Bloody Crimes

by James L. Swanson

  29 “It was near midnight” Reagan, Memoirs, 198.

  29 “another soul to enter” Parker, Recollections, 375.

  29 “The scenes at the depot were a harbinger” Parker, Recollections, 376.

  30 “By nightfall all the flitting shadows” Harrison, Recollections, 208.

  30 “ominous groups of ruffians” Sulivane, “The Fall of Richmond,” 725.

  30 “About 2 o’clock on the morning” Thomas Thatcher Graves, “The Fall of Richmond: The Occupation,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, eds. Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Buel, 4:726.

  30 “I saw a government on wheels” John S. Wise, The End of an Era (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899), 415.

  31 “By daylight, on the 3d” Sulivane, “The Fall of Richmond,” 726.

  32 “As we neared the city the fires” Graves, “The Fall of Richmond,” 726-27.

  32 “I looked over at the President’s house” Harrison, Recollections, 214.

  32 “A young woman has just passed” Harrison, Recollections, 218.

  33 “His hope and good humor” Mallory, “Last Days,” 104.

  33 “adroit economy” Mallory, “Last Days,” 105.

  33 “They were quiet” Mallory, “Last Days,” 105.

  33 “An earnest, enthusiastic, big-hearted man” Mallory, “Last Days,” 105.

  33 “As the morning advanced” Mallory, “Last Days,” 105.

  34 “This morning Gen. Grant reports” Lincoln, Collected Works, 8:384.

  35 “The news spread like wildfire through Washington” Noah Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time (New York: The Century Co., 1895; New York: Georgia University Press, 1971), 218. Citations are to the Georgia University Press edition.

  36 “I congratulate you” Lincoln, Collected Works, 8:384.

  37 “Heads of departments” Mallory, “Last Days,” 103.

  38 “Yours received. Thanks for your caution” Lincoln, Collected Works, 8:385.

  39 “The day of jubilee did not end” Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, 221.

  39 “The ending of the first day of occupation” Harrison, Recollections, 214.

  40 “more or less” Mallory, “Last Days,” 105.

  41 “April 4 and the succeeding four days” Mallory, “Last Days,” 105.

  41 “Some asserted, upon the faith” Mallory, “Last Days,” 105.

  41 “Thus were passed five days” Mallory, “Last Days,” 106.

  2: “IN THE DAYS OF OUR YOUTH”

  42 “Thank God that I have lived” David Dixon Porter, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1885), 294.

  42 “Here we were in a solitary boat” Porter, Incidents, 294.

  44 “Admiral, this brings to mind” Porter, Incidents, 294.

  44 “The street along the river-front” Porter, Incidents, 295.

  44 “There was a small house” Porter, Incidents, 295.

  45 “Don’t kneel to me” Porter, Incidents, 295.

  45 “Oh, all ye people clap” Porter, Incidents, 296.

  45 “The crowd immediately became” Porter, Incidents, 297.

  46 “My poor friends, you are free” Porter, Incidents, 298.

  46 “We will pull it down!” Porter, Incidents, 298.

  47 “Is it far” Graves, “The Fall of Richmond,” 726.

  47 “At the Davis House” Graves, “The Fall of Richmond,” 726.

  47 “look of unutterable weariness” Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 2:790.

  51 “Abraham Lincoln, his hand and pen” Lincoln, Collected Works, 1:1.

  54 “If slavery is not wrong” Lincoln, Collected Works, 7:282.

  57 “Ann M. Rutledge is” The copy of Kirkham’s Grammar inscribed by Lincoln is in the collection of the Library of Congress.

  62 “At length he asked me” Graves, “The Fall of Richmond,” 728.

  62 “quite a small affair compared with” Porter, Incidents, 302.

  63 “news and book agents” Carte de visite in author’s collection.

  63 “President Lincoln replied” Graves, “The Fall of Richmond,” 728.

  64 “Don’t drown, Massa Abe” Burlingame, Lincoln, 2:792.

  64 “I walked alone on the street” Burlingame, Lincoln, 2:792.

  3: “UNCONQUERABLE HEARTS”

  66 “The baggage cars” Crist, Papers, 11:515.

  67 “Please give me” Crist, Papers, 11:501. Official Records of the War of the Rebellion I, 47, part 3. Hereafter cited as OR.

