History's Marked Man, Countdown To Tragedy At Ford's Theatre

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
april 14 fords second announcment.JPG

Evening Star, inserted April 14th, 1865, a few lines spared from the massive coverage swirling between joy and an old, old war's finale.

city from cap marked.JPG

From June, 1861, the Capitol view- marked are Trinity Church, Department of the Interior and City Hall, among others. Somewhere, Ford's new theater waits beneath summer haze.


April 14th editions of Washington, DC newspapers are some of the most wonderful, eerie, awesome and enlightening reads out there. In celebrating the end of all the killing, Washington was ' illuminated ', one incredible night. The glow could be observed miles distant as homes, businesses, entire, government agencies and institutions lit up night sky. April 14th news frantically, joyfully rendered an account of displays, lights, patriotic tableaus and signs and portraits and flags draped, pinned, tacked, nailed and tied across DC's cityscape.

And this, also inserted in ' Local Matters '
april 14 fords vning star.JPG


And this, topping ' Amusements Tonight ', in The Evening Star.
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Mary Lincoln is variously blamed, for Grant and Julia's decision not to attend. Why she suffers something called ' blame ', in 2018, for saving their lives is beyond me. Besides, not sure it's true. Washington was a hectic, frenetic, overwhelming, giant celebration that day. Famously not up to public accolades, Grant had had a long war. All the joy may have been at odds with the memories haunting warrior dreams. Maybe the Grants just, plain wanted to go home, or be anywhere else than on display in Washington, DC.

And Lincoln nearly cancelled. He said he felt compelled to go to the play that night. Why? Because, he said, Grant had cancelled. It seemed churlish not to show up, when both couples were expected. His wife had not been well that day, reason enough to cancel. Bowing to what seemed duty, the couple were unenthusiastic audience, despite Laura Keene's reported excellence.

While papers were being read over breakfast, oil speculator and actor JW Booth was setting up his escape. He'd sold a horse and buggy over the past week, telling a buddy he had no more use of it. When a patron of Howard's Livery Stable showed up there to claim a favored mount, it was no longer available. A child named Peanut John would be found holding it that evening, hired for that purpose, outside Ford's Theater. Booth never tipped him, rushing like a coward towards escape. He was, however, to receive as recompense a shocking blow to his head from Booth's weapon. Murdering a man by shooting him from behind and beating up children? All in a day's work for a coward, blustering a cause, never to put on a uniform.

Peanut John, doubtless concussed, was arrested. Holding a horse was hazardous, April 14th, 1865.

There was our America, before April 14th, 1865 and another, vastly different, 24 hours later and into 2018. Lincoln's April, from the first Day of Fools to when he arrived, late, to sink into the comfort of a chair, wife's hand in his, in Ford's new theater was as frenetic as the crowd rushing the stage that night. screaming vengeance on the coward limping towards the freedom he had just denied Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. And millions more, really.

Taking Lincoln's last days from newspapers may not be a terribly accurate accounting of the last days, of this marked man. It's something. His last efforts on paper? Written on his knee, on the way to Ford's that night. Jolted over Washington's notoriously ill kept streets, lights of the celebration all around flickering past, Lincoln still worked.
april 15 last writing.JPG


He worked a lot, that April, before being handed over to the same undertaker who accompanied little Willie Lincoln, to his final rest.

April's newspapers followed him, neither aware a skulking shadow named Booth did, too. Thread is the last days ' before ', 150 years of after, beginning April 1. Next post.
 
April 5th and 6th, Laura Keene winding down her appearance at Ford's new theater, Lincoln immersed in the flurry of military activity, wounded count remains steady as that determined march to an end continues.

april 5 b.JPG


april 5 a.JPG


Lincoln visited the hospitals frequently, not as familiar a sight as his wife, with a country to run. He's at City Point, here, as April roared down to Appomattox- and the 15th.

What I want to know is what ninnie decided we also got to observe tax day, the 15th. Daughter in law's birthday is April 15th and she just loathes it.

april 5 keene.JPG

Really, Laura Keene must have been amazing. I think 3 different plays were featured by mid April. " Our American Cousin " was playing for the first time, that run.

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Seward, thrown from his carriage, marking his confinement to bed- where he was attacked April 14th as that coward Booth shot a man, in the back. Here, Lincoln is still traveling, hand's on, as war sputters to a close.
 
