During Lincoln’s 1858 senatorial campaign visit to Pittsfield, a test firing of a cannon, then a popular campaign practice, seriously injured Charles Lame. Lincoln walked to the Lame house to check on him, but Lame’s wife denied him admission because Dr. J.H. Ledlie had ordered that Lame have no visitors. Lincoln also had an ambrotype taken in Pittsfield and sent a copy to the Lames.