Clara Harris and Mary Lincoln

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending this article. Steve writes, "I have an article to post to the forum It's from page 1 of the 16 April 1865 edition of the New York Herald. There are two supposed statements one given by Clara Harris and the other by Mary Lincoln. After reading them I want to pose this question: Is it me, or did the Herald reporter just concoct statements from Clara and Mary?

[RJNorton]

Personally, I have never seen the reference to Mary's thoughts, but I have seen a reference to those of Clara. In his book Noah Brooks mentions it here:

https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...2#pid86390

[Steve]

Looking over the supposed Clara Harris statement, do we have an account given by Simon P. Hanscom, the editor of the National Republican who delivered a dispatch to Lincoln?

Reck says that Hanscom handed the dispatch to Forbes then went in and handed it to the President. I looked over Clara Harris's 1877 interview in the Philadelphia Weekly Times again and she only mentions Forbes coming into the box once in a while - no intruder before popping in before Booth came in to murder Lincoln.

[RJNorton]

There were many accounts given by theatergoers that night, and I am pretty sure none of these mention a "trial run" by Booth. These accounts include some people sitting very close to the State Box. IMO, Clara Harris's supposed statement should be viewed as suspect.

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending this article. Steve writes, "I have an article to post to the Forum. It's from page 1 of the 18 April 1865 edition of the New York Herald. It includes statements by Dr. Leale and James Ferguson (though the Leale statement is dated 16 April). I want to add them to compare to the supposed Clara Harris statement in the same paper a couple of days earlier. The article then goes on to describe Easter services (and how they reacted to the tragedy) throughout the city.

[J. Beckert]

There's a few more details regarding Booth's movements as related by Ferguson than I've seen by him before, but I have to say, Harris' statement really intrigues me. I have to agree with Roger, though. Booth's movements were very well documented. I think an earlier appearance in the Dress Circle area would have been noticed, especially by military men like McGowan and Crawford. Certainly someone in the box office would have noted it as well. Maybe someone did peek in "nearly one hour before the commission of the deed", but I'm having a hard time believing it was Booth.

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending this material. Steve writes, "I have part of an article to post to the Forum, well repost. It's the part of the article from the 29 Dec. 1877 edition of the Philadelphia Weekly Times containing the interview with the Rathbones, though mostly Clara. Somebody else had posted it to the Forum years ago but the link no longer works now. I saved a copy of the pdf they created from the microfilm and was able to make images of the relevant parts - unfortunately only part of the article was saved to the pdf, so I could really only make images of specifically of what the Rathbones said not the whole thing. Thinking back to the posting on the passing of John Fazio a couple of months ago, I'd like to point out that in this article the Rathbones say they left the White House together with the Lincolns going from there to Ford's theatre.

[RJNorton]

Thanks to Steve for finding another article that I am now posting. Steve writes, "I found Simon P. Hanscom's full account on page 2 of the 08 June 1865 edition of the National Republican. In it he says that he gave the dispatch to Forbes, so I think we can definitively rule out the possibility that was somehow the origin of the Harris "intruder". Honestly, I don't think anything that Herald reporter wrote came from Harris herself."

[Steve]

Possible explanation/theory about the 16 April 1865 Harris/Mary Lincoln accounts in the New York Herald:

The Herald reporter didn't actually talk to Clara Harris or Mary Lincoln. The reporter talked to somebody who talked to Clara Harris at Petersen House. That would explain why there are "statements" from Clara and Mary but not from Maj. Rathbone. The reporter put too much faith in his source and concocted the statements to "scoop" other papers, wrongly figuring it would match closely enough when Clara's account would first become public. The reporter may have talked to audience member(s) who saw Hanscom head towards the box, put 2 and 2 together and come up with 22 instead of 4.

---

Fake news, 1865 style!

[J. Beckert]

Great job, Steve. I think you've come as close as anyone is going to in trying to explain Clara's supposed statement.
It sounds like Crawford and McGowan, both members of the Veterans Reserve, were close enough to stand up, take a step and touch the door. I've wondered why, as military men whose suspicions Booth had aroused, they didn't get involved. Maybe because an American politician had not been assassinated yet.

[RJNorton]

Thanks to Steve for sending this article. Steve writes, "I have an article to post to the Forum. It's from page 4 of the 18 April 1865 edition of the New York Times. The correspondence is dated the 15th, though. In it the officer in charge of the guards at Ford's Theatre after it was secured following the assassination, Capt. James M. McCalmy. McCalmy was later part of the honor guard escorting Lincoln's body back to Illinois."

[RJNorton]

McCalmy's article implies that Booth entered the State Box though door 7, but the majority of assassination experts think Booth entered through door 8.

[Steve]

(05-18-2024 06:51 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  McCalmy's article implies that Booth entered the State Box though door 7, but the majority of assassination experts think Booth entered through door 8.

Roger, I think McCalmy only intends to sum up the account of James Ferguson's original affidavit. I can't find my copy of Timothy Good's book to compare it to what Ferguson actually said then. If Ferguson didn't imply Booth entered through door 7, then it's simply an error on McCalmy's part in retelling it to the newspaper.

[RJNorton]

Steve, I checked Ferguson's statement to James Tanner, and unless I am missing it, he doesn't comment on which of the two doors JWB entered. He just comments on seeing Booth at the door to the back passageway of the State Box.

[Steve]

I don't see how the story behind these opera glasses can be right, if McCalmy never even claims to have been in the theater that night in his contemporary newspaper account:

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/16363