"A MAN JUMPED FROM MR. LINCOLN'S BOX"

PRESIDENT SHOT AT FORD'S THEATER BY SOUTHERN SYMPATHIZER

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theater while attending the play 'Our American Cousin.'

The President was looking down at the stage below his box when the actor/Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth fired a single shot from a Derringer pistol into the back of Lincoln's head.

Booth gained access to the President's box by going through two closed, unlocked and unguarded doors.  The Lincolns' theater guest, Major Henry Rathbone, in an attempt to stop the assailant was badly cut by Booth's knife.

Edwin Bates, seated next to the stage, later described what he saw...

"I first heard the report of a pistol and immediately after a man jumped from Mr. Lincoln's box a distance of 10 or 15 feet upon the stage.  He fell...but instantly rose and, with a long dagger in hand, rushed rapidly across the stage and disappeared."

Dr. Charles Leale*, attending the President, determined the wound mortal and ordered Mr. Lincoln carried to the nearest bed.  Soldiers carried their Commander-n-Chief to the Petersen Rooming House across the street from Ford's.  It was there the death watch began.

*Dr. Charles Augustus Leale (1842-1932) was born in New York & became a surgeon serving in the Union army during the Civil War.  Afterwards, Dr. Leale established a medical practice in NY.  During the ordeal at the Petersen House, CAL held President Lincoln's hand to "let him know he had a friend."

SOURCE

"We Saw Lincoln Shot:  One Hundred Eye Witness Accounts," by Timothy S. Good, University Press of Mississippi, 1996.

 

 

Dr. Charles A. Leale

Matthew Brady/Levin Corbin Handy

Library of Congress Photo

"BURN THE DAMNED PLACE DOWN"

THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD!

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) At 7:22 in the morning of April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died at the Petersen Rooming House* here in the Nation's Capital.  The President died as the result of a pistol shot to back of the head as he sat in his box with his wife at Ford's Theatre the evening of the 14th.

Attending physician Dr. Charles A. Leale** determined Mr. Lincoln would not survive a trip back to the Executive Mansion and so ordered that he be taken to the nearest bed.  The Petersen Rooming House, now called "The House Where Lincoln Died," is located across the street from the theater.

Thomas A. Bogar writes that a heavy rain continued all day Saturday, April 15th.  During the afternoon, word came to the police superintendent that a number of "outraged citizens" were intent on launching an attack on Ford's Theatre.  Bogard writes...

"By 7:00 seventy men of the 9th Regiment, V.R.C. under the command of Captain William McKelvey were in position on Tenth Street and throughout the theatre.  Either their presence was effective or the threat was spurious to start with, for no assault on the theatre materialized."

*Petersen Rooming House is located at 516 10th Street across from Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.  It was the home of William & Anna Petersen in April 1865 when the mortally wounded POTUS was carried inside & placed on a bed in a back bedroom.  

**Dr. Charles Augustus Leale (1842-1932) was born in New York City & was a 23 year old US Army surgeon at the time of Lincoln's assassination.  CAL was seated 40 ft. from Lincoln's box when the shot was fired.  CAL left the army in 1866 & established a private practice.

SOURCES

"Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination, The Untold Story of the Actors and Stagehands at Ford's Theatre," by Thomas A. Bogar, Regnery History, Washington, D.C. , 2013.

"The Assassination: Death of the President," by Champ Clark, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA, 1987.

"The Death of President Lincoln, 1865," www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

"The Petersen House", National Park Service, www.nps.gov/

The House Where Lincoln Died

10th Street, Washington, D.C.

Photo by John White (2007)

IN HIS BLINDNESS HE MIGHT KNOW HE HAD A FRIEND

GREAT EMANCIPATOR DIES IN ROOMING HOUSE BED

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On the morning of April 15, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln died at the Petersen Rooming House* here in the Nation's Capital.

The President was pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. as the result of a pistol shot to
the head as he sat in his box with his wife, Mary, at Ford's Theater the previous night.

Attending physician Dr. Charles A. Leale** determined that Mr. Lincoln would not survive a trip back to the Executive Mansion and so ordered that he be taken to the nearest bed.  The Petersen Rooming House, now called "The House Where Lincoln Died," is located across the street from the theater.

