Ward Hill Lamon (January 6, 1828 - May 7, 1893) was a personal friend and bodyguard of the American President Abraham Lincoln. Lamon was famously missing the night Lincoln was assassinated, having been sent by Lincoln to Virginia. January 6 is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1828 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ... 1893 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A bodyguard is a person who protects someone (known as their principal) from personal assault, kidnapping, assassination, loss of confidential information, or other threats. ... The President of the United States (often abbreviated POTUS) is the head of state of the United States. ... Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861–1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ... Jack Ruby murdered Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, in a very public manner In its most common use, assassination has come to mean the killing of an important person. ... State nickname: Old Dominion Other U.S. States Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Governor Mark R. Warner (D) Official languages English Area 110,862 km² (35th)  - Land 102,642 km²  - Water 8,220 km² (7. ...

His association with Lincoln started in the 1850s, when he became a law partner and traveled with Lincoln. The two had a law office in Danville, Illinois up until 1858. While Lamon had southern sympathies and attacks against abolitionism set him apart from Lincoln, they remained friends, despite their very different characters. Lamon joined the then-young Republican Party and campaigned for Lincoln in 1860. Ward Lamon Hill, Lincolns bodyguard This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Danville is a city located in Vermilion County, Illinois. ... 1858 is a common year starting on Friday. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ...

Lamon was physically imposing and guarded Lincoln. He accompanied Lincoln when the president elect sneaked to Washington on a midnight train ride through Baltimore. Lamon later supervised security at the White House, as other plots against Lincoln were hatched, sleeping by Lincoln's bed-chamber. Lincoln appointed Lamon marshall of the District of Columbia; he served until June 1865 . Lamon was not in Washington on the night of Lincoln's assassination, being on assignment in Richmond. ... There are various types of trains designed for particular purposes, see rail transport operations. ... Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861–1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ... Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States of America. ...

Lincoln's dream of his own assassination was related to Lamon, who himself related it in a book, well after the event, Lincoln's story as Lamon related it is worth telling: Dreaming is the subjective experience of imaginary images, sounds/voices, words, thoughts or sensations during sleep, usually involuntarily. ...

"About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since."

Of course, as a highly controversial figure, many people wanted to kill Lincoln, and he was superstitious, had other odd dreams throughout his stay in the White House, and this cannot be taken as evidence of prophetic dreams. A superstition is an incorrect belief about the relation between certain actions (often behaviors) and other actions. ... The southern side of the White House The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. ...

See also: Gettysburg Address for a grainy image of Lamon with Lincoln. The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincolns most famous speech, was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863, four and one-half months after the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. ...

After Lincoln's death Lamon published several works about the 16th President. The most famous is a biography that was largely ghostwritten by Chauncey Black, the son of a legal associate of Lamon from Danville, Illinois. The book contained many revealing allegations and pieces of personal information about Lincoln that were deemed scandalous by nineteenth century society and was thus a financial failure. Lamon himself penned a second volume about Lincoln after falling out with Black, though it was deemed to be of poor quality and remains unpublished in the collections of the Huntington Library to this day. Lamon authored several smaller anecdotes and excerpts about Lincoln for newspapers and magazines. Shortly after his death Lamon's daughter collected and edited many of his unpublished writings about Lincoln into a posthumous biography of the president. This book is generally received with higher regard to its authenticity by the scholarly community than the earlier volume by Lamon and Black. Chauncey Black - author and son of United States Attorney General Jeremiah Black. ... The Huntington Library is an educational and research institution established by Henry Huntington in San Marino, California. ...

Today, in the town of Danville, Illinois, Lamon's former house is a museum in Lincoln Park that is open to the public during the warmer months.

External links and references

• A site on Lamon
• mrlincolnswhitehouse.org on Lamon