The day Lincoln was shot
HOW THE POST COVERED THE ASSASSINATION
AN APPALLING CALAMITY.
Assassination of the President. Mr. Lincoln Shot in Ford’s Theatre in Washington.
MR. SEWARD’S THROAT CUT. Despatches from Secretary Stanton.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Ford’s Theatre in Washington at halfpast nine o’clock last night, and at about the same time Secretary Seward, was attacked in his sick room and his throat cut.
Particulars are given below. DESPATCH FROM SECRETARY STANTON.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, APRIL 15 – 1: 30 A. M.
Major General Dix, News York:
Last evening at about 9: 30 o’clock, at Ford’s Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris and Major Rathbun, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President.
The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theatre.
The pistol ball entered the back of the President’s head, and penetrated nearly through the head. The wound is mortal.
The President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted, and is now dying.
About the same hour an assassin, whether the same or not, entered Mr. Seward’s apartments, and, under pretense of having a prescription, was shown to the Secretary’s sick chamber. The assassin immediately rushed to the bed and inflicted two or three stabs on the throat and two in the face.
It is hoped the wounds may not be mortal. My apprehension is that they will prove fatal.
The nurse alarmed Mr. Frederick Seward, whowas in an adjoining room, and he hastened to the door of his father’s room, when he met the assassin, who inflected upon his one or more dangerous wounds. The recovery of Frederick Seward is doubtful.
It is not probable that the President will live through the night.
General Grant and wife were advertised to be at the theatre this evening, but he started to Burlington at six o’clock this evening.
At a Cabinet meeting, at which General Grant was present, the subject of the state of the country and the prospect of a speedy peace were discussed. The President was very cheerful and hopeful and spoke very kindly of General Lee and others of Confederacy, and at the establishment of government in Virginia.
All the members of the Cabinet, except Mr. Seward, are now in attendance upon the President.
I have seen Mr. Seward, but he and Frederick were both unconscious. EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War. SECOND DESPATCH FROM SECRETARY STANTON.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, April 15 – 3 A. M.
Major- General Dix, New York:
The President still breathes, but is quite insensible, as he has been ever since he was shot. He evidently did not see the person who shot him, but was looking on the stage, as he was approached from my behind.
Mr. Seward has rallied, and it is hoped he may live.
Frederick Seward’s condition is very critical.
The attendant who was present was shot through the lungs, and is not expected to live.
The wounds of Major Seward are not serious.
Investigation strongly indicates J. Wilkes Booth as the assassin of the President. Whether it was the same or a different person that attempted to murder Mr. Seward remains in doubt.
Chief Justice Cartter is engaged in taking the evidence.
Every exertion has been made to prevent the escape of the murderer. His horse has been found on the road near Washington. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
PARTICULARS OF THE ASSASSINATION.
The following are the particulars of the assassination, as gathered from the different reports:
“Washington, April 14 – President Lincoln and wife, with other friends, this evening visited Ford’s Theatre for the purpose of witnessing the performance of the ‘ American Cousin.’
“It was announced in the papers that General Grant would also be present, but he took the late train of cars for New Jersey.
“The theatre was densely crowded, and everybody seemed delighted with the scene before them. During the third act. and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggesting nothing serious, until a man rushed to the front of the President’s box, waving a long dagger in his right hand, and exclaiming ‘ Sic semper tyrannis,’ and immediately leaped from the box, which was in the second tier, to the stage beneath, and ran across to the opposite side, making his escape amid the bewilderment of the audience from the rear of the theatre, and mounting a horse, fled.
“The screams of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed the fact to the audience that the President had been shot, when all present rose to their feet, rushing towards the stage, main exclaiming ‘ Hang Him! hang him!
“The excitement was of the wildest possible description, and of course there was an abrupt termination of the theatrical performance.
“There was a rush toward the President’s box, when cries were heard: ‘ Stand back and give him air.’ ‘ Has any one stimulants.’ On a hasty examination, it was found that the president had been shot through the head, above and back of the temporal bone, and that some of the brain was oozing out. He was removed to a private house opposite to the theatre, and the Surgeon- General of the Army, and other surgeons sent for to attend his condition.
“On the examination of the private box blood was discovered on the back of the cushioned rocking-chair on which the President had been sitting, also on the partition and on the floor. A common single- barreled pocket pistol was found on the carpet.
“A military guard was placed in front of the private residence to which the President had been conveyed. An immense crowd was in front of it, all deeply anxious to learn the condition of President. It had been previously announced that the wound was mortal; but all hoped otherwise. The shock to the community was terrible.
“The President is in a state of syncope, totally insensible, and breathing slowly. The blood oozed from the wound at the back of his head. The surgeons exhausted every effort of medical skill, but all hope was gone. The parting of his family with the dying President is too sad for description.
“At midnight, the Cabinet, with Messrs. Sumner Colfax and Farnsworth, Judge Curtis, Governor Oglesby, General Meigs, Colonel Hay, and a few personal friends, with Surgeon General Barnes and his immediate assistants, were around his bedside.
