Don E Fehrenbacher; Virginia Fehrenbacher sku-755124682

Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln is a hardcover book by Don E Fehrenbacher; Virginia Fehrenbacher (sku-755124682), listed under United States History Books. It collects remarks attributed to Lincoln by contemporaries, recollections that have informed Lincoln biographies despite the difficulty of judging their reliability.

Lincoln wrote little about his mother beyond routine facts, though an oral remark attributes to her a Virginia aristocrat father. His writings do not mention Ann Rutledge, but a recollection quotes him as saying while president-elect that he loved her and thought of her often.

Other recollections raise questions about a conditional offer to evacuate Fort Sumter in April 1861, the decision to restore General McClellan to command in September 1862, whom Lincoln first told about his intended emancipation proclamation, his reaction to the Gettysburg address and a reported dream shortly before his assassination. The answers depend on how reliable those recollections are.