State Box

[L Verge]

This is from one of the NPS websites for Ford's Theatre: Instantly, Major Rathbone sprang upon the assassin. Booth dropped the Deringer, broke from Rathbone's grasp, and lunged at him with a large knife. Rathbone parried the blow, but received a deep wound in his left arm above the elbow. Booth placed one hand on the balustrade, to the left of the center pillar, raised his other arm to strike at the advancing Rathbone, and vaulted over the railing. Rathbone again seized Booth but only caught his clothing. As he leaped, Booth's right boot struck the framed engraving of Washington, turning it completely over. The spur on his right heel caught in the fringe of the Treasury Guards' flag and brought it down, tearing a strip with it. These obstacles caused the assassin to lose his balance and he fell awkwardly on the stage, at least 11-1/2 feet below, tearing a rent in the green baize carpet. He landed in a kneeling position, with his left leg resting on the stage. In the fall, the large bone of his left leg was fractured about 2 inches above the ankle.

Note that the Treasury Guards' flag is the supposed culprit of tripping Booth. The GAR Museum in Springfield has an American flag that they claim provenance on. American flags flanked the far ends of the box, so that would have been some wild swinging of Booth's legs to get entangled in it. Also, if I interpret his leap correctly from the above, he placed his left hand on the balustrade in front of Mr. & Mrs. Lincoln and held the knife in his right hand to guard against Rathbone in preparing for his jump.

Did you catch a big error in this NPS description, however? They have Booth breaking the large bone of his left leg.