Sesquicentennial of the Civil War

NEVER

…forget what the boys suffered for US.

Old Abe – Honest Abe – Saviour – Martyr

‘I immediately sent a gentleman for brandy’: Long-lost medical report of first doctor to reach Lincoln after he was shot revealed

I arrived at Ford’s Theatre about 8¼ P.M. April 14/65 and procured a seat in the dress circle about 40 feet from the President’s Box. The play was then progressing and in a few minutes I saw the President, Mrs Lincoln, Major Rathbone and Miss Harris enter; while proceeding to the Box they were seen by the audience who cheered which was reciprocated by the President and Mrs Lincoln by a smile and bow.

The party was preceded by an attendant who after opening the door of the box and closing it after they had all entered, took a seat nearby for himself.

The theatre was well filled and the play of “Our American Cousin” progressed very pleasantly until about half past ten, when 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.

While descending his heel got entangled in the American flag, which was hung in front of the box, causing him to stumble when he struck the stage, but with a single bound he regained the use of his limbs and ran to the opposite side of the stage, flourishing in his hand a drawn dagger and disappearing behind the scene.

I then heard cries that the ‘President had been murdered,’ which were followed by those of ‘Kill the murderer’ ‘Shoot him’ etc. which came from different parts of the audience.

I immediately ran to the Presidents box and as soon as the door was opened was admitted and introduced to Mrs. Lincoln when she exclaimed several times, ‘O Doctor, do what you can for him, do what you can!’ I told her we would do all that we possibly could.

When I entered the box the ladies were very much excited. Mr. Lincoln was seated in a high backed arm-chair with his head leaning towards his right side supported by Mrs. Lincoln who was weeping bitterly. Miss Harris was near her left and behind the President.

While approaching the President I sent a gentleman for brandy and another for water.

When I reached the President he was in a state of general paralysis, his eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous.

I placed my finger on his right radial pulse but could perceive no movement of the artery. As two gentlemen now arrived, I requested them to assist me to place him in a recumbent position, and as I held his head and shoulders, while doing this my hand came in contact with a clot of blood near his left shoulder.

Supposing that he had been stabbed there I asked a gentleman to cut his coat and shirt off from that part, to enable me if possible to check the hemorrhage which I supposed took place from the subclavian artery or some of its branches.

Before they had proceeded as far as the elbow I commenced to examine his head (as no wound near the shoulder was found) and soon passed my fingers over a large firm clot of blood situated about one inch below the superior curved line of the occipital bone.

The coagula I easily removed and passed the little finger of my left hand through the perfectly smooth opening made by the ball, and found that it had entered the encephalon.

As soon as I removed my finger a slight oozing of blood followed and his breathing became more regular and less stertorous. The brandy and water now arrived and a small quantity was placed in his mouth, which passed into his stomach where it was retained.

Dr. C. F. Taft and Dr. A. F. A. King now arrived and after a moments consultation we agreed to have him removed to the nearest house, which we immediately did, the above named with others assisting.

When we arrived at the door of the box, the passage was found to be densely crowded by those who were rushing towards that part of the theatre. I called out twice ‘Guards clear the passage,’ which was so soon done that we proceeded without a moments delay with the President and were not in the slightest interrupted until he was placed in bed in the house of Mr Peterson, opposite the theatre, in less than 20 minutes from the time he was assassinated.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155093/Abraham-Lincoln-assassination-Dr-Charles-Leales-long-lost-medical-report-details-treatment-president-shot-Ford-Theatre.html

TV game show appearance of last surviving man to witness Abraham Lincoln’s assassination appears on YouTube after nearly 60 YEARS

I’ve Got a Secret featured Samuel Seymour, a Maryland man who was the last surviving person to witness Abraham Lincoln’s death

Mr Seymour died about two months after his appearance on the show, at 96 years old

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220501/Samuel-Seymour-TV-appearance-survivor-Lincoln-assassination-YouTube.html

April 19, 1861 – Baltimore

Some of the boys

One of the boys

Andersonville

Elmira was the worst

The 20th Maine achieves eternal glory at Gettysburg

We fought no better, perhaps, than they. We exhibited, perhaps, no higher individual qualities.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Company G, 20th Maine Infantry

Little Round Top/Sugar Loaf Mountain

Union dead

Trust in God And Fear Nothing

Lewis Addison Armistead

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission/State Museum of Pennsylvania

‘Battle of Gettysburg: Pickett’s Charge’ by Peter Frederick Rothermel

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323528404578453273760215086.html

Confederate prisoners

Gettysburg 1913

The Grand Review May 1865

Grand Army of the Republic on parade

Jacob Harker Company C 120th OVI

http://threequartercadillac.com/

I was at the reunion at Gettysburg in 1888…I never enjoyed anything so well in my life. The results of the war was a blessing in disguise to the south and I only regret it did not take place fifty years ago. I do believe the country today is stronger than ever before. The Blood of our fallen Braves will ultimately cement this country together so close that the outside world will have to stand off and admire our greatness.

John B. Gardner, 21st Virginia – Batchelder Papers – 1890

Corporal E.C. Bearss

Interest: Painting of the Confederate Louisiana Brigade throwing stones at advancing Federal Army of the Potomac at the second Battle of Bull Run 1862

Civil War death toll could be 130,000 higher than we thought, says historians

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151588/Civil-War-death-toll-higher-thought-historian-says.html

Who is she?: Pvt. Heartwell Kincaid Adams of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry, found this ambrotype was in a haversack he took from the body of a dead Federal soldier

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2157596/Civil-War-mystery-Museum-seeks-help-identifying-girls-photos-battlefields-1860s.html

Freed slave who penned sarcastic letter to old master after he was asked back to farm pictured for first time

Scathing: Former slave Jordan Anderson (left) wrote a satirical letter in 1865 to his old master after he was asked to return to work for him. He wrote the letter with the help of Valentine Winters (right)

Dayton, Ohio,
August 7, 1865
To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jordon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve – and die, if it come to that – than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,
Jordon Anderson

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2174410/Pictured-The-freed-slave-moving-letter-old-master-asked-work-farm.html

Remembrance: Luminaries are seen across Antietam National Battlefield to commemorate the soldiers who were killed or wounded during the three-day Civil War battle

this letter written and signed by Gen. Robert E Lee is looking to fetch more than $10,000 at auction this week

War ship: A sketch of the Confederacy’s most famous warship The Virginia is seen as the first steam-powered ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2246788/Rare-Civil-War-photographs-letters-revealed-auction-including-signatures-Declaration-signers.html

On the road to freedom: An African American soldier in Union uniform with wife and daughters between 1863 – the year of the Emancipation Proclamation – and 1865

A formerly enslaved man holds a horn with which slaves were called, near Marshall, Texas

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2252946/Picturing-freedom-How-slaves-used-photography-imagine-create-new-lives-Emancipation.html

Sesquicentennial of the Civil War