Theodore F. Bailey in the Delaware (Ohio) Gazette, undated clipping from the papers of Bailey’s grandson, Theodore Selke, of Laurel, Maryland. I am grateful to Nancy Griffith for a copy of this article.
In Reminiscences and Souvenirs of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Washington: Rufus H. Darby, 1894), 19–24, John E. Buckingham recounts Cartter’s firsthand recollection, told many years later. In this account, Cartter and Surgeon General Barnes left Seward’s together, and found Welles and Stanton already at Petersen’s. My rendition is drawn from the diary of Gideon Welles, which was written just after the fact. I used Cartter’s story of the frightened driver because it does not conflict with the Welles account. Diary of Gideon Welles (Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1911), 2:283–86.
April 5, 1865, letter of George Francis, a boarder at the Petersen house, to his niece, Josephine. Chicago Historical Society. An interesting monograph on Clark was published in W. Emerson Reck, “The Riddle of William Clark,” Lincoln Herald (Winter 1982): 218–221.
George A. Woodward and others remembered the bugle call of “Boots and Saddles,” but that call was for ordinary occasions. “To horse” was the emergency call for mounted troops; “To arms” called infantry to battle. Philip St. George Cooke, Cavalry Tactics (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1862), 7; Woodward, United Service, 474. The order is in the National Archives, Record Group 393 (I), Entry 5375. Letters sent by the commanding general, XXII Army Corps, Department of Washington. Bound volume 22, 231. Orders to halt all persons also went out from General Henry W. Halleck to General Morris in Baltimore, O.R. I:46 (3), 776; another went to General Cadwallader in Philadelphia, ibid, 779.
Rumors were reported in nearly every contemporary source. The Grant story came from the letter of B. Eglin, in the Historical Society of Great Falls, Virginia. The Usher, Speed, and Stanton rumors were reported in a letter from Usher to his wife, dated April 16, in the Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. Hubbell account is in Marc Newman, ed., Potomac Diary: A Soldier’s Account of the Capital in Crisis, 1864–65 (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000), 90.
Maunsell B. Field, Memories of Many Men and of Some Women (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), 325; Henry Ulke, an artist who lived in the Petersen house, was under the impression the doctors wanted hot water to keep the president’s legs from stiffening. Washington Evening Star, January 24, 1903 (4), 2.
Leale report; Dr. Charles S. Taft notebook; Virtually everything connected to the assassination is a matter of dispute. Doctors at the president’s deathbed disagreed on which eye was swollen, as well as the ultimate location of the ball. See John K. Lattimer, M.D., and Angus Laidlaw, “Good Samaritan Surgeon Wrongly Accused of Contributing to President Lincoln’s Death: An Experimental Study of the President’s Fatal Wound.” Journal of the American College of Surgeons 182 (May 1996): 440. Like Dr. Lattimer, I adopt the view of Dr. Barnes, who said that the bullet stopped above and slightly behind Lincoln’s right eye.
Lyman Sprague’s testimony in the Surratt trial gave the locations of the Johnson and Atzerodt rooms at the Kirkwood House. Surratt Trial, 324. Farwell’s account has been told many times, including once at the conspiracy trial. Poore, 3:174–75; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, April 21, 1865, 2.
Testimony of John Lee in Poore, 1:62–63, and his reward claim in the National Archives, Microcopy M-619, reel 455, frame 874. This series of records is from Record Group 94, from the Adjutant General’s Office (hereinafter M-619). Michael Henry memorandum to James R. O’Beirne, July 20, 1865, in the collection of Scott Balthaser, of Harrisburg, PA; my thanks to him for a copy. Henry found another suspicious character named William Graham, and reported his actions at the hotel on April 24. LAS 3:90. William R. Nevins also claimed to have helped point Atzerodt out to authorities. Poore, 2:277–81.
John Lee testimony in Poore, 1:64–65, and LAS 2:529. James O’Beirne’s memorandum list of items found is in LAS 2:526. The name on one handkerchief, as Lee read it, was “Mary R. E. Booth,” but that seems to be an error; the assassin’s mother was Mary Ann Holmes Booth. The original handkerchief is now lost. The entire balance of $455 came from two deposits made the previous October. One was in the amount of $200 Canadian, and the rest was deposited by check.
Henry Atwater’s recollections in The Washington Post, April 11, 1915 (2), 5.
