The Council of War

Sculpture showing a vignette of President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th President of the United States until his assassination on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth, flanked by Secretary of War Edwin N. Stanton (1814-1869) on the right and General Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), Union General during the American Civil War and 18th President of the United States, on the left. President Lincoln holds a document, possibly a map, to which General Grant is pointing. Stanton holds a cloth, cleaning his glasses. Stanton and General Grant glance at one another behind Lincoln, as if in response to something that Lincoln has said. A curled document is under the chair. Across the front of the round base is inscribed, “The Council of War.” Robert Todd Lincoln described this model as the best likeness of his father he had ever seen.