Lincoln's Magician

[JMadonna]

Good Article in Military Historical Quarterly (MHQ) this month about Harry Cooke an escape artist who entertained the president. Lincoln was so impressed that he appointed him to head the Lincoln Scouts under the direct command of Stanton. His job was to penetrate Confederate lines and file intelligence reports.

He was successful and had many perilous exploits and artful escapes. He was outside the Peterson boarding house when Lincoln died. Stanton let him view the body on the president's death bed.

After the war, he developed techniques for a successful stage career and continually debunked the popular spiritualism movement. He befriended a young Harry Houdini who continued his anti-spiritualism crusade.

Cooke died in 1924 at the age of 80.

[Steve]

Sounds interesting.

[STS Lincolnite]

(03-08-2019 09:22 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  Good Article in Military Historical Quarterly (MHQ) this month about Harry Cooke an escape artist who entertained the president. Lincoln was so impressed that he appointed him to head the Lincoln Scouts under the direct command of Stanton. His job was to penetrate Confederate lines and file intelligence reports.

He was successful and had many perilous exploits and artful escapes. He was outside the Peterson boarding house when Lincoln died. Stanton let him view the body on the president's death bed.

After the war, he developed techniques for a successful stage career and continually debunked the popular spiritualism movement. He befriended a young Harry Houdini who continued his anti-spiritualism crusade.

Cooke died in 1924 at the age of 80.

Jerry,

I am interested in reading this article. Will have to see if I can find a copy (online) since the local bookstore where I would occasionally pick up that periodical has recently closed.

Can you tell me who authored the piece?

Thanks.

[LincolnMan]

That is totally fascinating!

[JMadonna]

It really is a fascinating article. It was written by Jason H. Silverman. Unfortunately, because it's MHQ's cover story they have not put it online or I would have included a link. I'm sure that MHQ will be glad to sell and send you a copy
https://www.historynet.com/mhq

[L Verge]

If you have followed this on the above Trivia section, you will see that the Mosby experts I am in contact with are unable to verify the story of Cooke's capture as a Federal Scout and then his escape. One thing does sound unusual about that story - why would a secret agent carry a Lincoln letter of identification with him on missions? Does Mr. Silverman make note of that?

[Gene C]

(03-12-2019 01:19 PM)L Verge Wrote:  why would a secret agent carry a Lincoln letter of identification with him on missions?

this reminds me of a song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ankXUaWqQgM

[STS Lincolnite]

(03-12-2019 10:17 AM)JMadonna Wrote:  It really is a fascinating article. It was written by Jason H. Silverman. Unfortunately, because it's MHQ's cover story they have not put it online or I would have included a link. I'm sure that MHQ will be glad to sell and send you a copy
https://www.historynet.com/mhq

Thanks Jerry. I misstated above. I meant to say buy online, not get online. I figured that with a new publication it wouldn't be available for free.

I actually know Jason Silverman. He is a very recently retired history professor at Winthrop and wrote "Lincoln and the Immigrant" in the Concise Lincoln Series from SIU press. I had the pleasure of having dinner with him (and Angela from this forum) while in Washington DC for the Abraham Lincoln Institute Conference a couple of years ago. And, yes, the restaurant we ate at was Lincoln. Jason is a very nice guy.

[JMadonna]

(03-12-2019 01:19 PM)L Verge Wrote:  If you have followed this on the above Trivia section, you will see that the Mosby experts I am in contact with are unable to verify the story of Cooke's capture as a Federal Scout and then his escape. One thing does sound unusual about that story - why would a secret agent carry a Lincoln letter of identification with him on missions? Does Mr. Silverman make note of that?

Silverman notes from Cooke's diary:

Cooke and his fellow scouts thus had good cause to be worried about having been captured. In his diary he wrote that Mosby men took all their money and everything else that looked of value and that they had been forced to swap clothes with their captors. “They took, also, my most prized possession, President Lincoln’s letter appointing me a scout:’ Cooke wrote. His pleas to be allowed to keep it were met with laughter.

For more than a day, Mosby and his men marched the small band of Union scouts up the Potomac River. One of them, enraged by Cooke’s brazenness, fired at him three times but fortunately missed his target. When they stopped to camp on the second night, Cooke learned that their captors expected more Mosby Raiders, with additional prisoners, to join them the next day. He feared that all the prisoners would then be hanged or shot as spies in retaliation for Merritt’s execution of Confederate POWs.

[Gene C]

I Googled "Harry Cooke" and found a couple of interesting articles on line,

http://www.themagicdetective.com/2011/08...art-6.html

I'm a bit skeptical about some of the info in this one, such as....
"Harry had always been bothered by the theft of his Lincoln Letter by Mosby's Raiders and decided to try and get a copy from the President himself. In April 1865, Cooke went to the White House in Washington to see Mr. Lincoln. Upon arriving at the White House he was told that Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln had left for an evening at Fords Theatre. Harry Cooke went to Fords Theatre, where the President and First Lady were watching the play "Our American Cousin". A short time after Harry Cooke arrived a loud shot rang out, and well, the rest is history. Cooke was there, in the audience, as John Wilkes Booth shot the President and then jumped to the stage and out the back doors of Fords Theatre."

This one is about Houdini and Cooke, and Houdini interest in Lincoln
http://weeklyview.net/2017/06/15/harry-h...m-lincoln/

This article from an unknown newspaper in the internet archives.....
https://archive.org/details/remini00linc/page/n5

[RJNorton]

Thank you to Steve for sending this article on Horatio Cooke. The article is from the August 5, 1923, edition of the Los Angeles Times.

[LincolnMan]

What a great article! And not written at a third grade level like today’s newspaper articles.