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[Pamela]

"As for Grant, you're quoting quite selectively. Later in the article, Richards states that "in a few seconds word went round that General Grant had been shot," which suggests that the audience thought that the person shot had been Grant. The Presidential party, however, had entered the theater late and with fanfare, and with Major Rathbone and Clara Harris in the place of the Grants, so the audience at that point was well aware that Grant was not in the theater, whatever Richards himself might have supposed when he entered the theater."


Regarding Grant not being in the theater as strike against A.C. Richards for "concocting" his presence at Ford's the night of the assassination, I found this in The Evidence, p 487, statement made by James P. Ferguson, April 18, 1865: "I was talking with Harry Ford in the daytime and he said,"'Jim, your favorite is going to be in the theater tonight, and if you want to see him you must go and see him and secure a seat.'"....After the curtain raised, the President and his wife, Miss Harris, and a gentleman dressed in citizen's clothes came in. I knew that he was not Grant. It was my opinion that Grant had remained outside probably for an hour or two to come in all alone, so as not to create any excitement in the theater. I made up my mind that nobody should go into that box, without I saw whether it was Grant...."
It is reasonable to suppose that many Union supporters in the theater that night were hopeful that Grant would arrive at some point, and as Ferguson said, would not wish to draw attention to himself. Hence Richard's statement, that initially word got around that Grant had been shot is supported by another witness who thought and hoped that Grant was there, despite clearly seeing the Presidential party arrive without Grant.