Virtual Trivia

Question 18: Eyewitness Account

April 18, 2021

Lincoln the Rail Splitter. A 1909 painting by J. L. G. Ferris of Abraham Lincoln as a young man at work splitting rails for a fence. From the Illinois State Museum.

There is a story that Abraham Lincoln, on his visit to an army hospital near City Point, Virginia in April of 1865, used what iconic tool?

  1. Axe
    2.
  2. Hoof pick
  3. Plow
  4. Hand saw

According to Jacob Legrand Dauchy of Ridgefield, who had been serving in the 11th Regiment, on that day. President Lincoln spied an axe and he picked it up and began chopping a log. Mr. Dauchy secured a chip and brought it home to Ridgefield.
Lincoln had been nicknamed "The Railsplitter" during the 1860 campaign to pay homage and highlight his humble and frontier beginnings.

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