Their Last Suppers: Legends of History and Their Final Meals (14 page)

At the end of the conflict, President Lincoln had to use all his powers of noble oratory and personal integrity to control his
vengeful cabinet as the war drew to a close. Many members of his cabinet wanted to treat the South harshly for their defection, but Lincoln insisted on reuniting the Union, even though reunifixation policies poisoned relations between North and South for more than a century after his death. Reelected as president in 1864, he sought to end this crippling fight and bring peace to the nation.

The South’s most successful commander was General Robert E. Lee, who launched the Confederacy’s second invasion of the North in 1863. His hopes were finally crushed at the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, leading to his final surrender, and the end of the war at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. At last Lincoln could dream of peace for his presidency, a situation he had never experienced and never would.

Though popular with many of his compatriots, he was detested by others. One, a young southern Shakespearean actor named John Wilkes Booth, had gathered a group of dissidents together and in 1864 detailed plans to capture Lincoln, take him to Richmond, and ransom him for the large number of Confederate troops the North was holding, perhaps enabling the South to fight on a little longer with these badly needed reinforcements.

The kidnapping was to take place on March 17, 1865, when Lincoln was scheduled to attend a play at a hospital. However, the president changed his mind and the plot failed. In those days the president sometimes traveled with only one or two bodyguards.

With the ending of the war a few days later, Booth became even more furious when the president suggested in a speech that blacks should get certain voting rights. He decided that assassination was the only answer. Maybe with Lincoln’s death the South would rise again. President Lincoln was constantly warned of various plots against him but ignored them all.

On April 14 Booth discovered that Lincoln would attend the theater that evening to watch a play,
Our American Cousin.
Quickly organizing his other conspirators to kill the vice president and the secretary of state the same night, he said he would take care of Lincoln personally.

Arriving at Ford’s Theatre at 8:30 p.m. that night, after his Good Friday dinner, the president sat in his box with his wife and their friends Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris.

Booth went for a drink in a saloon outside, then made his way to the state box. The president’s bodyguard, John Parker, had inexplicably left his post, and Booth was able to enter the box and shoot Lincoln in the back of the head at point-blank range.

A shocked Rathbone jumped at Booth, who slashed him with a hunting knife and then jumped 11 feet to the floor below, snapping his left ankle in the process. Flashing his knife at a stunned audience of more than 1,000 people who didn’t understand what was happening, he made his way out of the theater by the back door, mounted his horse, and made off into the night.

The other plots had met mixed fates. The vice president escaped unharmed, and the secretary of state was stabbed but survived. Booth and another of his gang, David Herold, met up at the Garrett farm in Virginia but were finally tracked there by the authorities on the morning of April 26. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused and was eventually shot to death and had the barn burnt down around him.

Taken to the Petersen House across the street from the theater, President Lincoln never regained consciousness and was declared dead at 7:22 A.M. on April 15.

A presidency that came into being at the beginning of America’s greatest war was ended just days after it finished.

MENUS

Last Meal in the White House

Clear Mock Turtle Soup (Using Oxtail)

Roast Virginia Fowl with Chestnut Stuffing

Baked Yams

Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce

Favorite Food

Chicken Fricassee

• In a medium-sized bowl, mix the flour, salt, and paprika. Coat the chicken with the flour mixture, shaking off the excess. Reserve flour mixture.
  
• In a large, deep, nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.
  
• Add the chicken, meaty side down, and cook for 1 ½ minutes on each side or until well browned. Remove to a plate with a slotted spoon.
  
• Pour the broth into the flour mixture remaining in the bowl and whisk until smooth. Drain the fat from the skillet and wipe it clean.
  
• Add the chicken broth mixture and 2 tbsp dill. Stir to mix. Add the chicken meaty side up and the potatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
  
• Lay the asparagus over the top. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes more, or until the chicken and vegetables are tender. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice and the remaining 2 tbsp of dill. Serve hot.
  

