Abraham Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, was an ensign in the Kentucky state militia.
According to Abraham Lincoln's public accounts, his father, Thomas Lincoln, came off as a shiftless, jobless wanderer who could barely scratch out his name, said Springfield historian and author Wayne C. Temple.
Like a lot of politicians, Temple said, Lincoln wanted to show how he had risen above childhood disadvantages to the highest office in the land, but he did so at the expense of his father.
Thomas Lincoln's reputation only disintegrated, Temple said, because of Lincoln biographies like the one written by his former law partner, William Herndon.