AN UNLIKELY TWOSOME
Now that the Civil War has ended in most of the nation it is considered reasonably safe to point out how much alike the two leaders of that time appear to have been.
They even looked alike. Find two pictures of them in similar poses and place Abe Lincoln and Jeff Davis side-by-side. Notice how the general cut of the profiles resemble each other. How could they be more alike? The features are much the same, with Lincoln's a bit larger, rougher, perhaps, and his hair darker and more unruly than that of Jefferson Davis. Much depends on what type of beards, whiskers and hair-dos the two were wearing at that time. Lincoln's eyes would seem to appear darker, deeper more contemplative.
It would have been oddity enough with them just looking alike, but historians note more and more how much they were like each other in many ways. They seemed to echo each other, at times. Both were avid readers and we have stories of the young Lincoln reading books by candlelight or beside the fireplace. Young cadet Davis, at West Point, studied his books after by the glow of embers in the fireplace.
Both men liked Shakesepare, both read the English Romantic poets and each of them - and their wives read Scott and Burns. Both men where well school in the regular reading of the Holy Bible, as well. Both seemed to have a hunger for books.
Yes, it is true that Jefferson Davis did not suffer the rough frontier lifestyle that Abraham Lincon had to endure but they met with like troubles at other points in their lives.
Both of them like hunting and fishing and, when the opportunity came to them they participated in sports including boxing, wrestling and racing and other favorites of their time. Seldom do we find bookworms who are that active in sports.
In 1815 a young girl by the name of Ann Rutledge ,age 22, blue eyes, a sunburst of bright hair, sickened and died of typhoid fever at her home in New Salem, Illinois. Abe Lincoln was grief-stricken at her death. The very next month in that same year of 1835, Sarah Knox Taylor Davis – his wife of about ninety-days - died of either typhoid fever or some form of maleria.
When Lincoln married and Davis re-married they both had Episcopal ministers , they both served in wars against Black Hawk. Jefferson Davis, was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Senate and he took his seat on August 10, 1847, the very same day Abrahan Lincoiln took his seat in the House.
Even their warime exeriences seem to have been alike in many way, with each have close calls with death in combat situations. Both lost young sons while their fathers served as President – each of his own nation. Little Willie Lincoln, sickened and died in February of 1862 when the Lincoln's living in the White House. Five-year old Joseph Davis, fell tdo his death from an upper floor widow at the Executive Mansion of the Confederary while Mrs. Davis was having lunch with her husband in his office.
Some have tried to see sameness in the two wives as well, but that is not as evident They both died on the 16th of the month. Both lived 17-years after their husbands,. but in different years. Mrs. Lincoln in July 20, 1882 and Mrs. Davis lived until October 20, 1906.
I have often wondered if those two women saw the likenesses of their respective Presidential husbands.
A.L.M. November 3, 2003 [c601wds]