  67 “Selma has fallen” Crist, Papers, 11:502.

  68 “My Brigade was lost” Crist, Papers, 11:502.

  68 “To the people of the Confederacy” Jefferson Davis, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers, and Speeches, ed. Dunbar Rowland (Jackson, MS: Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1923), 6:529-31. Cited hereafter as Jefferson Davis.

  71 “My Dear Wife” Crist, Papers, 11:504.

  73 “We need your personal sanction” Lincoln, Collected Works, 8:387.

  73 “In my letter of yesterday I gave you all of my prospects” Crist, Papers, 11:510.

  73 “I took a long walk” Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1908), 135. Cited hereafter as War-time Journal.

  74 “I shall be tonight at Farmville” Lee, Wartime Papers, 931.

  74 “The news of Richmond came upon me” Crist, Papers, 11:514.

  75 “Lieut. Gen. Grant” Lincoln, Collected Works, 8:392.

  77 “The dispute made it all the way” Lincoln, Collected Works, 8:405-6.

  77 “Your dispatch of the 6th” Crist, Papers, 11:526.

  79 “Most people were sleeping soundly” Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, 223.

  79 “Guns are firing” Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911), 2:278.

  81 “After four years of arduous service” Lee, Wartime Papers, 935.

  81 “fell upon the ears of all” Mallory, “Last Days,” 107.

  83 “We set to work at once” Burton N. Harrison, “The Capture of Jefferson Davis,” Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine 27 (Nove. 1883), 131.

  83 “To Mayor J. M. Walker” Rowland, Jefferson Davis, 6:543.

  84 “Of course, recalled Harrison” Harrison, “Capture,” 131.

  85 “Much rain had fallen” Mallory, “Last Days,” 107.

  86 “I remarked on the freshness” Harrison, “Capture,” 131.

  86 “At ten o’clock, Cabinet officers and other chiefs” Mallory, “Last Days,” 107.

  86 “That young lady” Harrison, “Capture,” 132.

  87 “A sharp explosion” Harrison, “Capture,” 132.

  88 “No provision had been made” Mallory, “Last Days,” 107.

  88 “[The owners] of the house” Harrison, “Capture,” 132.

  88 “The people in that part of North Carolina” Harrison, “Capture,” 132.

  89 “Its distinguished hosts” Mallory, “Last Days,” 107.

  90 “The Secty. Of War did not join me at Danville” Crist, Papers, 11:531.

  91 “Mr. President: It is with pain that I announce” Lee, Wartime Papers, 935-36.

  91 “how vast our resources” Crist, Papers, 11:540.

  92 “After reading it, he handed it without comment” Crist, Papers, 11:542, note 2.

  92 “The rumors of a raid on Charlotte” Crist, Papers, 11:540-41.

  93 “The Capitol made a magnificent display” Benjamin Brown French, Witness to the Young Republic: A Yankee’s Journal, 1828-1870, eds. Donald B. Cole and John McDonough (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1989), 468.

  93 “Everything was bright and splendid” John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper, eds., “Right or Wrong, God Judge Me”: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 144.

  94 “Dear Winnie I will come to you if I can” Crist, Papers, 11
:541.

  94 “I thank you for the assurance” Lincoln, Collected Works, 8:413.

  4: “BORNE BY LOVING HANDS”

  100 “A man running down 10th Street” Seaton Munroe, “Recollections of Lincoln’s Assassination,” North American Review (Apr. 1896), 424.

  101 “Finding it impossible to go further” W. Emerson Reck, A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1987), 128.

  101 “I was at Grover’s” Transcript in the collection of the Surratt Society, James O. Hall Research Center.

  102 “We were about getting into bed” Ralph G. Newman, “The Mystery Occupant’s Eyewitness Account of the Death of Abraham Lincoln,” Chicago History (Spring 1975).

  103 “When we arrived to the street” Charles A. Leale, Address Delivered Before the Commandery of the State of New York, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (New York: self-published, 1909).

  103 “Where can we take him?” Reck, A. Lincoln, 128.

  103 “I saw a man” Leale, Address Delivered.

  103 “They carried him on out” Newman, “Mystery Occupant’s.”

  104 “My balcony being twelve or fourteen feet above” Reck, A. Lincoln, 129.

  105 “Take us to your best room” Reck, A. Lincoln, 128.

