Monday February 11, 1861

Lincoln Departs Springfield for Washington

Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois, on a trip that would eventually reach Washington, D.C., on Saturday, February 23. Lincoln boarded a train on a gloomy and cold, rainy morning, at approximately 8:00 a.m. and addressed a crowd of about a thousand people, many of them friends. "Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington." With a "feeling of sadness at this parting," he bid them "an affectionate farewell."

Lincoln's trip took him, among other places, through Indianapolis (February 11); Cincinnati (February 12); Columbus, Ohio (February 13); Pittsburgh (February 14); Cleveland (February 15); Buffalo (February 16); Albany (February 18); New York City (February 19); Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia (February 20); Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and back to Philadelphia (February 22); Baltimore and Washington (February 23).

VIDEO: Lincoln's Departure (5.3 MB)

Bibliography: Long, Civil War, pp. 35-41; Miers, ed., Lincoln Day by Day, 3:10-22.

Davis Departs Mississippi for Montgomery

On the same day that Lincoln left Illinois for Washington, Jefferson Davis left his plantation, Brierfield, for Montgomery. His trip took him to Vicksburg and Jackson Mississippi, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia. He arrived in Montgomery on February 16, 1861.

Bibliography: Long, Civil War, pp. 35-37; Strode, Jefferson Davis, pp. 3-4.