Assassination Trivia

[L Verge]

This is a piece of trivia, but not posed as a question: I learned some things about William J. Ferguson (the young call boy/actor at Ford's on the night of the assassination) today that some of you may already know (I'm a slow learner...). The "J" in his name stands for "Jason;" and I knew that he went on to star in silent films, but I did not know that he portrayed Abraham Lincoln in one of them - The Battle Cry of Peace. See below from Norman Gassbarro's excellent Civil War Blog.

In the post yesterday, the story of the silent film, "The Battle Cry of Peace” (1915) was given and how that film related to the issue of preparedness for the United States' possible participation in the world war that was already taking place in Europe. In that post, it was noted that William J. Ferguson, an actor in the film, played the role of Abraham Lincoln. Because the film has not survived, it is nearly impossible to determine how he portrayed Lincoln. What it is possible to do, however, is to read the story of Ferguson’s eyewitness to the assassination. The first time he told the story which follows here, was in 1915, in the context of the release and showing of the portrayal of Lincoln in two different silent films. The last time he told the story was in 1930, the year of his death.