A Journey Back in Time to 1865

Director of the A.K. Smiley Library and Lincoln Memorial Shrine, Don McCue, is known by the community to be nothing short of an expert when it comes to the 1865 and the “Triumph and Tragedy” that comes along with that year. On Wednesday, April 22, McCue hosted a sold-out educational show at the Esri Conference Center on New York Street in Redlands. President Lincoln was assassinated over 150 years ago on April 14, 1865, in the Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. In McCue’s presentation, he highlighted the important aspects of Lincoln’s last few days of presidency. A packed conference center joined McCue as he took a journey back to 1865 to examine that time. As he examined the dramatic factors of the American Civil War and the events leading up to and following the assassination of President Lincoln, the audience gave their full attention to McCue. Near the end of the hour-long lecture, McCue focused in on John Wilkes Booth assassination of President Lincoln. According to McCue, Booth’s original plan was to kidnap Lincoln, which is not how it turned out. Booth was one of the most famous American actors at that time and considered to be a Confederate sympathizer. “He would be the equivalent of a Brad Pitt or George Clooney today. A lot of people knew who he was and he was considered to be quite attractive like Brad and George and was quite the ladies' man,” as McCue explained that he claimed to be engaged to several women. McCue continued, sharing that Booth knew his way around Washington D.C. and happened to stop by the Ford’s Theatre when he heard that President Lincoln was there to see a play with his wife Mary. “In that spur of the moment his plan changed from a kidnapping to an assassination,” McCue added. “There was supposed to be a guard outside of the President’s box at the Ford’s Theatre, but the guard was across the street having a drink… Booth was able to get into the box and shoot Lincoln in the back of the head,” he explained. Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancé Clara were also in the box with Lincoln and his wife. According to McCue, Major Rathbone attempted to grab Booth but he had a dagger in his other hand and stabbed Rathbone as he escaped by jumping down off the box. McCue added that Rathbone blamed himself for not being able to stop Booth from assassinating Lincoln and later went insane, killing his fiancé. He shared multiple illustrations from the assassination to demonstrate the crime scene to the event attendees. The majority of witnesses say that Booth waved his bloody dagger and shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis!” meaning "thus always to tyrants" as he landed on the stage. “Others say that he also said ‘the South is avenged’”, explained McCue. Booth was able to flee the scene on horseback. They immediately moved Lincoln across the street and brought him into The Peterson House where Lincoln laid into a bed at an angle, because he was too tall to fit. President Abraham Lincoln was pronounced officially dead at 7:22 a.m. that next morning. McCue concluded his lecture with various facts from that year related to Lincoln’s assassination.