Abraham Lincoln
Historical Figure
Nationality: United States
Date of Birth: 1809
Date of Death: 1865
Cause of Death: Assassination by gunshot
Religion: Christian of no particular denomination
Occupation: Shop clerk, Lawyer, Soldier, Poet, Author of Non-Fiction, Politician
Spouse: Mary Lincoln
Children: Robert
Edward (d.1850)
Willie (d. 1862)
Thomas "Tad" (d. 1871)
Military Branch: United States Army (Black Hawk War)
Political Party: Whig Party (1834-1854); Republican Party (1854-1865); National Union Party (1864-1865)
Political Office(s): United States Representative from Illinois (1847-1849)
President of the United States (1861-1865)
Fictional Appearances:

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865) was an American politician elected from Illinois as the 16th President of the United States. As an outspoken opponent of slavery and leader in the western states, he won the Republican nomination in 1860 and was elected with an all-Northern base.

Lincoln's election galvanized the Southern states, who refused to accept the result of the election. Seven southern states seceded from the Union. These states fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861. Lincoln promised military retaliation, prompting another four states to join these seven. Later in 1861, they formed the Confederate States, and the American Civil War was underway.

From 1861 through 1865, Lincoln steered the country through the war, facing initial Southern military victories, threat of intervention from abroad, and criticism at home. Originally, Lincoln did not intend to free all slaves in the nation; his plan was to forbid the spread of slavery into any new regions, and let the institution die a gradual, natural death where it already existed. The abolitionist Republicans considered Lincoln weak because of this, and intended to replace him with John C. Frémont in the next election. However, after punitive measures emancipated the slaves of captured regions, the furor of the freedmen for their new status changed his mind. As the North gained victories, Lincoln was able to lay the foundation work for the utter end of slavery. As the war progressed, the North was able to bring its full industrial might to bear. The clear gains of the North helped secure Lincoln's re-election in 1864. (In that election he ran not as a Republican but as the leader of the National Union Party, a fusion ticket which included Lincoln and Democrat Andrew Johnson. The National Union Party's presidential ticket was formally endorsed by the Republican Party.)

In the early months of 1865, it was clear that the South was a defeated entity. On April 9, 1865, the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered, effectively ending the war. (Fighting continued in the outer regions for another month.) It had lasted for more than four years and 600,000 people had died. Lincoln planned to reintegrate the Southern states into the Union with a program focused more on rehabilitation than punishment. On the night of April 14, tragically, Lincoln was shot by famed actor and Southern sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. The mortally wounded Lincoln was carried across the street to Petersen House where he died the next morning. His successor, Andrew Johnson, was left to carry out Lincoln's post war plans with less skill than the Great Emancipator.

Abraham Lincoln in "Before the Beginning"[]

"Before the Beginning"
Set in the Future
Type of Appearance: Posthumous reference

Recordings of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre were quite popular after the time-viewer was invented.

Abraham Lincoln in "The Great White Way"[]

"The Great White Way"
by Laura Frankos

Set in OTL
Type of Appearance: Posthumous references

The first act of Stephen Sondheim's play Assassins (1990) revolves around John Wilkes Booth's monomanical hatred of Abraham Lincoln. However, while an actor playing Lincoln can be included in the play, no lines were written for him to speak. Therefore, Trina Hutchinson did not include a VR avatar of Lincoln in her "army" for the battle against the Webberites. Nevertheless, the Booth avatar had this historical monomania programmed into him, which proved to be to the Sondheads' advantage.

When Hutchinson, Booth, and their co-belligerents approached the entrance to the Webberites' final treasure trove, they found it guarded by Jesus of Nazareth. Booth's squadmate Charles Guiteau immediately surrendered to the rock-opera Messiah, singing a hymn of his own composing. Booth was virtually paralyzed - he was programmed for Presidenticide, but Deicide was quite beyond his psychological capabilities.