Dr. Leale held Mr. Lincoln's hand.  The young physician later said that he did so hoping the President "in his blindness" might know "he...had a friend."

*Petersen Rooming House is located at 516 10th Street across from Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.  It was the home of William & Anna Petersen in April 1865 when the mortally wounded POTUS was carried inside & placed on a bed in a back bedroom.  The PRH is currently undergoing remodeling & will re-open in June 2018.

**Dr. Charles Augustus Leale (1842-1932) was born in New York City & was a 23 year old US Army surgeon at the time of Lincoln's assassination.  CAL was seated 40 ft. from Lincoln's box when the shot was fired.  Dr. Leale left the army in 1866 & established a private practice specializing in charitable cases in NYC.

SOURCES

"The Assassination: Death of the President," by Champ Clark, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA, 1987.

"The Death of President Lincoln, 1865," www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

"The Petersen House", National Park Service, www.nps.gov/

Ford's Theater
Washington, D.C.
Photo by John White (2016)

The House Where Lincoln Died

10th Street, Washington, D.C.

Photo by John White (2007)

IN HIS BLINDNESS HE HAD A FRIEND!

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2280

PRESIDENT LINCOLN DIED 152 YEARS AGO 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 152 years ago this morning, April 15, 1865, the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, died in a small bedroom at the Petersen Rooming House on 10th Street here in the Nation's Capital.  Mr. Lincoln was pronounced dead at 7:22.

The President, who had served the United States during the length of the Civil War, lost his life as the result of a pistol shot to the back of the head as he sat in his box with his wife, Mary, at Ford's Theater the previous night.

Attending physician Dr. Charles Leale determined that Mr. Lincoln would not survive a trip back to the Executive Mansion and so ordered that he be taken to the nearest bed.  The Petersen Rooming House, now called "The House Where Lincoln Died," is located across the street from the theater.

Dr. Leale held Mr. Lincoln's hand.  The young physician later said that he did so hoping the President "in his blindness" might know "he...had a friend."

Navy Secretary Gideon Welles described the passing of the President...

"A little before seven I went into the room where the dying President was rapidly drawing near the closing moments.  The death struggle had begun. The respiration of the President became suspended at intervals and at last entirely ceased at twenty-two minutes past seven."

Secretary of War Edwin McMasters Stanton said...

"He belongs to the angels now."*

*Both the President's secretary, John Hay, and Dr. Charles S. Taft recalled Stanton's words differently.  Hay would later write the words as..."Now he belongs to the ages,"while Dr. Taft's version reads..."He now belongs to the ages."

"He belongs to the angels now," although less well known, is the actual transcription written in shorthand by Corporal John Tanner. Corporal  Tanner, who lived next door to the Petersen House, had lost both legs in the Second Battle of Bull Run but he still could manage to walk on "peg legs."  

When Secretary Stanton asked one of his generals to go outside and find someone who could take shorthand, Tanner "hobbled down to take dictation."
The Corporal's task was to take down, in shorthand, everything that was said in the room where Lincoln was dying.  This is what he wrote in the moments after Lincoln died...

"The Rev. Dr. Gurley...began 'Our Father and our God' (in a) prayer that was only interrupted by the sobs of Stanton as he buried his face in the bedclothes...Mr. Stanton raised his head, the tears streaming down his face. A more agonized expression I never saw on a human countenance as he sobbed out the words: 'He belongs to the angels now.'"

SOURCES

"Angels and Ages," by Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker Magazine, May 28, 2007, www.newyorker.com/

"Eyewitness Account of Dr. Robert King Stone, President Lincoln's Family Physician," by Stacey Bredhoff, Social Education Academic Journal, March 2007, www.questia.com/

"Now He Belongs To The Ages," American Treasures of the Library of Congress," www.loc.gov/

"The Assassination: Death of the President," by Champ Clark, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA, 1987.

"The Death of President Lincoln, 1865," www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

President Lincoln at his Deathbed

Harper's Weekly

May 6, 1865

www.en.wikipedia.com/