At a rally in Ohio last week, President Trump gave a shout-out to native son Ulysses S. Grant as an “incredible” Civil War general. But much of his praise focused on one aspect of the general’s service: “He drank a little too much.”

President Abraham Lincoln’s advisers, Trump told his audience, were so worried about Grant’s drinking that they said to Lincoln: “ ’You can’t use him anymore, he’s an alcoholic,’ and Lincoln said, ‘I don’t care if he’s an alcoholic, frankly, get me six or seven just like him.’ ”

The story was a mangled version of a famous Lincoln quote published as early as Oct. 30, 1863, in the New York Times: “When someone charged Gen. Grant, in the President’s hearing, with drinking too much liquor, Mr. Lincoln, recalling Gen. Grant’s successes, said that if he could find out what brand of whiskey Grant drank, he would send a barrel of it to all the other commanders.”

The quote was probably fake news. Lincoln denied saying it. ...