Did Rathbone get blamed?

[LincolnMan]

An author (who shall go un-named) made a statement that Major Rathbone got blamed for Lincoln's assassination for not preventing Booth from the murder. I' m Rathbone must have struggled with the issue in his own mind, but I don't recall him being blamed for ot by others. Is that so?

[Gene C]

Thomas Mallon, in his book "Henry and Clara" (which is fiction) takes that view. Rathbone struggled with doubts that he should have/could have, saved the Presidents life. It's a plausible theory.

[Anita]

I don't remember reading that he was blamed for Lincoln's death. Rathbone's son wrote that he wasn't in uniform and was unarmed.
He got to Booth as quickly as he could.

Rathbone blamed himself not only for not stopping Booth before he fired the gun but also for letting Booth escape. He may have imagined that others thought as he did.

[RJNorton]

I agree with Anita. Personally I think he did all he could.

As Gene noted, Thomas Mallon, in his historical novel Henry and Clara, writes that Rathbone saw Booth out of the corner of his eye and had about 5 seconds to react. But Rathbone sat there frozen. He only reacted after the shot. Mallon seems to argue that Rathbone felt guilty about not reacting in time, but at the same time he "allowed" Booth to shoot Lincoln because he wanted "to hurt all the old men who'd made the war."

We discussed this once before, and Joe Beckert argued convincingly (in my humble opinion) that Rathbone did not see Booth enter the box. Rathbone said "he was intently observing the proceedings upon the stage with his back towards the door" when he heard Booth's gun fire. That was the first time he was aware there was trouble. I think Rathbone told the truth and shouldn't have been so tough on himself.

I am certainly willing to look at all angles. Bill, I am assuming the author you mentioned has gathered statements of other people who blamed Rathbone. I don't think I've ever read these statements.

[L Verge]

I agree with all of the above. I suspect that modern doctors would diagnose Henry as having a psychosis brought on by PTSD.

[LincolnMan]

Good answers. The author I'm referring to isn't member of this Forum, in case anyone was wondering. I don't know what sources were used because I'm listening to it in audiobook form. I can certainly understand Rathbone perhaps blaming himself ( inappropriately, in my opinion)- but I find it against reason that others would rationally blame him.

[BettyO]

I've always felt that the guilt he felt caused him to go off the deep end...probably also compounded by his time in the army. I agree with Laurie - PTSD.

[LincolnMan]

Betty: yup, I agree with you and Laurie. Did Rathbone see combat in the war?

[Anita]

He was in the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredricksburg.

[BettyO]

He was wounded in one of the battles, I think....

[Eva Elisabeth]

That was in the "Crater" of Petersburg. He was shot in the chest and was left for dead for several hours. He also saw action at Chancellorsville.

[L Verge]

Even one of those battles would leave mental scars on the toughest of soldiers.

[LincolnMan]

(12-18-2013 08:04 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  That was in the "Crater" of Petersburg. He was shot in the chest and was left for dead for several hours. He also saw action at Chancellorsville.

Wow, he saw some serious action- more than enough to cause PTSD.

[Linda Anderson]

Thomas Mallon wrote In Fact: Essays on Writers and Writing in which he discusses writing Henry and Clara.

"As I go about reconstructing this story, school records once again prove helpful. Both Henry and his guardian--who was also his future father-in-law--Ira Harris, attended Union College in Schenectady. The school's archives show that Senator Harris was graduated first in the class of 1824, whereas Henry, three decades later, was, to be generous about it, a mediocre student. He was sometimes fined for failing to attend prayers and recitations, and in the summer of 1854 was charged thirteen cents for breaking some glass. My sense of Henry was that he was a bad job from the beginning-not just unhinged by his bloody service with the Twelfth Infantry and whispers about his incompetence about his failure to save Lincoln. This broken piece of glass, still present and accounted for in a ledger that has survived for 138 years, has given me the idea for a scene in which he will display, early in the story, a little fit of temper."

http://books.google.com/books?id=692KShj...20&f=false

[Eva Elisabeth]

Linda, that is a very interesting article!!! I've always wanted to know more about how Mallon interpreted and dealt with the sources he used.