  105 “When the president was first laid in bed” Leale, Address Delivered.

  106 “She was perfectly frantic.” Newman, “Mystery Occupant’s.”

  106 “I went to Mrs. Lincoln” Leale, Address Delivered.

  108 “The first person I met” Ralph Borreson, When Lincoln Died (New York: Appleton-Century, 1965).

  109 “about twenty-five minutes” Charles Sabin Taft, “Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours,” Century Magazine 45 (February 1893), 634-36. Charles Sabin Taft, Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours: From the Note-book of Charles Sabin Taft, M.D., an Army Surgeon Present at the Assassination, Death, and Autopsy (Chicago: Blackcat Press, 1934).

  109 “I was introduced to Dr. Stone” Leale, Address Delivered.

  109 “It was owing to Dr. Leale’s quick judgement” Charles Sabin Taft, “Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours.”

  109 “At about 11p.m. the right eye” Leale, Address Delivered.

  111 “The giant sufferer” Borreson, When Lincoln Died, 41.

  112 “he had last night the usual dream” Welles, Diary, 2:282.

  113 “On a common bedstead” Transcript in the collection of the Surratt Society.

  114 “Mr. Lincoln is assassinated in the theater” Storey and Sumner bio.

  115 “Charles Sumner, they have murdered my husband” Jeremiah Chaplin, J. D. Chaplin, and William Claflin, The Life of Charles Sumner (Boston: D. Lothrop & Co., 1874), 417.

  116 “A stroke from Heaven” Reck, A. Lincoln, 138.

  117 “The Hospital Steward” Leale, Address Delivered.

  117 “Mrs. Lincoln accompanied by” Leale, Address Delivered.

  117 “She implored him” Reck, A. Lincoln, 139.

  118 “I awoke and saw that the streetlamps” French, Witness, 469.

  118 “As morning dawned” Leale, Address Delivered.

  119 “Are not the doings of last night dreadful” French, Witness, 469-70.

  119 “I took Mrs. Lincoln by the hand” French, Witness, 470.

  119 “Mrs. Welles was not up” French, Witness, 470.

  120 “Her last visit was most painful” Reck, A. Lincoln, 148.

  120 “pierced every heart” Reck, A. Lincoln, 147.

  120 “Just as the day was struggling” Transcript in the collection of the Surratt Society.

  120 “As Mrs. Lincoln sat on a chair” Reck, A. Lincoln, 148.

  122 “It was evident to every dispassionate mind” Stephen R. Mallory, “Last Days of the Confederate Government…Last Cabinet Conferences and Negotiations for Johnston’s Surrender,” McClure’s Magazine, vol. xvi, December 1901, 242. Hereafter cited as “Last Days,” part 2.

  122 “Heavy rains had recently fallen” Harrison, “Capture,” 134.

  124 “immediately after death” Charles Sabin Taft, “Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours,” 636. Charles Sabin Taft, Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours.

  125 “1 horsehair covered sofa” George Olszewski, House Where Lincoln Died: Furnishing Study (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1967), 42.

  126 “I stepped to the window and saw the coffin” Borreson, When Lincoln Died, 46

  127 “A dismal rain was falling” Charles Sabin Taft, “Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours,” 636. Charles Sabin Taft, Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours.

  127 “Wandering aimlessly up F Street” Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, 231-32.

  130 “Even then I could fancy the relic hunter” Munroe, “Recollections,” 433-34.

  130 “I joined Mr. Petersen’s son” Ferguson.

  130 “make it the center and outstanding part of the large painting” Reck, A. Lincoln, 129.

  5: “THE BODY OF THE PRESIDENT EMBALMED!”

  131 “At nine o’clock we took her home” Surratt Society.

  132 “As I started to go down the stairs” Borreson, When Lincoln Died, 53.

  133 “I went immediately to the room” French, Witness, 470.

  134 “The room…contained but little furniture” Edward Curtis, “Was at the Lincoln Autopsy…Dr. Edward Curtis Describes the Scene at the White House—Lincoln’s Brain and Physique—Finding of the Bullet—An Account Not Before Printed,” Sun, April 12, 1903, sec. 4, 4. Cited hereafter as “Lincoln Autopsy.”

  135 “Dr. Woodward and I proceeded to open the head” Curtis, “Lincoln Autopsy.”