• Brown the onion in the butter and oil, add the oxtails, and brown slightly. Add the spices and herbs, then stir in the flour until it bubbles gently, adding more butter and oil as needed. Pour in the hot water and stock and bring to a boil.
  
• Add the remaining ingredients, except the egg and sherry. Simmer for 2 hours.
  
• Remove the oxtail, cut the meat and marrow away, and add back to the soup; discard the bones.
  
• When ready to serve, chop the eggs coarsely and stir into the soup. Ladle into bowls, stir a teaspoon of sherry into each, top with parsley, and put a cruet of sherry on the table—for atmosphere if nothing else.
  

• To make the stuffing, take 2 cups dry breadcrumbs and mix in ½ cup chopped fresh chestnuts, 1 tsp chopped fresh sage, a pinch of poultry seasoning, 2 oz chopped onion, salt, and pepper. Work in 4 oz soft butter and enough chicken broth to help bind.
  
• Stuff into two large fowl, seasoned inside and out, and roast at 350°F for about 1 hour. Let rest for 10 minutes, then serve.
  

Yams are a wonderful, spleen-nourishing food, warming and orange in color, mildly sweet. Yams are also beneficial to the kidneys. This is comfort food at its simplest.

2 yams (my favorite are red jewel yams, but any will do)

• Preheat the oven to 450°F.
  
• Wash the yams thoroughly. Prick the skin three or four times with a fork and place them on a foil-lined baking sheet. Place in the heated oven and bake for 1 to 1 ½ hours until they are tender when pierced with a fork.
  
• Yams are delicious by themselves, but if you desire you may slice your cooked yams and add butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste. I eat them skin and all. It is advisable to cook extra; they are equally delicious at room temperature the next day.
  

• Cook the whole cauliflower or florets in boiling water, salted, with 1 lemon, for 15 minutes. Drain.
  
• Blend butter and flour together, add hot milk, and boil until thick. Add seasonings and cheese; stir until cheese melts.
  
• Serve over the cooked cauliflower.
  

LEONIDAS, KING OF SPARTA

In August 480 B.C. the Persian King Xerxes assembled the largest army the world had ever seen. Estimated at anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million men, it was brought together from more than twenty nations under his dominion with one aim: the destruction and subjugation of Greece, a persistent thorn in the Persian’s side.

That he failed in his quest can be attributed solely to the courage of a warrior race that helped unite the fragmented Greek states of the day by their heroism and sacrifice at the site of one of history’s greatest battles, Thermopylae.

Seeing the oncoming Persian hordes, the Greek states, always at odds with each other, could reach no consensus on what to do. Some sued for peace; others prepared to surrender or flee. One state refused to bend: the warrior nation of Sparta.

From childhood the Spartans were trained for war, enduring extraordinary conditions and hardships to forge a warrior race that terrified anyone who opposed them.

Their heavily armored infantry were trained to execute their orders fearlessly, without question. Their whole life was dedicated to the art of war. Weak children were left in the open to die at birth so the nation would have only the strongest warriors in their ranks.

With the Persian force getting closer, the Greeks squabbled constantly about what to do. The Spartans, under their two kings, decided to act. All Greece waited for a leader to follow, and many states even thought of joining Xerxes to save themselves.

Not the Spartans. Looking at the size of the opposing forces, they decided to create a holding action at the pass of Thermopylae, some 85 miles from Athens, an area the Persians must pass through. In theory, their huge numbers would be constrained by the narrowness of the pass, and the superior Spartan warriors could make them pay a heavy price and give the other Greek cities a chance to fully mobilize.

Thermopylae is a collection of sulfur springs and had long been the gateway to Greece and the scene of many earlier battles. Because of its rugged mountains and narrow passes, the Spartans believed that the Persians would not be able to use their superior numbers against them, and if the fight were between equally balanced forces, the Persians’ morale could be seriously dented, changing the odds in the Greeks’ favor in the battles that would surely follow.

Like all the other states in Greece, the Spartans consulted oracles and looked for the guidance of the gods in determining the opportune time for battle. This created great frustration for their two kings, who knew that any more delay would see Xerxes through the pass.