Sold – Abraham Lincoln Allows His Old Friend to Collect the Body of His Stepson

William Fithian was a Danville, Ill. physician who became a friend of Abraham Lincoln when they both served in the Illinois legislature in 1834. Lincoln came to Danville to represent Fithian in a court case and found the town to his liking. From 1841 to 1859, Lincoln practiced law there while riding the circuit, in 1852 actually establishing a local law firm with Ward Hill Lamon. This was Lincoln’s only permanent law office outside of Springfield. Fithian hosted Lincoln many times when he visited Danville and supported him both financially and with speeches when Lincoln ran for office. Lincoln came to Danville for one of his last visits on September 21, 1858, while campaigning for a seat in the U. S. Senate against Stephen A. Douglas. He stepped through a window onto a balcony at the Fithian home, and standing in his stocking feet, proceeded to give a speech to the residents of the town. After a political rally that evening, and again the next night, Lincoln returned to spend the night with the Fithians.

Dr. Fithian had two stepsons, John C. Black and Wm. P. Black, boys Lincoln had known since they were young children. When the Civil War broke out, they enlisted in the 37th Illinois Infantry. John was a Major, and was wounded at Pea Ridge in March 1862. He was then promoted to Lt. Colonel, and on December 7, 1862, at the Battle of Prairie Grove, despite the other Union regiments around him being forced back, he led the regiment in a gallant charge to take a battery. He was severely wounded and the wound was presumed mortal; in recognition of his feat he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. His brother William was commissioned a Captain. At Pea Ridge, he singlehandedly checked an enemy advance, and like his brother, received the Congressional Medal of Honor. And also like his brother, he was wounded at the Battle of Prairie Grove, and the wound was considered mortal. Here Ward Hill Lamon picks up the story, saying “I shall never forget the scene when I took to Mr. Lincoln a letter written by Dr. Fithian to me, describing the condition of the Black boys, and expressing his fears that they could not live. Mr. Lincoln read it and broke into tears. ÔAre these dear, brave boys killed in this cursed war? My God, my God! It is too bad! They worked hard to earn enough to educate themselves, and this is the end. I loved them as if they were my own.’” This sad news reached Lincoln during the Fredericksburg campaign, on the very day that battle ended in utter defeat, Lincoln reached out to his old friend Fithian. By then he had apparently been informed, perhaps by Gen. Curtis, in command at St. Louis, that one of the boys would live.

Abraham Lincoln Autograph Letter Signed as president on Executive Mansion letterhead, Washington, December 14, 1862, to Gen. Samuel Curtis. “If my friend Dr. William Fithian of Danville, Illinois should call on you, please give him such facilities as you consistently can about recovering the remains of a stepson, & matters connected therewith.” Lincoln’s state of mind can best be understood by knowing that just a few days after writing Curtis about Fithian, he anxiously fretted “We are now on the brink of destruction.” This letter is published in Basler’s Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, from which some of these facts are culled. The Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln by Fehrenbacher also provided source material. This is a letter in which the terrible reality of the war reached Lincoln and his friends personally, and to which he reacted with full human emotion. As such, it is extraordinarily rare. Interestingly, both Black boys recovered from their wounds and survived the war.