  135 “During the post-mortem examination” Charles Sabin Taft, “Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours,” 636. Charles Sabin Taft, Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours.

  136 “Silently, in one corner of the room, I prepared the brain” Curtis, “Lincoln Autopsy.”

  141 “On reporting to the President” Edward D. Townsend, Anecdotes of the Civil War in the United States (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1884), 77.

  144 “[Mrs. Lincoln] was nearly exhausted with grief” Elizabeth Keckly, Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1868), 189.

  144 “I saw the remains of the President” French, Witness, 471.

  144 “We stood together” French, Witness, 471.

  145 “was looking as natural as life” Orville Hickman Browning, The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, eds. Theodore Calvin Pease and James G. Randall (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1925-1933). 2:22.

  145 “It tells a long story of duns and loiterers” George Alfred Townsend, The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth (New York: Dick and Fitzgerald, 1865), 59.

  148 “Proposed arrangements for the Funeral and disposition of the Remains” Papers of George Harrington, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Missouri. To avoid repetition, all documents drafted by Harrington, and all correspondence to and from him, come from the same source, his personal papers.

  151 “We agreed…to return at 7 to meet” French, Witness, 472.

  6: “WE SHALL SEE AND KNOW OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN”

  160 “On the night of the seventeenth” Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, 232.

  163 “Well…it is only a dream” Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865, by Ward Hill Lamon, ed. Dorothy Lamon (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1895), 112-14.

  164 “‘Excuse me,’ he said, ‘but I cannot talk’” Burlingame, Lincoln, 2:177. Burlingame covers the death of Ellsworth in detail.

  165 “My dear Sir and Madam, In the untimely loss” Lincoln, Collected Works, 4:385.

  170 “Well, Nicolay, my boy is gone” Burlingame, Lincoln, 2:298

  170 “When you came to the door here” Burlingame, Lincoln, 2:299.

  174 “He comes to me every night” Katherine Helm, The True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1928 ), 227.

  177 “Dear Fanny” Lincoln, Collecte
d Works, 6:17

  181 “I found one of the sleeves of his shirt” Surratt Society.

  182 “We discussed…whether” Sherman, Memoirs, 2:351.

  182 “Our necessities exclude the idea” Rowland, Jefferson Davis, 6:549.

  183 “During all this march Mr. Davis was singularly equable” Harrison, “Capture,” 136.

  186 “Approach and look at the dead man” Townsend, John Wilkes Booth, 14.

  189 “I am the resurrection and the life” William Turner Coggeshall, The Journeys of Abraham Lincoln: From Springfield to Washington, 1861, as President Elect and From Washington to Springfield, 1865, as President Martyred (Columbus: Ohio State Journal, 1865), 119. Cited hereafter as Journeys.

  193 “The cortege passed to the left” Townsend, John Wilkes Booth, 18.

  7: “THE CAUSE IS NOT YET DEAD”

  194 “there seemed to be nothing to do” Harrison, “Capture,” 136.

  195 “My friends, I thank you for this evidence of your affection” Crist, Papers, 11:549.

  196 “President Lincoln was assassinated” Crist, Papers, 11:544.

  196 “At Charlotte…we received the melancholy news” Reagan, Memoirs, 208.

  196 “conviction of Mr. Lincoln’s” Mallory, “Last Days,” part 2, 244.

  197 “fearful news” Crist, Papers, 11:544-46.

  197 “Give me a good force of cavalry” OR, 47, III, 813-14.

  198 “At night the jets of gas” Townsend, John Wilkes Booth, 18.

  199 “We saw him the last time” Newman, “Mystery Occupant’s.”

  204 “Genl. Breckinridge…telegraphs to me” Crist, Papers, 11:551.

  205 “Train will start for you at midnight” OR, 47, III, 814.

  205 “Mr. President: The apprehension I expressed during the winter” Lee, Wartime Papers, 938.

  206 “No other course now seemed open” Mallory, “Last Days,” part 2, 246.

  209 “There was never a moment throughout the whole journey” Townsend, Anecdotes, 224.

  212 “Paroled men and stragglers seized my train” OR, 47, III, 819.

  215 “The body of this hearse” Coggeshall, Journeys, 144.

  215 “were tastefully arranged evergreens” Townsend, Anecdotes, 224-25.