Coggeshall also served as a self-appointed bodyguard for President Abraham Lincoln, but was out of town the evening the leader was assassinated.

[1][5][6] In 1856, he was in need of cash, and sold the magazine after securing appointment as State Librarian of Ohio by Governor Salmon P.

[9] On February 13, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped at the state capitol of Ohio on his trip to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration.

Coggeshall accompanied Lincoln to Washington as a reporter for the Ohio State Journal and served as a bodyguard.

For benefit of the Ohio Soldier's Monument Fund, Coggeshall wrote Lincoln memorial: the journeys of Abraham Lincoln from Springfield to Washington, 1861, as president elect, and from Washington to Springfield, as president martyred; comprising an account of public ceremonies on the entire route, and full details of both journeys.

[1][7] By that time, his health was failing due to tuberculosis, which he had contracted early in the war while acting as a secret agent for the Union.

[10] Desiring less stressful work and a healthier environment, he lobbied his political friends for appointment as United States Ambassador to Ecuador.