What Was It Like To Be At Ford's Theatre?

Can you imagine being in the audience for “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington 144 years ago TODAY?

A range of emotions were experienced-from elation that the Civil War was officially over, to the thrill of knowing the President of the United States was in the audience—and then the confusion as you witnessed John Wilkes Booth leap to the stage after shooting Abraham Lincoln. Then came the horror and realization that you had witnessed the murder of our Chief Executive.

If you’ve ever been to Ford’s Theatre, you know it still has a eerie feeling about it. Same for the house across the street when Lincoln died the next day-where the blood-stained pillow that was next to his head is preserved in a glass case.

April 1865 was a momentous 30 days in our history, but perhaps no day remains burned in our national psyche as that of April 14th, where the President, truly relieved and, according to his wife, truly happy-met his violent end. The plot, of course, was extensive-as Secretary of State Seward was also a victim and the Vice President was supposed to have been.

Watch the video clip below for further background:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qAeFjCscRY

I have often thought that I would have liked to have been in Washington on that fateful night, but only in hindsight can one truly appreciate the man and the President that Abraham Lincoln was. At the time, emotions on his term was mixed-and it’s hard to believe that many in the nation (even above the Mason-Dixon line) rejoiced at the news.

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