Francis B. Carpenter, Six Months at the White House

[302] the Secretary said, playfully, “Mrs. Lincoln, I intend to have a full-length portrait of you painted, standing on the ramparts at Fort Stevens overlooking the fight!”

“That is very well,” returned Mrs. Lincoln, very promptly; “and I can assure you of one thing, Mr. Secretary, if I had had a few ladies with me, the Rebels would not have been permitted to get away as they did!”

Lxxv.

it was not generally known before the publication of Dr. Holland's biography of Mr. Lincoln, that he was once engaged in a “duel,” although a version of the affair had been published previous to his biographer's account of it, which, however, the few who saw it were disposed to regard as a fabrication.

One evening, at the rooms of the Hon. I. N. Arnold, of Illinois, I met Dr. Henry, of Oregon, an early and intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln's. Mr. Arnold asked me in the course of conversation if I had ever heard of the President's “duel” with General Shields? I replied that I might have seen a statement of the kind, but did not suppose it to be true. “Well,” said Mr. Arnold, “we were all young folks together at the time in Springfield. In some way a difficulty occurred between Shields and Lincoln, resulting in a challenge from Shields, which was at length accepted, Mr. Lincoln naming ”