Inside Lincoln's White House
Subtitle: the complete Civil War diary of John Hay
By: edited by Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger.
Contributors: Burlingame, Michael, 1941-; Ettlinger, John R. T.
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Carbondale
Language: eng
Number of pages: 393
Subjects: Hay, John, 1838-1905 -- Diaries.; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Friends and associates.; Statesmen -- United States -- Diaries.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives.
Description: On 18 April 1861, assistant presidential secretary John Hay recorded in his diary the report of several women that "some young Virginian long-haired swaggering chivalrous of course ... and half a dozen others including a daredevil guerrilla from Richmond named Ficklin would do a thing within forty eight hours that would ring through the world.".

The women feared that the Virginian planned either to assassinate or to capture the president. Calling this a "harrowing communication," Hay continued his entry: "They went away and I went to the bedside of the Chief couche. I told him the yarn; he quietly grinned." This is but one of the dramatic entries in Hay's Civil War diary, presented here in a definitive edition by Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-369) and index.