Posted on 04/14/2025 12:13:16 PM PDT by mairdie
While making the closing argument in this [Camp Douglas] case, on the 17th of April, 1865, I received a dispatch from the Secretary of War, directing me to report in person immediately to the War Department to aid in the examinations respecting the murder of the President. I started for Washington the same evening, reached there on the morning of the 19th, and was "specially assigned by the Secretary of War for duty on the investigation of the murder of President Lincoln and the attempted assassination of Mr. Seward", and a room was assigned to me in the War Department.
The gloom of that journey to Washington and the feeling of vague terror and sorrow with which I traversed its streets, I cannot adequately describe, and shall never forget. To this day, I never visit that City without some shadow of that dark time settling over my spirit. All the public buildings and a large portion of the private houses were heavily draped in black. The people moved about the streets with bowed heads and sorrow-stricken faces, as though some Herod had robbed each home of its first born.
When men spoke to each other in the streets, there were tremulous tones in their voices, and a quivering of the lips, as though tears and violent expression of grief were held back only by great effort. In the faces of those in authority -- Cabinet ministers, officers of the army, -- there was an anxious expression of the eye as though a dagger's gleam in a strange hand was to be expected; and a pale determined expression, a set of the jaw that said: "The truth about this conspiracy shall be made clear and the assassins found and punished: we will stand guard and the Government shall not die."
In tracking down my father's side of the family, I was shocked to discover my father's mother's father - Brig. Gen. Henry Lawrence Burnett, who ran the investigation of the assassination for Secretary of War Stanton and was one of the special judge advocates at trial, under Judge Holt. In traveling to his country home in Goshen NY, I discovered that he had placed a typed manuscript of his memories of that time in the Goshen library and took away a copy.
While serving as District Attorney for the Southern District of NY under Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, he had toured around the country giving this as a talk with the purpose of defending two friends he felt unjustly castigated for their parts - General John Hancock and Judge Holt.
After the trial, ggfather stayed on to put the papers of the investigation and trial together for the Library of Congress, so I was able to buy microfilm of that record in his own handwriting. It was one of the earliest subsites I put into my website in 1998, 27 years ago.
My math puts it at 160 years ago. I did major in accounting.
2025-1865 = 160
I hang my head in shame. Thank you.
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....
Next month I’m making my 4th trip to DC. I find Ford’s Theatre and Peterson House incredibly somber places. This time I’m also visiting Surratt’s boarding house. I’m glad it has been preserved all these years, and can live with the fact that it’s now. Chinese restaurant
>>>”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.
I got a call from Ford’s Theater some years ago from a Park Ranger asking permission to play ggfather there. Gave it joyfully, of course.
I failed math 105 at FSU but I think its more like 150-160 without putting pencil to paper. 😉
Despite discussions about Abe
Killing him at the end was disastrous for America and my region in particular
His vision post war was far preferable to his radical cohorts and their in some cases Marxist buddy ups
As if Morgantheai had gotten his way in 45
I don’t think a thirst for revenge leads to rational thinking. I agree the south would have been better off if Lincoln had lived.
I switched from Physics to History of Art in my senior year at U of Chicago over Schroedinger Equations. I can truly feel the deterioration in my basic math skills at 80 years old. Things that were instinctive, no longer are.
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.
I have no math skills to deteriorate. 😆
That’s because you didn’t have a first husband who went to sleep at night setting you square root problems to multiple decimal points or having you play mental chess as you fell asleep.
Once the hand held calculator came out I became a math genius. 😆
Thanks for sharing your family history with us. It’s always interesting to read new source material that hasn’t been previously known.
bkmk
I was NEVER a math genius. But first husband claimed he married me because I was the only girl he knew carrying a slide rule in her purse. When I got into video production, I carried a time code calculator that was my pride and joy. LOVE little calculators.
My great grandmother was born the year Lincoln was Assassinated. I met her as a child.
Wow. What an opportunity
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.