Is the story that Abraham Lincoln had a dreamlike apparition of his own death reputable?

Question

On that day, Lincoln and his wife, along with General and Mrs. Grant, were to attend a performance of a comic melodrama, Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theatre in Washington. Early that day, Lincoln held a Cabinet meeting at which Secretary of the Treasury McCulloch noted that he had never seen the president “so cheerful and happy.” Lincoln told his Cabinet about a dream he had had the previous night, which he interpreted to mean that a final victory for Sherman was near. In this happy mood he did not mention another recent dream in which he had followed a crowd of people into the East Room of the White House. There he saw his corpse laid out, and he heard people say, “Lincoln is dead.”

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Answer 1

Lincoln's Premonition
That Lincoln had a precognitive dream about his own untimely death is well documented. He related the dream to his close friend, Ward Hill Lamon:

About ten days ago, I retired very late. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room. No living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds met me as I passed alone. I was puzzled and alarmed. Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room. Before me was a catafalque on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng or people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. "Who is dead in the White House?" I demanded of one of the soldiers. "The president," was his answer. "He was killed by an assassin."



Thank you for the question. Check the URL to read more.

Answer 2

Lincoln suffered from periodic bouts of depression. He was President during the most difficult time in the nation’s history; and, half of the country wanted him dead – by any means possible.

It would have been odd if he did not sometimes dream of his own death – after all, he was surrounded by it.

Answer 3

No, its just a dumb story. Old people think about death all the time.