Robert Todd Lincoln

Robert Todd Lincoln was the only one of Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s four sons to survive into adulthood. He served briefly on Ulysses S. Grant’s staff, later became secretary of war and minister to Britain, and built a prominent legal and business career.

Robert Todd Lincoln also held the offices or ranks of United States Secretary of War and United States Minister to the United Kingdom. Robert Todd Lincoln belonged to the Lincoln family and operated within United States. Robert Todd Lincoln was born in Springfield, Illinois and died in Manchester, Vermont.

Barbara Hambly’s The Emancipator’s Wife brings Robert Todd Lincoln into the later, bitter phase of Mary Todd Lincoln’s life rather than treating him simply as the president’s surviving son. After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Robert becomes increasingly alarmed by his mother’s spending, health and behaviour; the novel culminates in the 1875 insanity proceedings he initiated. Hambly presents the episode from within a damaged family, making Robert both a protective son convinced that intervention is necessary and the person whose legal action deprives Mary of control over her own life.