Tag: assassination

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Discoverer of the Only Known Photo of Lincoln in His Coffin Dies

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Ronald Rietveld passed away on November 27, 2025, at the age of 88. Rietveld was a professor of history at California State University – Fullerton for many years, although he is best known for his discovery at the age of 14 of the only known photograph of Abraham Lincoln in his coffin, taken April 24, 1865, as he lay in repose in New York during the long train ride back to Springfield.

Lincoln coffin, New York City, courtesy of ALPLM

Rietveld’s discovery shocked historians. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton had barred photography of Lincoln’s body out of respect for Lincoln, his distraught wife Mary, and his remaining two sons. When it was discovered that an unauthorized photograph had, in fact, been taken by photographer Jeremiah Gurney, Jr. while Lincoln lay in state in New York City, Stanton immediately ordered the destruction of all copies of the photograph. The photograph shows two men posing along with the coffin, with Lincoln’s face clearly visible in the open casket.

While Stanton had the four-lens glass plate and any prints destroyed, he surreptitiously preserved one print, which his son kept for many years before giving it to Lincoln’s former secretary John G. Nicolay, who with fellow secretary John Hay was working on the definitive biography of the sixteenth president. The photograph was put in the voluminous files the men had collected and forgotten for 90 years. That is, until an eager teenager enamored with the study of Abraham Lincoln came across it.

“I knew Lincoln photography fairly well at 14 and knew that this picture, if it was indeed a photograph, did not exist,” Rietveld wrote in his reminisces of the discovery. “I had a copy of the May 6, 1865, issue of Harper’s Weekly at the time, in which the scene is sketched, because there were no photographs published.”

Rietveld had attended the dedication of the Bollinger Lincoln Collection at the University of Iowa. Judge James W. Bollinger had been an avid Lincoln collector, and after reading about him in a Des Moines, Iowa, newspaper, the young Rietveld began a correspondence. That got him an invitation to attend the dedication of his collection, which led Rietveld to meet Lincoln scholars of the era such as Harry Pratt, Paul Angle, Louis Warren, Benjamin Thomas, and Harry Lytle, a friend of Judge Bollinger’s from Davenport. Showing his acumen for Lincoln studies, Rietveld was subsequently invited to Springfield, Illinois to see the Lincoln home. While there he visited the Illinois State Historical Library, which housed the Nicolay-Hay Papers donated to them by John Hay’s daughter in 1943. Rietveld recalled:

“I came to a file called X:14. I’ll never forget the number — it’s burned in my memory. Of course, the burning came later. I took it in, opened it up, and was reading Nicolay’s notes about Mrs. Lincoln’s visit to City Point [Virginia] and the fiasco that occurred there after her head had been hit on the top of a carriage during a very bumpy ride. When I finished, I saw an envelope laying there from 1887, sent from Minnesota to John Nicolay at Georgetown. I opened it and there were two pieces of regular stationery paper plus another piece of regular stationery folded in thirds; I laid the last piece aside. I read the first piece, which was the letter from Lewis H. Stanton to John Nicolay, saying in essence, “I have found this in my father’s papers and perhaps you’d like to use it.”

It was the photograph.

Ronald Rietveld went on to become a noted Lincoln historian himself. He received a PhD in history from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and after briefly serving as an assistant professor of history at Wheaton College, became a professor of history at CalState-Fullerton for the rest of his career. When he retired in 2008 – the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth – Rietveld donated his own copy of the photograph and his notes from the day of his discovery to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.

As Lincoln scholars, we all dream of finding some significant, never-before-seen artifact related to Abraham Lincoln. Ronald Rietveld fulfilled that dream when he was only 14 years old.

[Photo from ALPLM. The two men standing are Admiral Charles H. Davis (left) and General Edward D. Townsend (right).]

 

Lincoln in New England book cover

Coming in March 2026: Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours

Also see – Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America.

Join me on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook and on Instagram.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Taper Collection of Lincoln Artifacts Raises Nearly $8 Million at Auction

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Lincoln's bloody gloves from night of assassinationA major auction of Abraham Lincoln artifacts held May 21, 2025, brought in nearly $8 million dollars. The largest amount for any single item was over $1.5 million (including auction fees) for a pair of blood-stained gloves that Lincoln wore the night of the assassination.

Hindman ran the auction for the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, whose predecessor organization had purchased the Taper Collection of Lincolniana. Approximately 10 percent of that collection was included in the auction designed to raise money to pay off the ongoing debt from the initial purchase many years ago.

In addition to the gloves, other items from the night of the assassination also exceeded their estimated pre-auction value. Lincoln’s handkerchief sold for $826,000, more than double its initial estimate. A monogrammed cuff button that had been on one of Lincoln’s sleeves when he was assassinated went for $445,000, while a ticket stub from that night’s performance of Our American Cousin garnered $381,200.

Other items included a partial sheet from Lincoln’s “sum book” with mathematical calculations and a poem, which sold for $521,200, and the first printing of Lincoln’s second inaugural address – estimated to be worth between $40,000 and $60,000 – sold for $165,000.

One intrigue in the sale was that an anonymous bidder known as “Paddle 1231” was by far the largest buyer, purchasing about $4 million worth of the $8 million total, including the gloves, handkerchief, and other high-ticket items. Some have speculated about whether that buyer could be Illinois Governor and First Lady JB and MK Pritzker, who have a history of purchasing Lincoln artifacts at auction and have donated them to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in the past. Neither the governor’s office nor the Lincoln Presidential Foundation would comment on the matter, which is pure speculation at this point.

Controversy surrounded some of the items in the collection, most notably the provenance of the stovepipe hat that had been on display in the Museum. Considerable upheaval in the Museum and Library staff has occurred in recent years and the Museum severed ties with the predecessor foundation, leading to its reorganization into the current Lincoln Presidential Foundation.

The remaining 90 percent of the Taper Collection continues to be held by the Foundation while the old debt is retired and new locations for display are investigated. While no one seems to be happy that some items were auctioned off, there are hopes that many of them will be donated or loaned to an appropriate museum for public display. Perhaps the mysterious “Paddle 1231” will ensure that happens?

You can see all the items and their sale prices at the Freeman/Hindman’s site here.

[Photo credit: From Freeman/Hindman’s auction site]

Fire of Genius

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Abraham Lincoln Assassination Science

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Lincoln mourning ribbonApril 14, 1865, had been a busy day for Abraham Lincoln. The previous week he had walked through Richmond, arriving back in Washington to a telegram saying the South’s main army would fight no more. On this Good Friday, Lincoln felt rejuvenated, relieved that the war would soon end and he could focus his second term on reconstructing the Union. The day started with a welcome visit. Captain Robert Lincoln, the president’s son, returned to the city in time to join Lincoln for breakfast. Robert brought firsthand witness to the recent surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Many formal interviews later (including with former New Hampshire senator John P. Hale, whose daughter Lucy was later discovered to be secretly engaged to John Wilkes Booth), Lincoln held a cabinet meeting in which he related a recurring dream of a ship “moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore.”

Perhaps inspired by the dream or simply his interest in technology, Lincoln and Mary went out for a carriage ride and found their way to the Washington Navy Yard. After touring the vessels and talking with Navy Yard staff, the Lincolns returned to the White House and shortly thereafter set out again for what they had hoped would be a relaxing night at the theater. Our American Cousin, a comedy, should lift their spirits as this long grueling Civil War appeared to be coming to an end.

Instead, Lincoln’s life ended. John Wilkes Booth had slipped into the president’s box at Ford’s Theatre and fired a single shot into the back of Lincoln’s head. Booth then slashed Rathbone before leaping from the box to the stage, yelled Sic Semper Tyrannus, “Thus Ever to Tyrants,” and ran out the stage door into the alley, where he escaped on horseback. In contrast to the advanced repeating weapons that Lincoln so often advocated, Booth’s gun was a Deringer, made to fire one lead ball. A Deringer (the original design, as opposed to a derringer, which is any similar gun by other manufacturers) is a single-shot, muzzle-loading, seven-groove rifled, percussion pocket pistol. Most Deringers were .41 caliber, but the one used by Booth was .44 caliber, a remarkably large ball for such a small gun. Prior to entering the theater, Booth loaded the Deringer by pouring ten grains by weight of black powder into the muzzle before ramming in one lead ball wrapped in a tiny cloth patch. A percussion cap was put in place and the hammer rested gently up until the time Booth pulled the trigger.

As I wrote in a previous post:

Dr. Charles Leale examined the fallen president and knew immediately the wound was mortal. Twenty-three years old and only six weeks after receiving his medical degree from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, Leale found himself in charge of the shocking murder scene. He had been sitting in the dress circle at Ford’s Theatre when “about half past ten…the report of a pistol was distinctly heard and about a minute after a man of low stature with black hair and eyes was seen leaping to the stage beneath, holding in his hand a drawn dagger.” Rushing to the Presidential Box, Leale observed Lincoln “in a state of general paralysis.” Lincoln’s labored breath was intermittent, no pulse could be detected, and he was “profoundly comatose.”

Leale’s description of his actions that night grew more detailed and extravagant in repeated telling over the years, but the basic facts remained the same. He was joined in the box by surgeons Doctors Charles F. Taft and Albert F. A. King. They agreed that Lincoln would not survive the rugged trip back to the White House yet were concerned that the president should not die in a theater—still considered a dubious location, especially on Good Friday. He was carried out the front door and across the street to be placed in the small rear room of Petersen’s boarding house, where he was laid out diagonally on a bed too short for his elongated body. These doctors were joined at the Petersen house by several other surgeons, including Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes and Lincoln’s personal physician, Robert K. Stone. Stone noted that the wound was plugged by coagulating blood, bone debris, and brain tissue, causing a buildup of cranial pressure and “stertorous” (noisy and labored) breathing. “On cleaning this away,” wrote Stone lyrically, “the wound bled steadily . . . and respiration became instantly as sweet and regular as an infant.” Lincoln never regained consciousness. A long metal Nélaton’s probe was inserted into the wound several times to determine the path of the ball. Nothing more could be done except to monitor the president’s pulse and breathing over a night of waiting for the inevitable.

Lincoln’s death, and that of his son Willie, led to advances in embalming science, which I discussed in this previous post.

I dive much more into the assassination and the related science in my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, from which this post is adapted.

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Abraham Lincoln Assassination Science

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Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 am on the morning of April 15, 1865. The final chapter in Lincoln: The Fire of Genius is called “Assassination Science.” It starts this way:

Dr. Charles Leale examined the fallen president and knew immediately the wound was mortal. Twenty-three years old and only six weeks after receiving his medical degree from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, Leale found himself in charge of the shocking murder scene. He had been sitting in the dress circle at Ford’s Theatre when “about half past ten…the report of a pistol was distinctly heard and about a minute after a man of low stature with black hair and eyes was seen leaping to the stage beneath, holding in his hand a drawn dagger.” Rushing to the Presidential Box, Leale observed Lincoln “in a state of general paralysis.” Lincoln’s labored breath was intermittent, no pulse could be detected, and he was “profoundly comatose.”

 

But where was the wound? Initially Leale searched for a knife wound because Major Henry Rathbone, who had been accompanying the president and Mrs. Lincoln with his fiancé Clara Harris, was bleeding profusely from a slash along his left arm. Finding none and noticing Lincoln had stopped breathing and his pupils were dilated, Leale probed for a head wound and “found clotted blood on the head about an inch and a half behind the left ear.” After clearing the clot, there was “a sudden spasmodic gasp of breath,” after which Lincoln again breathed intermittently and noisily. Lincoln’s autonomic nervous system was keeping him alive for the time being, but the clock was already ticking.

From here, I delve into his autopsy, but also his history of disease (including bouts with malaria and a mild case of smallpox following the Gettysburg Address), his visits with chiropodist Issachar Zacharie to shave his corns, the autopsy of John Wilkes Booth, the growth of embalming science, and some really cool glowing bodies on the battlefield. The chapter ends with the continuing inquisition in which modern day doctors and Lincoln geeks can’t seem to let his body rest, metaphorically probing him for clues on genetic diseases and cancer diagnoses.

What is undeniable is that Lincoln continues to be a source of scientific fascination all these years after his death.

There is much more in the book, of course, now available for pre-order.

Pre-order Lincoln: The Fire of Genius now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (click on the respective links to pre-order). The price is likely to drop before the final shipment, and any pre-orders will automatically get charged the lower price at fulfillment. Pre-ordering now helps the publisher get a sense of the interest, which could mean a bigger print run. So please go ahead and pre-order without worries. While you’re there, check out my other books.

The book is also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. That will also ensure you get informed of the release date AND will let you try for one of ten free hardcover copies of the book that I’ll be giving away this summer. I’ll also be giving away as many as a hundred e-books. [The book will also be put out on audio]

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

I’ll have much more about the book over the next few months, so join my mailing list here to keep informed.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

[Photo from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL. For the history behind the discovery of the photo, read here: http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/news/rietveld.htm]

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The President is Dead

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Lincoln mourning ribbonThe mood in Washington was euphoric. After four long years the war was nearly over. Lincoln had anticipated this ending in his second inaugural address, reminding northerners that they should welcome southerners back into the Union:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Not everyone agreed with Lincoln’s “without malice” sentiment. Radical Republicans wanted the South to pay dearly for its treasonous actions. But those decisions would come later; now was the time for celebration. Buildings were decorated with patriotic red, white, and blue bunting; flags were everywhere and everyone seemed happy in the nation’s capital.

Then tragedy. President and Mary Lincoln were joined at Ford’s Theatre on Good Friday, April 14, by Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée, Clara Harris. A night out to see the long-running comedy Our American Cousin would give Lincoln a chance to put thoughts of war behind him.

During the performance, at about 10:14 p.m., actor and southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth stealthily entered the rear of the box. He pressed a small derringer pistol to the back of Lincoln’s head, and fired. Slashing at Rathbone’s arm as he climbed over the rail of the second-story theater box, Booth caught his spur on the American flag decorating the outside, breaking his leg as he landed on the stage. He shouted the Virginia state motto, Sic semper tyrannis (“thus ever to tyrants”), as he escaped out the back door and onto a waiting horse. It took an army of pursuers twelve days to catch up with Booth, who was finally shot and killed while hiding in a tobacco barn.

The unresponsive Lincoln was carried across the street to Petersen’s boarding house, where he clung to life until the next morning, dying without regaining consciousness at 7:22. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton captured the moment with, “Now he belongs to the ages.” The sixteenth President of the United States was dead just days after the long war that dominated his entire presidency had ended.

Lincoln’s body lay in state in the White House before being loaded on a train for the long, arduous trip back to Springfield. The route retraced that which Lincoln had taken when he first came to Washington four years before, making many stops so that people could see him one last time. Millions more saw his train as it made its way home for burial in the Lincoln tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery.

For a “contemporary” newspaper coverage of the event, see Extra!! President Abraham Lincoln is Dead.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His newest Lincoln book is scheduled for release in February 2022. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Follow me for updates on my Facebook author page and Goodreads.

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Lincoln Visits the Ironclad Montauk Hours Before His Assassination

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USS MontaukApril 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln’s last day alive, was a busy one. Included was a visit to the ironclad USS Montauk. Days later his assassins would be held on the same ship.

The day started with a welcome visit. Captain Robert Lincoln, the president’s son, returned to the city in time to join Lincoln for breakfast. With him he brought first-hand witness to the recent surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Many formal interviews later (including with former New Hampshire John P. Hale, whose daughter Lucy was later found to be secretly engaged to John Wilkes Booth), Lincoln held a cabinet meeting in which he related a recurring dream of a ship “moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore.”

Perhaps inspired by the dream or simply his interest in technology, Lincoln and Mary went out for a drive and find their way to the Washington Navy Yard. Lincoln had frequented the Navy Yard to talk strategy with John A. Dahlgren, who by that time had risen to the rank of Admiral. But Lincoln was here today to see three ironclad ships. Recently damaged in action at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, they included the Passaic-class monitor, the USS Montauk. After touring the vessels and talking with Navy Yard staff, the Lincoln’s returned to the White House and shortly thereafter set out again for what they had hoped would be a relaxing night at the theater. Our American Cousin, a comedy, should lift their spirits as this long grueling Civil War appeared to be coming to an end.

A few hours later, Lincoln would be lying in a pool of his guest Major Rathbone’s blood. The next morning he would be dead.

Days later the ironclad Montauk would be the temporary prison for six of the accused assassin’s co-conspirators. All but Doctor Samuel Mudd and Mary Surratt were kept on board before being transferred to the Old Arsenal Penitentiary for trial. That wasn’t the end of the Montauk‘s role. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth, passed over the Navy Bridge on his escape out of Washington, but twelve days later the body of Booth was brought back to the Navy Yard and onto the deck of the Montauk for examination and autopsy.

The Montauk was decommissioned shortly thereafter and stored in Philadelphia until sold for scrap iron in 1904.

There is some irony that the last ironclad Lincoln had visited became a bier for his assassin and a jail for the co-conspirators. When he related his ship dream to his cabinet the morning of his assassination, he said its earlier occurrences had presaged Union victories. When General Grant pointed out that at least one of the battles Lincoln listed was certainly not a victory, Lincoln noted that he still felt it an omen of something important to occur. His long days on Earth would come to an end.

I discuss this deeper in Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, now available for pre-order.

[Photo source: Wikimedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Montauk_(1862)#/media/File:Uss_Montauk_1862.jpg]

Pre-order Lincoln: The Fire of Genius now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (click on the respective links to pre-order). The price is likely to drop before the final shipment, and any pre-orders will automatically get charged the lower price at fulfillment. Pre-ordering now helps the publisher get a sense of the interest, which could mean a bigger print run. So please go ahead and pre-order without worries. While you’re there, check out my other books.

The book is also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. That will also ensure you get informed of the release date AND will let you try for one of ten free hardcover copies of the book that I’ll be giving away this summer. I’ll also be giving away as many as a hundred e-books. [The book will also be put out on audio]

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

I’ll have much more about the book over the next few months, so join my mailing list here to keep informed.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Abraham Lincoln Assassinated on Good Friday. Again.

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Abraham Lincoln was assassinated this past Friday, April 14th. Good Friday. That is, 152 years ago he was shot by John Wilkes Booth while Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln were in Ford’s Theatre watching the comedic play, Our American Cousin. The anniversary is commemorated every year but this year took on special significance because April 14th once again coincided with Good Friday, a rare occurrence. By Sunday the martyrdom of Abraham Lincoln had begun, with Lincoln’s memory taking center stage during Easter services. An annual Easter service at the Lincoln Memorial continues to this day.

Back in 1865 the still living but limp body of the fallen president was carried across the street to the Petersen House where he died the next morning, April 15, at 7:22 am. “Now he belongs to the ages,” spoke Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, before spearheading a 12-day chase that ended in the death of the assassin.

All of this is the stuff of history, well known to most everyone. Less well known are some of the fascinating details. For example, as the crowd at the theater slowly came to realize what had happened a cry rang out “Is there a surgeon in the house?” There was, Dr. Charles A. Leale, a recent graduate of Bellevue Hospital Medical College and commissioned as assistant surgeon only six days previously. As luck would have it, Leale was seated in the dress circle of Ford’s Theater that night, mere steps from Lincoln’s box. His quick action likely prolonged Lincoln’s life by several hours, though he couldn’t save him from his ultimate fate. Leale’s clinical report gives us a detailed record of the event.

John Wilkes Booth derringerThe gun used by Booth was a Philadelphia deringer, a small large-bore pistol fired by loading a percussion cap, some black gunpowder, and a lead ball. Since it can only fire a single shot without reloading, Booth dropped the gun on the floor of the box, slashed Major Henry Rathbone with a large knife, then leaped to the stage. The gun now is on display in the museum of Ford’s Theatre.

Into trivia? Here’s something with which you impress your friends. Deringers were made with “rifling,” that is, grooves in the barrel to spin the ball. Unlike most deringers where the rifling creates a clockwise twist, the one used by Booth had rifling that turned counterclockwise. No matter what the twist, the rifling is designed to improve accuracy by creating a more predictable flight of the ball or bullet. Needless to say the direction of rifling was a moot point since Booth shot Lincoln at very close range.

Ah, but what happened to the lead ball? Well, it now sits in a glass case at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland. Along with it are several skull fragments, just in case you’re into “morbid oddities.”

Soon after Lincoln’s demise, long-time admirer Walt Whitman wrote an extended metaphor poem, “O Captain! My Captain!” Whitman lived in Washington during the Civil War and often watched President Lincoln ride by on horseback, later by carriage, to and from his summer living quarters in the Soldier’s Home. It begins:

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Such a sad, yet exalting, eulogy for the fallen President. It has now been 152 years since that fateful day and battles still remain in our desire to form “a more perfect union.” As Lincoln noted in his Gettysburg Address: “It is for us the living…to be dedicated here to the unfinished work…” that Lincoln “so nobly advanced.”

[The above is adapted from two articles published on the Smithsonian Civil War Studies website. My new book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, is in Barnes and Noble stores now]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Extra!! President Abraham Lincoln is Dead

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Our Dear President is Dead

Assassinated by Cowardly Actor

Watching a Play at Ford’s Theatre

Secretary Seward Attacked – Injuries Feared Fatal

Washington in Mourning

Washington City, April 15, 1865: President Abraham Lincoln is dead. He was shot last night while watching a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre and died this morning at 7:22 A.M. May he rest in the peace he struggled to achieve over the course of this long, hateful war.

Ford's Theatre decorated for President Lincoln's attendance April 14, 1865

Ford’s Theatre decorated for President Lincoln’s attendance April 14, 1865

Witnesses in the theatre immediately identified the assassin as the actor John Wilkes Booth. Booth sneaked into the Presidential box, cowardly shot the President in the back of the head, slashed Major Rathbone, who was attending the play as the President’s guest, and leaped to the stage. Several shocked theatre-goers claimed that Booth screamed Sic semper tyrannis as he landed, before seeming to limp off to stage-right to his escape. A manhunt is being directed by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

Simultaneous to Booth’s shooting of the President was a vicious attack on Secretary of State William Seward. The Secretary, who has been laid up in bed since his recent serious carriage accident, was gravely wounded by the assailant. We fear the wounds may be fatal. Also severely wounded was Frederick Seward, the Secretary’s son, and other members of the family. The extent of their injuries are unknown.

Fears of a Confederate conspiracy to decapitate the Union are evident. The coordinated attacks, and the possibility that other attacks were attempted or are imminent, suggest this was a plot by the failed Confederacy to continue the war they so recently lost. The fact that Booth yelled Sic semper tyrannis, the state motto of Virginia, reinforces the likelihood that these attacks were ordered directly from Richmond. It is understood that rebel leader Jefferson Davis is on the run and presumed headed for Texas to continue guerilla warfare. The Army has been put on guard for the remaining Cabinet members and other key federal officials, by order of Secretary of War Stanton.

The scene in Ford’s Theatre was pandemonium. Witnesses claim that when they first heard the shot they assumed it was somehow part of the play. They then could see a struggle going on the Presidential box between the murderer and Major Rathbone, who had been seated nearby with his fiance, Clara Harris, and the President’s wife, Mary Lincoln. According to sources, Major Rathbone sustained a serious knife slash to his arm as he rose to protect the President. The assassin, Booth, the jumped to the stage, uttered his dastardly phrase, then escaped. Several witnesses say that Booth may have injured his leg as he landed on the stage.

Dr. Charles Leale, a young military surgeon, who was in the audience last night, rushed to our beloved President’s box to attend to his injuries. Inside sources inform this reporter that Dr. Leale immediately knew that the wound would be fatal and, desiring that the President not die in a theatre, especially on Good Friday, ordered his transport across the street in into a boarding house owned by one William Petersen, a local tailor. Leale, Cabinet members, and other doctors stood vigil over the dying President through the night until he finally breathed his last breath early this morning, just five days after Army of Virginia General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant, who had been announced as the President’s guest at the theatre last night, instead traveled to New Jersey on family business and thus was not present to save the President.

Mrs. Lincoln has been escorted back to the Executive Mansion in a severely distraught condition. The Lincoln’s oldest son Robert is looking after her and his only remaining brother, Tad, who was watching a performance of Aladdin at the nearby Grover’s Theatre when the news of his father’s assassination was reported.

The search for the killer is being directed by Secretary Stanton and the City is on high alert to ensure further actions of this dastardly Confederate plot are thwarted. Funeral arrangements will be announced as soon as they are made. The City is in mourning.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and the Assassination of President William McKinley

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Fate can be a cynical maiden. Such is the case with the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. His death involved not only Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison but the son of another assassinated president, Abraham Lincoln.

William McKinley Assassination

President McKinley’s assassination happened six months into the second term of his presidency while he was attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, yet another World’s Fair to highlight rapidly changing technology and cultural exchange. McKinley had a busy schedule but managed to slip in a visit to the nearby Niagara Falls. After seeing the gorge with its beautiful falling waters (being careful to remain on the American side to avoid the inevitable political chatter), the President toured Goat Island where a statue of Nikola Tesla would be erected many years later.

One of the main goals of the Niagara Falls trip was to visit the hydroelectric plant. This, of course, included the alternating current generators and motors designed by Nikola Tesla. It was the alternating current from Tesla’s Niagara Falls system that lit up the entire exposition, including the centerpiece “Electric Tower” and the Temple of Music. There were also electric trains, ambulances, and other vehicles moving people to and fro between different parts of the fair and the Falls.

After marveling at the ingenuity of Tesla’s designs at Niagara, McKinley returned to Buffalo for a reception at the very same Temple of Music being lit by the power of those falls. While shaking hands with well-wishers, McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. It was September 6, 1901.

In an ironic twist of fate, Tesla’s rival Thomas Edison could have saved McKinley’s life. Doctors were unable to locate the bullet in McKinley’s abdomen, and an early X-ray machine designed by Edison was on display at the Fair. McKinley’s doctors, however, deemed the apparatus too primitive to be of use. Edison quickly sent his most modern X-ray machine from New Jersey up to Buffalo, but aides to the President refused to use it for fear of radiation poisoning. While McKinley at first appeared to be recovering, gangrene set into the wound and he died on September 14th, Edison’s machine sitting nearby unused.

And the Lincoln connection? Robert Lincoln was in attendance at the fair at the invitation of President McKinley. Robert, of course, had been nearby when his father, Abraham Lincoln, became the first President assassinated, as well as with President Garfield when he was gunned down. McKinley became the third President close to Robert that was assassinated. Not surprisingly, Robert no longer accepted invitations by Presidents, nor I suspect, were many invitations forthcoming.

[The above is excerpted from my e-book, Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla – Connected by Fate.]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Abraham Lincoln Dies – April 15, 1865

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Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln died today. Well, 148 150 years ago today. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth while Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln were in Ford’s Theatre watching the comedic play, Our American Cousin. It was April 14th, 1865. Good Friday. He was carried across the street to the Petersen House where he died the next morning, April 15, at 7:22 am. “Now he belongs to the ages,” spoke Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, before engaging in a 12-day chase that ended with the death of the assassin.

Abraham Lincoln's box Ford's Theatre

All of this is the stuff of history, well known to most everyone. Less well known are some of the fascinating details. For example, as the crowd at the theater slowly came to realize what had happened a cry rang out “Is there a surgeon in the house?” There was, Dr. Charles A. Leale, a recent graduate of Bellevue Hospital Medical College and commissioned as assistant surgeon only six days previously. As luck would have it, Leale was seated in the dress circle of Ford’s Theater that night, mere steps from Lincoln’s box. His quick action likely prolonged Lincoln’s life by several hours, though he couldn’t save him from his ultimate fate. Leale’s clinical report gives us a detailed record of the event.

The gun used by Booth was a Philadelphia deringer, a small large-bore pistol fired by loading a percussion cap, some black gunpowder, and a lead ball. Since it can only fire a single shot without reloading, Booth dropped the gun on the floor of the box, slashed Major Henry Rathbone with a large knife, then leaped to the stage. The gun now is on display in the museum of Ford’s Theatre.

John Wilkes Booth derringer

Into trivia? Here’s something with which you impress your friends. Deringers were made with “rifling,” that is, grooves in the barrel to spin the ball. Unlike most derringers where the rifling creates a clockwise twist, the one used by Booth had rifling that turned counterclockwise. No matter what the twist, the rifling is designed to improve accuracy by creating a more predictable flight of the ball or bullet. Needless to say the direction of rifling was a moot point since Booth shot Lincoln at very close range.

Ah, but what happened to the lead ball? Well, it now sits in a glass case at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland. Along with it are several skull fragments, just in case you’re into “morbid oddities.”

There is much more to come on the science of Abraham Lincoln. Stay tuned!

More about Abraham Lincoln.

David J. Kent has been a scientist for over thirty years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and the e-book Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time. He is currently writing a book on Thomas Edison.

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