Maj. Potter account of the assassination

[Steve]

Major James Potter, the Army paymaster who escorted Mary Lincoln has always had an enigma with no account by him available. It turns out he did leave an account of what happened that night in an 1890 letter Potter wrote to John Hay. It's referenced in this 2022 article by historian Christian McBurney. The article is mainly about Kingston, Rhode Island resident Elizabeth Hagadorn, not Maj. Potter. But it does go into James' older brother Elisha Potter Jr.'s leadership role in the town so it briefly goes into Elisha's role in getting James his Army comission and James being in the theater that night. I've highlighted in bold McBurney's summerizing of Maj. Potter's letter to Hay. There's nothing really new in Potter's account, other than he helped attend to Maj. Rathbone after they got to Petersen House. I have no idea who the "Dr. Morely", Potter is referring to, though.

Here's the link to the full article:

https://smallstatebighistory.com/a-kings...civil-war/

Here's the two excerpts from the article which talk about Maj. Potter. The second excerpt is Potter's account to Hay:

Divisions in the village broke out in the open when James B. M. Potter sought a position in the Union army, while at the same time publicly criticizing the Union cause. The younger brother of Elisha R. Potter, Jr., James had owned and operated textile mills at South Ferry and Usquepaug. Potter suffered, however, “heavy losses on his goods” for several years and in February 1861 was forced to turn over his two mills and his interest in the South Ferry mill to a bank at Kingston. At the age of 43, he had to find a new career. With the coming of the Civil War, he decided to seek a post as paymaster with the Union army. Elisha R. Potter, Jr., a close ally of Democratic Governor William Sprague, persuaded Governor Sprague to write a letter of recommendation for James to bring to Washington, D.C. But before he departed, James, a die-hard Democrat, shocked Kingston villagers with his anti-Union statements.

Elizabeth Hagadorn angrily wrote in a July 29, 1861, letter to Amos that Potter’s “last wishes, before leaving home, were strongly expressed for the success of the rebels and denouncing the [Lincoln] administration in the severest language possible.” This conduct was particularly hurtful to many villagers, as they had recently heard the news of the Union loss at the Battle of Bull Run. Hagadorn wrote that before July 4, someone had sent a letter to the proper authorities in Washington, D.C. alerting them to Potter’s sentiments. The rumor was that villager John G. Clarke, Jr. had sent the missive. Clarke denied it to Hagadorn, but said that he “felt sufficiently indignant to do so.” Hagadorn concluded about James Potter, bitterly, “I think we are in more danger from such traitors in the Cause than from the rebels.” Potter ended up securing the job.


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But then, tragically, Lincoln, who had steadfastly guided the Union to victory, was assassinated on April 15 at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Ironically, none other than James B. M. Potter was a witness. After serving in the Union army, his harsh anti-Lincoln sentiments must have changed. In 1864 he was promoted to major and paymaster and in 1865 the U.S. Senate conferred on him the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel for faithful and meritorious service during the war. Newspapers had advertised that Lincoln and Grant would attend that evening’s performance at Ford’s Theater and Potter decided he wanted to attend. He had a good view of the President and his wife, Mary, in their upper-tier box close to the stage. Suddenly, he heard the crack of a pistol and saw a man jump from the President’s box. Potter yelled that the President had been shot and he urged his friend Dr. Morely to attend to him. Potter was asked to assist in escorting Mary Lincoln across the street to the Peterson boarding house where a grievously wounded President Lincoln had been taken. Potter recalled Mary exclaiming, “Oh, why did they let him do it?” Potter said he also attended to Major Henry Rathbone, who had been in the box with the Lincolns and had been stabbed with a knife by the assassin. Potter wrote these recollections in a letter in 1890 to John Hay and John Nicolay, Lincoln’s secretaries; but his letter came after they had published their ten-volume biography of the fallen leader.