear sister Elizabeth in Springfield .

    Despite her strong will, Mary Lincoln was unable to overcome the traumas in her life. When she was six, her mother died. She and her husband grieved over the deaths of two young sons. Three brothers and a brother-in-law, in opposition to her staunch pro-Union ideology, were killed fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. She was plagued by migraines resulting from a fall from the Lincoln carriage, which had been sabotaged—one of the five known assassination attempts on the President before the final one. She and her husband were affectionately holding hands when John Wilkes Booth’s fatal bullet struck at Ford’s Theatre. He timed it for a laugh-line in the play, “Our American Cousin.” 

    After the assassination, Mary was overwhelmed by grief and her lowered standard of living. (There was no will nor a widow’s pension.) Unjustly reviled by the press and the public, she escaped to live in Europe with her son Tad. She declined her sister Elizabeth’s pleas to return to Springfield because it held painful memories. It was where the vivacious and politically astute young Mary Todd met and married Abraham Lincoln whom she encouraged to be President. Where their four sons were born. Where four-year-old Edward died. (Willie died in the White House when he was 11 years old.) From Springfield, the President’s inaugural train set out for Washington DC. Then, reversing that route, his funeral train took him to his final resting place, the Lincoln Tomb in Oakridge Cemetery. 

    Soon after Mary and Tad returned to Chicago from Europe, the 18-year-old became ill and died on July 15, 1871. Mary was inconsolable. Robert, alarmed by her erratic state of mind, used his political clout to commit her to a mental institution. Although she was lucid enough to secure a legal team who obtained her release and had her declared sane, history would not absolve her of the “crazy” label. Afraid that Robert would recommit her, she returned to Europe.

    By the time of her rescue on L’Amerique, Mary's health was in decline; she was crippled and nearly blind. After her years of pressuring Congress to create a widow’s pension, it finally came through. It was too late. On July 16, 1882, at the age of 63, Mary died inter sister  Elizabeth’s home in Springfield. It was a tragic ending for a truly great First Lady.