The Booth Brothers by Rebecca Langston-George

Author:Rebecca Langston-George [Lanston-George, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 978-1-5157-7338-2; 978-1-5157-7339-9; 978-1-5157-7585-0; Rebecca Lanston-George; John Wilkes Booth; President Abraham Lincoln Assassination; History / United States / 19Th Century; Family / General; Performing Arts / Theater
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2017-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

David Herold, a friend of John Wilkes Booth and conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln

Next he went to Mrs. Surratt’s boardinghouse. He gave her a package and instructions related to weapons and supplies he would pick up at her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, several miles away. That night he met with George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell, and David Herold a couple of hours before the curtain rose at Ford’s Theatre. The plan was to strike President Lincoln, General Grant, Vice President Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward. The killings would take place across the city during the 10 p.m. hour.

At the appointed hour that evening, George Atzerodt, who was armed with a knife and a six-shooter, entered the Kirkwood House. He had taken a room on the floor above Vice President Johnson’s. But Atzerodt did not go to Johnson’s room as intended — or to his own room. Instead he sat at the bar and drank. He lost his nerve and couldn’t do the deed. Half-drunk, he left the hotel as Vice President Johnson slept soundly a few doors away.

Lewis Powell and David Herold watched Seward’s house on Madison Place. The secretary of state had been in a horse carriage accident a few days earlier and had round-the-clock care at his home. At 10 p.m. Powell handed Herold the reins to his horse, went to the door, and rang the bell.

When the servant answered, Powell said he had medicine to deliver and showed the man a small package wrapped in brown paper and string. When the servant offered to take it, Powell insisted he must give it to Seward himself. He bolted up the steps and was met by Frederick Seward, the secretary of state’s son, who demanded he leave. Powell tried to shoot him, but his gun misfired. He beat Frederick on the head with the gun, then dashed into Secretary Seward’s room, stabbed the secretary of state as well as his nurse, and then battled with Frederick’s brother Gus on the way out, stabbing him. David Herold, having heard Seward’s daughter Fanny screaming for help out the window, took off before Powell made it out of the bloody house.

General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia, did not arrive at the theater with the Lincolns that night. They told Mrs. Lincoln they had to go out of town to visit their children in New Jersey. In truth, the Grants had another reason for declining the invitation. Julia Grant did not like Mary Todd Lincoln, and she had recently been on the receiving end of Mrs. Lincoln’s acid-tongued remarks. Mrs. Grant’s unwillingness to spend the evening in Mrs. Lincoln’s company may have saved her husband’s life.

Instead, the Lincolns brought Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris to Ford’s Theatre that night. They arrived late, coming in at 8:30 p.m. as the play, Our American Cousin, was underway. The audience cheered as the presidential party made its way to the box decorated in red, white, and blue fabric.

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