List of Ford's Theatre Attendees

[Linda Anderson]

I thought of one person who is not on the list: Mary Lincoln.

Also, I asked my son who he thought was in the box and not named on the list and he said, "Booth?"

[jbarry]

(04-30-2026 02:44 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  I thought of one person who is not on the list: Mary Lincoln.

Also, I asked my son who he thought was in the box and not named on the list and he said, "Booth?"

Good point by your son! BTW, I do have Mary, but it's under Todd-Lincoln.

[Linda Anderson]

(04-30-2026 04:39 PM)jbarry Wrote:  

(04-30-2026 02:44 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  I thought of one person who is not on the list: Mary Lincoln.

Also, I asked my son who he thought was in the box and not named on the list and he said, "Booth?"

Good point by your son! BTW, I do have Mary, but it's under Todd-Lincoln.

Booth even wrote what happened in his diary! A bit exaggerated, of course.

I was wondering about Mary's name so I did a little research. Ruth Painter Randall wrote in Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage :

"The pain of Mary, the loving older sister, torn two ways in that struggle between Emilie's pleading and Lincoln's refusal, necessarily cut deep. This was probably one case where she could see both sides, but the rule with her in a choice between Lincoln and her family was that her husband came first. She thought of herself as Mary Lincoln, not Mary Todd Lincoln." 346.

There is no mention in the newspaper archives I consulted until the 1870's of "Mary Todd Lincoln."

So she was "Mary Lincoln" on April 14. If you do decide the leave "Todd" in, I suggest listing her as "Lincoln, Mary Todd."

[jbarry]

(05-01-2026 12:50 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  

(04-30-2026 04:39 PM)jbarry Wrote:  

(04-30-2026 02:44 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  I thought of one person who is not on the list: Mary Lincoln.

Also, I asked my son who he thought was in the box and not named on the list and he said, "Booth?"

Good point by your son! BTW, I do have Mary, but it's under Todd-Lincoln.

Booth even wrote what happened in his diary! A bit exaggerated, of course.

I was wondering about Mary's name so I did a little research. Ruth Painter Randall wrote in Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage :

"The pain of Mary, the loving older sister, torn two ways in that struggle between Emilie's pleading and Lincoln's refusal, necessarily cut deep. This was probably one case where she could see both sides, but the rule with her in a choice between Lincoln and her family was that her husband came first. She thought of herself as Mary Lincoln, not Mary Todd Lincoln." 346.

There is no mention in the newspaper archives I consulted until the 1870's of "Mary Todd Lincoln."

So she was "Mary Lincoln" on April 14. If you do decide the leave "Todd" in, I suggest listing her as "Lincoln, Mary Todd."

Appreciate the clarification; I've updated it accordingly.

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending this article. Steve writes, "I have an article to post to the Forum with a new name to add to Joe's list. He is John F. Waite and his account is from page 9 of the 11 Oct. 1922 edition of the New London Day (Conn.).

[jbarry]

(05-02-2026 12:29 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Many thanks to Steve for sending this article. Steve writes, "I have an article to post to the Forum with a new name to add to Joe's list. He is John F. Waite and his account is from page 9 of the 11 Oct. 1922 edition of the New London Day (Conn.).

Thanks Steve!

[Linda Anderson]

Hi Joe, You gave an intriguing presentation today at the Surratt Society meeting. It's fascinating to learn that we forget 50 - 80% of info within a couple of days of receiving it.

My mother, who lived until her 80s, gradually forgot who we were as she lay dying (she still felt our love for her though) but she did remember her youth.

It's hard to know if what she was remembering was correct but she said was happy then and I believe that. So maybe people remembering the assassination many years later, especially the kids who were present, are remembering it the way they experienced it then, which, of course, may have been different from the way others experienced it.

I was also amazed to learn how quickly Booth ran across the stage. You said if someone in the theatre looked at the person sitting next to them to see if they knew what was happening, they would have missed Booth. That reminds me that it took only a couple of minutes for Powell to attack Seward in Seward's bedroom. Bell ran to the corner to Gen Auger's headquarters and ran back in time to see Powell run out the door of Seward's house.

[jbarry]

(05-02-2026 05:57 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  Hi Joe, You gave an intriguing presentation today at the Surratt Society meeting. It's fascinating to learn that we forget 50 - 80% of info within a couple of days of receiving it.

My mother, who lived until her 80s, gradually forgot who we were as she lay dying (she still felt our love for her though) but she did remember her youth.

It's hard to know if what she was remembering was correct but she said was happy then and I believe that. So maybe people remembering the assassination many years later, especially the kids who were present, are remembering it the way they experienced it then, which, of course, may have been different from the way others experienced it.

I was also amazed to learn how quickly Booth ran across the stage. You said if someone in the theatre looked at the person sitting next to them to see if they knew what was happening, they would have missed Booth. That reminds me that it took only a couple of minutes for Powell to attack Seward in Seward's bedroom. Bell ran to the corner to Gen Auger's headquarters and ran back in time to see Powell run out the door of Seward's house.

Thanks Linda! Having been with a loved one with Alzheimer's, I've noticed there are core memories that stay with people even when they lose so much else. I've also read one newspaper account of a woman, 86, who mentioned seeing Booth jumping onstage and running, and 3 months later she doesn't remember seeing Booth even though she admitted she knows it happened. Definitely a challenge to navigate through the vagaries of human memory over time.

[RJNorton]

(05-03-2026 07:51 AM)jbarry Wrote:  Definitely a challenge to navigate through the vagaries of human memory over time.

I think this is my all time favorite eyewitness account:

THE TRUE STORY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION AS BROADCAST BY MRS. NELSON TODD FROM STATION W.O.R.

AT 10 P.M., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11th, 1928.

"What a wonderful storehouse, the mind! Here am I, feeling like a comparatively young woman, and if I live twelve more years, I shall be a hundred years old. Eighty-eight years old! And how many things I have seen in those years. My earliest recollection dates from the age of three, when I saw William Henry Harrison, who came to the old Park House at Newark to make a speech the next day. When I was nine I heard Jonny Lind sing at the old Castle Garden.

I have shaken hands with every President since the first Harrison, also with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Kossuth. I have known many splendid and distinguished men, and of all I have known there never was a finer one than John Wilkes Booth, a fine looking mannerly chap about my own age. I had heard that he had fallen into bad company. We all know that his sympathies wore with the Southern States, and we learned later that he was a member of a set of young fellows - radicals we would call them today - who drew lots to see who should kill Lincoln. It just happened that the lot fell to Booth.

I shall never forget the first time I saw Lincoln - nor the last. The first time was just a little before his second inauguration, when he passed through Newark by train. I was horse-back riding and rode through side streets so that I saw Lincoln not once but several times on the rear platform. My persistence must have attracted the President's attention for William Coulter, friend of my father and conductor of the train, told me later that the President pointed me out and said, “That young lady there is a fine horsewoman.” That was the first time I saw Lincoln. Now I must tell you of the last.

I was married in 1858. The war, as you know, followed a couple of years later. Those were awful times. What a relief when it ended on the ninth of April, 1865.

Immediately upon learning of Lee's surrender my husband planned a Trip to Washington. The day after we arrived was Good Friday, April 14th. I remember because we went to church. My husband was active in Trinity Church Sunday School, Newark. I was amazed when later in the day he said, “We are going to the theater this evening.” “To the theater on Good Friday?” I said. He explained that the President was to attend a benefit and last night performance of Laura Keen in “Our American Cousin” at the Ford Theatre and being a gala occasion and our only opportunity, probably, of seeing President Lincoln, we might waive our religious scruples.

Theaters began earlier in those days. We were in our places on the centre aisle just few rows back from the stage at seven thirty when the curtain rose. There was a flag draped box on the left for the President, Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris and major Rathborne. They sat in the second box.

The curtain had gone up on the second act when there was a shot. At the same instant I was amazed to see John Wilkes Booth, whom I had known so well, half jump, half fall from the first box to the stage twelve feet below. His spur had caught in the drapery on the box so that his leap turned out to be a bad fall.

For an instant no one realized what had happened. It struck me, John Wilkes Booth had committed suicide. It was not until some seconds later that Mrs. Lincoln screamed. The house turned from the stage where all eyes had been on Booth, and saw the President, his head fallen on his chest, slumped down in the old fashioned rocking chair in which he had been sitting. Then, of course, we knew the great tragedy that had happened.

Few people know how badly Booth was hurt by his fall. I had read accounts and seen pictures of him hobbling off the stage to make his escape. This is as false as the story that he shouted "Sic Semper Tyrannis”.

Here is what did happen, and I think I am the only person that knows how Booth made his escape. Knowing Booth, it was only natural that my interest was keen enough to attract my attention back to the stage even though I know Lincoln was assassinated. When Booth's spur caught and threw him to the stage he broke his leg in a terrible way, so that the bone actually protruded through his trousers and smeared the stage with blood. Naturally he couldn't move. Laura Keen leaned over and patted his head. Then to my amazement I saw a rope swing out, evidently thrown by some confederates, lasso him and whisk him into the wings. That was the last time I ever saw John Wilkes Booth.

As we walked away from the theater and the great tragedy, my husband said to me – “What next?” – “We must go home.” I said. And so we went to the hotel, packed our things and went immediately to the railroad station. The streets were seething with people. At the station the train men on a cattle train that was about to leave for Now York had not heard the news yet. They let us ride in the caboose.

We rode all night from Washington and arrived in New York in the early morning. Newark was just a way station in those days and the train did not stop there. When we got in we learned that Lincoln was dead.

Our family was surprised to see us back before we had planned. Being strict Episcopalians we did not tell them we had gone to the theatre on Good Friday, so we told no one of the thrilling scene of history WD had seen enacted. Nor throughout my husband's life did we ever tell. It was only a few years ago when I let the truth out. I had gone to a performance of “The Birth of Nation” in which the assassination of Lincoln was shown. When I saw the scene, I gasped “Why it wasn’t that way!” “How do you know?” I was asked. Then I told I was one of the few remaining witnesses of that great tragedy."

[jbarry]

(05-03-2026 11:54 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(05-03-2026 07:51 AM)jbarry Wrote:  Definitely a challenge to navigate through the vagaries of human memory over time.

I think this is my all time favorite eyewitness account:

THE TRUE STORY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION AS BROADCAST BY MRS. NELSON TODD FROM STATION W.O.R.

AT 10 P.M., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11th, 1928.

"What a wonderful storehouse, the mind! Here am I, feeling like a comparatively young woman, and if I live twelve more years, I shall be a hundred years old. Eighty-eight years old! And how many things I have seen in those years. My earliest recollection dates from the age of three, when I saw William Henry Harrison, who came to the old Park House at Newark to make a speech the next day. When I was nine I heard Jonny Lind sing at the old Castle Garden.

I have shaken hands with every President since the first Harrison, also with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Kossuth. I have known many splendid and distinguished men, and of all I have known there never was a finer one than John Wilkes Booth, a fine looking mannerly chap about my own age. I had heard that he had fallen into bad company. We all know that his sympathies wore with the Southern States, and we learned later that he was a member of a set of young fellows - radicals we would call them today - who drew lots to see who should kill Lincoln. It just happened that the lot fell to Booth.

I shall never forget the first time I saw Lincoln - nor the last. The first time was just a little before his second inauguration, when he passed through Newark by train. I was horse-back riding and rode through side streets so that I saw Lincoln not once but several times on the rear platform. My persistence must have attracted the President's attention for William Coulter, friend of my father and conductor of the train, told me later that the President pointed me out and said, “That young lady there is a fine horsewoman.” That was the first time I saw Lincoln. Now I must tell you of the last.

I was married in 1858. The war, as you know, followed a couple of years later. Those were awful times. What a relief when it ended on the ninth of April, 1865.

Immediately upon learning of Lee's surrender my husband planned a Trip to Washington. The day after we arrived was Good Friday, April 14th. I remember because we went to church. My husband was active in Trinity Church Sunday School, Newark. I was amazed when later in the day he said, “We are going to the theater this evening.” “To the theater on Good Friday?” I said. He explained that the President was to attend a benefit and last night performance of Laura Keen in “Our American Cousin” at the Ford Theatre and being a gala occasion and our only opportunity, probably, of seeing President Lincoln, we might waive our religious scruples.

