Lincoln Home National Historic Site

Abraham Lincoln

Julius Rosenwald

In his Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865, a re-elected President Abraham Lincoln wanted to unify a broken nation. With the end of the Civil War within sight, many people on both sides felt anger and frustration toward their fellow Americans. Lincoln attempted to rise above the divisiveness and start the process of healing. Heralded as one of the most significant presidential speeches in American history, its meaning and eloquence still resonate with people today.

Join us for a three-day commemoration of the 1908 Race Riot in Springfield, Illinois. Check out this page to learn more about events happening across the city, and how you can be a part of it.

No president up to that point in American history was called on to be commander-in-chief like Abraham Lincoln. From monitoring the War Department telegraph office to selecting of commanding generals and developing military strategy, Lincoln guided the nation through its darkest hour.

Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln and their sons lived in the house in Springfield, Illinois between 1844 and 1861. Archeological excavations uncovered evidence of their everyday lives, ranging from decorated dishes and glassware used during large parties to medicine bottles and children’s toys.

Although the abolition of slavery emerged as a dominant objective of the Union war effort, most Northerners embraced abolition as a practical measure rather than a moral cause. The war resolved legally and constitutionally the single most important moral question that afflicted the nascent republic, an issue that prevented the country from coalescing around a shared vision of freedom, equality, morality, and nationhood.

Route 66 and the National Park Service have always had an important historical connection. Route 66 was known as the great road west and after World War II families on vacation took to the road in great numbers to visit the many National Park Service sites in the Southwest and beyond. That connection remains very alive and present today. Take a trip down Route 66 and Find Your Park today!

Finding aid for the Thomas J. Allen Photographs in the NPS History Collection.

It is fitting and proper that General John Logan should be honored with a prominent statue in the nation's capital. He was an effective military leader who fought in many Civil War battles, a successful and active politician, head of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans organization, and is credited with establishing Memorial Day as a national day of remembrance for those who lost their lives in the Civil War.