The Spur Question

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending these old newspaper accounts.

Steve writes, "In a recent conversation the subject of Pvt. Jacob Soles carrying Lincoln's body from the theater to the Peterson House. I found these newspaper interviews given by him in 1915, 1933, and 1935 that I thought should be posted to the forum. Note in his 1933 interview he claims an actress was flirting on center stage when Lincoln was shot, not Harry Hawk. Also in his 1915 account, Soles claimed that Booth's spur got caught in the flag draping the box during his escape but twenty years later in his 1935 account he claims that is a myth and there was no flag covering the President's box. He also claimed in his 1933 account that Lincoln spoke as they were moving him. Needless to say, I do not believe Soles' accounts at all.

So far, the only soldier's account of being at Lincoln's box and then travelling with the body to Peterson House which I can find any kind of independent contemporary corroboration is that of Capt. Edwin Bedee of the 12th New Hampshire Infantry. (May 1866 note by Edwin Stanton in War Department Commissions Branch correspondence - B462)."