REPORTERS:  U.Va. faculty looked for clues as to how
GeorgeWashington and Abraham Lincoln celebrated their birthdays.
Following is historical information that may be useful for
Presidents' Day stories.


WASHINGTON, LINCOLN RARELY CELEBRATED THEIR BIRTHDAYS,
RESEARCHERS NOTE

George Washington, Feb. 22 Birthdate?

	Although Washington's birthday will be officially observed
on Feb. 19 this year, George Washington was actually born on Feb.
11, 1732.  The calendar was revised in 1752 to remedy the loss of a
quarter day a year since no leap days were included in the old
calendar.  In the process 11 days were added to the calendar.
Consequently, Washington observed Feb. 22 as his birthday, according
to Jack D. Warren, a researcher studying the George Washington
papers at the University of Virginia.

	The change in observance caused some confusion during
Washington's lifetime, and he was sometimes asked which day he
personally observed. On Feb. 11, 1792, Washington's secretary Tobias
Lear wrote to Thomas Jefferson that "the President considers the
22nd day of this month as his birth day -- having been born on the
11th old Style." Lear added that "the President does not expect to
see any Company today on the above occasion."

	George Washington preferred not to celebrate his birthdays,
particularly at home in his beloved Mount Vernon.  Perhaps visitors
would not have been festive, anyway.  On his birthday on Feb. 22,
1787, the year before he was elected president, Washington recorded
the temperatures inside his home. The morning temperature was 30
degrees; at noon it was 55, and by nightfall, it was 48 degrees.

	"The temperatures inside Mount Vernon were just a few
degrees higher than the mean temperatures outside," said Warren, an
assistant editor who is studying the presidential series of papers
among U.Va.'s Washington collection.

	Washington was diligent in recording activities, in addition
to weather conditions, in his diary, Warren notes.  For example, on
his birthday in 1788, Washington described the main activities at
Mount Vernon as installation of a new fence, plowing and sowing.
"His diaries show that he treated his birthday when he was home as
just another day," Warren said.

	Washington did have one exceptional birthday at home.  On
Feb. 22, 1799, his step granddaughter, Nelly Custis, married
Washington's cousin, Lawrence Lewis.  The wedding date was chosen in
recognition of Washington's birthday.  It proved to be his last
one.  

	The diaries indicate that there were public celebrations of
Washington's birthday while he was president, but Washington was not
fond of such occasions, Warren said.  On Feb. 22, 1797, his last
birthday while president, Washington noted that he enjoyed
entertainment that day at Ricketts' Amphitheatre, one of the
original American circuses.  After that, Washington attended a
dinner and ball, which included cannon fire in honor of his birthday.

	Just before his 21st birthday in 1753, Washington was
appointed one of the Virginia colony's four adjutants, despite his
youth and lack of military experience, author C. Brian Kelly found
while researching material for his books.  Kelly found these
observations from 20th-century biographer Douglas Southall Freeman:
"It was, of course, a distinction for George to be named Adjutant
before he was 21, and to be allowed pay of $100 per annum.  On Feb.
1, 1753, he presented his commission to the Court of Spotsylvania
and took the various oaths as Adjutant of the Counties of James
River..." 

	Becoming "Major Washington" upon taking his oaths, "he might
have regarded the title as a present on his 'coming of age' because,
a few days later, he observed his 21st birthday," Freeman speculated
in his multi-volume biography.

 	In his research Kelly, a lecturer in news writing at U.Va.,
discovered these events that happened near Washington's birthday:

¥ On Feb. 20, 1775, with open rebellion clearly in the air, the
Massachusetts Provincial Congress authorized a commissary to store
arms and adopted rules to govern an armed force.  The body also
encouraged nearby colonies to support the militia.

¥ In February, 1777, Washington and his army were in winter quarters
at Morristown, New Jersey, after his triumph at Trenton Dec. 25-26.

¥ In February, 1778, on the day after Washington's birthday, the
famous Baron Frederick William Augustus von Steuben arrived at
Valley Forge to help train the Continental Army troops and to lift
their sagging morale.

¥ On Feb. 23, 1779, Washington received a belated birthday present,
of sorts.  George Rogers Clark conquered the British at Vincennes,
which gave Clark's army control of the Illinois Territory.

Lincoln's Birthday -- A Red Letter Day on Feb. 12?

	Abraham Lincoln's birthdate was not a particularly important
day -- at least in one person's eyes, Kelly discovered while
researching information for his book, "Best Little Stories From the
Civil War."  Shortly after he was born, Lincoln's 9-year-old cousin
Dennis Hanks held him for the first time. But the baby cried, and
Hanks quickly gave him up.  "Take him," he said.  "He'll never come
to much."

	On Feb. 11, 1861, the day before his 52nd birthday, Abraham
Lincoln left his home in Springfield, Illinois, to travel to
Washington, D.C., as president-elect.  Oddly enough, notes Kelly,
Jefferson Davis left his home, Brierfield Plantation in Mississippi,
on the same day for his inauguration in Montgomery, Alabama.  While
bidding farewell, Lincoln said, "I now leave, not knowing when, or
whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that
which rested upon Washington."

	On his birthday Lincoln spoke in Indianapolis at a reception
in his honor.  During the reception, he said he hoped "our national
difficulties will. . . pass away."

	A year later on Lincoln's birthday, U.S. Grant was beginning
to make a name for himself in the Civil War's western theater by
establishing his siege lines at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, notes
Kelly, former editor of Military History magazine.  

	Lincoln had no thoughts of a birthday celebration that
year.  His son Willie was ill in bed in the White House. Accounts at
the time said the boy was laid low by a "bilious fever," Kelly found
while researching "Best Little Stories From the White House."  Born
in 1850, Willie Lincoln died on Feb. 20, 1862, apparently of typhoid.

	On Feb. 12, 1865, Lincoln's 56th and last birthday, the
Electoral College gave him a victory on his bid for re-election.
There were 212 electoral votes cast for Lincoln, compared to the 21
cast for the Democratic candidate in the 1864 election, George B.
McClellan, Lincoln's former general. 

	FOR INTERVIEWS, Jack Warren can be reached at (804)
924-3569, office; (301) 934-3802, home; or via jdw2b@virginia.edu.
Kelly can be reached at (804) 924-6626, office, or (804) 293-6305,
home. 

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February 7, 1996