Hutchinson then turned to George the artist, who had been put in her army as a joke, to overcome this obstacle. Using only painting tools which the historical Georges Seurat could have had, George painted a life-size portrait of Lincoln in Seurat's pointillist style, which Hutchinson then placed in front of Jesus. Booth, overcome by his historical instinct, shot the Presidential phantasm with a bullet that passed straight through it, and fatally wounded the simulated Savior. Booth therefore won the battle for his side, but was horrified at his own sacrilegious act.

Abraham Lincoln in "Must and Shall"[]

"Must and Shall"
POD: July 12, 1864
Type of Appearance: Direct
Date of Death: 1864
Cause of Death: Stray bullet to the head
(Great Rebellion)
Political Office(s): President of the United States (1861-1864)

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1864) was killed by a sharpshooter's bullet while observing Jubal Early's attack on Fort Stevens on July 12, 1864. He was succeeded by Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, who used Lincoln's death as a justification for the oppressive peace imposed upon the Southern States after the Great Rebellion.

Lincoln's image was on the U.S. half-dollar coin. In 1942, FBS agent Neil Michaels found Southerners hesitant to accept it as payment for services. In one instance, a bellboy he gave such a coin to as a tip, disgustedly dropped it in the hotel lobby after he had left Michaels.

Abraham Lincoln in The Guns of the South[]

The Guns of the South
POD: January 17, 1864
Type of Appearance: Direct
Political Office(s): President of the United States (1861-1865)

Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States during the Second American Revolution. While the war seemed to be going the Union's way by January 1864, the mysterious organization America Will Break turned the tide for the Confederate States by furnishing the C.S. Army with the repeating rifle called the AK-47.

Throughout the first months of 1864, the CS Army rallied. Under the command of Robert E. Lee, the C.S. began inflicting massive defeats on U.S. forces. Lincoln remained in Washington City even after the U.S. military collapsed in the face of the AK-47s at the Battle of Bealeton in Virginia. Upon the arrival of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, Lincoln invited the C.S. commander into the White House to negotiate an armistice, ending major combat of the "Second American Revolution". Lincoln was initially unwilling to yield, and was entirely willing to raze the capital and sacrifice himself to drive the C.S. out. After learning that Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest had routed General Sturgis and sent him fleeing North from Tennessee with what was left of his army, however, Lee finally accepted that defeat had come and agreed to sign a cease fire.

Even with his cause in ashes, Lincoln was respectful and diplomatic while meeting with Lee and took the time to introduce his staff. He accompanied Lee outside to tell the Confederate troops surrounding the White House that the war was over, but was deeply grieved by the same news that made the Army of Northern Virginia explode into raucous cheers. Lee put a standing order in place forbidding any Confederate troops from going near the White House after the truce was signed, marking it as protected Union grounds even with Washington occupied by the Confederate Army. The goodwill gesture helped U.S.-C.S. relations start off on a good note, and was appreciated by Lincoln personally. Lincoln later fought to avoid too many concessions to the Confederacy in negotiations for a formal peace treaty, but ultimately gave the seceded states much of what they had asked for.

In the election of November 1864, the Republican ticket of Lincoln and Vice President Hannibal Hamlin was defeated by the Democratic ticket of Horatio Seymour and Clement Vallandigham, though only by a few thousand votes. They carried 83 electoral votes and 12 states compared to Seymour's 138 electoral votes and 10 states. After his term of office expired, he toured Missouri and Kentucky during the referenda on their continuing status, agitating tirelessly in favor of the two disputed states remaining in the Union.

Following the post-war plebiscites (in which Missouri voted to remain in the Union and Kentucky chose the Confederacy), Lincoln returned to his law practice in Springfield, Illinois. Upon receiving news of the March 4, 1868 Richmond Massacre, in which Mary Custis Lee and over 100 other people were killed, he sent a telegram of condolence to his former enemy, Robert E. Lee, now President of the Confederate States. The telegram said, "May God be with you and your country in your hour of sorrow. You are in my prayers."

