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Posted on 10/05/2003 3:49:54 AM PDT by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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 On the evening of April 14, 1865, while attending a special performance of the comedy, "Our American Cousin," President Abraham Lincoln was shot. Accompanying him at Ford's Theater that night were his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, a twenty-eight year-old officer named Major Henry R. Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancee, Clara Harris. After the play was in progress, a figure with a drawn derringer pistol stepped into the presidential box, aimed, and fired. The president slumped forward.  The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, dropped the pistol and waved a dagger. Rathbone lunged at him, and though slashed in the arm, forced the killer to the railing. Booth leapt from the balcony and caught the spur of his left boot on a flag draped over the rail, and shattered a bone in his leg on landing. Though injured, he rushed out the back door, and disappeared into the night on horseback. A doctor in the audience immediately went upstairs to the box. The bullet had entered through Lincoln's left ear and lodged behind his right eye. He was paralyzed and barely breathing. He was carried across Tenth Street, to a boarding-house opposite the theater, but the doctors' best efforts failed. Nine hours later, at 7:22 AM on April 15th, Lincoln died.  At almost the same moment Booth fired the fatal shot, his accomplice, Lewis Paine, attacked Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Henry Seward. Seward lay in bed, recovering from a carriage accident. Paine entered the mansion, claiming to have a delivery of medicine from the Secretary's doctor. Seward's son, Frederick, was brutally beaten while trying to keep Paine from his father's door. Paine slashed the Secretary's throat twice, then fought his way past Seward's son Augustus, an attending hospital corps veteran, and a State Department messenger.  Paine escaped into the night, believing his deed complete. However, a metal surgical collar saved Seward from certain death. The Secretary lived another seven years, during which he retained his seat with the Johnson administration, and purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. There were at least four conspirators in addition to Booth involved in the mayhem. Booth was shot and captured while hiding in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and died later the same day, April 26, 1865. Four co-conspirators, Paine, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Mary Surratt, were hanged at the gallows of the Old Penitentiary, on the site of present-day Fort McNair, on July 7, 1865.  John Wilkes Booth, born May 10, 1838, was an actor who performed throughout the country in many plays. He was the lead in some of William Shakespeare's most famous works. Additionally, he was a racist and Southern sympathizer during the Civil War. He hated Abraham Lincoln who represented everything Booth was against. Booth blamed Lincoln for all the South's ills. He wanted revenge. In late summer of 1864 Booth began developing plans to kidnap Lincoln, take him to Richmond (the Confederate capital), and hold him in return for Confederate prisoners of war. By January, 1865, Booth had organized a group of co-conspirators that included Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlen, John Surratt, Lewis Powell (also called Lewis Paine or Payne), George Atzerodt, and David Herold. Additionally, Booth met with Dr. Samuel Mudd both in Maryland (where Mudd lived) and Washington, and he began using Mary Surratt's boardinghouse to meet with his co-conspirators.  On March 17, 1865, the group planned to capture Lincoln who was scheduled to attend a play at a hospital located on the outskirts of Washington. However, the President changed plans and remained in the capital. Thus, Booth's plot to kidnap Lincoln failed. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. Two days later Lincoln spoke from the White House to a crowd gathered outside. Booth was present as Lincoln suggested in his speech that voting rights be granted to certain blacks. Infuriated, Booth's plans now turned in the direction of assassination.  On the morning of Friday, April 14, Booth dropped by Ford's Theatre and learned that the President and General Grant were planning to attend the evening performance of Our American Cousin. He held one final meeting with his co-conspirators. He said he would kill Lincoln at the theatre (he had since learned that Grant had left town). Atzerodt was to kill Vice-President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood House where Johnson resided. Powell was assigned to kill Secretary of State William Seward. Herold would accompany Powell. All attacks were to take place simultaneously at approximately 10:15 P.M. that night. Booth hoped the resulting chaos and weakness in the government would lead to a comeback for the South.  