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To the Editor: The photograph accompanying the book review by Dr Smitherman¹ is captioned as showing Abraham Lincoln at Bull Run. However, I believe that the photograph does not show Lincoln.

Not only does the man not look like Lincoln (head too big, neck too short, arms too short, stance atypical²), but there is no record that Lincoln ever visited the Bull Run battlefield.³ Furthermore, the photograph does not appear in the standard catalog of Lincoln photographs.⁴ Even the source of the photograph questions whether the subject is Lincoln.⁵

Possibly the man is Brigadier General Montgomery Meigs, who is known to have visited the battlefield³ and who has been mistaken for Lincoln by photograph historians in the past.^4(p287)

Financial Disclosures: Dr Sotos reported receiving royalties on books about Abraham Lincoln.

John G. Sotos, MD
jama2009@physical-lincoln.com
Palo Alto, California

1. Smitherman LC. Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War [book review]. JAMA. 2009;301(5):552-553. FREE FULL TEXT 2. Sotos JG. The Physical Lincoln. Mt Vernon, VA: Mt Vernon Book Systems; 2008.3. The Lincoln Log: a daily chronology of the life of Abraham Lincoln [entry for July 22, 1861]. http://thelincolnlog.org/. Accessed February 12, 2009.4. Ostendorf L. Lincoln's Photographs: A Complete Album. Dayton, OH: Rockywood Press; 1998.5. Images from the History of Medicine: image A019788. National Library of Medicine Web site. http://www.ihm.nlm.nih.gov/. Accessed February 12, 2009.

Letters Section Editor: Robert M. Golub, MD, Senior Editor.

JAMA. 2009;302(5):489.

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