Theaters began earlier in those days. We were in our places on the centre aisle just few rows back from the stage at seven thirty when the curtain rose. There was a flag draped box on the left for the President, Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris and major Rathborne. They sat in the second box.

The curtain had gone up on the second act when there was a shot. At the same instant I was amazed to see John Wilkes Booth, whom I had known so well, half jump, half fall from the first box to the stage twelve feet below. His spur had caught in the drapery on the box so that his leap turned out to be a bad fall.

For an instant no one realized what had happened. It struck me, John Wilkes Booth had committed suicide. It was not until some seconds later that Mrs. Lincoln screamed. The house turned from the stage where all eyes had been on Booth, and saw the President, his head fallen on his chest, slumped down in the old fashioned rocking chair in which he had been sitting. Then, of course, we knew the great tragedy that had happened.

Few people know how badly Booth was hurt by his fall. I had read accounts and seen pictures of him hobbling off the stage to make his escape. This is as false as the story that he shouted "Sic Semper Tyrannis”.

Here is what did happen, and I think I am the only person that knows how Booth made his escape. Knowing Booth, it was only natural that my interest was keen enough to attract my attention back to the stage even though I know Lincoln was assassinated. When Booth's spur caught and threw him to the stage he broke his leg in a terrible way, so that the bone actually protruded through his trousers and smeared the stage with blood. Naturally he couldn't move. Laura Keen leaned over and patted his head. Then to my amazement I saw a rope swing out, evidently thrown by some confederates, lasso him and whisk him into the wings. That was the last time I ever saw John Wilkes Booth.

As we walked away from the theater and the great tragedy, my husband said to me – “What next?” – “We must go home.” I said. And so we went to the hotel, packed our things and went immediately to the railroad station. The streets were seething with people. At the station the train men on a cattle train that was about to leave for Now York had not heard the news yet. They let us ride in the caboose.

We rode all night from Washington and arrived in New York in the early morning. Newark was just a way station in those days and the train did not stop there. When we got in we learned that Lincoln was dead.

Our family was surprised to see us back before we had planned. Being strict Episcopalians we did not tell them we had gone to the theatre on Good Friday, so we told no one of the thrilling scene of history WD had seen enacted. Nor throughout my husband's life did we ever tell. It was only a few years ago when I let the truth out. I had gone to a performance of “The Birth of Nation” in which the assassination of Lincoln was shown. When I saw the scene, I gasped “Why it wasn’t that way!” “How do you know?” I was asked. Then I told I was one of the few remaining witnesses of that great tragedy."

That account definitely takes the cake!

[Steve]

I don't want to sound like "that guy", but William Henry Harrison would already have been dead for two years before the future Mrs. Nelson Todd turned 3.

[Steve]

A suggestion for the list... "The Captain", the as of yet unidentified soldier who met the group carrying the President at the bottom of the stairs or at the door of the theater and commanded other soldiers to clear the street to carry the President across. Once Lincoln was in the bed, cleared the room for everyone except the doctors and Mrs Lincoln and Clara. Assisted the doctors and stood guard outside the room until relieved by Gen. Meigs.

1865 Official Leale account:

https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/1197

May 1865 letter by Leale:

https://www.shapell.org/manuscript/earli...ssination/

1866 account by Leale (transibed in another Forum post:

(02-25-2025 07:11 AM)Steve Wrote:  I came across something new I don't think I've seen/read before. It's a Nov. 1866 letter from Dr. Charles Leale to the artist John H. Littlefield about the night of the assassination. The first part is a short letter to Littlefield. The following four pages are an account of the night written in third person in the style of a draft of a newspaper or magazine article. The last line is in quotation marks, which I guess is supposed to be a direct quote from Leale for said article.

The style of the article pages' writing is reminicent of the style he used in his 1909 account. It's written only a year and a half later and contains some of the details of moving Lincoln across the street which are contained in his 1909 account but are missing in his official 1865 account of the President's care. (Maybe he felt the details of the Captain and the soldiers clearing the street weren't really pertinent for his 1865 account?)

I've copied the transcription below, fixing a few minor errors/problems I noticed. Hopefully there aren't other problems. I've also attached images of the original documents below along with a link to the website I found the letter on. I've bolded the article style part of the letter for clarity.


Hon. John H. Littlefield,
670 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York


Dear Mr. Littlefield,

In accordance with your request, please find a brief statement of the last hours of President Lincoln. I sincerely hope that you will meet with perfect success.

Very Truly Yours,
Charles A. Leale

November 30, 18[6]6


After President Lincoln had been fatally wounded, it was fortunate for the nation that Mrs. Lincoln was able so soon to secure the services of an experienced young Army surgeon, who by his prompt and efficient action prevented the immediate death of the President, and prolonged his life for eight hours at a time when the sympathy for the dying martyr overcame much of the malice of the enemies of our country.

These eight hours gave the Cabinet Officers time to carefully consider the duties they so faithfully performed in continuing in office, unbroken by a single day as President of the United States. I allude to Dr. Charles A. Leale, who was then stationed in Washington in charge of the ward containing the wounded officers and was the executive officer of Armory Square Hospital. He was the first surgeon to reach the President after he was shot, and at the special request of Mrs. Lincoln, took charge of him. Explained the fatal extent of his injury and did all possible to restore the feeble heart's action and, by the immediate application of his knowledge of gunshot wounds, soon overcame the shock and relieved the brain pressure, thereby preventing the death of the President in the theatre. In response to many inquiries, Dr. Leale said that the wound was mortal and that recovery was impossible. As soon as Mr. Lincoln had partially recovered from the shock, Dr. Leale began his removal from the scene of the tragedy to a place of safety. Dr. Leale carried the head and shoulders of the President and, with the assistance of others, reached the streets, where the surging excited populace crowded forward and obstructed the exit from the theatre. He called out three times, "Guards, clear the passage!" and with the assistance of a captain present who reported for duty. Almost immediately, two lines of soldiers with drawn swords, bayonets, pistols and other weapons stood in the position of present arms and cleared a space about five feet wide across the street, through which the bleeding form of the prostrate President was carried, amid the most profound and solemn silence.

Not a voice was heard or a shout from the soldiers as their beloved Commander in Chief, who so often had visited and comforted them in weary camp life and hospital sickness, was now borne, insensible and dying, to a place of quiet, to a bed in the nearest house.

Dr. Leale was several times asked if he would take Mr. Lincoln to the White House, and each time said "no," inasmuch as death would probably occur before reaching it. After placing the President in bed, Dr. Leale again found it necessary to remove the coagulation from the opening in the cranium, where oozing of blood relieved the brain pressure and breathing was re-established, this is repeated on several occasions, and when Dr. Stone and the Surgeon General arrived, Dr. Leale explained the good effects which followed these reliefs from brain pressure, and the operation was continued at intervals during the night.

During the course of the night, Dr. R.K. Stone, Surgeon General J.K. Barnes, Assistant Surgeon General C. Crane, Dr. C.S. Taft, Dr. A.F.A. King, and others were present. Mrs. Lincoln was attended by Mrs. Senator Dixon, who, on her last visit to her husband, was carried from the room in a fainting condition. The protracted death struggle lasted until twenty minutes past seven o'clock on the morning of April 15, 1865. At the moment of dissolution, Dr. Leale held the right hand of the martyr and closed his eyelids in death, after which the few remaining knelt down around the lifeless form of the patriot and hero. At the same time, the Rev. Dr. Gurley earnestly supplicated to God on behalf of the distracted family and our afflicted and sorrowful country.

"What a scene for memory and history."


https://www.medicalantiques.com/civilwar...uments.htm

Mentioned in 1893 Century Magazine article by Dr. Taft who calls him the provost guard officer (whether that was an accurate description of who he was or what Taft thought was doing):

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=n...49&q1=Taft

[jbarry]

(05-04-2026 12:51 PM)Steve Wrote:  A suggestion for the list... "The Captain", the as of yet unidentified soldier who met the group carrying the President at the bottom of the stairs or at the door of the theater and commanded other soldiers to clear the street to carry the President across. Once Lincoln was in the bed, cleared the room for everyone except the doctors and Mrs Lincoln and Clara. Assisted the doctors and stood guard outside the room until relieved by Gen. Meigs.

