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Abraham Lincoln (as reported by Ward Hill Lamon)Said to be days before 14 April 1865; published 1895

Lincoln's dream of a funeral in the White House

The most retold presidential dream in American history: a coffin in the East Room, days before the assassination. The source is shakier than the legend.

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The dream

Retold in our own words from the sources below, not quoted.

According to Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln's friend and bodyguard, Lincoln described a dream to a small group shortly before his death. In the dream he heard sobbing in the White House and wandered from room to room looking for its source. In the East Room he found a coffin on a platform, guarded by soldiers and surrounded by mourners.

He asked who was dead. "The President", a soldier answered: he had been killed by an assassin. The crowd's cry of grief woke him, and he said he slept no more that night.

Where the story comes from

Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre on 14 April 1865 and died the next morning. His body lay in the East Room. Lamon's account appeared in 1895, in a book assembled by his daughter from his notes after his death, about thirty years after the events.

No letter, diary or newspaper from 1865 mentions the dream, including the writings of people Lamon places in the room. That silence is why historians treat it as a late recollection rather than a record.

How it has been read

History

Lincoln is well documented as someone who took dreams seriously and spoke about them, so the story fits what people knew of him. That is exactly what makes a late, attractive story easy to believe, and why it needs checking.

Research

Even if a dream like this happened, it needs no prophecy to explain it. Lincoln lived under constant death threats during a war that killed hundreds of thousands. The continuity hypothesis predicts that such waking fears show up in dreams; we remember the rare dream that seemed to come true and forget the many that did not.

Questions for your own dreams

  1. Have you ever had a dream that seemed, looking back, to predict something?
  2. How many similar dreams did not come true, and do you remember them as well?
  3. What fear might a dream like this be carrying, rather than foretelling?

Symbols in this dream

Had a dream that stayed with you?

Tell us your dream

Sources

Every reading on this page comes from these works. Page references have not all been checked yet; those still waiting are marked.

  1. Ward Hill Lamon (1895). Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865. Chicago: A. C. McClurg.

    public domain

    • Cited at: ch. VII, "Dreams and Presentiments" (reference not yet checked)
    • Cited at: ch. VII (reference not yet checked)

    Published after Lamon's death from his notes, about thirty years after the events.

  2. G. William Domhoff (2003). The Scientific Study of Dreams: Neural Networks, Cognitive Development, and Content Analysis. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: continuity between waking concerns and dream content (reference not yet checked)

  3. Don E. Fehrenbacher, Virginia Fehrenbacher (1996). Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: entry for Ward Hill Lamon (reference not yet checked)

    Grades the reliability of words attributed to Lincoln by others.