As a self-admitted history buff, I am always on the lookout for books and articles that will clue me in to things that the history books either omitted or, well, just got plain wrong because of a lack of research or laziness on the part of the writer or the fact checker. These days we have the Internet, which is filled with fact checkers of all stripes who are always on the lookout for some historical fact that is actually not true.
Now, that is the type of job I would like to have - to always be on the lookout for historical misinformation. There is a show on television that attempts to explore historical omissions or facts that were taught incorrectly. As an avid reader of all things Civil War, I have often been confronted with the question about how Booth was able to assassinate Lincoln, since surely he would have had a bodyguard present.
Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who served in the White House during the four years of Lincoln's term in office, wrote a stirring account of the missing bodyguard who Mary Lincoln blamed for her husband's assassination.
In fact, tour guides at Ford's Theatre will often point out the chair that sat outside the presidential box on that fateful night, stating that it is where the bodyguard was supposed to sit. Then, speculation enters the picture.
At the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln had no illusions about the frequent threats to kill him.
On the afternoon of April 14, 1865 - five days after the South surrendered - he told one of his bodyguards, William Crook, “I have perfect confidence in those who are around me, in every one of your men … But if it is to be done, it is impossible to prevent it.”
That night, the 56-year-old Lincoln went to see a play at Ford’s Theatre under the watch of a new guard, a D.C. police officer named John Frederick Parker. His dereliction of duty helped change United States history.
Ironically, on this same day, Lincoln signed legislation to create the Secret Service - not to protect the president, but to combat counterfeiting. He was guarded round-the-clock by one member of a four-man security unit.
The 35-year-old Parker was an odd choice for this prestigious assignment. He had a record of unreliability, including drinking while on duty, according to Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
Confederate sympathizers were everywhere in the capital. One of them was the famous 26-year-old actor John Wilkes Booth, who that day went to Ford’s Theatre to pick up his mail. The news was that Lincoln and General Grant planned to attend that evening’s Good Friday performance of the popular comedy “Our American Cousin.”
Lincoln was not keen about going that night, but did not want to disappoint the public. Grant and his wife decided to visit their children in New Jersey. So, Lincoln and Mary invited Clara Harris and her fiance, Major Henry Rathbone, to join them. Parker reported for duty three hours late and was sent ahead to Ford’s Theatre.
The presidential carriage got off to a late start as well. The play had begun when Lincoln and his party entered the theater well after 8 p.m. They went to a special presidential box above the right side of the stage. The actors stopped, and the crowd stood and cheered as the orchestra played “Hail to the Chief.”
Parker had been provided a chair outside the door to the box in a passageway. But he could not see the play and soon moved into the audience. At intermission, he went to Star Saloon next door. Whether he returned to the theater is still a mystery.
Booth was in and out of the theater. At a little past 9 p.m., he took a saddled horse to the stage door at the back of the theater and left it there with a stage hand. Then he went to the same saloon, where, according to Washington Star, he tapped impatiently on the bar while calling for “Brandy, brandy, brandy.”
Booth returned to the theater about 10 p.m. while the third act was underway. He made his way to the door to the passageway and, entering, he wedged a piece of wood against the door so that it could not be opened from outside. He moved up the narrow passageway carrying a one-shot Derringer in one hand and a dagger in the other.
Parker’s chair was empty; there was no guard in front of the two doors to the presidential box. Lincoln was sitting in a cushioned rocking chair with Mary on his right. Booth waited for a line in the play that he knew would draw a loud laugh, helping to drown out the sound of a gunshot.
The lone actor on the stage said: “Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal - you sockdologizing old man-trap!" With that, at 10:14 p.m., Booth burst into the box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. The president slumped forward, New York Times reported.
When Rathbone tried to grab the assassin, Booth slashed his arm with the knife, drawing blood. Booth leaped on the front railing, and according to Washington Star, “raised his right hand, flourishing a dagger in theatrical style and shouted “Sic semper tyrannis” (thus always to tyrants - the motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia).
As Booth jumped to the stage, one spur caught on a flag, and he landed awkwardly, injuring his right leg. He shouted “The South is revenged” as he ran for the stage door, bumping into the orchestra leader and cutting the musician’s clothing with his dagger. Men rushed forward yelling, “Hang him. Hang him.”
Many people in the audience at first thought the gunshot was part of the play. Then Mary screamed.
Poet Walt Whitman later wrote this account from New York:
“A moment’s hush - a scream - the cry of murder - Mrs. Lincoln leaning out of the box, with ashy cheeks and lips, with involuntary cry, pointing to the retreating figure ‘He has killed the president.’ And still a moment’s strange incredulous suspense - and then the deluge! Then that mixture of horror, noises, uncertainty (the sound somewhere back, of a horse’s clattering with speed) …
“And in the midst of all that pandemonium…the life blood from those veins the best and sweetest in the land, drops slowly down and death’s ooze already begins its little bubbles on the lips.”
A doctor quickly arrived, but Lincoln was barely alive. Amid Mrs. Lincoln’s “heart rending shrieks,” the president’s long, limp form was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died at 7:22 the next morning.
At about the same time Lincoln was shot, two associates of Booth forced their way into the nearby Lafayette Square home of Secretary of State William Seward, and one of them began stabbing him about the head. Seward was saved when his bodyguard stopped the attacker.
A third man was supposed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson in his room at Kirkwood House hotel, but lost his nerve. Booth had planned to use his knife to also kill Grant.
Booth was on the run. He had hoped the South would rise again. War Secretary Edwin Stanton announced a $100,000 reward (equal to $1.7 million today) for Booth’s capture. Federal soldiers tracked him to a tobacco barn in Port Royal, Virginia on April 26. They set the barn on fire and shot Booth dead when he resisted. In June, a military court convicted eight Booth accomplices, and four were hanged.
Strangely, the disappearing Parker drew scant attention. He was next seen at six the following morning at the police station when he tried to book a prostitute. In May, a police board charged him with neglect of duty, but the charges were dismissed without any public explanation.
Parker returned to duty at the White House while Mary was still there. She angrily accused him of helping in the murder. Parker claimed he had returned to his seat in the audience, believing no one would attempt such a public murder.
If Parker had stayed at his post, Lincoln's other bodyguard William Crook said, the murder might not have occurred.
Parker was never penalized for having abandoned his post when the president was assassinated, but he was fired in 1868.
His offense?
Sleeping while on duty.
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