Civil War Eyewitness

After emancipation, Beckett used his experience as a carriage driver to land a job with William H. Seward, Secretary of State under President Lincoln. As Seward’s driver, Beckett witnessed the Civil War from a unique vantage point. 

According to one account, “President Lincoln frequently accompanied Mr. Seward on the drives about the city and to the camps outlying it. On one of these trips they got ‘outside the lines,’ and this being discovered, Mr. Lincoln said in his quaint way, ‘Beckett, I guess we should return to our own bivouac.’”

Beckett stayed with Seward for two years, but left to take a job at a livery stable on G Street. He was working at the stable in April 1865, when President Lincoln was assassinated. From the stable door, Beckett saw the president’s body being carried back to the White House. 

Continue William Beckett’s story →

During the Civil War, Beckett drove a coach for William Seward (Library of Congress)

Photograph of soldiers standing in front of a fort during the Civil War.

Fort Stevens, Civil War Defenses of Washington (Library of Congress)