Mary Todd Lincoln
Mrs. Lincoln was married to Mr. Lincoln, making her the First Lady during the Civil War. Fanny described her as being fashionable yet a bit strange. Sometimes she mentioned her being completely rude, especially to her family. Fanny assumed this was because Mrs. Lincoln did not like her mother, yet it was more likely that she didn’t like her father. Mrs. Lincoln was slightly annoyed at the amount of time her husband spent with Seward, and this was obvious in her first meeting with Fanny and the whole Seward family.
Mrs. Lincoln suffered from the tragic death of a child, Willie Lincoln, in 1862. Fanny, who had met Willie, recorded this incident and didn’t seem to be as harshly opinionated about her after this. However, she did mention how she thought it was strange that Mrs. Lincoln didn’t let the President’s secretaries board at the White House!
“After dinner...we went to call on Mrs Lincoln...we were shown by Edward into the blue and gold room and all seated...after a lapse of some time the usher came and said Mrs Lincoln begged to be excused, she was very much engaged--Came in the only time on record that she ever refused to see company in the evening...The truth of Mrs L.s engagement was probably that she did not want to see Mother else why not give general directions to the door keeper to let no one in? it was certainly very rude to have us all seated first” Sep 9, 1861