Is it any wonder that Mary was so protective of her eldest, Robert? She protested against his enlisting, much to his dismay. But that evening in Jersey City, it seemed Robert was destined to become another tragic death in the saga of the Lincoln family.<\/span><\/p>\n Robert went on to have a distinguished career. He managed to enter the Union Army late in the war, serving as a captain under Ulysses S. Grant, and was an eyewitness to Robert E. Lee\u2019s surrender.<\/p>\n On April 14, 1865, he was in Washington, D.C., but decided not to join his parents at Our American Cousin<\/em> at Ford\u2019s Theatre that terrible night, when John Wilkes Booth emerged from the shadows and took President Lincoln\u2019s life. Robert later served as secretary of war in one administration and minister to England in another. He was often recommended as a presidential candidate.<\/p>\n The sole heir to the Lincoln name, he corresponded with his father\u2019s biographers, providing tremendous insight into the Lincoln presidency. He died at the age of 82.<\/p>\n Robert was forever grateful to his rescuer. While the man hadn\u2019t recognized him, Robert had known exactly who the man was: one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of his day. An adamant Unionist, who had proudly voted for Lincoln, the actor was devastated when the news of the president\u2019s assassination reached him.<\/p>\n For a time, he retired from the stage, refusing to perform, until a letter from a friend, who\u2019d heard the story from Robert, told him the identity of the young man he\u2019d rescued. The truth helped inspire the actor\u2019s return to the stage.<\/p>\n While John Wilkes Booth would forever be known as a notorious assassin, his brother Edwin Booth is remembered today for defining Shakespearean characters for American audiences, founding his own theater, donating his home as a club for actors and artists…and saving Abraham Lincoln\u2019s only surviving son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" History is full of mysteries, the fates of nations pivoting on an unexpected and seemingly random turn of events. One extraordinary moment in American history happened on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey, in the darkest days of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln\u2019s oldest son, Robert, a 20-year-old Harvard student, was waiting for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[58],"ppma_author":[476],"class_list":["post-15362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gods-grace","tag-guideposts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/robtlincoln2.jpg\")
The train lurched, coming close to crushing Robert, when he felt someone tug his coat\u2014\u201cvigorously seized\u201d it, as he later wrote\u2014jerking him back up onto the platform and out of harm\u2019s way. Robert\u2019s rescuer had no idea whose life he\u2019d just saved, how important a role he\u2019d play in the course of both a family and a nation. But Robert never forgot that man. How could he?<\/p>\n