New Eyewitness Account?

[kerry]

Clara Harris seems certain Keene was not there, and she certainly was in a position to know, but I do think it is possible that she could have missed her, depending on where she was focusing. She may have been so concerned about binding her financee's arm or helping clear the obstruction from the door or pulling the doctors up into the box that she never perceived Keene's presence. It's clear that some of the details just don't match up among people who were definitely there - I'd say that's normal in a chaotic, traumatic event, or even in a normal one - people just notice different things. It strikes me that apparently no one offered Clara another dress or a pitcher of water to wash off her bloody face, which kept triggering Mary. I don't think people were thinking clearly.

There was a really good book about Lincoln's death written recently - I forget if Keene was determined to be there.

From my own research:

William F. Kent’s account was that “I rose from my seat and dashed for the president’s box. Two men were holding up the president’s bleeding head and lifting him out of the low, red plush rocker he occupied. Mrs. Lincoln was standing back against the wall writing her hands and crying, dry eyed: ‘Oh, my God! My God! He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead.’ ‘No! No! It can not be! He’s only stunned; he’ll recover all right,’ I said to the suffering woman, leading her to a seat, which she refused to occupy. ‘Oh, no; he’s dead,’ she moaned again.” At that point the call for a surgeon went up and was answered. Then Laura keen entered the box. “Oh, he’s not dead. He can not be dead!” she cried to Mrs. Lincoln, ‘but the faithful wife did not even look at her.” Keene took Lincoln’s head and her lap and tried unsuccessfully to give him water. “Then she stood up, her arms around Mrs. Lincoln. I shall never forge that scene ass long as I live . . . There was the actress, her silken gown stained with blood, there the choking wife who knew that her husband was past recall[1] . . .

A.B. Wood told Tarbell in 1896 that he helped Leale into the box, and that Laura Keene was the fifth person in the box who entered through the door

[1] San Francisco Call Bulletin, February 12, 1909

William H. Flood claims he was assisted into the box by Clara. "Then another man came in and they lifted Lincoln to the ground, while Laura Keene brought water.[1]



[1] February 28, 1909 NYT

Actress Kathryn Evans mentioned a co-star leading Keene to the box in 1920.

Doctor Leale remembered that “the President's head was raised to rest on [Keene's] lap. She assured Mrs. Lincoln that he was not dead, and tried to force some water down his throat, having brought a glassful from the stage.”[1]


[1] Indianapolis Journal,Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 December 1891 [I have to double check this source]

The second person in the box was First Lieutenant Benjamin W. Loring, who watched as Leale resuscitated the President. He remembered Laura Keene entering the box and calling for brandy, though Lincoln couldn't swallow it. Long remembered the “Miss Keene disposed of it by spilling a portion upon my back while was kneeling on the floor at work over Mr. Lincoln, which accident occasioned the request that she go, and, therefore, she attended solely to Mrs. Lincoln.” He was one of the four men who carried the body.[1]



[1] Thursday, January 29, 1903  Paper: Patriot (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)

^^That one seems most convincing to me!

Col. John W. Nicholas, one of Lincoln’s guards, of Company K, also known as the Bucktails, raced to the theater where he saw Laura Keene holding the head of the President in her lap, and trying to bring him back to consciousness. Mrs. Lincoln was in a dead faint. Major Rathbone “was trying to staunch the blood” from his wounded arm, while Clara Harris was “trying to bring Mrs. Lincoln back to life.” Company K moved to guard the Petersen House.[1]


[1] The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio) 02 Dec 1894, Sun

^^Also convincing, and explains Clara's distraction.

Sarah N. Easton recalled that “In going out I reached the top of the stairs just as the President was being carried down on a stretcher. Laura Keene was following calling [“]Make way for Mrs. Lincoln,[“] who was crying [“]Let me get the assassin, Oh take me to him.[“][1]


[1] https://library.arlingtonva.us/2012/04/1...oln-slain/

^^Booth should have been locked in a room with Mary.

Augustus Clark remembered, “Mrs. Lincoln soon came over and was hardly sane all night . . . Laura Keene came over with her but did not stop[1]


[1] http://www.masshist.org/database/3042

Some newspapers reported that Laura Keene went with her to the Petersen House.[1]


[1] The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland. Mon, Apr 17, 1865 – Page 11




ETA: Major Potter is mentioned as carrying Lincoln out on the stretcher in the news coverage. Rathbone's deposition says Lincoln was carried out, and then he asked Potter to help him escort Mrs. Lincoln. So I don't know what went on there. I've seen it suggested that Rathbone's deposition was cleaned up to make him seem more in control than he was, to support his manly military image. Accounts of Mary crossing the street seem to indicate she was kind of left behind, and then a man named I think Mills and another man, maybe Potter, helped her cross, but she kind of broke ahead and entered alone, with Clara and Rathbone close behind, and he immediately passed out. I'm not sure Rathbone was ever able to actually assist her, due to his severe injury and the chaos. He may not have wanted to admit that. Some reports have Laura Keene assisting her. Actually, I can find no other signs of existence of this Major Potter in contemporary newspapers. Update: Apparently it was Maj. J.B.M. Potter. Can't find much on him.