“The President and Mrs. Lincoln did not start for the theatre until fifteen minutes after eight o’clock. Speaker Colfax was at the White House at the time, and the President stated to him that he was going, although Mrs. Lincoln had not been well, because the papers had announced that General Grant
and they were to be present, and as General Grant had gone North, he did not wish the audience to be disappointed.
“He went with apparent reluctance and urged Mr. Colfax to go with him, but the gentleman had made other engagements, and with Mr. Ashmun, of Massachusetts, bid him goodbye.”
A special dispatched to the Herald says:
“When the fatal shot was fired, Mrs. Lincoln, who was alongside of her husband, exclaimed, ‘ Oh! Why didn’t they shot me- why didn’t they shoot me?’
“There is evidence that Senator Stanton was also marked for assassination. Oh receipt of intelligence of the War Department of the attack on the President, two employees of the Department were sent to summon the Secretary. Just as they approached his house, a man jumped out from behind a tree box in front of the house and ran away. It is well known to be the custom of the Secretary to go from the Department to his house between nine and twelve P. M, and usually unattended. It is supposed that the assassin intended to shoot him as he entered the house, but failed from the tact that Mr. Stanton remained at home during the evening.
“The circumstantial evidence is very strong that J. Wilkes Booth is the person who shot the President. Several parties who are well acquainted with him, and saw the assassin when he jumped from the box, are positive that he is the man. It is also reported that Booth’s horse was saddled at the side door of the theatre and was rode off by the assassin. If he is the man, it is impossible for him to escape. The horse of the man who made the attack on Secretary Seward has been found near the Lincoln hospital, bathed in sweat, and with blood upon the saddle cloths.”
THE ATTACK UPON MR. SEWARD
When the excitement at the theatre was at its wildest height, reports were circulated that Secretary Seward had also been assassinated.
On reaching the gentleman’s residence a crowd and a military guard were found at the door, and on entering it ascertained that the reports were based on truths.
Everybody there was so excited that scarcely an intelligible word could be gathered, but the facts are substantially as follows:
About 10 o’clock a man rang the bell, and the call having been answered by a colored servant, he said he had come Dr. Verdi, Secretary Seward’s family physician, with a prescription, at the same time holding a piece of small folded paper, and saying, in answer to a refusal, that he must see the Secretary, as he was entrusted with
particular directions concerning the medicine.
He still insisted on going up, although repeatedly informed that no one could enter the chamber. The man pushed the servant aside, and walked heavily towards the Secretary’s room, and was then met by Mr. Fredrick Seward of whom he demanded to see the Secretary, making the same representation which he did to the servant. What further passed in the way of colloquy is not known; but the man struck him on the head with a “billy,” severely injuring the skull and felling him almost senseless. The assassin then rushed into the chamber and attacked Major Seward, paymaster of the United States army and Mr. Hansel, a messenger of the State Department, and two male nurses, disabling them all. He then rushed upon the Secretary, who was lying in bed in the same room, and inflicted three stabs in the neck, but severing, it is thought and hoped, no arteries, though he bled profusely.
ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
The correspondent of the Times writes:
“A stroke from Heaven laying the whole of the city instant ruins could not have startled us as did the word that broke from Ford’s Theatre a half hour ago, that the President had been shot. It flew everywhere in five minutes, and set five thousand people in swift and excited motion on the instant.
“It is impossible to get at the full facts of the case, but it appears that a young man entered the President’s box from the theatre, during the last act of the play of “Our American Cousin,” with pistol in hand. He shot the President in the head, and instantly jumped from the box upon the stage, and immediately disappeared through the side scenes and rear of the theatre, brandishing a dirk knife and dropping a kid glove on the stage.
“The audience heard the shot, but supposing it fired in the regular course of the play, did not heed it till Mrs. Lincoln’s scream drew their attention. The whole affair occupied scarcely half a minute, and then the assassin was gone. As yet he has not been found.
“The President’s wound is reported mortal. He was at once taken into the house opposite the theatre.
“As if the horror was not enough almost the same moment the story ran through the city that Mr. Seward had been murdered in his bed.
“Inquiry showed this to be so far true also. It appears is appears a man wearing a light coat, dark pantaloons, slouch hat, called and asked to see Mr. Seward, and was shown to his room He delivered to Major Seward, who sat near his father what purported to be a physician’s prescription, turned, and with one stroke cut Mr. Seward’s throat as he lay on his bed, inflicting a horrible wound, but not severing the jugular vein, and not producing a mortal wound.
“In the struggle that followed, Major Seward was also badly, but not seriously, wounded in several places. The assassin rushed down stairs, mounted the fleet horse on which he came, drove his spurs into him, and dashed away before any one could stop him.
“Reports have prevailed that an attempt was also made on the life of Stanton.
“MIDNIGHT – The President is reported dead. Cavalry and infantry are scouring the city in every direction for the murderous assassins, and the city is overwhelmed with excitement. Who the assassins were no one knows, though every body supposes them to have been rebels.”