Lincoln Even More Little Known Victims of the Lincoln Assassination Plot

Bee

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Asst. Regtl. Quartermaster Gettysburg 2017
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On this Day 14 April 1865, a lot more happened than I previously knew. Here is a great primer of the other events that took place of the night of 14 April -- Good Friday just like today -- as they unfolded. If your personal understanding of the history of the Civil War is as shoddy as mine, some of this information will come as a surprise -- especially the story of Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone (do follow that link).

April 14th, 1865 was a pretty bad day for a lot of people. Lincoln was assassinated, Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone had their lives torn apart, and Secretary of State William H. Seward was brutally stabbed along with most of his family and a few bystanders.

Oh, you hadn’t heard about that last one?

Booth and his co-conspirators’ plan was larger than just the assassination of Lincoln. Their plot included a number of top officials in the U.S. government whose death they hoped would bring the country to its knees. Lewis Powell, a twenty year old Confederate soldier, was chosen to assassinate the Secretary of State. Rest of the story here: http://blogs.weta.org/boundarystone...ttle-known-victims-lincoln-assassination-plot
 
Interestingly I've pondered this event often. Seward's unfortunate freak carriage accident almost claimed his life, or did it? Lewis Powell unlike his co-conspirator George Atzerodt, did not lose his neve and was determined to carry out his assignment. Powell was well trained in the art of killing as he was an ex confederate solider who was wounded at Gettysburg and later rode with Mosby's rangers. His attack was so savage he seriously wounded several in the house. After his gun failed to fire he savagely stabbed Seward which should have resulted in Seward's death. Ironically the head and neck brace Seward was wearing as a result of his accident miraculously blocked many of Powell's trusts with his blade.

What most people would consider a very unfortunate chain of events for poor Seward, right?

For what ever reason, I in my mind think the tragic carriage accident actually saved Seward's life. Just another case of actual history being stranger than fiction.

BTW: IIRC just that day Lincoln visited Seward and upon seeing his friends condition actually laid down in the bed with him and spoke very kindly to his injured friend.
 
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The article about Seward does not mention a couple other victims of the Assassination Plot. By early 1865 William Seward's wife, Frances had been in frail health for years. Her health and dislike of functioning as a politician's wife caused her to remain in their Auburn NY home. While generally supportive of her husband's political career, she would have preferred he devoted more of his life to his family. Frances was well informed, had strong opinions and was a devoted abolitionist. Following William's accident and the injuries sustained by her family at Powell's hands, Frances traveled to Washington to assist in their care. The acute anxiety she suffered by these events are believed to have caused her fatal heart attack on June 21.

The Seward's daughter Fanny also suffered from frail health, having never fully recovered from a bout of typhoid fever as a child. Fanny served as her father's companion and hostess during William's time in Washington. She had aspirations to be a writer and kept a diary of her life in Washington. Fanny was present during Powell's attach; he shoved her aside to get to Seward. None of my reading indicates Fanny was stabbed. She was traumatized by the events and her health declined. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis in August, 1866, and died on October 29th of that year.

http://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/fanny-seward/
 
The article about Seward does not mention a couple other victims of the Assassination Plot. By early 1865 William Seward's wife, Frances had been in frail health for years. Her health and dislike of functioning as a politician's wife caused her to remain in their Auburn NY home. While generally supportive of her husband's political career, she would have preferred he devoted more of his life to his family. Frances was well informed, had strong opinions and was a devoted abolitionist. Following William's accident and the injuries sustained by her family at Powell's hands, Frances traveled to Washington to assist in their care. The acute anxiety she suffered by these events are believed to have caused her fatal heart attack on June 21.

The Seward's daughter Fanny also suffered from frail health, having never fully recovered from a bout of typhoid fever as a child. Fanny served as her father's companion and hostess during William's time in Washington. She had aspirations to be a writer and kept a diary of her life in Washington. Fanny was present during Powell's attach; he shoved her aside to get to Seward. None of my reading indicates Fanny was stabbed. She was traumatized by the events and her health declined. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis in August, 1866, and died on October 29th of that year.

http://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/fanny-seward/

Thank you for following up on Frances Seward. It was mentioned that she, too, was a victim who took longer to die. The tragedy of the assassination/assassination attempt was broad reaching - far more than I ever knew.
 
