The assassination of Abraham Lincoln www.grunge.com
The scene is a common one, projected on televisions every day of the year and replayed in cinemas and other media repeatedly. A man – or woman – of high office is surrounded by men in sober suits, usually wearing sunglasses, buds in their ears and communications devices in their hands. Out of sight but ready to make an appearance are handguns. Snipers probably patrol nearby roof tops. The bullet-proof car glides by with agents running alongside.
Yes, it’s the bodyguards in place to maintain the safety of Presidents, Prime Ministers and their like. So common that we take it for granted. Yet it wasn’t always so, even when common sense would have required it.
On April 14th, 1865 John Wilkes Booth was able to sneak up on Abraham Lincoln and shoot him dead with a small handgun at point blank range. And he was able to escape, too. How?
The whole episode of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is a strange story with many twists and turns. The American Civil War had been devastating America (mostly the southern states) since the 12th of April, 1861 following the attempted secession of southern States from the Union.
This war had its seeds in the cultural differences of about 100 years earlier when the American colonies banded together to defeat the occupying British forces. It was a classic case of two different groups coming together to defeat a common foe. But once the British had been expelled, cultural differences began to appear again. The South was a plantation economy, heavily dependent on slave labour to maintain the lifestyle of the white settlers while the North was an industrial economy where automation of manufacturing processes and professional services provided much of the wealth. Without external support, such as had been provided by the French in the War of Independence, the South couldn’t match the capability of the North and, despite having the better generals, they were unable to gain the upper hand.
Lincoln’s Emancipation proclamation on 1st January, 1863 which freed the slaves, was as much a strategic move to win the war as it was an issue of human rights and it was bitterly opposed by many in the South who had been brought up to believe in their racial superiority. This, coupled with Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia on the 9th April, 1865 was a very bitter pill for some to swallow.
Enter John Wilkes Booth. Booth was a relatively well-known actor at the time, his father and brother too. He was also a fanatical supporter of the Southern cause, a vocal advocate of slavery and he maintained a visceral hatred for Abraham Lincoln. As the Southern cause collapsed around him, he decided to kidnap Lincoln, ferry him across the Potomac River into Confederate territory and then make any number of demands in exchange for his release. There had been an attempt to assassinate Lincoln in 1861 on his way to his first inauguration in Washington DC. This earlier attempt on Lincoln was foiled by a name that will be known to many people, Allan Pinkerton – the Glasgow-born founder of the famous detective agency. Obviously, lessons were not learned.
Saturation of the area around Washington DC by Federal troops made it clear to Booth that his kidnap plot would likely fail and instead, at the last minute, after learning that Lincoln would be attending a play at Ford’s theatre that evening, Booth changed his plan to kidnap Lincoln. Instead, he rounded up his co-conspirators to strike a blow that, he anticipated, would throw the Union government into chaos and allow the South to rise again. Note that although Lee had surrendered his army, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was still at large and General Joe Johnson was still in the field with the army of Tennessee. Indeed fighting still continued. For example, on April 21st, Confederate General Adams with 1,500 men defeated a Federal force almost twice his number at Pleasant Ridge, Alabama.
Booth’s plan was now to conduct a simultaneous assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and the Secretary of State William Seward. He had recruited George Atzerodt, Lewis Payne (or Powell[1]) and David Herold to make up the killing team. Payne was tasked with killing Seward assisted by Herold, Atzerodt was to kill Johnson and Booth would kill Lincoln.
Seward was recovering at home in bed after a carriage accident when Payne arrived around 10 p.m. claiming to be delivering the Secretary’s medicine. Herold waited outside. With Seward were his bodyguard Sergeant George Robinson, a male nurse, and his daughter Fanny. Two of Seward’s sons were also in the house.
When Payne was refused entry, he pushed past the servant who had answered the door and forced his way into Seward’s bedroom, injuring all who opposed him. There he attacked Seward with a knife. Seward only survived because he was wearing a splint following his carriage accident a few days earlier. Hearing the sounds of violence coming from the house, Herold tied Powell’s horse to a tree and escaped. So much for bodyguard protection! (Note: everyone recovered from the injuries inflicted by Payne although William Seward was disfigured for life. Andrew Johnson also survived because Atzerodt’s courage failed him and he decided to get drunk instead).
While this was going on Booth, who was well known to the Ford’s theatre management and could consequently easily access the building, drew upon this familiarity to make his way to the box where Lincoln was enjoying the play with his wife and two companions. Lincoln had asked the Secretary of War Stanton to provide a very strong aide of his, Major Thomas Eckert, to act as his bodyguard that night. Stanton refused, saying that they both had work to do (although neither man did any further work that evening) and instead a second-rate policeman was assigned to keep guard.
Sitting in a chair outside Lincoln’s box, the bodyguard, Constable John Parker became bored and thirsty so he left his station and went to a nearby tavern with Lincoln's valet and coachman where he proceeded to get drunk before falling asleep. Lincoln was now unprotected. Booth entered Lincoln’s box and shot him at point blank range with a Derringer pistol before jumping from the box onto the stage, running out of the theatre and mounting a horse held for him by an unwitting accomplice and galloped south with David Herold.
The rest is history.
The paucity of protection provided Lincoln and others at a time of war in a city filled with Southern sympathisers boggles the mind. It is perhaps simply a sign of the times or …. maybe there was more happening here than is at first apparent. It is a subject explored in my next Major Gask and Errol Rait mystery adventure.
[1]Born Lewis Thornton Powell, he signed an Oath of Allegiance to the Confederacy under the name Lewis Payne in January 1865