RIP, Mr. President: Abraham Lincoln was assassinated 155 years ago.
President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by ‘a lawless desperado and most cowardly miscreant’



The death bed scene after President Abraham Lincoln was mortally wounded in Ford's Theater April 14, 1865, is shown in this rare picture. The picture shows Mrs. Lincoln kneeling beside the bed and members of the cabinet behind it. This picture was supposed to have been given to a friend by Mrs. Lincoln shortly after the funeral and then passed down through the family from generation to generation. (AP Photo)ASSOCIATED PRESS

On the evening of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and his wife went to see a performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

At 10:15 p.m., John Wilkes Booth slipped into the Lincolns private box and fired a .44-caliber derringer into the back of Lincoln’s head. As Booth was escaping, he broke his leg but managed to leave the theater and escape on a horse.

A 23-year-old doctor was in the audience. He raced to Lincoln and found him slumped in his chair, paralyzed and struggling to breathe.

Soldiers carried Lincoln to a house across the street. When the surgeon general arrived at the house, he concluded that Lincoln could not be saved and would die during the night.

Lincoln was pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. April 15, 1865.



The last photograph of President Abraham Lincoln was taken by Alexander Gardner in Washington on April 10, 1865, after the news of Lee's surrender had marked the unofficial end of the war. Four days after the picture was taken, Lincoln was shot. The original photograph is in the collection of the Library of Congress. (AP Photo/Alexander Gardner)ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Cleveland Plain Dealer gave a report on “the foulest crime ever committed upon earth.”

The newspaper reported that people in Ohio had been rejoicing over the “expected closing of the rebellion, and the near advent of Peace” when they received the news of Lincoln’s death.

“On Saturday morning the dreadful intelligence burst upon the country that ‘ABRAHAM LINCOLN had been assassinated!’ in the city of Washington, in the very presence of his wife, in the midst of a gay and fashionable assemblage, by a lawless desperado and most cowardly miscreant.

So unexpected was the announcement, that no words are adequate to unfold the consternation and grief of the people. The thought that within the limits of our nation there was a man so wicked and desperate as to take the life of the President of the United States, was almost beyond credence.

But the news was confirmed. At 7 o’clock and 22 minutes on the 15th of April, 1865, Abraham Lincoln ceased to exist and was ushered into the presence of the God of the universe.



This is the Deringer pistol that was recovered from the state box at the Ford Theater and used by John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. (AP Photo/FBI)AP

"J. Wilkes Booth, an actor, is the villain who committed this most perfidious act. It was a fiendish deed of massacre, so bloody and desperate, so ferocious and cruel, as to shock all with horror. It seems impossible that upon the earth there should exist a man so lost to the infamy that will attach to his memory in all time, and the punishment that will be meted out in the world to come, as to commit this infamous, wicked crime.”

“Mr. Lincoln had a kindly heart, amiable temper and a forgiving disposition, and was undoubtedly more anxious than any of his party to stop the flow of blood, stay the hand of strife and re-establish order. Had his death been a natural one, it would have been calamitous, but at an hour when he held in his hand the olive branch – when the prospect of healing our national differences was so bright, when grim war, with his relentless, stony heart was about to be banished and the reign of ‘Fair Peace, dove-eyed child of Christ,’ inaugurated – it is a calamity that all true men must most sincerely deplore.

The death of Mr. Lincoln, deeply regretted in the North, is a calamity to the South, and the assassin in putting him to death not only inflicted a severe blow to the North but a grievous injury to the South.

He, probably, would have been more lenient in his terms to the vanquished insurgents than any other of the leaders of the opposition party, and the Southern people as well as those of the North should therefore be anxious that the guilty perpetrator of this wanton wrong should be brought to justice and punished.”

The president's body was taken to the White House, and on April 18 it was carried to the Capitol rotunda to lay in state.

On April 21, Lincoln’s body was boarded onto a train headed to his hometown of Springfield, Ill. Thousands of people lined the railroad route through 180 cities in seven states to see the funeral train, which was in Harrisburg April 21-22.

Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He saw the country through the Civil War and abolished slavery. His Gettysburg Address was delivered on Nov. 19, 1863.

https://www.pennlive.com/life/...ardly-miscreant.html

Ford's Theater
Ford's Theater

Lincoln's Box Seat
Lincoln's Box

The House across the street, where Lincoln was carried after the shooting.
The House Across the Street

The Bed where Lincoln Died
The Bed


If you ever get to go to Ford's, the museum in the basement contains the bunting upon which Booth snagged his heel, the Booth's pistol, the bullet. If you ever get to Henry Ford's(no relation} Museum outside Detroit, he bought the chair, lap robe and program from the Ford family after they successfully sued the government for the return of these historic items. Henry gave $20,000.

