"Lincoln's Greatest Journey" by Noah Andre Trudeau

[RJNorton]

Angela, I will be curious what the author has to say about the role of William H. Crook. Crook discusses the trip to City Point in his book (1907), and I've wondered if he did some embellishing. For example, Crook writes, "We had not gone far when the blinds of a second story window of a house on our left were partly opened, and a man dressed in gray pointed something that looked like a gun directly at the President. I dropped Tad's hand and stepped in front of Mr. Lincoln. I was sure he meant to shoot."

However, nothing came of this.

In Ed Steers' assassination encyclopedia the author notes, "Historian William Hanchett has shown that these (i.e. Crook's) recollections and other reminisces Crook writes about fall into the myth category, related at a time late in Crook's life when there was no one left alive to refute them.....Because of this Crook cannot be considered a trustworthy source on the events surrounding Lincoln's assassination."