Colonel Baldwin Meets Mr. Lincoln

This essay is Chapter 13 in Mr. Taylor’s Union At All Costs: From Confederation to Consolidation (2016).

The assertion that Lincoln genuinely attempted to avoid war has been preached since General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. The testimony of a Southern peace representative who spoke with Lincoln on April 4, 1861, in an effort to avert war provides keen insight into a side of the issue seldom heard or taught.[2] Some historians dismiss the importance of the meeting between Lincoln and Colonel John Brown Baldwin, but it is beyond dispute the meeting happened and pivotal issues were seriously discussed. On February 10, 1866, Baldwin testified before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in Washington, D.C. His comments appeared in a pamphlet published in 1866 by the Staunton Speculator and he provided his account to a fellow Confederate in 1865 just prior to the end of the war.