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

The following is an encore presentation of the Tim Moore Blog, updated and expanded.

Can you imagine being in the audience for “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington 145 years ago TODAY?

A range of emotions-from elation that the Civil War was officially over, 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 dies 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. Despite the rumors regarding the assassination of President Kennedy 98 years later, this is the only proven conspiracy to kill a President.

The following video is interesting—with actual photos interspersed with what appears to be old movie footage of a dramatization of the crime:




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. So many enemies of Lincoln existed—and, as the clip above states, there were some 80 WRITTEN threats to the President’s life that MONTH. Despite this fact, the guard posted at the door to Lincoln’s box had abandoned his post! Only one person guarding the leader of the free world seems unbelievable today, but of course, this was the first time that a sitting U.S. President was killed.

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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