EVENTS OF APRIL OFFER PARALLELS

April is a significant month for the nation.

On the morning of April 26, 1865, a conflict between troops of the Southern Army and the Northern Army took place. The battle would have been another Vicksburg except for a last-minute change of fate in Missouri.

On April 3, 1991, President George Bush announced that the weekend of April 5-7 would be a time of National Thanksgiving for the allied victory over Iraq. There was a great welcoming celebration when incoming planes from the Persian Gulf brought military forces home and landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The president was in the welcoming delegation as were many individuals from the entertainment world.

That observance was reminiscent of another held in April 1865 by President Abraham Lincoln to commemorate the end of the Civil War April 9, 1865. It was then that Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Southern Army, surrendered to Gen. Ulysses Grant, commander of the victorious Northern Army, at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.

The last speech President Lincoln made was on that April 11, when he said: "We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond and the surrender of the principal insurgent army give hope of a righteous and speedy peace whose joyous expressions cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, he from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a National Thanksgiving is being prepared and will be duly promulgated."

History books tell what happened after the peace was signed.

Mrs. Lincoln had a dream that frightened her: she dreamed her husband was shot. She told him about the dream, and when she suggested seeing a play at Ford's Theater she later thought better of the idea. But he said that he was tired and needed to relax, and if they stayed home he would work. They decided to attend the performance of "Our American Cousin" by Tom Taylor. It was there that the actor, John Wilkes Booth, a Southerner, made good on his threat and shot President Lincoln April 14.

The wound was fatal but the president lived until the next morning. Mrs. Lincoln was informed of his death at 7 a.m. April 15. They were in a house across the street from Ford's Theater, where Lincoln had been carried after being shot.

The funeral was in Washington, and then the casket with the body was put on a train and taken across the country for the American people to see. It isn't clear who decided on this course of action. The body was finally taken to Springfield, Ill., home of the Lincolns when he was elected president, and laid to rest. There it remains in a vault under a high, needle-like monument.

It is a privilege to be an American and attend schools where we can learn the history of the country and about the individuals who have steered the "Ship of State" and made the United States the greatest democracy in the world. The Civil War could have split the nation like Germany, or now Russia. Lincoln's hope was that the devastated South would be quickly restored, and healed feelings would follow. His death prevented his dream of reconstruction in an amiable manner.

Longfellow was Lincoln's favorite poet; "the only one who could move him to tears," said John Nicolay, Lincoln's secretary. These lines especially moved him and brought tears to his eyes.

"Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!

"Sail on, O Union, strong and great.

"Humanity with all its fears,

"With all the hopes of future years,

"Is hanging breathless on they fate."

No one knows about steering the "Ship of State" better than President Bush, who has weathered some rough sailing during the last months. But his smile never dims and he reassures both the people at home and the soldiers.

President Lincoln seldom smiled. He was always aware of what waited around the corner. Even though it was April when the Civil War ended, and a beautiful time of the year, the atmosphere in Washington was gray. And rightly so ... the president was shot.