Booth's dagger used to stab Major Rathbone who was attending with the Lincolns.
J.W. Booth's Dagger

I must admit, when I saw RIP, Mr. President, I momentarily didn't see anything else and assumed the worst.

quote:

... when I saw RIP, Mr. President, ... I assumed the worst.

It was 155 years ago, but it was the worst. Obviously, you have imagined what it would be like today if something similar happened.
Similar to today, Lincoln was loved by his many supporters but widely hated as well. "Lincoln Derangement Syndrome" was rampant, as TDS is today.

Titanic sunk on this date as well as taxes being due. History has not been kind to the 15th day of April.

From what I’ve read on that days events, Booth was a super celebrity type, comparable to being the “George Clooney” of his day. As such, he used his celebrity status to gain easy access to the theatre and close proximity to Lincoln.

Another read, and this was some years ago, so I don’t have a citation, was that due to the rudimentary care (by today’s standard for such a trauma), that Lincoln’s head wound was potentially survivable, but the discovery process to ascertain damage, probing around and into the wound, most likely was not helpful.

If someone has that citation, I’d love to read through it again. It was from the standpoint and opinion of trauma doctors today exploring what would be done by today’s standards and protocol. Not that any of that would have changed the outcome, but an interesting read nonetheless.

Would Lincoln Have Survived If He Was Shot Today?

The anatomy of the President's fatal wound, and what modern medicine could have done for him

https://www.theatlantic.com/he...s-shot-today/281680/

I enjoyed a quick read of the Soldier who shot Booth through the cracks in a burning tobacco barn in Virginia. While a picture depicts the Soldier useing a rifle, he actually fired on Booth with a revolver. My guess would be a issued Colt. The Soldier named Boston Corbett was a bit of a religious fanatic, self castrated himself and lived a very strange life. No known where abouts of his last resting place. The guy was a strange bird.

Thanks chellim1!

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
I enjoyed a quick read of the Soldier who shot Booth through the cracks in a burning tobacco barn in Virginia. While a picture depicts the Soldier useing a rifle, he actually fired on Booth with a revolver. My guess would be a issued Colt. The Soldier named Boston Corbett was a bit of a religious fanatic, self castrated himself and lived a very strange life. No known where abouts of his last resting place. The guy was a strange bird.

It's been rumored he died in the great Hinckley Minnesota fire of 1894 where nearly 250 people perished. There is a Thomas Corbett listed among the dead. They are buried in mass grave at the Hinckley Memorial cemetery. This is about a hour from where I live.
Thomas was his name given to him at birth in England he changed it to Boston when while in Boston he became a born again Christian.

One of the Corbett photos I have seen was taken by Mathew Brady. He photographed a lot of the battles. Somewhat funded by Andrew Burgess of the Burgess Firearms Company. Burgess himself went afield to take some of the battle photos. I posted of Burgess years back in Forum as my great Grand Father was acquainted. My thread about handling a 7th Cavalry A inspected Colt. Damn if that wasn't a troubling time in history for America.

To us, one facet of the story is the incredible lack of security for the Chief Executive at that time. There was only one security man with him on the evening of his assassination and he was exceedingly lax.

We have read that during his administration, Mr. Lincoln routinely opened the doors to the White House on Saturdays and stood and received/greeted any who came to call. It was not uncommon for him to shake hands with hundreds of callers from "off the street" during these sessions. He would listen to their stories (most had some complaint or another) and sometimes help/refer them to one of his Secretaries for assistance.

Imagine any President doing that now...

We trudge on.

My wife and I have been in both Ford's Theater and the Petersen Boarding House.

When we walked into the bedroom where Lincoln was taken and died, both of us thought, "We heard it was smaller than in all of the drawings and paintings, but this is REALLY small." While the familiar artwork we've all seen shows anywhere between 15 and 24 people around the bed, even 10 would have been a tight fit. And Lincoln's feet would have stuck out a good six inches from the end of the bed.

One of the more interesting pieces of information surrounding the assassination came out after Booth was killed. Either the Metropolitan Police or military investigators went through the various boarding houses' register logbooks to see if any recent boarders might have encountered any of the conspirators prior to the murder.

Sure enough, Charles Warwick, an actor, had stayed at the Petersen house only a month or so earlier. He was eventually found, interviewed, and told investigators that Booth had visited him there and stayed the night.

Pretty interesting stuff.