When President-elect Abraham Lincoln was preparing to go to Washington he appealed to his old friend and law partner Ward Hill Lamon: I want you to go along with me. . . . In fact I must have you. So get yourself ready and come along. Lamon journeyed from Springfield to Washington in 1861 and returned to Illinois in mourning in 1865. Lincoln chose Lamon as his bodyguard when he slipped into Washington by night to foil conspirators intent on murder. The president sent him on missions and appointed him marshal of the District of Columbia. During that time of civil war Lincoln was often...