The Fateful Rescue

Are there ever really coincidences, or does fate guide our actions? Is a chance encounter really just a random meeting, or were we destined to meet those who would one help define our lives? History is replete with coincidences so random, meetings so fortuitous that they may have been guided by destiny itself.

This is the forgotten history of the fateful rescue.

Edwin was one of the greatest and well-known actors in the world. Born into a theatrical family, his prodigious talent soon eclipsed even that of his famous father, and his performance as Hamlet was regarded as one of the greatest in recorded history. In fact, he played the Prince of Denmark for 100 straight nights in New York--a record streak that became known as the "Hundred Nights of Hamlet" and stood for more than 60 years.

Edwin toured the world, from Australia to Hawaii and across the continental United States, wowing audiences and making women swoon. He was one of the world's most famous and respected men, and when Civil War broke out in the country he loved so dearly, he was vocal about his support for the Union and the necessity of keeping it together.

Robert, too, was born of a famous father--the sort of man whose shadow was hard to escape. A young man just finding his way, Robert was determined to live up to his family name and attended Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He was a brilliant young man, hard-working, and destined to become a success on whatever path his life took him.

Like Edwin, he was a patriot who loved his country so dearly that he defied his mother's wishes and left law school to join the Union Army. While on leave, he decided to visit his family back home and took the quickest train from New York. During a nighttime stop in Jersey City, New Jersey, he and his fellow passengers got off to purchase their places in the sleeping car.

The conductor sold tickets as he stood on the train station's platform at the entrance to the car, and the crowd lined up in front of him.

"The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body," Robert recalled in a letter years later. "There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn."

Suddenly, the train started to move, and Robert was knocked off balance and was starting to fall off of the platform and under the wheels of the train, which would have killed or gravely wounded him almost instantly.

"[I] was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform," Robert wrote. He turned around and instantly recognized the man who had just saved his life: It was Edwin. Robert recognized him immediately. Who wouldn't? It was Edwin Booth, the world-famous actor, who happened to be traveling on the same train with his friend, theater owner John T. Ford.

After thanking Edwin profusely, Robert continued on his journey home to visit his famous father, President Abraham Lincoln. Several months later, as the Civil War drew to a close, the President and First Lady took in a play at John T. Ford's theater in Washington when Edwin's younger brother, John Wilkes Booth, shot him in the back of his head.

Hours later, Robert rushed to his dying father's bedside and was with him when he passed.

Edwin, the proud patriot and staunch Union loyalist, never forgave his brother for what he had done and even prohibited his name from ever being mentioned in his home. He was devastated; the President he loved so dearly was gone and the family name that he had worked so hard to honor was forever tarnished.

Yet until his dying day, one thought brought him comfort: That through a twist of fate, a coincidence so random that he believed it to be destiny, he saved Robert Todd Lincoln's life and allowed another family's name to live on.