There are three things that touched me, reading through all this:
  • The guardian angel that made Julia Dent Grant convince her husband to stay with her her and not accompany the Lincoln's that evening. Imagine, an invitation from the President turned down! I guess Grant felt caught between a rock and a hard place when he cancelled his participation, but fortunately Julia did win!
  • That fateful evening claimed two more victims, who are easily forgotten: Clara Harris Rathbone, a friend of the Lincoln couple, who was invited together with her then fiancé, Major Henry Rathbone instead of the Grant couple. She was killed years later by her husband who developed a serious mental disease because had tried to hinder Booth, but could not avert the killing. So Major Rathbone and his wife should also be counted among the victims of Booth after all.
  • I always find it especially tragic that Lincoln was not instantly killed, but lived several more hours without regaining consciousness once more. And that Mary Lincoln was not allowed to see him one last time. Sure, she was out of her mind, caused by shock and grief and she would have brought more turmoil to his death bed... but still it's cruel that she could not be with him when he drew his last breath.
Btw, here is a picture of the card, the last written words of Pres. Lincoln:
Note.JPG

http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussionSymposium/thread-1873.html

The source says it's in the Library of Congress.
 
April 5th and 6th, Laura Keene winding down her appearance at Ford's new theater, Lincoln immersed in the flurry of military activity, wounded count remains steady as that determined march to an end continues.

View attachment 182721

View attachment 182720

Lincoln visited the hospitals frequently, not as familiar a sight as his wife, with a country to run. He's at City Point, here, as April roared down to Appomattox- and the 15th.

What I want to know is what ninnie decided we also got to observe tax day, the 15th. Daughter in law's birthday is April 15th and she just loathes it.

View attachment 182722
Really, Laura Keene must have been amazing. I think 3 different plays were featured by mid April. " Our American Cousin " was playing for the first time, that run.

View attachment 182723
Seward, thrown from his carriage, marking his confinement to bed- where he was attacked April 14th as that coward Booth shot a man, in the back. Here, Lincoln is still traveling, hand's on, as war sputters to a close.

Lincoln should have persuaded Mary to stay home and headed to the Oxford for ballet, burlesque, song, dance, negro delineations, and a screaming farce at the end.............
 
Thank you for posting that link. What a horrible thing that family had to endure and get through.
 
I got to thinking about General Grant. Wouldn't he have had a guard with him? If so, if he had gone to Fords, the assassination wouldn't have happened because Booth wouldn't have been able to get past the guard.
 
View attachment 182324
Evening Star, inserted April 14th, 1865, a few lines spared from the massive coverage swirling between joy and an old, old war's finale.

View attachment 182325
From June, 1861, the Capitol view- marked are Trinity Church, Department of the Interior and City Hall, among others. Somewhere, Ford's new theater waits beneath summer haze.


April 14th editions of Washington, DC newspapers are some of the most wonderful, eerie, awesome and enlightening reads out there. In celebrating the end of all the killing, Washington was ' illuminated ', one incredible night. The glow could be observed miles distant as homes, businesses, entire, government agencies and institutions lit up night sky. April 14th news frantically, joyfully rendered an account of displays, lights, patriotic tableaus and signs and portraits and flags draped, pinned, tacked, nailed and tied across DC's cityscape.

And this, also inserted in ' Local Matters '
View attachment 182321

And this, topping ' Amusements Tonight ', in The Evening Star.
View attachment 182322
Mary Lincoln is variously blamed, for Grant and Julia's decision not to attend. Why she suffers something called ' blame ', in 2018, for saving their lives is beyond me. Besides, not sure it's true. Washington was a hectic, frenetic, overwhelming, giant celebration that day. Famously not up to public accolades, Grant had had a long war. All the joy may have been at odds with the memories haunting warrior dreams. Maybe the Grants just, plain wanted to go home, or be anywhere else than on display in Washington, DC.

And Lincoln nearly cancelled. He said he felt compelled to go to the play that night. Why? Because, he said, Grant had cancelled. It seemed churlish not to show up, when both couples were expected. His wife had not been well that day, reason enough to cancel. Bowing to what seemed duty, the couple were unenthusiastic audience, despite Laura Keene's reported excellence.

While papers were being read over breakfast, oil speculator and actor JW Booth was setting up his escape. He'd sold a horse and buggy over the past week, telling a buddy he had no more use of it. When a patron of Howard's Livery Stable showed up there to claim a favored mount, it was no longer available. A child named Peanut John would be found holding it that evening, hired for that purpose, outside Ford's Theater. Booth never tipped him, rushing like a coward towards escape. He was, however, to receive as recompense a shocking blow to his head from Booth's weapon. Murdering a man by shooting him from behind and beating up children? All in a day's work for a coward, blustering a cause, never to put on a uniform.

Peanut John, doubtless concussed, was arrested. Holding a horse was hazardous, April 14th, 1865.

