Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate

DESCRIPTION: "Abe Lincoln stood at the White House Gate... When along came Lady Lizzie Tod, Wishing her lover good speed." Lincoln tries several times to take Richmond, and is foiled each time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Allen's Lone Star Ballads)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody humorous horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 20, (No title, but filed as an appendix to "Lord Lovel") (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 97, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts, but the "B" text is this)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 46-47, "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate" (1 text, filed under "Lord Lovel")
ADDITIONAL: Francis D. Allan, _Allan’s Lone Star Ballads: A Collection of Southern Patriotic Songs, Made During Confederate Times_ (Galveston, TX: J. D. Sawyer, 1874; available on Google Books), page 31, "Where Are You Going, Abe Lincoln?" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #6867 and 48
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel [Child 75]" and references there
NOTES [535 words]: Abraham Lincoln's wife was Mary Todd; this apparently become "Lizzie Tod[d]" in the ballad.
The song as collected by Davis appears to be a fragmentary account of the various Federal attempts to take Richmond in 1861-1862. The first attempt lasted only "one or two days," seemingly referring to McDowell's Bull Run campaign of 1861. This was followed by McClellan's Peninsular campaign of spring and summer 1862, seemingly not mentioned in the Davis text.
The final stanza refers to Lincoln's "Burnside horse," which "stuck tight in the mire." Ambrose Burnside was in charge at the Battle of Fredericksburg, which may or may not be alluded to, and also commanded the "mud march," clearly the subject of the last line.
The original text as found in Allan is much fuller, and has a number of additional references. In the third verse, Lizzie asks Abe when he will be back from Richmond. He says "In sixty or ninety days, at most." This I assume is a reference to Lincoln's initial call for volunteers -- 75,000 men to serve for ninety days. These ninety day men fought and lost the First Battle of Bull Run.
The song does not refer to Bull Run, but it does say in verse four that "The Rebels have killed my Old Scott horse." Winfield Scott was indeed old (he had fought in the War of 1812), but he was still in charge of the Union armies in 1861. He did *not* command the army at Bull Run -- he was too old to fight in the field, so Irvin McDowell was the field commander -- but the song's author did not know that or ignored it.
The fifty verse refers to Lincoln's "McClellan Horse," so (unlike the Davis fragment) it does know of the Peninsular campaign. The song falsely says that the Peninsular Campaign took only "a month or two," but when it says "My coat I tore, down on the LEE shore, Of Chick-a-hom-i-ne," it is basically right. McClellan had approached Richmond in 1862. The two halves of the army were on both sides of the Chickahominy River. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army had attacked one half of the army at the battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks (mentioned in various other songs such as "The Twenty-Third"). Johnston had failed to dislodge McClellan -- and had been badly injured. Robert E. Lee had replaced him (hence "Lee shore"), and Lee attacked along the Chickahominy again in the Seven Days' Battles. His first attacks, at the Battles of Oak Grove and Mechanicsville, failed, but at Gaines's Mill, on June 27-28, 1862, Lee's army broke the smaller half of McClellan's army. McClellan had the forces to hang on and fight -- but he didn't have the moral courage; instead, he retreated. Lee had saved Richmond.
The next verse refers to Lincoln falling over an "OLD STONEWALL." This is obviously a reference to Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. Jackson had failed utterly in the Peninsular Campaign -- but his Valley Campaign preceding it had totally scrambled Federal plans and helped make Lee's strategic victory in the Seven Days possible.
The final verse of the Allan text corresponds to Davis's about Burnside. This would seem to imply that the song was written in the winter of 1862/1863, after the Battle of Fredericksburg but before Chancellorsville (where Jackson was killed). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DarNS046

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography