Your guess: "angels" or "ages?"

[Jim Garrett]

This account appears to have O'Beirne on the streets of D.C. while the President lay dying.

Laurie, this is also what I have thought. The reason I am so interested in this topic is that I receive questions about the deathbed through my website, and for 17 years I have been giving out wrong information if O'Beirne were there.

I think my best source has been W. Emerson Reck's A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours." The only mention of O'Beirne is in conjunction with Johnson's very brief visit around 1:30 A.M. Reck has a very detailed account of the last few hours prior to the president's death, and he mentions many names being there, but absolutely no mention of O'Beirne.

In looking at the Rubber Room booklet by Harold Holzer and Frank Williams I cannot find a single mention of O'Beirne in any of various deathbed drawings. This includes Chappel's lithograph that includes an incredible 47 people (many of whom were really not there). O'Beirne is not one of the 47.

As I mentioned before Fred Hatch does not include O'Beirne in his list of people at the deathbed.

I would love to see a definitive answer to this so I can correct my files if need be. Was O'Beirne the type of person who would embellish things many years after the fact? I do not know, but I think I would at least like to see evidence that another mourner at the deathbed saw him there. As far as I can tell, that evidence is lacking. For example, Gideon Welles mentions people he saw there in his diary but O'Beirne is not listed.

If Jim Garrett sees this maybe he will know if Ford's Theatre keeps a list of those folks present at the deathbed.

I will check on it. Mt guess is that if Fred Hatch has one. It will probably be a pretty good list.

[richard petersen]

I would say "ages" because no angel would allow Betty O (2nd post on page 1) to refer to the Petersen house as Peterson.

[BettyO]

Opps - My bad!

[Frederick Hatch]

This account appears to have O'Beirne on the streets of D.C. while the President lay dying.

Laurie, this is also what I have thought. The reason I am so interested in this topic is that I receive questions about the deathbed through my website, and for 17 years I have been giving out wrong information if O'Beirne were there.

I think my best source has been W. Emerson Reck's A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours." The only mention of O'Beirne is in conjunction with Johnson's very brief visit around 1:30 A.M. Reck has a very detailed account of the last few hours prior to the president's death, and he mentions many names being there, but absolutely no mention of O'Beirne.

In looking at the Rubber Room booklet by Harold Holzer and Frank Williams I cannot find a single mention of O'Beirne in any of various deathbed drawings. This includes Chappel's lithograph that includes an incredible 47 people (many of whom were really not there). O'Beirne is not one of the 47.

As I mentioned before Fred Hatch does not include O'Beirne in his list of people at the deathbed.

I would love to see a definitive answer to this so I can correct my files if need be. Was O'Beirne the type of person who would embellish things many years after the fact? I do not know, but I think I would at least like to see evidence that another mourner at the deathbed saw him there. As far as I can tell, that evidence is lacking. For example, Gideon Welles mentions people he saw there in his diary but O'Beirne is not listed.

If Jim Garrett sees this maybe he will know if Ford's Theatre keeps a list of those folks present at the deathbed.

---

On the night of the assassination, Stanton sent the following order to O'Beirne: "You are relieved from all other duty at this time and directed to employ yourself and your detective force in the detection and arrest of the murderers of the President and the assassin who attempted to murder Mr. Seward, and make report from time to time." O'Beirne personally escorted Vice President Johnson to the Petersen House, in company with Leonard James Farwell. In view of his orders, O'Beirne would not have been expected to stay around the Petersen House, but would be out in the city pursuing leads for the capture of the assassins. O'Beirne eventually received $2,000 of reward money, one of the larger awards, and Stanton praised him, saying: "You have done your duty nobly and you have the satisfaction of knowing that if you did not succeed in capturing Booth, it was, at all events, certainly the information which you gave that led to it." (Stanton to Major O'Beirne, April 16, 1865, in RG 110, National Archives.) I probably should have included O'Beirne in my list of those present at Petersen House, but it appears that he spent very little time there and may not even have seen Lincoln. As for Stanton's often quoted remark, there are several versions of what he is supposed to have said. We will probably never know exactly what, if anything, he did say. James Tanner, who was present at Lincoln's death, could not note down the actual words, as in pulling his pencil out of his pocket, the point broke off.

