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Our American Cousin was now in its third act. Mary sat very close to her husband, her hand in his. She whispered to him, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" The President replied, "She won't think anything about it." It was about 10:15 P.M. On stage actor Harry Hawk was saying, "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal - you sockdologizing old mantrap!" John Wilkes Booth came up behind Mr. Lincoln and shot him in the back of the head near point blank range. (The sketch to the left is from the Bettmann Archives). The bullet entered the head about 3 inches behind the left ear and traveled about 7 1/2 inches into the brain. Major Rathbone thought Booth shouted a word that sounded like "Freedom!" (Many accounts have Booth yelling "Sic Semper Tyrannis" in the box, or when he landed on the stage). Booth struggled briefly with Rathbone, stabbed him with a knife, leaped 11 feet to the stage, broke the fibula bone in his left leg, and escaped from the theatre. Lincoln's head inclined toward his chest, and Mrs. Lincoln screamed. |
To the right is a contemporary drawing of the Petersen House on the night of the assassination. Armed soldiers guard the house as the President is cared for inside. (Library of Congress drawing). |
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The President was placed diagonally on a bed in a room rented by William T. Clark (pictured to the left; the photo of Clark came from p. 39 of Osborn H. Oldroyd’s The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Flight, Pursuit, Capture, and Punishment of the Conspirators), an army clerk (Clark was not in town and would not return until Sunday morning). It was a small, neat room which measured 9 1/2 by 17 1/2 feet. Lincoln's pulse was 44, and his breathing was heavy. He was cold to the touch. |
A night-long death watch
began. Nearly every leading doctor in Washington D.C. stopped by to offer
help and assistance. A large crowd gathered outside in front of the
Petersen House. The President's breathing grew fainter; although the
doctors felt an average man with this kind of wound would die within two
hours, Mr. Lincoln lasted for nine. He passed away the next morning
at 7:22 A.M. + 10 seconds, April 15th, 1865. Mrs. Lincoln was informed,
"It is all over. The President is no more!" Back in Illinois, when Mr.
Lincoln's stepmother heard the news, she said, "I knowed they'd kill him.
I ben awaiting fur it." Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton said, "Now he
belongs to the ages."
The photograph above was taken by Petersen House boarder Julius Ulke shortly after the President died. Shortly before it was taken, Mr. Lincoln's body lay diagonally on this bed. Source: Lincoln Museum, a part of Lincoln National Corp. Amazingly, during the previous month, John Wilkes Booth had rested on the exact same bed the President died on. In March, 1865, the room had been rented by actor Charles Warwick. One day Booth visited Warwick and fell asleep on the very same bed President Lincoln later died upon. |
NOTE #1: In 1956 the last surviving person who was in Ford's Theatre the night of the assassination passed away. His name was Samuel J. Seymour. He was 96 years old when he died. He lived in Arlington, Virginia. At age 5 his godmother, Mrs. George S. Goldsborough, had taken him to see Our American Cousin. The two sat in the balcony on the side opposite Lincoln's box.NOTE #2: The marriage of Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone took place July 11, 1867, in Albany, New York. Living in Germany in 1883, Henry went beserk two days before Christmas, shot and stabbed Clara to death and spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum. He died in 1911 at the age of 73.NOTE #3: The contents of Mr. Lincoln's pockets on the night of the assassination are on display at the Library of Congress. For more information on this, CLICK HERE.NOTE #4: Andrew Johnson was sworn in as President at 10:00 A.M. on the morning of April 15th. The ceremony took place in Johnson's room at the Kirkwood House, and Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase administered the oath. If Johnson had also been assassinated as Booth planned, Senate President Pro Tempore Lafayette S. Foster of Connecticut would have become Acting President pending an election of a new President (the process of electing a new President could only be set in motion by the Secretary of State; thus Booth felt Seward's assassination would throw the Union government into "electoral chaos"). A Presidential Succession law passed on March 1, 1792, was still in effect in 1865. It provided that the President Pro Tempore of the Senate was third in line to the Presidency and the Speaker of the House was fourth. This law didn't make any succession provisions beyond the Speaker. |
Although the information contained on this page was gathered using many sources (see bibliography at the bottom of the page at http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln.html), I have used Jim Bishop's "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" for the page's basic outline.A new hardback edition of Clara E. Laughlin's The Death of Lincoln: The Story of Booth's Plot, His Deed, and the Penalty has recently been published. Laughlin's book was originally published on February 9, 1909, the centennial of Lincoln's birth. The new edition contains an index and a preface by Lincoln scholar, Michael W. Kauffman. If you would like to obtain a copy, contact Tony O'Connor's Vt. Civil War Enterprises at (802) 766-4747 or send e-mail to tony_oconnor@hotmail.com |