Major Rathbone's accomodation in Hannover

[RJNorton]

That's an excellent question, Martha. Thomas Mallon, if I understand his book correctly, indicates Rathbone had an ambivalent attitude toward both Abraham and Mary. Rathbone was upset at the suffering and huge loss of life in the war. So, when Booth entered the box, Rathbone had mixed emotions. Part of him wanted Lincoln to suffer. The other part wanted Booth to be stopped before firing. This mental conflict caused him a lifetime of suffering.

We discussed this once before, and Joe Beckert brought up an excellent argument why Mallon is probably wrong. But Mallon implies that Rathbone saw Booth out of the corner of his eye and had about 5 seconds to react. But Rathbone sat there frozen. He only reacted after the shot. Mallon seems to argue that Rathbone felt guilty about not reacting in time, but at the same time he "allowed" Booth to shoot Lincoln because he wanted "to hurt all the old men who'd made the war."

In another part of the book Mallon notes that Rathbone was upset at the fact the Lincolns were in such mourning over Willie's death at a time when so many other families were suffering due to terrible injuries and death during the war. Rathbone felt Willie's death was "paltry," and the attention it got was "ill-proportioned" when considering the totality of the carnage going on in the battlefields.

Whether or not the reader agrees with Mallon, I think it's a good read, and I recommend it to others. I believe Mr. Mallon spoke at a Surratt Conference in recent years.