Chapin was a celebrated Abraham Lincoln impersonator, and his play centered around three key events from the life of the American president: the 1861 defeat of Fort Sumter which initiated the American Civil War; the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863; and the last day of Lincoln's life prior to his assassination at the Ford's Theatre.
[2] As early as 1903, Benjamin Chapin was performing in public as Abraham Lincoln;[3] a role in which he excelled both in nearly identical physical likeness but also through uncannily accurate mannerisms which spellbound any older audience members who had known the president and were familiar with his gate and bearing from life.
[5] The actress Maude Granger also starred in the play as Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln,[5] and actor Francis McGinn portrayed two role, Edwin Stanton, the United States Secretary of War, and the White House attendant "Old Edward".
[5] Others in the cast included William H. Pascoe as General Joseph Hooker, George Clarke as Tad Lincoln, Daisy Lovering as Kate Morris, and the actors David R. Young and Malcolm Duncan as soldiers.
[7] Reviews of the Broadway production, tended to compare the work favorably to another Civil War drama which had just been staged at the Liberty prior to the premiere of Lincoln; Thomas Dixon Jr.'s controversial The Clansman, which glorified the Ku Klux Klan.