Undated statement by Lyman H. Bunnell, LAS 3:665; W. S. Burch, inventor of a heating and air-conditioning system, was a wealthy man. Last Will and Testament dated March 1, 1869, Register of Wills, Washington, D.C.; John Pettit testimony in Surratt Trial, 127; Stebbins’s report was recorded in LAS 6:264.
Richards telegram to “The chief of Police Baltimore” in Box 175, Benjamin Butler Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. The same message went out to police chiefs in Philadelphia, New York, and Alexandria, Virginia.
Arthur F. Loux, “The Mystery of the Telegraphic Interruption,” Lincoln Herald (1979). Mr. Loux based his article on interviews with Heiss’s descendants and on newspaper articles about him. One descendant, Carrie Schaetzel, told substantially the same story to Philip Van Doren Stern in a letter dated March 8, 1939. Stern Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
James R. Ford in The Baltimore Sun, April 15, 1897.
Leale report. To give some idea of the conspiracy paranoia that prevailed just then, a man who signed himself “Death to Traitors” wrote to Judge Advocate General Holt inquiring about the names of the doctors who preceded Dr. Stone in the treatment of the president. He and his friends assumed these surgeons were “Conspirators in disguise prepared for the express purpose that if Booth failed in completing his Hellish purpose or act, They under the guise of friendship or professional duties might accomplish what he in his haste failed to perform.” That was a common rumor of the time. Joseph Holt Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, 47:6326; The Washington Post, April 11, 1915 (2), 5.
New York Herald, April 15, 1865, 1.
C. C. Bangs in The Washington Post, April 12, 1896, 20. Others claimed to have broken the news to Robert Lincoln as well—Thomas Pendel, for example, in The Baltimore Sun, October 30, 1901. I chose Bangs because contemporary sources corroborate the rest of his account, with minor discrepancies. Robert Todd Lincoln served on the staff of General Grant.
Spangler’s own statement in Nettie Mudd, The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (New York: The Neale Publishing Co., 1906), 326 (hereinafter Life of Mudd); Hawk in Cincinnati Enquirer, April 16, 1881, 2. His friend was Charles DeCosta Brown, an embalmer who would help prepare Lincoln for burial. Keene in the Washington Star, February 7, 1937.
One of the Confederate prisoners, C.T. Allen, paid tribute to Congressman Smith with an article about this in his own newspaper, The Princeton (Kentucky) Banner, April 14, 1881. The manuscript, with additions, is in the Perkins Library, Duke University. One of the 12th V.R.C. soldiers, F. L. Hickok, gave his side of the story, including troop strength figures, to the Allegan (Michigan) Press, and it was subsequently printed in the National Tribune, May 6, 1909. My thanks to Katherine Dhalle for the Tribune article.
Woodward, United Service, 473–74; George A. Cassidy, of the 9th Veterans’ Reserve Corps, commanded the men on Tenth Street. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Tribune, December 6, 1922. Courtesy of Ken Beck, a Cassidy descendant. Nearly all books refer to the rainy or drizzly weather, but the Signal Corps, and sailors in the Potomac, kept meticulous records of the visibility and weather conditions in their logbooks, and these documents indicate that rain did not begin until well after midnight on April 15. At the last count, on March 1, 1865, the Department of Washington had 26,056 soldiers. O.R. III, 5:506. Reference to the 13th New York is in Augur’s order to Maj. George Worcester, April 15, in National Archives, Record Group 393, Part 2, book 186. Notification to various other cities can be found in Microcopy M-473, Telegrams Sent by the War Department, reels 88 and 89. The train order is now privately owned; it is quoted from The Collector, an auction catalog. Fire Brigade n
otification is mentioned in the testimony of William Dixon, Surratt Trial, 584.
Clara Harris letter of April 25, 1865, to “My dear Mary,” in the New-York Historical Society.
Field, 322–23; Chicago Tribune, April 17, 1865, 1.
The term “navy revolver” goes back to 1851, when Colt began making a medium-caliber weapon with a naval battle scene engraved on the cylinder. This decoration gave the pistol its nickname, and soon after, other manufacturers issued revolvers of the same (.36) caliber. They came to be known generically as navy revolvers. Courtney B. Wilson, “Terms Army, Navy Refer to Caliber Not Revolver’s Use,” Antique Week, July 10, 1989, 9.
Description of the hat is in a report dated April 16 from Britten A. Hill to Secretary Stanton, in the Edwin Stanton Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Microfilm reel 9. The condition of the revolver was described in detail by Frederick Seward in The New York Times, April 13, 1913.
