The Elegant Meal That Was Abraham Lincoln's Last

On the evening of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln sat down to eat dinner with his wife Mary at the White House. It was a fairly short meal, lasting from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Had Lincoln known it was to be his final meal, perhaps he might have lingered a bit longer. It was the Christian holy day Good Friday, after all. But they had plans to attend Ford's Theatre later that night to see the comedy "Our American Cousin" so the dinner was a bit of a hurried affair.

The meal consisted of mock turtle soup with oxtail, roast Virginia fowl, baked yams, and cauliflower with cheese sauce, according to the book "Their Last Suppers: Legends of History and Their Final Meals." It was unlikely Lincoln would have had any alcohol with his last meal. Unlike many other U.S. presidents who enjoyed a good cocktail — like George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt — Lincoln was never much of a drinker. After dinner, Lincoln had a quick meeting, and then, already late to the show, he and Mary hurried by carriage to Ford's Theatre.

By all accounts, Abraham Lincoln wasn't much of a gourmand, eating rather sparingly — especially for someone with a 6-foot-4-inch frame. A typical breakfast was coffee and an egg, and lunch was often just fruit and a biscuit. Reputedly, his favorite dish was chicken fricassee, but he also enjoyed other down-home dishes like corn beef and cabbage. But that doesn't mean Lincoln couldn't throw a lavish banquet when required. At Lincoln's second inauguration ball, held a little more than a month before his death, on March 6, 1865, guests got to sup on a wide range of fancy dishes from pheasant to lobster salad to various "ornamental pyramides" of macaroons, orange, coconut, and nougat.

Away from the White House, Lincoln enjoyed eating at Delmonico's, America's first fine dining restaurant, when he visited Manhattan during the Civil War, and especially loved the potatoes gratin. Unfortunately, he wouldn't get a chance to return to the famous restaurant, enjoy a fricassee, or have another bowl of mock turtle soup. Around 10:15 p.m. on April 14, 1865, during the play's final act, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head before leaping to the stage and fleeing. Lincoln never regained consciousness, and died from his wound the next morning.