Lincoln was despised as a fool and tyrant in the Confederacy during the war; when Andries Rhoodie of America Will Break told Robert E. Lee that Lincoln would impose an absolute tyranny in his second term and that Thaddeus Stevens would succeed him and act as an even worse tyrant[1], Lee was willing to credit this at first. When Lee actually met Lincoln, however, he reconsidered that position. When the AWB's history books from a world in which the Union had won the war were captured by the C.S. Army, Lee realized that not only had Rhoodie exaggerated about Lincoln, he had outright lied; Lincoln was documented as having taken a conciliatory and forgiving approach towards the defeated Confederacy, focusing his efforts on restoring the Union.

Lincoln never learned of this other, vanished world, but Lee was greatly impressed by it and held Lincoln in high regard after the war. During a speech to the Confederate Congress, President Lee remarked "The world will little remember what I say now", having noted that on one of Lincoln's speeches. Although Lincoln was relegated to obscurity, Lee felt that line deserved to live on.

Abraham Lincoln in Southern Victory[]

Southern Victory
POD: September 10, 1862
Appearance(s): How Few Remain;
American Front
Type of Appearance: Direct POV (HFR); Direct (AF), posthumous references in other volumes
Date of Death: (after 1882, before 1914)
Cause of Death: Natural causes(?)
Occupation: Lawyer, orator, social activist
Spouse: Mary Lincoln (d. 1877)
Children: Robert, Edward, Willie, Tad (d. 1863)
Political Party: Republican Party (1854-1882)
Socialist Party (1882-?)

Abraham Lincoln (1809 - after 1882) presided over an administration (1861-1865) which, despite his best effort, saw the truncation of the United States and the emergence of the Confederate States. While soon becoming the most hated man in the country, Lincoln successfully spent his twilight years establishing a new Socialist Party in the United States.

The War of Secession and Aftermath[]

Lincoln's leadership during the War of Secession was widely criticized. One of the most frequent criticisms heard was that he allowed General George McClellan to remain in command of the Army of the Potomac even after he'd proven he was no match for his Confederate counterpart, Robert E. Lee of the Army of Northern Virginia, during the Peninsula campaign in the spring of 1862.

McClellan was defeated by Lee at the Battle of Camp Hill in Pennsylvania in the fall of 1862, and Lee was able to capture the city of Philadelphia. This prompted Britain and France to extend diplomatic recognition to the Confederate States. Lincoln himself was forced to do the same under threat of war delivered by British ambassador Lord Lyons. At the time the bitter Lincoln told the Ambassador that sooner or later the USA would get even by finding a European ally which would be the match of Britain and France together - which at the time seemed utterly ridiculous to Lord Lyons, but in fact accurately prefigured the United States' alliance with Germany during the Great War.[2]

Lincoln was soundly defeated by his Democratic opponent in the 1864 election. Returning to private life, Lincoln developed an interest in workers' rights, on which he had already made some strong statements during his Presidency such as telling Congress that the toil of workers, rather than the money of their employers, was the source of all wealth. In this, Lincoln's views intersected and were influenced by the works of Karl Marx, whose works Lincoln as an ex-President studied. This ultimately led Lincoln to declare himself a staunch Socialist, and as such he spent the next two decades traveling the country, lecturing and making speeches to a variety of audiences. Among more affluent people he was not a particularly effective advocate because he was generally despised, even among many members of his own Republican Party, for losing the war. However, in working class audiences his message was eagerly taken up and he increasingly got the name of a rabble-rouser. This further increased his alienation from mainstream Republicans, who often tended equate Socialists with violent revolutionaries - which Lincoln certainly was not.

His travels came with a price: during a trip to St. Louis in 1877, both Lincoln and his wife, Mary caught typhoid. Lincoln survived, but Mary did not. Moreover, Lincoln's relationship with his only surviving son Robert was strained by Lincoln's more radical politics.