[RJNorton]

Thank you, Fred. Not a year goes by in which I do not receive letters from folks whose family lore states an ancestor was present at Lincoln's deathbed. 99% of the time I cannot locate any evidence that their family lore is historically correct. It sounds like you feel O'Beirne was not present at the time of death despite his claim that he was. This would correspond with the other sources I have, and I will continue to leave O'Beirne off the list I send to inquiring people.

I will not close the book on it, though. Long ago on this forum I stated I had about 8 books that said Grant did not accompany Mary Lincoln to see the Grand Illumination on the night of April 13, 1865. Then forum member Linda Anderson found all of these books were wrong, and Grant did indeed accompany Mary Lincoln that night. I was really surprised so many books were wrong and am forever grateful to Linda for finding the truth.

[Rob Wick]

Just to add to what Fred wrote.

O'Beirne received his part of the reward because it was the report of his men in the field that two men crossed the Potomac that Lafayette Baker overheard. From that bit of intelligence, Baker sent Conger, Byron Baker and the rest of the 16th New York on the pursuit, even though the two men crossing the Potomac were not Booth and Herold.

Best
Rob

[Linda Anderson]

Thank you very much, Roger, for your very kind words. I'll keep looking to see if I can find anything else on O'Beirne.

Thank you, Anita, for researching O'Beirne's diary and papers. I found the Otto Eisenschiml Papers at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library but I saw no mention of O'Beirne.

http://alplm-cdi.com/chroniclingillinois/items/show/199

The Eisenschiml Papers are also at the University of Iowa.

http://collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?MSC0256

[Anita]

In Appleton's cyclopædia of American biography, Volume 8 it states;

"...From the moment that Lincoln was laid on his deathbed, until he breathed his last, O'Beirne, as provost marshal of the district of Columbia, was in constant attendance under the direct orders of Secretary of War Stanton. By the latter he was sent to summon Vice President Johnson from the Kirkwood House, and it was he who escorted Vice President Johnson through the dense crowds in the streets to the bedside of the dying President.

http://tinyurl.com/qjxvady

[Linda Anderson]

James O'Beirne's claim can be found in The Lincoln Assassination: The Reward Files by Edward Steers and William C. Edwards.

O'Beirne states that he went to the Petersen House at 10:45 PM "with a view to rendering whatever relief was in my power." He procured brandy for the President and Major Rathbone and "secured the presence of the President's physician and other medical gentlemen." He then went to Seward's house. "My next concern was for the Hon. the Secretary of War, to whose house I posted in haste and whom I found had gone to visit the wounded; I followed him until I met him at the house opposite Ford's theater, which done, I resolved as a matter of duty to remain by his side to add my humble efforts to aid in the securing of the Secretary of War against any attempt on his life which I had every reason to believe would be attempted."

As Anita cites, O'Beirne was then ordered by Stanton to go to the Kirkwood House and escort Vice President Johnson to the Petersen House which he did. O'Beirne escorted Johnson back to the Kirkwood House a short time later. If we are to believe O'Beirne, he would have then returned to the Petersen House.

http://books.google.com/books?id=gfgXgy6...=GBS.PA282

I found the listing for O'Beirne's documents in Heritage Historical Americana Auction #6014 the Dr. John K. Lattimer Collection of Lincolniana

http://books.google.com/books?id=Nk6Hzel...ne&f=false

[RJNorton]

Thank you Linda and Anita! Maybe all the lists and images I've seen are wrong, and O'Beirne was present. I am still curious about why none of the many prints of the death scene, and the accounts such as Welles' diary, do not include O'Beirne. The whole thing is somewhat of a mystery to me.

