Robert Todd Lincoln

Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926), American lawyer, son of President Abraham Lincoln, born in Springfield, Illinois, and educated at Harvard University. In the last year of the American Civil War he served in the Union army as a captain on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant. After the war Lincoln entered Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1867 in Chicago. He specialized in corporation law, representing railroad companies in much litigation. In 1881 he was appointed U.S. secretary of war by President James Garfield, serving until 1885. From 1889 to 1893 he was U.S. minister to Britain, in the administration of President Benjamin Harrison. After his return to the U.S. he resumed his legal practice in Chicago; he was president of the Pullman Company from 1887 to 1911 and thereafter was chairman of the Pullman board and a director in various banks.