The Second Mexican War and the founding of the Socialist Party[]

In 1880, the people of the US, exhausted with the Democratic Party's conciliatory stance towards the CS, returned the Republicans to power by electing James G. Blaine to the presidency. This helped precipitate the Second Mexican War. When war broke out, Lincoln was in Utah. He had several meetings with Mormon leader John Taylor, and was suspected of treason by Utah's military authorities, John Pope (who had a good deal of bad blood with Lincoln following Lincoln's sacking of Pope after Pope's defeat at the battle of Second Bull Run during the War of Secession) and George A. Custer. Blaine did not allow Pope and Custer to execute Lincoln, but ordered them to exile Lincoln to his choice of Idaho or New Mexico for the duration of the War. Lincoln chose Idaho.

When the war ended, Lincoln traveled to Chicago; on this trip, he encountered two young men who would eventually became president: Theodore Roosevelt (who challenged Lincoln after a speech in Montana, and concluded Lincoln's ideas were dangerous for the country) and Hosea Blackford (who shared a conversation with Lincoln while on a train crossing Dakota Territory; for Blackford, it was a political awakening).

On reaching Chicago, after one last attempt to convince Republican Party leaders to make workers' rights the central issue of their platform, he watched as the Republicans effectively disintegrated, as several leaders saw an opportunity to remould the now rudderless Democrats into a new anti-C.S. party. Lincoln struck out on his own, and helped create the Socialist Party from a coalition of socialist groups from around the country. Hitherto Socialists in the US were marginal groups of radicals, who contested elections as a means of agitating and speaking out rather than with a real hope of gaining public office. The adhesion of Lincoln and his supporters gave for the first time the chance of creating a Socialist party with a mass following and genuine chance to eventually gain power through the ballot box. Socialist leaders seized this chance offered by Lincoln, though his version of Socialism was far milder than theirs. Lincoln's ideas helped tame the Socialists, convincing them that more could be gained with ballots than through radical revolutionary tactics. This helped bring the party more into the mainstream of US politics, although it wasn't until 1920 that the Party actually gained national power.


Lincoln was despised in the Confederate States, even after their victory. However, the oppressed Negro population embraced Lincoln to an extent, particularly his writings on equality. Many of the leaders of the Red Rebellion of 1915 were well versed in Lincoln.

Confederate cavalry officer Hiram Lincoln felt an acute embarrassment at sharing the name of a person so much disliked by fellow white Confederates; nevertheless, he obstinately refused to consider changing his name.

Literary comment[]

Lincoln dabbled in poetry as a young man. His poem "My Childhood Home I See Again" inspired the title of the first Southern Victory novel, How Few Remain. Three stanzas of the poem are excerpted in the book's front matter.

Abraham Lincoln in "Lee at the Alamo"[]

"Lee at the Alamo"
POD: December 13, 1860
Type of Appearance: Direct

The election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 prompted several southern slave-holding states to secede from the Union and form the Confederate States. Texas was among those, declaring its secession in February 1861, a month before Lincoln's inauguration. While Lincoln was quite publicly determined to preserve the Union, he could not act until he took office, and his predecessor, James Buchanan, would not act.

The first battle of the American Civil War took place in San Antonio, Texas from February-March 1861, as Lt. Colonel Robert E. Lee opted to defend U.S. property at the Alamo, rather than surrender it to the Texas Militia. While Lee was ultimately forced to surrender, he became a national hero. When Lincoln learned that Lee had refused the position of Commander of the Army, he arranged to meet with Lee. With some careful words and persuasion, Lincoln convinced Lee to remain with the Union, rather than join his home state of Virginia in secession. Lee, realizing Lincoln's sincerity, agreed to take a commanding position in the west, and stipulated that he be allowed to retire if he were asked to fight his fellow Virginians. Lincoln agreed, and went one better, promising Lee a farm should Lee retire.

See Also[]


  1. The Guns of the South, pgs. 83-4.
  2. American Front, pgs. 4-9, HC.