Oddlet: Charles Stratton ("General Tom Thumb") · 1 min read
Jul 26, 2026
The Buckingham Palace Duel
At six, mid-reverse-bow out of Buckingham Palace, the Queen's poodle came for him — so he drew his sword.
Charles Stratton was twenty-five inches tall and fifteen pounds when P. T. Barnum found him in Bridgeport in 1842, paid his parents three dollars a week, lied about his age, christened him General Tom Thumb, and put him on a stage. By five he was drinking wine in his act. By six he was meeting Queen Victoria.
The command performance, in March 1844, went beautifully. He bowed. He went through his routine. The Queen wrote in her diary that he was the greatest curiosity she or indeed anybody had ever seen, and that he made the funniest little bow and said much obliged, Mam.
Then, because royal protocol required guests to leave a monarch's presence without turning their backs, the six-year-old began reverse-bowing his way toward the door of Buckingham Palace.
The Queen's poodle attacked him.
What the dog made of the tiny soldier reverse-shuffling across the carpet is not recorded. What the boy did is. He drew his miniature sword and fenced it.
The Queen, delighted, had him back twice more. King Louis-Philippe received him in French court dress. Queen Isabella of Spain received him before he was ten. When he married Lavinia Warren in 1863, the gift from Victoria was a carriage built to his scale.
He had, by then, been a working soldier for nineteen years.
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- Wikipedia - General Tom Thumb — Comprehensive biography: birth/death dates, parents, exact heights at various ages, Barnum's role, stage name origin, European tours, royalty met, wedding details, Freemasonry, Newhall House fire, funeral, burial, pituitary dwarfism diagnosis.
- Connecticut History (CTHumanities) - 'Tom Thumb Born – Today in History' — Covers Stratton's discovery at age 4, Barnum's renaming and false aging, command performance for Queen Victoria, meetings with Queen Isabella of Spain and King Louis-Philippe of France,1863 wedding to Lavinia Warren, post-wedding tour of 580+ cities.
- Today in CT History - 'February 10: General Tom Thumb Marries the Queen of Beauty' — Details the 1863 wedding: Grace Episcopal Church, Metropolitan Hotel reception, $75/head admission, couple greeting guests from atop a grand piano, three-day NYT Civil War blackout; confirms Lincoln did not attend ceremony.
- Boundary Stones (WETA) - 'A General, A Queen, and the President' — Confirms Lincoln did not attend the Grace Church wedding and instead hosted the couple at a White House reception on Friday, February 13, 1863, at 8 p.m.; includes direct Lincoln quotes about 'Dame Nature' and 'the short and the long of it.'
- Hoaxes.org - 'Tom Thumb's Baby (1865)'
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