Denis J. Hickey brings us part one of his account of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent manhunt to catch his assassin, which was led by Captain Edward P. Doherty, son of an Irish emigrant

 

Irishman, Francis Burke and fellow countryman Charlie Forbes were the driver and footman respectively on the carriage that brought President and Mrs. Lincoln to Washington’s Ford’s Theatre on 14th April, 1865. The party would later be joined by the President’s bodyguard, John Parker.

The President’s 10-year-old son ‘Tad’ was also in Washington, attending Aladdin at Grover’s Theatre.
Unknown to Government agencies however, a Confederate cabal was at that very moment finalising plans not only for the assassination of President Lincoln, but also that of Vice-President Andrew Johnson and the Secretary of State, William Henry Seward. Such actions they hoped, would re-ignite the flames of Civil War.

The conspirators, all of whom were under thirty years of age, were led by John Wilkes Booth and included a college associate, Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt a Prussian carriage-painter, Baltimore-born Michael O’ Laughlen who at one time lived across the road from the Booth household, and Lewis Powell, son of a Baptist Minister. Their regular rendezvous, 541H. St., was the boarding house of Mary Surratt whose son, John, was also party to the intrigue. He had been a courier for the Confederate Secret Service.

John Wilkes Booth was born in Bel Air, Maryland, in 1838, ninth of ten children to a family of noted actors. He later became a celebrated Shakesperean thespian. Educated privately, he joined Robert E. Lee’s Virginia militia that captured John Brown at Harper’s Ferry on 18th October, 1859. Brown and six of his supporters were later hanged.

Brown was immortalised through William Steffe’s 1856 composition, John Brown’s Body. Booth would later become engaged to Lucy Hale, daughter of Senator John Parker Hale. Booth also headed the conspirators that had planned to kidnap President Lincoln on 20th March, 1865. Their efforts were thwarted when the presidential party chose an alternate route.

Booth later enlisted accomplices to murder Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State, William Henry Seward. The attack on Johnson failed when his delegated assassin, Atzerodt, lost his nerve. Seward was badly beaten and two of his sons stabbed by the would-be-assassin, Powell.

Seward survived the attempt through the protection of a brace on his neck from a previous accident.

He would in 1867 be instrumental in the purchase of Alaska from Russia for some 7.2 million dollars – a deal that was referred to by his opponents as ‘Seward’s Folly’.

A capacity audience welcomed President and Mrs Mary Todd Lincoln as they and their guests, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris took their seats in the Presidential Box for the performance of Englishman Tom Taylor’s comedy play, Our American Cousin.

The President was in an ebullient mood. He had good reason to be! A mere five days earlier – on Easter Sunday – the Civil War had ended with General Ulysses Grant accepting the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Virginia’s Appomattox Courthouse. All in the theatre were unaware that lurking within was a man pulsing with raw anger and hate – John Wilkes Booth.
His mission? To assassinate the President.

Booth had meticulously prepared for his assassination attempt. He ensured that his frisky mare – not his regular ride, was being cared for outside the theatre and had chosen John ‘Peanut’ Burroughs to attend her. Booth had even timed the firing of the fatal shot to coincide with the play’s funniest line (“You sockdologizing old man-trap”) so that the audience’s laughter might muffle the sound of the shot!

Pausing outside the Presidential Box until the pre-ordained moment, he dashed in and with his .44 calibre 6-inch Derringer pistol fired point-blank at President Lincoln’s head, who collapsed. Escaping Major Rathbone’s clutching hand by driving a knife into his arm, Booth vaulted on to the stage yelling the motto of the state of Virginia: “Sic semper tyrannis”! (‘Thus, always to tyrants’), “The South is avenged!” On landing, Booth fractured his left fibula.

Actor Harry Hawk was alone on stage at that moment. He took one look at the manic appearance of Booth and fled for his life!

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own