Lincoln and the Ghosts of the Civil War

 Lincoln and the Ghosts of the Civil War

The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln is a lynchpin of American history. Once in office, the long simmering feuds between northern and southern states soon boiled over into what would become known as the American Civil War. It was Lincoln, who through his asserted will, personal charisma, and perceptive intelligence, led the Northern Union states to a hard fought victory. 620,000 men died in the Civil War, exceeding the nation's losses of any other American war. Turbulent moments often leave their mark on time and some would say, they make an impression on the fabric of unseen space, the ether of the world between the living and the dead.

Lincoln himself was no stranger to the world of the Paranormal. While running for the office of President, Lincoln was listening to friends discuss the possibilities of Civil War, Lincoln said to them; "Gentlemen, you may be surprised and think it strange, but when the doctor here was describing a war, I distinctly saw myself, in second sight, bearing an important part in that strife."

On the day he won his election for president, exhausted, he sat in his bedroom. Staring in the mirror at the man who was the newly elected president, Lincoln saw in the reflection a vision of two separate and clearly defined faces. The vision faded and then returned. The first face was normal, but the second looked pale, death like. The vision again faded. Lincoln told his wife, Mary Todd, about it. In the following days he tried to make it happen again, to demonstrate it for his wife. Mary Todd did not see it, but she told him what she thought it meant. The first healthy face was his current face, indicating that he would live out his first term in office, but the other faces deathly pale complexion indicated that he would not live to see the end of the second term.

During the war, Lincoln used the telegraph lines like we would use the internet or a fax machine today. He was constantly updated, reading the latest news from his commanders. After one visit to the telegraph office, he read the reports and left, only to come back sometime later in a panic and ordered the operator to send a line out that the Confederates were about to cross the Union lines! The operator asked where he had received this sudden turn of information and Lincoln responded; "My God man, I saw it!"