New Eyewitness Account?

[RJNorton]

(05-20-2018 09:56 PM)kerry Wrote:  [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]

I tend to be very dubious of these claims. As far as I know there is no evidence Loring was the second person in the box (or even whether he was in the box at all). The box was so full I cannot envision a new name in it. There is also no evidence that I know of that Loring carried the body.

The book I Held Lincoln: A Union Sailor's Journey Home by Richard E. Quest makes all kinds of claims for Loring that simply are not true. Here are some of these false claims from what I could read on Amazon's website:

1. A naval officer named William Flood was the first to reach Lincoln.
2. Loring and Flood took hold of Lincoln and slid him out of the chair onto the floor.
3. Loring looked for the wound and found it in the back of Lincoln's head.
4. Keene spilled some brandy down Loring's back, and Loring yelled, "Get that woman away from here."
5. A man entered the box and proclaimed that a place for the President had been secured across the street.
6. Loring motioned for 3 men to help him carry the President.