Stanton writes to Sherman to inform him of Lincoln’s assassination, and to warn him that another conspirator is said to be after Sherman.

Official Records:


WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington City. April 15, 1865 – 12. 10 p. m.
(Sent 1. 40 p. m.)
Major-General SHERMAN,
Commanding:

President Lincoln was murdered about 10 o’clock last night in his private box at Ford’s Theater in this city, by an assasin who shot him through the head with a pistol ball. About the same hour Mr. Seward’s house was entered by another assassin, who stabbed the Secretary in several places, but it is thought he may possibly recover; but his son Frederick will probably die of wounds received from the assassin. The assassin of the President leaped from the box, brandishing a dagger, exclaiming, Sic semper tyrannis! and that now Virginia was revenged. Mr. Lincoln fell senseless from his seat, and continued in that state until twenty-two minutes after 7 o’clock, at which time he breathed his last. General Grant was published to be at the theater, but fortunately did not go. Vice-President Johnson now becomes President, and will take the oath of office and assume the duties to-day.

I have no time to add more than to say that I find evidence that an assassin is also on your track, and I beseech you to be more heedful than Mr. Lincoln was of such knowledge.

EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.

***********************************************************************

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 15, 1865.
Major-General SHERMAN:

It has been stated that when an assassin was chosen to kill Mr. Seward one also was sworn to murder you. His name was said to be Clark. He is about feet nine inches high, rather slender, high cheek bones, low forehead, eyes dark and sunken, very quiet, seldom or never speaks in company unless spoken to, has a large dark-brown mustache and large long goatee, hair much darker than whiskers, complexion rather sallow; while in Paris, March 12, wore dark-gray clothes, a wide-awake slouched hat. He is a Texan by birth, and has a very determined look. He had a confederate, whose name was Johnson, but no description of him is given.

H. W. HALLECK,
Major-General and Chief of Staff.

http://gathkinsons.net/sesqui/?p=7626
 
Here is Sherman's response to Halleck:

Headquarters Military Division Of The Mississippi, In The Field, Raleigh, North Carolina, April 18, 1865.

General H. W. Halleck, Chief of staff, Washington, D. C.

General: I received your dispatch describing the man Clark, detailed to assassinate me. He had better be in a hurry, or he will be too late. The news of Mr. Lincoln's death produced a most intense effect on our troops. At first I feared it would lead to excesses; but now it has softened down and can easily be guided. None evinced more feeling than General Johnston, who admitted that the act was calculated to stain his cause with a dark hue; and he contended that the loss was most serious to the South, who had begun to realize the Mr. Lincoln was the best friend they had.

I cannot believe that even Mr. Davis was privy to the diabolical plot, but think it the emanation of a set of young men of the South. who are very devils. I want to throw upon the South the care of this class of men, who will soon be obnoxious to their industrial classes as to us.

Had I pushed Johnston's army to an extremity, it would have dispersed, and done infinite mischief, Johnston informed me that General Stoneman had been at Salisbury, and was now at Statesville. I have sent him order to come to me.

General Johnston also informed me that General Wilson was at Columbus Georgia. and he wanted me to arrest his progress. I leave that to you. Indeed. if the President sanctions my agreement with Johnston, our interest is to cease all destruction.

Please give all orders necessary according to the views the Executive may take, and influence him. and believe that, the Confederate armies once dispersed, we can adjust all else fairly and well. I am yours, etc.,

W.T. Sherman, Major-General commanding.

Source: Memoirs of General William T. Sherman by William S. McFeely Pages 354 and 355

Clearly the threat worried Sherman very little.
 
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Sherman announces to the troops that Lincoln has been assassinated:

SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS No. 50.
HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Raleigh, N. C.,
April 17, 1865.

