Firestorm in Peshtigo-- Part 5: Lincoln On the Weather

In the events leading up to that firestorm that hit Peshtigo, Wisconsin, on October 8, 1871, the book talked about newspapers beginning to write about the weather.

President Lincoln wasn't very convinced that people who made weather forecasts knew much about their craft.  During the Civil War, he wrote about one Francis L. Capen:  "It seems to me that Mr. Capen knows nothing about the weather in advance," he wrote on April 28, 1863.  "He told me three days ago that it would not rain again till the 30th of April of the 1st of May.

"It is raining now and has been for ten hours.  I cannot spare any more time to Mr. Capen."

--Old Secesh