For the letter of Dr. William A. Child to his wife, Carrie, dated April 14, 1865, I am indebted to the doctor’s great-grandson, Everett Sawyer; Woodward, United Service, 476.
Chapter 3: “The President’s case is hopeless”
New York Herald, April 17, 1865, 1.
Edwin M. Stanton annual report to Andrew Johnson, November 22, 1865. O.R. III, 5:494–535.
The Baltimore Sun, April 18, 1865, 1. The area was near the present Lincoln Square, though some sources place this incident a little north of there. From there, Tennessee and Maryland avenues both gave easy access to the Benning Bridge, which was the commonly used route to Baltimore.
According to Gideon Welles, General Montgomery Meigs and Major Thomas T. Eckert both warned Stanton not to visit the deathbed. Both times, he seemed to be mulling it over. Welles, Diary, 2:283–86. 5. Britten Armstrong Hill biography courtesy of Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, MO; Olin biography in Biographical Directory of the American Congress (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1961), 1405. This panel seems to have taken in witnesses passively, and without regard to the evidentiary value of their statements.
Tanner’s original notes were published by Maxwell Whiteman, ed., While Lincoln Lay Dying: A Facsimile Reproduction of the First Testimony Taken in Connection with the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Philadelphia: Union League, 1968), 2.
Theodore Roscoe, in The Web of Conspiracy (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1959), 180, refers to Stanton as a “generalissimo, Commander-in-Chief, National Dictator, Supreme Police Superintendent, High Judge, Captain, King, all in one. A one-man junta, in effect . . . ,” and this reflects the typical exaggeration of Stanton’s role in the crisis.
New York Herald, April 15, 1865, 1.
William H. Bennett statement to Justice Olin, April 15, LAS 4:122; Henry B. Phillips statement, LAS 7:490; “The Assassination of President Lincoln, 1865. James A. Tanner Letter to Hadley F. Walch.” American Historical Review, 29. 3 (April 1924), 516.
Hawk in Whiteman, 1; Rathbone in Surratt Trial, 125. Walter Burton, a clerk at Booth’s hotel, knew the actor well. Though he got a clear look at the man on the stage, Burton later said he did not recognize him at the time. Washington Evening Star, January 24, 1903 (4), 2; Others who said it wasn’t Booth, LAS 2:466; Sarah Hamlin Batchelder letter, University of Maine (her emphasis).
Spangler and others confirmed that the shot came about fifteen minutes after Booth’s arrival. LAS 6:201. I have assumed, here and elsewhere, that the information given to police by any given witness was substantially the same as that produced in the conspiracy trial, though it wasn’t recorded on the earlier occasion. Rittersback’s testimony is in Poore, 2:461.
Joseph Borrows memorandum, LAS 4:64; Joe Simms in LAS 6:166. H. B. Phillips said that Spangler had disappeared. He did not refer to Spangler by name, but he clearly meant Ned, who had just sold the buggy as a favor to Booth. LAS 7:490.
Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1964), 12.
Theodore McGowan in LAS 5:317.
Emerson in the Washington Evening Star, February 9, 1913. According to a story attributed to Emerson, Elnathan Meade found the “Reserved” sign. Emerson himself claimed to have found a bloodstained playbill in the box. Evening Star, July 31, 1934, B1. The sign is now owned by Dr. John K. Lattimer. Isaac Jacquette in LAS 2:103. Eventually, Jacquette did cut off a small end section of the bar, but Lafayette Baker recovered both pieces before the trial.
William T. Kent statement, LAS 5:129. Extra caps: The Baltimore Sun, April 17, 1865, 1. The manufacturer was Henry Deringer, but the name was often misspelled “Derringer” when applied generically to any small pistol.
John J. Toffey letter to his parents, dated April 17, in the possession of his great-grandson, William Toffey.
The opera glasses are now in the Forbes collection. Harold Holzer, “Remembering the Lincoln Assassination—120 Years Later,” The Antique Trader Weekly (Dubuque, Iowa), April 17, 1985, 83.
Dr. May’s presence at the deathbed is previously unknown, but Dr. Charles Taft’s notebook lists him among those who were there.
