For Abraham Lincoln, relationships mattered. Throughout his life, this lawyer, statesman, friend, husband and father was known to be warmly engaging, open and empathetic. Below, meet the people most important to America’s 16th president, and tap or mouse over the photos to see how they appear in HISTORY Channel’s three-part documentary event “Abraham Lincoln.” Click on a category below or scroll through all.
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All
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Family
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Friends & Colleagues
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Generals
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Security
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Cabinet
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Influences
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Rivals
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Assassin
1
Edward Bates
Attorney General
Lincoln offered the more conservative Missourian—a dark-horse rival for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination—his choice of cabinet posts. Bates ultimately wearied of the then-limited attorney general job, and lobbied for a Supreme Court seat—to no avail.
Played by: Robin Smith
2
John Wilkes Booth
Actor Turned Assassin
A celebrated actor from an illustrious thespian family, Booth was a rabid Confederate sympathizer. He not only shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, but he organized a conspiracy to kill the vice president and secretary of state.
Played by: Rory Acton Burnell
3
Salmon P. Chase
Treasury Secretary
Chase established the first federal currency and sold $500 million in bonds to fund the war. But the Radical Republican never abandoned his own presidential ambitions—or political scheming. To redirect that ambition, Lincoln appointed him to the Supreme Court.
Played by: Dirk Jonker
4
Judge David Davis
Friend & Legal Colleague
Davis presided over Illinois's 8th circuit court, where Lincoln often argued legal cases. They traveled the circuit together, becoming devoted friends despite political differences. Davis served as Lincoln's 1860 campaign manager, a Supreme Court justice and later, executor of Lincoln's estate.
Played by: Joe Vaz
5
Stephen A. Douglas
Political Rival & Debater
Nicknamed “Little Giant,” the ambitious short-statured legislator was a leading figure of the conservative Democrats, famed for passing the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglas debated Lincoln, his rival for Illinois' Senate seat, in seven legendary 1858 debates.
Played by: Richard Lothian
6
Frederick Douglass
Abolitionist, Author & Orator
Douglass, who escaped slavery, visited Lincoln's White House three times. While impatient with Lincoln's political caution over emancipation, he deeply respected him, writing that he was “emphatically the black man's President: the first to show any respect to their rights.”
Played by: Oluwasanya Adegbola
7
Ulysses S. Grant
Union General
Lincoln found in Grant the aggressive leader he had long sought. Given command in March 1864, Grant relentlessly pursued Confederate troops, enduring repeated bloodbaths until the April 1865 surrender. A week later, Grant declined Lincoln's invitation to Ford's Theatre.
Played by: Justin Salinger of "Grant"
8
John Milton Hay
Private Secretary & Confidant
Hired as Lincoln's assistant private secretary, the dapper, Ivy-educated young man—closer in age to Lincoln's son Robert—lived in the White House, often sharing late-night chats with the president. He later co-wrote a Lincoln biography and became U.S. secretary of state.
Played by: Luke Tyler
9
Elizabeth Keckley
Dressmaker & Companion to Mrs. Lincoln
Born into slavery, Keckley purchased her freedom, rising from seamstress to high-society couturier in Washington, D.C. She became Mary Todd Lincoln's personal dressmaker and close confidant, later writing a memoir offering unprecedented insight into the Lincoln White House.
Played by: Megan Alexander
10
Mary Todd Lincoln
Wife
Dogged by tragedy—she lost her mother at age 6, three of her four sons died young and she witnessed her husband's assassination—the well-educated, ambitious Kentucky belle drew criticism for her spending and volatile behavior. Her son committed her to a sanitarium.
Played by: Jenny Stead
11
Robert Lincoln
Eldest Son
The only of Lincoln's four sons to survive to adulthood, Robert later practiced law and twice served as secretary of war. Eerily, John Wilkes Booth's brother Edwin once saved his life. And Robert was close by for two other presidential assassinations.
Played by: Daniel Lasker
Sally Lincoln
Sister
Two years older than Abe, Sally assumed home and caretaking duties at age 11 after their mother died. Quick-minded and good humored, Sally died at age 20 in childbirth, devastating her brother.
Played by: Kieren Prince
12
Sarah Bush Lincoln
Stepmother
Abe was 10 years old and living an almost feral existence on the Illinois frontier when his stepmother arrived. The Kentucky widow brought touches of comfort to the Lincolns' rough-hewn lives, encouraged Abe's education and offered lifelong love and support.
Played by: Lucy Tops
13
Thomas 'Tad' Lincoln
Youngest Son
Nicknamed “Tad” because he was “wriggly as a tadpole,” Lincoln's youngest son was a high-spirited 7-year-old when his father became president. Mischievous and charming, he brought welcome levity to a somber wartime White House. He died of unknown causes at age 18.
Played by: Jude Barton
14
Thomas Lincoln
Father
A homesteading farmer and carpenter, Thomas Lincoln was a stern patriarch who never fully understood Abraham's drive to educate himself; he berated his son for reading instead of tending to chores. Abraham did not travel to attend his funeral.
Played by: Steve Larter
15
William 'Willie' Lincoln
Third Son
In February 1862, 11-year-old Willie died of typhoid in the White House, crushing his parents. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth. God has called him home,” lamented Lincoln. Mary visited a spiritualist for news of her son.
Played by: Ben Smollan
16
George B. McClellan
Union General
The first general Lincoln appointed to head the Army of the Potomac, McClellan had some early wins. But Lincoln grew exasperated with his lack of aggressiveness and sacked him when he failed to pursue Robert E. Lee's army after Antietam.
Played by: Sven Ruygrok
17
George Meade
Union General
A top U.S. general and civil engineer, Meade led the Union to victory at Gettysburg, but Lincoln castigated him for allowing Lee's hobbled army to escape. Meade ceded top command decisions to Grant, but stayed on through the war's end.
Played by: Nicky Rebelo
18
Allan Pinkerton
Private Detective
Scottish immigrant Pinkerton, who started his own national detective agency in 1850, devised an elaborate plan to protect Lincoln from an assassination plot before his first inauguration. He later served as chief intelligence officer during the Civil War.
Played by: Richard Wright-Firth
19
William H. Seward
Secretary of State
Lincoln's rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Seward took the secretary of state role, focusing on dissuading foreign support of the Confederacy; he also negotiated with Russia to purchase Alaska. Seward survived an assassination attempt the same night Lincoln was killed.
Played by: Colin Moss
20
Joshua Fry Speed
Intimate Friend
When the general store owner met 28-year-old Lincoln, a poor, clientless new lawyer, he offered to share his room. They cohabitated for four years, developing a lifelong friendship later nurtured by intimate letters ranging in subject from romantic anxiety to the morality of emancipation.
Played by: Evan Hengst
21
Edwin M. Stanton
Secretary of War
An early critic of Lincoln's war efforts, the Ohio-born lawyer and politician became the president's second secretary of war—and one of his closest advisers. Lincoln admired his management skills, and gave Stanton, famously obstinate and overbearing, wide berth to do his job.
Played by: Wayne Harrison
22
Kate Warne
Detective
Allan Pinkerton hired the 23-year-old widow as the nation's first female detective. She played a key role in the scheme to thwart an 1861 Lincoln assassination plot, posing as a woman seeking privacy on a train for her sickly “brother.”
Played by: Natalie Robbie
Abraham Lincoln Stories
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