Lincoln's last words

[LincolnToddFan]

In the book "We Saw Lincoln Shot" by Timothy Good, at least one eyewitness reported that Mrs. Lincoln rested her hand on her husband's knee much of the time, and that she frequently called his attention to something on stage that she thought was funny, and that she seemed to be deriving great satisfaction from seeing him enjoy himself.

So she was apparently sitting close enough to have been whispering to him at some point in the evening.

As for the "what will Miss Harris think?" comment, I've never questioned it's veracity at all. After reading almost everything in print on MTL it sounds just the way she related to AL (at least when she was in a good mood, as she definitely was on that tragic night). She was coquettish and in very high spirits. The war was over. She and AL had taken a carriage ride in the afternoon where he had pointedly requested that they be alone together. They were looking optimistically toward the future, both of them.

It would not have been out of character for MTL to have flirted with her husband a little in the State Box that night. She was truly happy, for what would turn out to be the last time in her life.

"She won't think anything about it" might have been his last words to her, even if they weren't necessarily uttered just before the bullet was fired. Since she told this to her close friend Dr. Anson Henry less than 48 hours after the assassination when she was still raw with shock, it gives it even more credence. The last words her beloved husband spoke to her would have been engraved in her heart.

I do agree that the "Jerusalem" convo is likely to have taken place during their afternoon carriage ride, if it ever took place. I don't believe AL would talk like that during a slightly raunchy comedy in a theater, with hundreds of people around.