Assassination Trivia

[Steve Whitlock]

Whoaaa!!! Back up the bus out of town. Lt. Bolton has some support for having been in the Lincoln box at Ford's Theatre. In the newsclip I posted for the statement of Dr. Taft, under the "BLEEDING STARTED" header, 2nd paragraph down there is mention of :

"The officer in command of the provost guard at the theater was directed to clear the room which had become speedily filled to suffocation of all except the Surgeons. This officer guarded the door until relieved later in the evening by General M.C. Meige who took charge of it the rest of the night by direction of Mr Stanton."

That officer was Lt. Bolton, according to his testimony and that of his former commander, ret Lt. Col. Asa Bird Gardiner (See pgs 133-134). Lt. Bolton in his statement does declare that he cleared the box, or tried to (see pg 136 of attached statement). However, there is a conflict with Dr. Todd in that Bolton appears to claim he carried the President over to the Peterson house and stayed. How could he do that if he was guarding the door back at the theater?

So, it appears that Bolton assisted Dr. Todd up to the Lincoln box, and then followed him up as the man identified by Clara Harris. After that the stories get muddled, but we have some corroboration for Bolton being there. That is a best guess possibility. At any rate Bolton was likely there in the box. The rest of his story needs close scrutiny.

You misread Dr. Taft's quote, he says the officer in charge of the provost guard at the theater was guarding the room with the President at Petersen House after the President was moved there:

https://archive.org/details/abrahamlinco...0/mode/2up

So there really isn't a contradiction there. As I mentioned above Gardiner's testimony is not trustworthy at all. But I do think Taft's account along with Clara Harris' affidavit description of the man wearing a VRC uniform do give some credence to Bolton's account to counter its problems.

Steve,

At least one of us (you) read the whole paragraph. Where I further confused myself was on pg 136 of Bolton's statement:

"At this point I went to the front of the box and ordered the house cleared."

He then goes on to order the president be taken across the street. Still, it seems a matter of determining what is true and what is an embellishment for Bolton, and that he was likely both in the box (if he was the one in the Clara Harris statement) and at the Peterson house (per Dr. Taft).

I, too, was put off by the 1914 date for his statement. If Gardiner is unreliable perhaps a better source for Bolton being in charge 14 Apr 1865 needs to be found. I had a listing for soldiers in the Veteran Reserve Corp because of the provenance for the blood stained piece of Mary Lincoln's chair, but that is gone with my old computer at the moment.