Dave Taylor did a wonderful article on the topic of Lincoln's deathbed. Can anyone tell if O'Beirne is in the list of names at the bottom of the Albert Berghaus' print? My eyes are not good enough to read those names. Unless I missed it Berghaus' engraving is not included in the "Rubber Room" booklet by Holzer and Williams. (The prints in the book for which Holzer and Williams included lists of names at the deathbed do not include O'Beirne.)

[Rob Wick]

You have to use Appletons with some caution, as they are famous (or infamous) for publishing around 200 or so fake biographies, just to pad the books out. Much of what they published is similar to people cutting and pasting things from the Internet without any research to discover whether or not they are accurate.

Best
Rob

[Eva Elisabeth]

Can anyone tell if O'Beirne is in the list of names at the bottom of the Albert Berghaus' print? My eyes are not good enough to read those names.

The picture of the best quality I found was the one to download here (click TIFF 1,5mb):
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a09598/

...and I can't spot any name beginning with O' in the list of names (but no guarantee that my eyes are better...). But there is also no one in the picture wearing a uniform. If O'Beirne was on duty that night, wouldn't he have been in uniform (like in the picture Betty posted)?

Just and aside on angels vs. ages - so far a projection of the "members opinion poll":

Angels: 7 (8 counting Gene's AND Fido's vote)
Ages: 10

[BettyO]

I couldn't find find an enlargement of the Berghaus' print - but I did find these -








No mention of O'Beirne....he apparently popped in and out -

[Eva Elisabeth]

There are some more pictures on this site:
http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/insi...ubjectID=4
...and on two pictures I found the following info:
   
Title: The death bed of the martyr President Abraham Lincoln. Washington, Saturday morning April 15th 1865, at 22 minutes past 7 o'clock
Creator(s): Currier & Ives.,
Date Created/Published: New York : Currier & Ives, c1865.
Medium: 1 print : lithograph ; 43 x 56 cm.
Summary: Print shows 18 people gathered around Lincoln when he died. Text below the image identifies (left to right): Genl. Halleck, Genl. Meigs, Miss Harris, Mrs. Lincoln & son, Vice Prest. Johnson, Secy. Stanton, Postmaster Dennison, clergyman, surgeon, Mr. Colfax, Chas. Sumner, Capt. R. Lincoln, Chief Justice Chase, Sec. McCulloch, surgeon, Sec. Welles, surgeon.

   
Title: Death bed of Lincoln / A. Brett & Co. 83 Nassau St.
Creator(s): A. Brett & Co.,
Date Created/Published: [New York] : Published by Jones & Clark 83 Nassau St. N.Y. ; Boston : C.A. Asp, Washington St. ; Cincinnati, O[hio] : W.M. Kohl no. 166 Walnut St., c1865 (N.Y. : Printed by A. Brett & Co. 83 Nassau St.)
Medium: 1 print : lithograph ; 62.2 x 81.5 cm (sheet)
Summary: Print shows the interior of a room with Abraham Lincoln lying on a bed surrounded by cabinet members, generals, and family members, from left: William Dennison, Post Master General, Sec. John P. Usher, Sec. Gideon Welles, Sec. Hugh McCulloch, General Montgomery C. Meigs, General Christopher C. Augur, General Henry Halleck, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Surgeon General Joseph Barnes, Mary Todd Lincoln, Major John M. Hay, Captain Robert Todd Lincoln, surgeon Charles Leale, Senator Charles Sumner, Sec. Edwin M. Stanton, and Attorney General James Speed.

[L Verge]

I notice that the Currier & Ives print includes VP Johnson being present at the deathbed, and we know that's not accurate; so I think we can eliminate trying to get anything from the lithographs.

I also suspect that O'Beirne might have had a little Irish braggadocio about him in claiming to be there at the moment of death -- maybe in the back parlor awaiting instructions from Stanton, but not at the bedside. I'm just thinking that he wasn't high enough on the pecking order to have been included at such a critical moment.