1865 Official Leale account:

https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/1197

May 1865 letter by Leale:

https://www.shapell.org/manuscript/earli...ssination/

1866 account by Leale (transibed in another Forum post:

(02-25-2025 07:11 AM)Steve Wrote:  I came across something new I don't think I've seen/read before. It's a Nov. 1866 letter from Dr. Charles Leale to the artist John H. Littlefield about the night of the assassination. The first part is a short letter to Littlefield. The following four pages are an account of the night written in third person in the style of a draft of a newspaper or magazine article. The last line is in quotation marks, which I guess is supposed to be a direct quote from Leale for said article.

The style of the article pages' writing is reminicent of the style he used in his 1909 account. It's written only a year and a half later and contains some of the details of moving Lincoln across the street which are contained in his 1909 account but are missing in his official 1865 account of the President's care. (Maybe he felt the details of the Captain and the soldiers clearing the street weren't really pertinent for his 1865 account?)

I've copied the transcription below, fixing a few minor errors/problems I noticed. Hopefully there aren't other problems. I've also attached images of the original documents below along with a link to the website I found the letter on. I've bolded the article style part of the letter for clarity.


Hon. John H. Littlefield,
670 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York


Dear Mr. Littlefield,

In accordance with your request, please find a brief statement of the last hours of President Lincoln. I sincerely hope that you will meet with perfect success.

Very Truly Yours,
Charles A. Leale

November 30, 18[6]6


After President Lincoln had been fatally wounded, it was fortunate for the nation that Mrs. Lincoln was able so soon to secure the services of an experienced young Army surgeon, who by his prompt and efficient action prevented the immediate death of the President, and prolonged his life for eight hours at a time when the sympathy for the dying martyr overcame much of the malice of the enemies of our country.

These eight hours gave the Cabinet Officers time to carefully consider the duties they so faithfully performed in continuing in office, unbroken by a single day as President of the United States. I allude to Dr. Charles A. Leale, who was then stationed in Washington in charge of the ward containing the wounded officers and was the executive officer of Armory Square Hospital. He was the first surgeon to reach the President after he was shot, and at the special request of Mrs. Lincoln, took charge of him. Explained the fatal extent of his injury and did all possible to restore the feeble heart's action and, by the immediate application of his knowledge of gunshot wounds, soon overcame the shock and relieved the brain pressure, thereby preventing the death of the President in the theatre. In response to many inquiries, Dr. Leale said that the wound was mortal and that recovery was impossible. As soon as Mr. Lincoln had partially recovered from the shock, Dr. Leale began his removal from the scene of the tragedy to a place of safety. Dr. Leale carried the head and shoulders of the President and, with the assistance of others, reached the streets, where the surging excited populace crowded forward and obstructed the exit from the theatre. He called out three times, "Guards, clear the passage!" and with the assistance of a captain present who reported for duty. Almost immediately, two lines of soldiers with drawn swords, bayonets, pistols and other weapons stood in the position of present arms and cleared a space about five feet wide across the street, through which the bleeding form of the prostrate President was carried, amid the most profound and solemn silence.

Not a voice was heard or a shout from the soldiers as their beloved Commander in Chief, who so often had visited and comforted them in weary camp life and hospital sickness, was now borne, insensible and dying, to a place of quiet, to a bed in the nearest house.

Dr. Leale was several times asked if he would take Mr. Lincoln to the White House, and each time said "no," inasmuch as death would probably occur before reaching it. After placing the President in bed, Dr. Leale again found it necessary to remove the coagulation from the opening in the cranium, where oozing of blood relieved the brain pressure and breathing was re-established, this is repeated on several occasions, and when Dr. Stone and the Surgeon General arrived, Dr. Leale explained the good effects which followed these reliefs from brain pressure, and the operation was continued at intervals during the night.