The general commanding announces, with pain and sorrow, that on the evening of the 11th [14th] instant, at the theater in Washington City, His Excellency the President of the United States, Mr. Lincoln, was assassinated by one who uttered the State motto of Virginia. At the same time the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, whilst suffering from a broken arm, was also stabbed by another murderer, in his own house, but still survives, and his son was wounded, supposed fatally. It is believed by persons capable of judging that other high officers were designed to share the same fate. Thus it seems that our enemy, despairing of meeting us in open, manly warfare, begins to resort to the assassin’s tools. Your general does not wish you to infer that this is universal, for he knows that the great mass of the Confederate Army would scorn to sanction such acts, but he believes it the legitimate consequence of rebellion against rightful authority. We have met every phase which this war has assumed, and must now be prepared for it in its last and worst shape, that of assassins and guerrillas; but woe unto the people who seek to expend their wild passions in such a manner, for there is but one dread result.

By order of Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman:
L. M. DAYTON,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

Sherman and His Campaigns: A Military Biography Samuel Millard Bowman, Richard Biddle Irwin, [Pg 395-396]​
 
There was speculation that General Grant was an intended victim of the assassination, too.


When they arrived, people were outside their [General and Julia Grant] Burlington house in the starlit night to ask if the news that Lincoln had been shot was true. In Washington the death agony of the president was accompanied by hysteria. The stabbing of the secretary of state was taken as confirmation that the attacks were not the act of one madman, but the part of a rebel conspiracy to kill the heads of the government. Word that Grant, by not going to the theater, had had a narrow escape from death began to circulate on the periphery of the feverish talk of the assassination itself. When she paused to recollect the day, Julia Grant told of being rudely watched by a lean mustached man in the dining room of the Willard that afternoon and described the fierce look of that same man as he had galloped past their carriage and then ridden back to stare closely into their faces while she and the general were on the way to the railroad station. The memory of these frightening encounters, real or imagined, underscored the belief that Grant had been one of the intended victims of the conspiracy. It was in fact, logical that an angry murderer might have pursued an intended victim who was unknowingly making his escape. And Julia's description fitted John Wilkes Booth. Grant: A Biography, William S. McFeely [pg 225]


 
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Seward's photos were posed in profile thereafter. The attack left him scarred. It's amazing and a testimony to old whip leather and New York determination he returned to public life.

A letter comes up for auction sometimes and we miss it each time. It's to Frances, from niece Catherine Huson, post attack. Catherine was made widow in 1861- husband Calvin died a civilian prisoner, swept up in the shambles at Bull Run. He'd been part of NY's political machine, married his niece. Sometimes stood in, when Frances's health was poor. It's hard to read, knowing the story. Frances's state was not good at best, Catherine knows her aunt. Saved a copy somewhere, gives you chills. Perhaps Frances had a dose of whip leather, too.

The Rathbone story has always seemed one of the most tragic to come out of the war. You could not write a more horrendous sequel to the murder. Clara knew he'd been horribly affected, increasingly so but all it did was increase her level of care and concern for her husband. 150 years ago it was one's moral imperative as a man to protect. They lived these standards, it was not merely bluster or words on paper like today. He could not protect Lincoln and it destroyed him. How odd he killed her in the end. Women were also considered worthy of protection, and protected.

How telling. This attack, a man murdered in front of Rathbone, violence and carnage- and we see what it did to him. Mary Lincoln was wearing her husband's brains, a further victim to the most famous murder in our country's history. There is no compassion reserved for her, on this day.
 
Thank you for posting this. The Clara & Henry Rathbone stories were entirely new to me.

Whoa! Thanks for posting this @Bee I had never read the rest of the story of the Rathbones. Such a tragedy.
Rathbone murdered his wife in my hometown of Hannover and after spending the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum in nearby Hildesheim, was buried here in Hannover. Unfortunately because of apparent neglect, the gravesite was abandoned in the 1950s

We had a few threads mentioning the Rathbone tragedy earlier, there is a spooky side story about the dress Clara Harris, the future Mrs. Rathbone, had worn that evening.

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/major-rathbone-and-the-lincoln-assassination.76361/#post-524869

https://www.civilwartalk.com/thread...lincoln-was-assassinated.123293/#post-1304518
 
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