Petersen’s young daughters, Anna and Julia, were buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery in February 1863. A sermon delivered by Rev. Abram Dunn Gillette on April 23, 1865, mentioned the girls’ deaths and the reverence with which the family treated that back room. A. D. Gillette, God Seen Above All National Calamities: A Sermon on the Death of President Lincoln (Washington: McGill & Witherow, 1865), 5. Gillette’s source was the Petersens’ minister, Rev. Samuel Finckel, of the German Lutheran Church, who was a personal friend. Souvenir hunters were mentioned in the Evening Star, April 17, 1865; Henry Ulke and Thomas Proctor, who boarded in the house, claimed to have helped the doctors. Ulke in the Evening Star, January 24, 1903 (4), 2. Petersen’s political views might be inferred from the family tradition that John C. Breckinridge, the vice president who ran against Lincoln in 1860, once boarded in the Petersen house. This information was given to me by a Petersen descendant, but city directories do not confirm the story. William Petersen filed a claim for $550 to replace “sheets, pillow-cases and carpets” damaged on the night of the assassination. I found no record that he was paid. He charged tourists fifty cents admission to see the back bedroom. Pacific Commercial Advertiser (Honolulu), September 16, 1865, 3.
Dr. Abbott’s notes appeared in The New York Times, April 15, 1865, 1.
Bangs, The Washington Post, April 12, 1896, 20. The same story is told from Mrs. Dixon’s point of view in a May 1, 1865, letter to her sister Louisa, a copy of which was provided to me by the recipient’s great-grandson, David C. Andrews, of Andes, New York. Where discrepancies exist, I have preferred Mrs. Dixon’s contemporary account to that of Bangs.
O.R. I:46 (3), 783. The original is in M-473, 88:996.
The observation about government boats is by D. C. Forney, “Thirty Years After,” Washington Evening Star, June 27, 1891, 11. Notifications to General E. O. C. Ord, commanding the U.S. forces in Richmond, and others can be found in O.R. I:46 (3), 750 et seq.
See O.R. I:46 (3), 744–45. Samuel H. Beckwith, in the Boston Post, April 11, 1915 (2), 2, identifies the veteran as George W. Porter. One of Porter’s co-workers at the American Telegraph Company also claimed to have delivered the message. See Charles Bolles, “General Grant and the News of Mr. Lincoln’s Death,” Century Magazine 18 ( June 1890): 309. Dana’s warning is in O.R. I:46 (3), 756. This story is pieced together from War Department telegrams from Microcopy M-473, 88:991 et seq., and Horace Porter, Campaigning with Grant (New York: The Century Co., 1897), 499–500. General Porter was also present at the time, and his account is consistent with contemporary sources. Fifty years had passed before Beckwith wrote the account cited above, and his version was riddled with inaccuracies.
“A Silent Witness: President Lincoln’s Cane?” by John H. Saylor. Scrapbook in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) Civil War Museum and Library, Philadelphia.
Clo
ughly’s statement is in Whiteman, 1. The documents published in this book are in the Union League of Philadelphia, but another copy of the Cloughly statement can be found in the Chicago Historical Society. The officer of the company at the White House said that only a few men were still around that night.
Roger D. Hunt and Jack Brown, Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue (Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, 1990), 308; Pension file for Timothy Ingraham, Jr., National Archives.
The incident occurred on June 4, 1864, when Tyrrell took custody of Lt. P. S. Early, of the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry. In addition to that wound, Tyrrell had also been shot five times while serving as color sergeant of the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry in the battle of Fredericksburg. William H. Tyrrell pension file, National Archives.
The room description comes from the Daily Constitutional Union, April 15, 1865, 2, and The Baltimore Sun, April 18, 1865. The cartridges, coat, and handcuffs were never used as evidence in the conspiracy trial, so Tyrrell wrote to the War Department asking if he could keep the handcuffs as a memento. Permission was granted, and today they are displayed at the Grand Army of the Republic Museum in Philadelphia. See also the statement of Asahel Hitchcox, M-619, 455:807. None of the published accounts mentioned a gimlet, but George W. Bunker testified in the conspiracy trial that he had found such a tool in the trunk on the day after the assassination. Poore, 3:60. Another desk clerk, Charles Dawson, testified about the contents of the valise and trunk at the trial of John Surratt. Surratt Trial, 337–38.
Henry Atwater in The Washington Post, April 11, 1915 (2), 5.
James Tanner once indicated he had also recorded an interview with Laura Keene. If that is true, no transcript survives. He was the only person to mention Miss Keene in that connection. Whiteman, 5.
This telegram was marked “Rec’d 1.45 am” at the War Department, and “sent 2.15 am.” The original is in the National Archives, reproduced in Microcopy M-473, 88:997–98. Published versions, such as those appearing in the newspapers and in the Official Records, were edited by telegraph operators and others. See O.R. I:46 (3), 780.
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