Dr. Samuel A. Sabin's eyewitness account of assassination

[Linda Anderson]

Dr. Samuel A. Sabin from Palmyra, NY, wrote a letter to his wife, Ellen, on April 15 describing what he saw in Ford's Theatre the previous evening when "I was an eye-witness to the most appalling tragedy ever enacted in the history of our country. Lieut. [Jakeway R.] Hoff, formerly of the 9th, is here, and rooms with me, and I proposed to go, last night, and hear Laura Keene in 'Our American Cousin' in Ford's Theatre. We occupied orchestra chairs near the stage and about the middle of the house."

The complete letter is included in The Ninth New York Heavy Artillery: A History of Its Organization, Services in the Defenses of Washington, Marches, Camps, Battles and Muster-Out by Alfred Seelye Roe, 1899, 241-242.

https://archive.org/details/ninthnewyork...7/mode/2up

"Just as the curtain was rising, in the third act, the sharp report of a pistol was heard in the direction of the president's box, and immediately afterwards a man jumped from the box upon the stage with a drawn dagger in his left hand. The president's box was draped with flags upon the outside, and as he jumped from the box he was partially caught by a flag and fell upon the stage, but not entirely down. As he reached the stage he cried, 'Sic semper tyrannis,' and immediately ran along the footlights and left the theatre by a back entrance, where he had a horse waiting, which he mounted and rode rapidly off before the audience had recovered from the paralysis occasioned by the unwonted spectacle. My first thought was that a boy in the gallery had fired off one of those large firecrackers which we have been hearing for the last week, and that one of the president's party had been seized with a fit, or had suddenly become insane, and I ran towards the back to stop him, supposing, as he went behind the scenes, he had instead jumped to the floor and was coming towards the door. As I got to the door, someone said, 'The president is shot,' and, thinking there would be no surgeon at hand I might be of service, I ran immediately to the president's box. When I got there, of course, I found everything in the utmost confusion, some calling for one thing, some for another. As soon as I saw the wound I saw there was no hope, and another surgeon had stated the same previously. Some brandy was brought and given but he could not swallow. The bullet entered the head behind the left ear and penetrated the brain, lodging in the same... He was carried as soon as possible to a private residence across the street, where he remained till he died...I did not accompany the body across the street, as I might have done, dreading to be called as a witness when there should be an investigation. I shall never forget the expression of the assassin's face when he leaped upon the stage; his face as white as parchment, his black, fierce-looking eyes, his black mustache, the drawn dagger in his hand and the (to some) cabalistic words, 'Sic semper tyrannis', - all made an impression on my mind which can never be erased. Report say, and do I do not doubt the truth, that J. Wilkes Booth is the assassin."

[PaigeBooth]

Wonderful, Linda! Very interesting. I enjoyed reading it.

[Linda Anderson]

(05-04-2014 07:30 PM)PaigeBooth Wrote:  Wonderful, Linda! Very interesting. I enjoyed reading it.

Thanks, Paige! I posted an abridged version of Sabin's letter. A fuller account can be found in Google Books, pages 241-242.

Sabin went to the theater with Lieutenant Hoff, "formerly of the 9th... We occupied orchestra chairs near the stage and about the middle of the house." After the president was shot and carried to the Petersen house, "Mrs. Lincoln was nearly crazy, and as she followed the body from the theatre she cried in frantic words, 'Oh, my poor husband; oh, my poor husband!'"

http://books.google.com/books?id=ehFCAAA...in&f=false

The full account can also be found here.

http://militariaforsale.org/civil-war-su...coln-affil

[HerbS]

Linda,I agree with you about Palmyra.I now live near there in the Victor-Canandaigua area.Your story about Dr.Sabin is fantastic!

[Linda Anderson]

(05-05-2014 03:49 PM)HerbS Wrote:  Linda,I agree with you about Palmyra.I now live near there in the Victor-Canandaigua area.Your story about Dr.Sabin is fantastic!

Thanks, Herb.

According to Roe, Dr Sabin was born in Ontario, New York and graduated from Michigan University in 1857. He came back to New York and practiced medicine in both Macedon and Palmyra.

"Late in 1864 he suffered from a very severe attack of typhoid fever, which left him in a sadly weakened condition, so much so that he resigned his commission and resumed his profession in Palmyra, but the stalwart form never regained its old-time vigor, and he fell an easy prey to pneumonia April 3d, 1871 dying in the village of his adoption, and is buried there. His widow resides in Rochester."

Maybe Dr. Sabin didn't feel he was in good enough health to follow the President to the Petersen house with all that would entail.

Lt. Col. William H. Seward, Jr., who was Secretary Seward's youngest son, was second in command of the New York Ninth and as Secretary Seward often visited them, "there need be little wonder that the 138th New York early acquired the nickname of "Seward's Pets."

[HerbS]

Linda,There are many Sabins in Rochester.Most are Educators! The Princpal at Franklin High was a Sabin and I worked for him in the1960's and he told me that had ancestors in The Civil War.