Booth then rushed to the front of the box, Major Rathbone attempting to seize him again, but only caught his clothes as he was going over the railing. Booth put his left hand on the railing, holding in his right hand the knife point downward, leaped over and down to the stage about twelve feet. As he was going over or descending, the spur on his right foot caught in the flag, which had been draped in front of the President's box in honor of his presence, and clung to it, causing his left foot to partially turn under him as he struck the stage, and thereby one of the bones of his left leg was broken.
Had it not been for this accident, Booth doubtless would have made his escape into Virginia within the Confederate lines, possibly out of the country. Thus it was that the national flag was a mute instrument in the vengeance that overtook the President's murderer. Booth as he fled across the stage, partially turned facing the audience, threw up his hand holding the gleaming knife and shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis!"
I never studied Lincoln's murder closely enough to know that Booth struggled with Maj. Rathbone and was part of reason Booth fell awkwardly.... One learns something new every day....
>>>”Booth as he fled across the stage, partially turned facing the audience, threw up his hand holding the gleaming knife and shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis!”
My favorite line was the statement that followed from another witness.
“In taking the statements of persons at the theatre who had witnessed the tragedy, an Irishman in the second row said that Booth shouted as he fled across the stage, “I’m sick, send for McManus!”
Obviously, not a Latin aficionado.
Major Rathbone married his fiancee Clara Harris who was with him in the box that night. Rathbone suffered from declining mental stability over the years, and killed his wife in 1883. He was declared insane and spent the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum.