In a previous post I came across the first printed report of the capture and death of John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865. This inspired me to look at the local news reports printed just after the assassination.
What strikes me is the out of sequence reporting. Rumors are printed before facts, corrections are made at the end of articles, and reports are made with incomplete information.
For example, Secretary of State William H. Seward is reported to have been killed at about the same time, yet he recovered from his wounds and lived another seven years after he was attacked at his home by Lewis Powell. His son Fred Seward would live another 50 years, dying in 1915 at the age of 84.
So here are the reports from the St. Cloud Democrat presented in the order in which they appear in the newspaper. I have made no corrections in spelling or grammar, and everything appears verbatim as it was printed in April of 1865.
Thursday, April 20, 1865
Official Paper of the City.
W.B. Mitchell, Editor
THE NATION’S TERRIBLE CALAMITY.
He is dead!
Oh, God! what precious blood dost Thou require with which to place Thy seal upon the new born liberty of the Republic!
Thousand created Thine image had yielded up their lives for that of the nation, and by Thy favor, after years of suffering, we were made to cry with joy, that our brightest hopes were being consummated. But now, Oh God! Thou hast stricken the light from our eyes—Thou hast taken our great, good and mighty ruler, our wise counsellor.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS DEAD!
On Sabbath morning the terrible news fell upon us—crushing, stupefying, sickening. Men heard with blanched cheeks, and the blood cold—frozen—in their veins. To believe seemed impossible, and yet there was no room for hope—the truth was only woo well established. Word were powerless. In the formation of language no such deed as this—the assassination of Liberty’s chosen son in a land that boasted to breathe only the air of freedom—had never been contemplated, and the brain of man had framed nothing for the tongue to express that was not weak and impotent. So, with hearts sick and tears brimming over from eyes that were only then willing, they turned their steps to the house of that God whose “ways are inscrutable and past finding out,” or returned wearily to darkened homes—the brightness of the holy day seeming in mockery of the black pall that shrouded all within.
On Friday night of last week, an armed assassin enter the private box at a theatre in Washington occupied by the President and his family, and approaching him from behind, sent a cowardly bullet to smite the brain of the innocent, unsuspecting, great man, and do its work of death. Leaping to the stage, he escaped from the theatre—leaving his victim passing insensibly from life to death.
Oh! it is too terrible to heart sickening!
Such assassination would strike horror to the soul of every man not steeped to the fullest saturation in the poison of disloyalty, because the victim was the President of the United States; the chosen ruler of the people; the embodiment of the laws, the justice, the honor of his country. Thus it would shock him as a citizen. But more was the sorrow of those who loved him as, Abraham Lincoln—the father of his people—almost as children love the father of their home. The heart of the nation had twined around that great body and taking it to themselves, and the great soul it contained had become a part of their soul; and the bullet that struck down his life crashed along every fiber of this net-work of love woven by the people until it quivered in agony. He had given a life-time of earnest and successful endeavor to their cause, and they were not stinting in their reward, infinitely precious for its sincerity.
It is a useless wish, that Our President might have lived to see the completion of the work he had carried forward so nobly and well that it was all but finished, and to see the people of his nation gathered under the growing branches of the tree of Peace—whose first fresh garlands were already wreathed about his brow—when he might calmly have said:
“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. For mine eyes have seen they salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people.”
Like Moses, his prototype of old, he was permitted to view the Promised Land only afar off, from the mountaintop—from the mountain top of Liberty and Enlightenment to which, with the guidance of the Almighty One, he had brought his people up from the dark valley where fetters were forged and riveted.
No pen can write an eulogium of Abraham Lincoln dead. But he lives and will live in thousands upon thousands of hearts, as the man whose nature knew no unkindness; whose honesty was their boast; whose wisdom, firmness in the right, and purity of life had been denied only as he had brought them from low estate; as the noble patriot; as the Savior of the Nation—and his name will become more and more sacred as it is hallowed by these memories confided from father to son, and from mother to daughter.
—To add, if possible, to the terribleness of the blow, the same dispatch brought news that, about the same time with the President’s assassination, a murderer obtained access to the bedroom of that most illustrious of American statesmen the last decade of years has known, William H. Seward, rushed upon him where he lay hopelessly ill, and inflicted wounds in his face and throat that resulted in his death. His son, Frederick Seward, Assistant Secretary of State, was also mortally wounded.
The cup is filled to overflowing. Let the nation weep, and God-like must be their nature if their tears have not the bitterness of gall.
Later.—It is with feelings of profound gratitude that we read the contraction of the announcement of Secretary Seward’s death, and the assurances that he is steadily growing better. The universal prayer is, that he may speedily be restored to perfect health.
At twelve o’clock yesterday the grave received the mortal remains of Abraham Lincoln. Business was suspended generally during the day throughout the loyal States.
The revelation of events prove that the assassin of the President was J. Wilkes Booth, one of those vilest of all reptile—a Northern Copperhead.
President Lincoln was fifty-six years of age at the time of his death.
TERRIBLE NEWS!
PRESIDENT LINCOLN ASSASSINATED!
SECRETARY SEWARD MURDERED IN HIS BED.
BOTH ARE DEAD.
THE ASSASSIN ESCAPES.
[From Our Extra of Sunday.]
To Major General Dix:
War Department,
Washington, April 15,—1:30 A.M.
Last evening, about 9:30 PM, at Ford’s theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Rodgers and Major Rathburn, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the president.
The assassin then escaped 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 Presidents head, and penetrated nearly through the head. The wound is mortal. The President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted, and is now about dying.
About the same hour and assassin, (not known whether the same or not,) entered Mr. Seward’s apartments, and under the pretense of having a prescription, was shown to Secretary,Seward’s sick chamber, the assassin immediately rushed to the bed and inflicted two or three stabs in the throat and two in the face. It is hoped the wound may not be mortal. My apprehension is they will prove fatal.
The nurse alarmed Mr. Fred Seward, who was in an adjoining room, and he hastened to the door of his father’s room where he met the assassin who inflicted upon him one or more dangerous wounds. The recovery of Fred Seward is doubtful.
It is not probably that the President will live through the night.
Gen. Grant and his wife were advertised to be at the theatre this evening, but he started for Burlington at six o’clock this evening.
At a Cabinet meeting at which Gen. Grant was present the subject of the state of the country and the prospect of a speedy peace was discussed. The President was very cheerful and hopeful, and spoke very kindly of Gen. Lee and others of the Confederacy.
E.M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.
Washington, 11 A.M.
The Star Extra says: at 7:20 o’clock the President breathed his last, closing his eyes as if going to sleep.
War Department, Washington,
April 15—10 A.M.
(Signed)
E.M. STANTON
Secretary of War.
Chicago, April 15
A dispatch just received from Washington says Secretary Seward died at 9:30 this morning.
Washington, April 15, 11 A.M.
The Star Extra says at 7:20 o’clock the President breathed his last—closing his eyes as in falling asleep.
Further Particulars.
Secretary Seward still Living.
J. Wilkes Booth the Assassin of the President.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN.
WAR DEPARTMENT, April 15—4:10 A.M.
To Maj. Gen. Dix.
The President continues insensible and is sinking. Secretary Seward remains without change. Frederick Seward’s skull is fractured in two places, besides a severe cut on the head. The attendant is still alive but hopeless. Major Seward’s wounds are not dangerous
It is now ascertained with reasonable certainty, that two assassins were engaged in the horrible crime—J. Wilkes Booth being the one that shot the President, and the other a companion of his, whose name is not known, but whose description is so clear that he can hardly escape.
It appears from a letter found in Booth’s trunk that the murder was planned before the 4th of March, but fell through then because the accomplices backed out until Richmond could be heard from. Booth and his accomplice were at the livery stable at six o’clock that evening, and left their horses at ten o’clock, or shortly before that hour.
It would seem that they had been seeking their chance, but for some unknown reason, it was not carried into effect until last night. One of them has evidently made his way to Baltimore; the other has not been traced.
E.M. STANTON
Secretary of War.
Washington, April 14.
President Lincoln and wife, with other friends, visited Ford’s Theatre, for the purpose of witnessing the performance of “Our American Cousin.”
It was announced in the papers that Gen. Grant would also be present, but that gentleman took to the late train of cars for New Jersey.
The theatre was densely, crowded, and everybody seems delighted with the scene before them. During the third act and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, is sharp report of a pistol was heard which attracted attention but suggested 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.”
He immediately leaped from the box, which was in the rear tier of the stage beneath, and ran across to the opposite side of the stage, making his escape amid the bewilderment of the audience from 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 and rushed toward the stage immediately, exclaiming, “hang him!”
The excitement was of the wildest possible description, and of course there was an abrupt intermission in the theatrical performances.
There was a rush towards the President’s box, when cries or heard: “Stand back and give him air.” “Has anyone stimulants?”
On a hasty examination it was found that the President had been shot through the head, and back of his temporal bone, and that some of the brains were coming out.
He was removed to a private house opposite of theater, and a Surgeon General of the army and other surgeons were sent for to attend to his condition.
On examination of the President’s box, blood was discovered on the back of the cushioned rocking-chair in which the President had been sitting, also on the partition and on the floor.
A common single-barreled pistol was found on the carpet. A military guard has been placed in front of the private residence to which the President had been removed.
It had been previously announced that the wound was mortal, but all hoped otherwise. The shock to the community was terrible. At midnight the Cabinet, Messrs. Sumner, Farnsworth, Judge Bate, Gov. Oglesby, Gen. Meigs, Col. Haynes and a few personal friends, with surgeon Morris and his immediate assistants were around the bed. The President is in a state of syncope and totally insensible.
The blood oozed slowly from the back of his head. The surgeons showed every possible effort of medical skill, but all hope was gone.
The parting of his family with the dying President is too sad for description. The President and Mrs. Lincoln did not star for the theatre until 15 minutes after 8 o’clock.
Speaker Colfax was at the White House at the time. The President stated to him that he was going, although Mrs. Lincoln had not been well, because the paper had announced that General Grant was to be present, and as Gen. 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 that gentleman had made other engagements with Mr. Ashmun, of Massachusetts, and bade him good-bye.
After the president was shot, Lieut. Rathbone, who was in the box with him, caught the assassin by the arm, who immediately struck him with a knife, and jumped from the box as before stated.
As the assassin ran across the stage, Col. J.B. Stewart, of this city, who was occupying one of the front seats in the orchestra, on the same side of the house as the one occupied by Mr. Lincoln, sprung to the stage and followed him, but he was instructed in his passage across the stage by the freight of one of the actors, and reached the back door about three seconds after the assassin had passed out. Col. Stewart got to the street just in time to see him mount his horse and ride away.
The operation shows that the whole affair was a preconcerted plan.
The person who fired the pistol was a man about thirty years of age, about five feet nine inches high, spare built, fair skin, dark hair, apparently with a large mustache. Laura Keene and the leader of the orchestra declare that they recognized him as J. Wilkes Booth the actor, and a rabid seccessionist.—Whoever he was, it is plainly evident that he thoroughly understood the theatre, and also the approaches and modes of escape to the stage. A person not familiar with the theatre could not possibly have made his escape as well and quickly.
When the excitement of the theatre was at its wildest height, reports were circulated that Secretary Seward had also been assassinated. On reaching Secretary Seward’s residence a crowd and a military guard were around the door, and on entering it was found that the reports were based on truth.
Everybody there was so excited that scarcely an intelligent word could be gathered, but the facts are substantially as follows:
About 10 o’clock, a man rang a bell and the call having been answered by a colored servant, he said he had come from Dr. Viede, Secretary Seward’s family physician, with a prescription for the Secretary, at the same time held in his hand a small folded paper. Saying in answer to a refusal that he must see the Secretary, as he was entrusted with particular instructions concerning the medicine.
He insisted on going up although respectfully informed that no one could enter the chamber. He pushed the servant aside and walked heavily toward the Secretary’s room.
He was there met by Fred Seward, of whom he demanded to see the Secretary, making the same representations which he did to the servant.
What further passed in the way of coloquy 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 Mr. Seward, the Paymaster U.S.A., Mr. Hansel, a messenger of the State Department and two male nurses disabling them.
He then rushed upon the Secretary who was lying in the bed in the same room, and inflicted three stabs in the neck. He bled profusely.
The assassin rushed downstairs, mounted his horse at the door and rode off before an alarm could be sounded in the same manner as the assassin of the President had done.
It is believed that the injuries of the Secretary are not fatal, nor those of the others, although both the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary are very severely injured.
Secretaries Stanton and Welles, and other prominent officer of the Government called at Secretary Seward’s house to inquire into his condition, and there heard of the assassination of the President.
They then proceeded to the house where he was dying, exhibiting, of course intense anxiety and solicitude.
And immense crowd was gathered in front of the house, and a strong guard was also stationed.
There is evidence that Secretary Stanton was marked for assassination. On the receipt of the intelligence at the War Department of the attack on the President, two employees of the department were sent to summon the Secretary. Just as they approached the 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 9 and 12 o’clock P.M., and usually unattended.
Chicago, April 16.
A Cairo special says that our forces occupied Mobile on the 9th. Spanish Fort was captured with 3,000 prisoners. Three hundred guns were captured in Mobile. The garrison fell back up the river to Chickasaw Bluff. General Wilson captured all of Roddy’s command.
This report has been confirmed.
ANDREW JOHNSON SWORN IN.
OFFICIAL.
War Department.
Washington, April 15, 3 P.M.
Official notice of the death of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, was given by the head of this Department this morning to Andrew Johnson, Vice President, upon whom the Constitution devolved the office of President. Mr. Johnson, upon receiving this notice, appeared before the Chief Justice Chase and took the oath or President of the United States, and assumed its duties and functions at 12 o’clock.
The president met the heads of departments in cabinet meeting at the Treasure building, and among other business the following was transacted:
1st. The arrangement for the funeral of the late President were referred to the several Secretaries, as far as relates to their respective departments.
2d. T.W. Hunter, Esq., was appointed acting Secretary of State during the disability of Mr. Seward and his son, Fred Seward, the Assistant Secretary.
3d. The President formally announced that he desired to retain the present Secretaries of Departments and his Cabinet, they would go on and discharge their respective duties in the same manner as before the deplorable event that had changed the head of the Government. All business in the Departments was suspended during the day. Surgeons report that the condition of Mr. Seward remains unchanged. He is doing well. There is no improvement in Mr. Fred Seward. The murderers have not yet been apprehended.
E.M. STANTON
Sec. of War
LATEST.
New York, April 18.
The latest dispatches represent Secretary Seward to be improving. Booth has not yet been arrested.
The Washington Intelligence thinks the murder of the President the result of a conspiracy which included not only Mr. Lincoln and Seward, but the Vice President and all the member of the Cabinet. It gives interesting incidents which lead to this conclusion.—The arrest of suspected parties in New York is announced.
On Monday, the 10th, Jeff Davis was said to be in Macon, Ga. It is said that Lee is endeavoring to prevail on Davis to give up the contest.
The surrender of Johnston to Sherman is again reported. It is probably correct, though not official.
Lee surrendered about 16,000 men, including officers and privates, 170 pieces of artillery and 700 wagons.
The soldiers of our army are greatly incensed at the assassination, but they are counseled to calmness. Quietness seems to be restored again and matters throughout the country resuming their wonted firmness and tranquility.
Gold closed at 148.
Read the rest of this incredible newspaper here.
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