There was our America, before April 14th, 1865 and another, vastly different, 24 hours later and into 2018. Lincoln's April, from the first Day of Fools to when he arrived, late, to sink into the comfort of a chair, wife's hand in his, in Ford's new theater was as frenetic as the crowd rushing the stage that night. screaming vengeance on the coward limping towards the freedom he had just denied Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. And millions more, really.

Taking Lincoln's last days from newspapers may not be a terribly accurate accounting of the last days, of this marked man. It's something. His last efforts on paper? Written on his knee, on the way to Ford's that night. Jolted over Washington's notoriously ill kept streets, lights of the celebration all around flickering past, Lincoln still worked.
View attachment 182323

He worked a lot, that April, before being handed over to the same undertaker who accompanied little Willie Lincoln, to his final rest.

April's newspapers followed him, neither aware a skulking shadow named Booth did, too. Thread is the last days ' before ', 150 years of after, beginning April 1. Next post.
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!
 
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!


There's more! Meant to get into it last year, thinking of the countdown to Appomattox, bumping into Seward's accident somewhere and an account of the illumination which lit up Washington only a few days earlier. We never hear of it and probably would, had it not been for a man named Booth.

Since so much is on the 1hose dates, may as well put it here early. I can't find photos although there must be some.

Every, single home, business, agency and institution was decorated lavishly, flags, patriotic signs and portraits and effigies of heroes festooned from roof to cellar, lights from each window, some blazed from rooftops. You just cannot imagine how it was accomplished in such a short space of time or how the poor sections pulled it off- but they did.

april 14 illu 2.JPG

Took up a whole page, newspaper staff covering a massive portion of the city

april 14 illu.JPG


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april 14 illu4.JPG

Willards, a semi circle of gas jets forming the word " Union ". Can you imagine?

It's a Who's Who of DC, businesses and people, too- and an overlooked event. Must have been crazy impressive, an out pouring of joy we did not see before and would not again until the Great Wars closed on their children and grandchildren.
 
Lincoln should have persuaded Mary to stay home and headed to the Oxford for ballet, burlesque, song, dance, negro delineations, and a screaming farce at the end.............


He did not wish to go out. It probably would not have been tough to persuade Mary, on staying home? She wasn't feeling well, guess would be all the noise brought on one of those rotten headaches which plagued her forever. Only reason he went out in the first place was because Grant canceled. Lincoln felt it a shame, with the public expecting them, neither showing up.
 
April 7th, 1865 A false report of surrender reaches hyper-reactive papers, only to be recalled in the next article. Lee and Grant had indeed been exchanging messages but no reporter was privy to those, much less that these were tensely flown back and forth.

Lincoln must have been sleepless, these last days of his life, torn between expectation, hope and some probably secret conviction Lee would once again find the means to continue the fight.

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Lincoln sending up to the minutes dispatches to our war weary nation

april 7 from linc.JPG

And we're almost back- together

april 7th keene.JPG

And in other news......., April 7th, 1865

april 7 headlines.JPG
 
This is a fascinating thread! Most are centered on Lincoln and what immediately happened - hardly anyone knows what all was going on at the same time. Bloody Crimes talks about the hunt for Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government while following Lincoln's funeral train. Honestly had never realized the two were going on at the same time the victory celebrations were. The country was really thrown a series of hay makers along with great joy. It's also amazing how the most innocent people were caught up in the events of a very sinister evening - like Peanut John! I've heard of him before, just passing, but is more known about him? How did the kid's life go after this? So often, when particularly important players in history are killed, it seems unbelievably strange things happen to just about everybody who was even remotely connected to them. I suppose it's those three Greek sisters and their knitting!
 
This is a fascinating thread! Most are centered on Lincoln and what immediately happened - hardly anyone knows what all was going on at the same time. Bloody Crimes talks about the hunt for Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government while following Lincoln's funeral train. Honestly had never realized the two were going on at the same time the victory celebrations were. The country was really thrown a series of hay makers along with great joy. It's also amazing how the most innocent people were caught up in the events of a very sinister evening - like Peanut John! I've heard of him before, just passing, but is more known about him? How did the kid's life go after this? So often, when particularly important players in history are killed, it seems unbelievably strange things happen to just about everybody who was even remotely connected to them. I suppose it's those three Greek sisters and their knitting!
The story of "Peanut John". His real name was apparently Joseph Burroughs (or Burrows) -- though that's not exactly certain. Actually, Booth had arranged for Ned Spangler, a Ford's stage hand, to hold his horse. Spangler had fobbed the job off on Peanut John (aka "Johnny Peanut"). Both were arrested, Spangler was convicted as a minor conspirator and got 6 years (served alongside Dr Mudd). Peanut John testified and was cleared. Both Burroughs and Spangler had often looked after Booth's horse in the past.
 
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