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

Laura Keene's efforts to help Lincoln detailed here:

http://civilwar.gratzpa.org/2012/01/laura-keene-and-the-bloody-dress/

"Finally, it must be noted that not one identified eyewitness to the event gave a contemporaneous account that Laura Keene entered the state box and cradled Lincoln’s head in her lap. Of all the contemporaneous drawings and pictures of the state box and the assassination that have emerged – and there are many – not one, shows Laura Keene on the state box floor cradling Lincoln on her silk gown. There is not one contemporaneous account of Laura Keene‘s appearance in the blood-stained costume. No written testimony has been found from Laura Keene herself which admits to the act. And, only one supposed contemporaneous newspaper account – reported as a story told to him rather than one he himself eye-witnessed, tells the tale.

We do know that Laura Keene was allowed to leave Washington – with her entourage – and was arrested at Harrisburg along with two other assassination witnesses – John Dyott and Harry Hawk. Taken from t
ahe train also were her many trunks (and her piano) which always traveled with her – trunks that were to be transferred to the westward train as she journeyed toward Cincinnati..."


Whoa, did not know that, either! She seems to have been instrumental in keeping a riot from happening inside the theater- a clear voice in chaos. Thank you for posting that, and how awful! Cannot imagine how terrifying it was for Keene, being scooped up in that vicious net.

One newspaper account ( I think I have it ) says Keene's voice could be heard above the yells and screams, as the crowd rushed the stage. She was calm, and called for calm. Because her voice was well known and she was, too, it was helpful.
 
April 18th saw publication of Robinson's account of the night Lewis Powell sought to kill William Henry Seward- another act of cowardice as an older man lay recovering from a severe accident. In the era, ' drawing steel ' on another man was considered especially heinous- as shameful as shooting him in the back, for instance.

Evening Star, April 18, 1865

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What a long, long way from Maine. Our Maine boys were certainly an immovable set. Powell discovered this fortunate circumstance.

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As far as I can find, amazingly, Robinson was not arrested like so many others. Thankfully.

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Terrific description of Lewis, now that we know who he was

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Robinson must have been quite a massive, strong man, despite his wound- we know Powell was a young beast. To have gotten the better of him, Robinson was quite an effective body guard. Maine!

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If you do not wish to read of the President's funeral, fair enough. It was indeed an awful day for a lot of the country. Frank Leslie's published this sketch, which is the only one I can find ( so far ). If there's anything negative to say, please start a thread elsewhere?

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Raining, you see the people hanging out of window, even, holding umbrellas, to see the funeral procession going by.

Mary Lincoln did not get to the East Room, at the White House. Her children were there, or the two left to her.

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NYPL image of the East Room, enlarged from stereoview. Unclear what year although this series contributed quite a few of ' our ' era images to the collection.

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Of course there is more. Last thing intended is turn Lincoln's funeral into a big snore. That, it was not. Crushingly, monumentally sad.
 
Quite a few men who knew him spoke. Rev. Dr. Gurley, of the NY Ave. Presbyterian Church gave the sermon, which I've always loved. Will not burden the thread with the whole thing but parts seem terribly important.

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Ah!

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We tend to hear Lincoln was not ' religious ', but he sure was, what he was.

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Better stop here. It was a full, awful, beautiful and staggering day. We were never the same.

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Coming back here to post Lincoln's words, early March 1865. Immortal? I don't much care where anyone stands on Lincoln- words supercede agenda just like country must supercede man. With 6 weeks left on the planet he left us this.

" With malice towards none; with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds... "

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Because April was such an unfathomably awful month through those years, anniversaries proliferate. Remember thinking when in blazes else in history do we find so many hugely impactful events in such a short space of time as April, 1865. We could do a countdown of everyone lost on Sultana, their last travels from prisoner to finally breathing freedom's air. April that year was like shattering glass, shards exploding across this country. You can't find all of them much less glue them together again.
 
April 14th, 1865. Mary hadn't been feeling well. Her husband felt it an obligation to attend Ford Theater's latest production because Grant had cancelled. IMO, the Grants had had enough of seeing his face in paper mache and 6 feet high all over the city during The Grand Illumination. It'd been an awfully long war. Time to go home. So Lincoln felt it unfair to have announced both would attend and no one at all show up. Mary agreed, went that night night despite feeling dreadful.

One of those most famous carriage rides in our history. He never came home.
 
This is only a 4-page thread because it was deliberately added to as a countdown, as it were, to his death, not because there's been a ton of discussion or feedback. Still, it's always seemed so eerie to me, reading as Lincoln moved through those days towards his death.

April, 1865 was another awful April in American history. For a month so lavishly supplied with all-things- beautiful, nature awakened, buds transforming into bloom, new life literally beneath every rock- it seems one where it'd be wise for everyone to just go back to bed and wait for May. 1865. An entire war ended, balancing the scales yes- and a President murdered and 1,168 lives lost on the Mississippi's Sultana's disaster.

We've had other dreadful Aprils. Someone in 1865 said " When will this be over? "
 
" There is no place I so much desire to see as Jerusalem "

They've been dressed up, added to, embellished and argued over but these seem to me to have been the last words spoken by Abraham Lincoln as he held his wife's hand one night at Ford's Theater. The play can't have held his attention very well, he was having a conversation with his wife when a murderer put an end to all of them.

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And he did. April 15th, 1865. Rest well President Lincoln.


"Jerusalem, my happy home,
name ever dear to me,
when shall my labours have an end,
thy joys when shall I see?
"
 
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