This is the knife used by Booth to stab Major Henry Rathbone. The knife has a 7 1/4 inch blade and was razor sharp. The Presidential party arrived at Ford's at about 8:30 P.M. Armed with a single shot derringer and a hunting knife, Booth arrived at Ford's at about 9:30 P.M. Joseph Burroughs, a boy who worked at the theatre, held his horse in the rear alley. Booth went next door to a saloon for a drink. He entered the front of Ford's Theatre around 10:07 P.M. Slowly he made his way toward the State Box where the Lincolns were sitting with Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone. Lincoln's bodyguard, John Parker of the Metropolitan Police Force, had left his post. At about 10:15 P.M. Booth opened the door to the State Box, shot Lincoln in the back of the head at near point-blank range, and struggled with Rathbone.  This is the black walnut rocking chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. It was the president's favorite and was brought from John T. Ford's personal apartment in the theatre. There was a dark stain on the red upholstery of the back of the chair due to soiling from the hair pomade that was fashionable for men at the time. At one time this was thought to be the president's blood, but it is not. Booth stabbed Rathbone in the arm and jumped approximately 11 feet to the stage below. When he hit the floor he snapped the fibula bone in his left leg just above the ankle. Many in the theatre thought he yelled "Sic Semper Tyrannis" (Latin for "As Always to Tyrants"). Mrs. Lincoln screamed, Booth flashed his knife at the audience, and he made his way across the stage in front of more than 1,000 people. Everything happened so fast no one had time to stop him. Booth went out the back door, climbed on his horse, and escaped from the city using the Navy Yard Bridge.  John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln in the back of the head near the left ear with this single-shot derringer. It was manufactured by Henry Deringer of Philadelphia and so marked. It is about 6 inches long with a 2 1/2 inch barrel. Its weight is only eight ounces. It fired a large ball that was .44 caliber. The trigger and mountings were made of German silver, and there was a small box in the butt of the gun for an extra percussion cap. The derringer was found on the floor of the State Box at Ford's Theatre by William T. Kent after the assassination. Today it's in the museum in the basement of Ford's Theatre.  Military Commission Within days Booth's co-conspirators were arrested by the government. They were tried by a military tribunal, and all were found guilty. Mrs. Surratt, Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold were all hanged on July 7, 1865. Dr. Mudd, O'Laughlen, and Arnold were given life terms in prison. Edman "Ned" Spangler, a Ford's stagehand who was convicted of helping Booth escape from the theatre, received a sentence of 6 years in prison. The convictions of Mary Surratt and Dr. Mudd have been hotly debated throughout the years. John Surratt escaped to Canada and then to Europe. He was captured abroad and was tried in 1867 in a civil court. The trial ended with a deadlocked jury, and Surratt went free. O'Laughlen died in prison (Ft. Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas near Key West) in 1867. Dr. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were all pardoned by President Andrew Johnson early in 1869. Atzerodt made no attempt to kill Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward but failed to kill him. Herold escaped from the capital using the same bridge as Booth. The two met in Maryland and stopped briefly around midnight at Mary Surratt's leased tavern in Surrattsville where Mrs. Surratt had earlier left the message to have supplies ready and had dropped off a wrapped package that contained Booth's field glasses. About 4:00 A.M. Booth and Herold arrived at Dr. Mudd's home where Mudd set and splinted Booth's broken leg. Back in Washington Lincoln never regained consciousness and passed away at 7:22 A.M. on the morning of April 15 at the Petersen House (across the street from the theatre).  Mistaken headline; Seward was not killed Booth and Herold departed from Dr. Mudd's during the afternoon of April 15 and traveled south. Federal authorities caught up with them at Garrett's farm near Port Royal, Virginia, early in the morning of April 26. Hiding in a barn, Harold gave up. Booth refused, so the barn was set on fire. Booth still didn't come out and was shot to death by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Corbett had not been under orders to do this. Booth's body was searched, and a diary was among the things found. Booth's remains were returned to Washington where positive identification was made and an autopsy performed. Booth planned to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, Vice-President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William Seward, and General Ulysses S. Grant. Booth was out for revenge, and he thought creating chaos in the federal government might lead to a comeback for the Confederacy. The Grants declined the Lincolns' theater invitation; thus Ulysses' life was spared. No attempt was made on Johnson's life. Seward was brutally attacked in his home, but he survived. Only Lincoln died. Booth, himself, never went to trial because he was killed while being captured. After the assassination the government arrested several hundred people. Most were soon released due to lack of evidence. However, the government did charge 8 people with conspiracy. On May 1, 1865, President Andrew Johnson ordered the formation of a military commission to try the accused persons. The actual trial began on May 10th and lasted until June 30th. It took place on the 3rd floor of the Old Arsenal Penitentiary (nowadays on the grounds of Fort Lesley J. McNair). Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of the United States Army presided. The defendants were allowed to have lawyers and witnesses, but they were not allowed to testify themselves.  Mary Surratt, 42, the first woman to be hanged by the U.S. Government, is the body hanging at the left. Virtually everyone expected her sentence to be commuted by President Andrew Johnson, but it was not. From the left, after Mary Surratt, hang the bodies of Lewis Paine, David Herold, and George Atzerodt. Roughly 1,000 people, viewing from windows, walls, the courtyard, and buildings, witnessed the affair.  Because such a large number of people wished to view the execution, tickets had been issued to limit the actual number in the courtyard. At approximately 1:26 P.M., July 7, 1865, General John F. Hartranft clapped his hands together three times. After the third time two soldiers underneath the gallows knocked away the supporting posts with long poles and the trap doors snapped downward. The bodies of the four victims dropped about 5 to 6 feet and then came up with a sharp jerk at the end of each rope. After the hanging about 25 minutes elapsed, and the bodies were cut down.  They were then examined by doctors as they lay on top of their coffins (which were really just crude gun boxes). The bodies (with hanging-caps still on) were buried in shallow graves next to the gallows. Pieces of the gallows were soon distributed as souvenirs. Outside the prison a large crowd was celebrating with lemonade and cakes.  In 1867 the remains of Mary Surratt, Lewis Paine, George Atzerodt, and David Herold were removed from the shallow graves in the prison yard. They were placed in a storage building nearby. In February, 1869, President Andrew Johnson issued an order allowing the bodies to be released to their respective families. All bodies were claimed by family members except for Lewis Paine.  Lincoln's funeral procession      |
From the diary of Mary Henry
[April] 15th. We were awakened this morning by an announcement which almost made our hearts stand still with consternation. The President was shot last night in the Theater. When the morning paper was issued he was still alive although little or no hopes were entertained of his recovery but now the tolling bells tell us he has ceased to breathe. He is dead. Mr. De Bust has just told Hannah he died at ½ 7 o'clock. Deeply must the country mourn this death for although uncouth & ungainly he was true hearted, magnanimous and kind and in the present crisis ready to follow the such a course with the defeated belligerants as would win them back to their allegiance to the Government and subdue the rebellion in their hearts as well as subjugate their aims.
The South has lost in him a good & judicious friend. His successor Johnson heartily desires the death of the leaders of the rebellion & is in every way ultra in his views. I have not given the particulars of the disaster. It was announced in the yesterday's papers that the President with Gen Grant would be at Ford's Theater in the evening and a large crowd collected there in consequence. Gen Grant however left the city before night for N.Y. Mrs. Lincoln had not been well & the President went to the place of amusement with reluctance, not wishing to disappoint the audience.
Link to complete diary
Everytime I see a picture of the battleships of this era I can't help thinking about:
And it's been bashing conservatives ever since.
Booth was a murderer and conspirator, nothing heroic about that.
I've been to Ford's Theater National Historical Site and it's really interesting. We always buy books, literature, in the National Parks bookstores, but there wasn't anything there as comprehensively put together as this. I bought books there and didn't learn nearly as much.
One of those prisoner masks was on display in the Ford's Theater Museum. No wonder Paine was "traumatized", it scared the fire out of me. And I have no sympathy for Paine, the account in the link you gave about his attack in the Seward house was vicious. His gun misfired when he aimed at Frederick Seward's head, and then he went to pistol-whipping, knife-slashing and stabbing. If his gun hadn't misfired at the start, he probably would have killed several, instead of leaving five wounded who recovered.
John Surratt certainly made out like a bandit; fleeing to Canada, then Europe and finally tried in 1867 after the hysteria had died down. He walked after his wife had swung from a rope.
Lincoln's bodyguard, John Parker of the Metropolitan Police Force, had left his post.
Don't you know, it must have been rough to live with that? And it hadn't been clear to me that if all the designated victims had been killed, the U.S. government would have been thrown into chaos as to swearing in a new president, and who knows have that would have come out.
Excellent account, and is a list of the Foxhole threads posted somewhere?
Criminy, it's up there at top! Doh!!!!
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