Nanny and Nanko

Lincoln's goats are the rare wartime pets you can follow through the president's own words. In August 1863 he telegraphed Mary that poor "Nanny Goat" was lost, after she had last been seen chewing her cud in the middle of Tad's bed. In April 1864 he told her to tell Tad that "the goats and father are very well, especially the goats." Tad was the goats' champion, and the household accounts have him driving a goat-pulled chair through the East Room and scattering visitors. In the middle of the Civil War, these small telegrams show a father keeping his son's world intact. No photograph of the goats is known, so the picture here shows Tad himself, in uniform.