William A. Johnson – Lincoln’s Barber And Valet

By Dan G. Siderio · Originally published December 2016 · p. 13

With the observance of the 153rd anniversary of the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 2016, I offer the following true story – When President-elect Abraham Lincoln came to Washington, D.C. from Springfield, Illinois in 1861, he brought with him 26-year-old William H. Johnson, a free black man. Johnson served as Lincoln’s barber and valet.

Abraham Lincoln. Anthony Berger, photographer. (Library of Congress) When President Lincoln was invited to speak at the November 19th, 1863 dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery at Gettysburg, he decided to bring Johnson with him. On the train, Lincoln complained of feeling weak. In Gettysburg, the

President had to endure much activity, including a very long and tiring ceremony in the National Cemetery. On the train back to Washington, Lincoln became feverish. Johnson sat up all night with the President, keeping him cool with wet towels on his face. Three days after arriving back in Washington, a red rash appeared on Lincoln that eventually developed into scattered blisters. He was examined by Dr. Washington Chew Van Bibber, who diagnosed a case of Varioloid (the 19th-century name for Smallpox). The illness kept Lincoln from attending to official business for 25 days. Johnson, also developed Smallpox, sickened

His headstone reads: WILLIAM H. JOHNSON and underneath his name, a word that would make both him and Lincoln proud – CITIZEN.

and died two months later. Lincoln secured a gravesite for him in what is now Arlington National Cemetery and paid for his funeral expenses. He is buried in Section 27, Lot 3346. Historians disagree if the word CITIZEN was ordered by President Lincoln, or was included later as a way of denoting a civilian burial rather than a military burial. Either way, I am sure that Lincoln would be pleased, since he strongly disagreed with the 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the United States Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, voted 7-2 that – “No black person can be a citizen of the United States.” The 14th Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, granting full citizenship to “all persons born in the United States” which included former slaves and free blacks, proved them wrong.