In those trying times, the president and First Lady unostentatiously and unceremoniously visited many Washington hospitals, filled with the wounded veterans of the futile campaign. A journalist, observing the Lincolns at a hospital on July 26, remarked that it “was a scene of sublime interest to witness the President of the Republic taking a few hours from the care and anxieties of official business, to mingle his sympathies with the wounded and brave of our armies, and his wife placing fragrant flowers in their hands.” Lincoln’s solicitude for the sick and wounded of all ranks endeared him to the troops. One enlisted man told his father, a bitter critic of the administration, that the president had “a heart which does honnor to the ruler of a christian people.” Many “maimed and invalid soldiers in the Hospitals at Washington will ever cherish his name for the words of sympathy & consolation received from him when they wer[e] suffering from their honnored wounds.” Lincoln “has alway[s] the same warm hand and ready smile for a private soldier as he has for a Major General.” Recently, “while he was walking in one of the parks of the city he was approached by a poor invalid soldier who had some petition or other.” Instead of brushing him off “as many of our 2d Lieut[enants] and many of our city bugs would have done,” Lincoln “sat down on the grass beside the suplient, spoke kindly to him, gave him words of cheer, with a pencil endorsed his petition, and sent him on his way rejoicing.” While “that was a simple act,” it nevertheless “speaks volumes.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