Kids In The War Room

 

The United States was in the middle of a civil war. Armies were colliding. Casualty lists were growing. Generals were arguing over maps covered in red and blue pencil lines. And somewhere in the White House, a toy cannon was being dragged down the hallway.

 

Abraham Lincoln’s sons, Willie and Tad, treated the Executive Mansion less like the seat of government and more like a very large playground with excellent echo acoustics.

 

Cabinet meeting in progress?

 

Didn’t matter. Tiny footsteps. Door swings open. Boys charge in.

 

They crawled under desks, tugged at coats, and interrupted generals mid-sentence. One story said Tad fired a toy cannon during official business.

 

Lincoln rarely stopped it. He would smile. Sometimes laugh. Occasionally scoop one up and keep talking as if nothing unusual were happening.

 

Some officials found it chaotic. Lincoln understood that something else was happening.

 

He’d lost one son before entering the White House. The war would claim another while he was president. So if laughter burst through the door as two boys with muddy boots?

 

He let it.

 

In the middle of a war that was tearing the country apart, there were toy cannons in the hallway. And for a few minutes, the war room belonged to children.