On April 18, 1864, Mary Lincoln sent a note to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury George Harrington requesting the services of Treasury Department employee Charles Forbes to care for her son Thomas (affectionately known as Tad) while she and the President visited Baltimore. As a person trusted by the family, Forbes alternated between serving as a valet, footman, attendant, and driver, as needed. The President and First Lady traveled to Baltimore on the occasion of Lincoln’s address to the U.S. Sanitary Commission’s Sanitary Fair on April 18, 1864. With his second presidential campaign set to begin the following month, April was a busy time for Lincoln. In addition to speaking at the Sanitary Fair, he wrote two Executive Orders and eight special messages to Congress. Read the rest of the story in LMA Newsletter, Spring-Summer 2013.