During the course of the night, Dr. R.K. Stone, Surgeon General J.K. Barnes, Assistant Surgeon General C. Crane, Dr. C.S. Taft, Dr. A.F.A. King, and others were present. Mrs. Lincoln was attended by Mrs. Senator Dixon, who, on her last visit to her husband, was carried from the room in a fainting condition. The protracted death struggle lasted until twenty minutes past seven o'clock on the morning of April 15, 1865. At the moment of dissolution, Dr. Leale held the right hand of the martyr and closed his eyelids in death, after which the few remaining knelt down around the lifeless form of the patriot and hero. At the same time, the Rev. Dr. Gurley earnestly supplicated to God on behalf of the distracted family and our afflicted and sorrowful country.

"What a scene for memory and history."


https://www.medicalantiques.com/civilwar...uments.htm

Mentioned in 1893 Century Magazine article by Dr. Taft who calls him the provost guard officer (whether that was an accurate description of who he was or what Taft thought was doing):

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=n...49&q1=Taft

Thanks Steve, I'll add the identity of the Captain to the list.

[Linda Anderson]

Joseph K. Sterling, a friend of the Stanton family from Ohio, claimed in an article in the April 14, 1918 Evening Star that he went to the Falstaff House on 10th St. (which was opposite Ford's Theatre) where he boarded "that fatal night."

"Albert Daggett, then a clerk in the State Department, afterward sheriff of Brooklyn, N.Y., was standing at the door when I entered the hotel. Soon I heard him shout: 'Boys, there's a fight in the theater.'

"I ran across the street. The doorkeeper of the theater had left his post, and a number of us went in. Every person was standing and many men and women were on chairs. All were wildly excited and were looking toward the stage.

"When I asked a woman in the last row of seats the cause of the commotion, she said: 'Lincoln has been shot, and a man who was flourishing a big knife jumped from the President's box to the stage and ran away.' I struggled forward through the crowded aisle until I could was in the center of the theater, but could get no further.

"Just at that moment an officer of artillery in uniform left the box in which Lincoln and his party had been sitting, and, walking to the front of the stage, announced that the President was dead. It would be impossible for me to describe the confusion that ensued."

https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/...04,0.138,0

In the newspaper article cited on Joe's list, Albert Daggett describes himself as being in the theatre when Lincoln was shot.

Roger, I think the account of Mrs. Nelson Todd is my favorite account, too, but wasn't Lincoln's box on the right of the theatre facing the stage? She said, "There was a flag draped box on the left for the President, Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris and major Rathborne. They sat in the second box."

The next part reminds me of the bit from vaudeville where a not so good performer was unceremoniously yanked off the stage with a curtain hook.

"When Booth's spur caught and threw him to the stage he broke his leg in a terrible way, so that the bone actually protruded through his trousers and smeared the stage with blood. Naturally he couldn't move. Laura Keen leaned over and patted his head. Then to my amazement I saw a rope swing out, evidently thrown by some confederates, lasso him and whisk him into the wings. That was the last time I ever saw John Wilkes Booth."

[RJNorton]

(05-05-2026 05:40 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  Roger, I think the account of Mrs. Nelson Todd is my favorite account, too, but wasn't Lincoln's box on the right of the theatre facing the stage? She said, "There was a flag draped box on the left for the President, Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris and major Rathborne. They sat in the second box."

The next part reminds me of the bit from vaudeville where a not so good performer was unceremoniously yanked off the stage with a curtain hook.

"When Booth's spur caught and threw him to the stage he broke his leg in a terrible way, so that the bone actually protruded through his trousers and smeared the stage with blood. Naturally he couldn't move. Laura Keen leaned over and patted his head. Then to my amazement I saw a rope swing out, evidently thrown by some confederates, lasso him and whisk him into the wings. That was the last time I ever saw John Wilkes Booth."

Linda, yes, the Presidential Box was on the right side facing the stage. All other private boxes were empty. I have tried in vain to find an audio version of Mrs. Nelson Todd's WOR radio presentation, but so far no luck.

In contrast to Ford's, I believe I have read that if the Lincolns had chosen to go to Grover's Theatre that night JWB could have occupied the private box right next to the Lincolns.