Abram B. Olin

[Linda Anderson]

Noah Brooks wrote in a "Letter from Washington" dated April 20, 1865, that Seward wasn't told of Lincoln's death until Sunday, April 16 when "the Secretary had his bed wheeled around so that he could see the tops of the trees of the park opposite, just putting on their Spring foliage, when his eye caught the stars and stripes at half-mast on the War Department, on which he gazed awhile, then, turning to his attendant, said: 'The President is dead.'” Sacramento Daily Union, May 19, 1865.

However, Fanny Seward wrote in her diary that, "Early in the morning, by Father's side, Dr. Nottson [sic] showed me a card on which some one told one of the surgeons that the president was growing worse. Father asked about it." A little later, "While Mr. Stanton was there by the bed Mother said very gently to Father - 'Henry - the president is gone.'" Seward’s nurse, George Vocke, gave an interview that was published in the July 17, 1865 Illinois Staats Zeitung which was later translated and published in the August 2, 1865 Providence Journal. Vocke stated that, “Half an hour after receiving his own wound, Mr. Seward heard of the attack on the President, which his sharp ear gathered from the by-standers, and of the President’s death he was at once informed, on Saturday morning.” (I don't think that Seward was informed "at once." I think the Sewards were either waiting for Stanton to come back so he could be present or once he came back, he told them that the Secretary of State must be told of the death of the president.)

So, was Brooks misinformed or did he make up a good story?