In this unique book about Abraham Lincoln the author has created a fictitious veteran of the Mexican-American War who is subsequently asked to guard Lincoln at the White House, and the Soldiers' Home--the "Camp David" of the times where Lincoln spent one quarter of his presidency, and is believed to have written a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. Told in diary form, "Three Miles from Providence" starts at Lincoln's inaugural in 1861 and concludes seven generations later in 2008. During the intervening 137 years, the reader learns what happens--and what doesn't--at the Soldiers' Cottage. Smith has deftly distinguished each generation by a switch of font.