Back and forth several times before he actually went up to the box upstairs. So i wanted the readers to feel like, what must they have gone through. Imagine for a moment that the president of the United States has been assassinated in your workplace by one of your most admired, respected colleagues. Fearing for your own safety and the fear of being thought complicit. Reelecting in panic that could be construed as hostile to the president. As well as the times you could be seen socializing with the suspect. The more i start theres a saloon on the south side of fords theater. The star saloon. Theres a saloon next door on the north side, the green back saloon. There were a lot of trips to those saloons that day. Near as i can figure booth alone made seven or eight trips over there in the afternoon or evening which gives you some feeling about working up his courage for what he did. From that moment on, your world would never be the same. You would be intear gated, perhaps imprisoned. You would have to provide testimony keeping it accurate and consistent and endure interview after interview for weeks, months, years, constantly retelling, reliving every detail of an event that occurred in less than 30 seconds. For the rest of your life, you would move frequently you would avoid reporters perhaps change your name. And the words that night would define the rest of your life and headline your oh pitch wear. Precisely that scenario was for the fords theater. I resolve to tell their story realizing that they were as much as anyone walking shadows. Abraham lincolns favorite play was mcbeth. Mcbeth realizes that lifes but a walking shadow. A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. Indeed, as i saw it these were walking shadows. There were also a lot of false claimants claimants. I would say about one in every two person who claimed to have been in the acting company or backstage that night wasnt. In fact, one of the drama critics said it is estimated that enough players have been credited with acting at fords theater on that day to have filled the playhouse itself. In many cases too the names were recorded erroneously when they were interrogating the stage crew. Those are the files that are here at archives pages and pages of the interrogation because so many of the stage crew were illiterate, their names are recorded a number of different ways. All these different versions depending on who heard the name spoke and how. Another thing i found was how young the group was. This was a cast where the average age was under 30 and almost half of them were under 20. Most of the stage crew was in their 20s. The person completely in charge that night young harry clayford was 21 years old. His older brother john was in richmond that night and Harry Clay Ford was in charge at age 21. It was also, i found such a volatile group back stage. This was not a Cohesive Group that knew each other well. In a lot of cases, they had act the together weeks or in some cases a few days. John ford was operating five different theaters in five different cities. So hes constantly circulating actors and circulating stage crew among all of them depending on the needs of a particular play on any given night. Remember too that these are actors who on any given day are memorizing rehearsing, preparing and performing a different play every night. Add to that the fact that their whole profession is not very well regarded by the public. Theaters kind of held in poor regard in those days so theyre suffering under the onus of being in the profession they are. Many of them were based in baltimore. In baltimore where john fords holiday street theater was centered, this was kind of an area of series sessionist thought. Much of baltimore was in sympathy. This was the same baltimore that in february of 1861 had seen the assassination attempt on president elect Abraham Lincoln. A month later, theres the pratt street riots. So its an area of those who came from baltimore being sympathetic to the south and the remarkable thing i kept finding is that fords theater was in many ways a hot bed of that thought. And yet working side by side, day by day, through these long rehearsals and performances throughout the whole civil war, there were Union Veterans working side by side with confederate veterans back stage. People who had had family members killed, sons, brothers, some who had still had members of their family out in the field working together side by side. So theres the tension that went with all of that. All of which begs the question for me at least, how many Unanswered Questions are there. Who knew what. Imagine how many letters must have been thrust into fireplaces in the days following the assassination. How many people distanced themselves as quickly as they could from booth. They were friends of his. It would be like brad pitt going backstage and saying, lets go have a drink next door boys. Booth had free run of fords theater. He had his mail delivered there. No one gave a Second Thought to his being there. In many cases too, there was a misrepresentation i think in the minds of many readers today of what the theater and the theater practices were like in that period of 1865. This picture was taken by someone from the Matthew Brady studio. This is an archives picture from the archives of college park that was taken in the days following the assassination. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton mandated that there be a reinactment of the play, brought the actors back together and the stage hands and made them reenact the play stopping at various moments so they could measure the wing space and placement of various people. Imagine these actors with this comic play delivering laugh lines out into an audience with a handful of stoney faced soldiers and detectives. And the fear and the grief and the terror that they must have felt. In this picture, which is a composite of two of the president ial box as it was a week after the assassination. Thats the scene the stage setting for act 3, scene 2 which was the scene interrupted by the assassination. Extremely down far stage. Its literally upstage. In those days the audience was seated level. To walk upstage was literally to walk away from the audience up stage. So the stage is it slanted. When booth leaps. Thats an 11 foot 6 inch leap. So that 11 feet 6, he vaulted kind of like a gymnast. Lands on the stage off balance knowing too the play so well. The play our american cousin booth had acted in. Its an interesting play. Its kind of hokey but the laugh lines play well. Its done today pretty rarely. But its a really kind of funny play. Its the kind of folksy humor that Abraham Lincoln would have loved. He came because it was a benefit night. The star actor gets to take home all of the Box Office Take minus a handful of expenses. President lincoln knew that if he went to anyones benefit night, his attendance would boost the box office for that person. He had sign laura keene act before and liked her. General grant was to have gone with him also but begged off to go visit his family in new jersey and also by some reports that mrs. Grant was not that keen on being there with mrs. Lincoln. A huge challenge too for all of this was timing out what occurred during that performance of our american cousin. Every account that i would read interviews that some of the actors gave 20, 30, 40 years later. Some of them lived into the 1930s, 70 years after the deed. As i read the interviews they would say soandso was just coming on from the stage during the milk maid scene. Or it was in act 2, scene 1 that i realized something was happening. So all of the actors and stage hands were talking about this in terms of the script. So to get a chronology of the day, i read out loud the script. There are about seven versions. I read it out loud timing, pausing for laughs. And documenting every five minutes what would have been occurring so that i could get a timeline for the night. And it gave me a nice sense of coming and going. Finally, by the end of all the research i did, i was able to pin point for each of these people where they were at the moment of the shot and what they were doing. What i didnt count on was the strange acue sticks. So many people in the dark backstage heard the shot and thought it was so many different things. I open i did it i opened chapter one with a description of just the perception of those shots. In the half light back stage, where sound meant so much more than sight hardly anyone took it for a gunshot. Actor ned employerersonployer erson thought it came from scene shifting or from out in 10th street. John matthews waiting behind the scenery thought it might be a piece of stage business introduced to frighten the character. To one actress waiting in the wings, it sounded like the pop of a champagne cork. To one someone else it resembled a lone hand clap out in the audience. A call boy standing by the down stage right prompters desk thought a stack of books had fallen to the floor. Keene herself was sure she knew better. She sent her personal dresser to demand that the stage hands stop firing weapons on stage. Left alone on stage is harry hawk, one person. Booth was so familiar with the script that not only did he know there was a huge laugh line coming with a burst of sound that might cover the sound of a gunshot, but he knew that only one person was left on the stage to possibly impede his escape. Let me try to introduce as quickly as i can who some of these people were by way of resurrecting these walking shadows. The most important figures are the ford brothers. And again the theater of fords theater, we may think of john t. Ford, but really harry is the most interesting one. Poor harry ford was arrested and released three times. His interrogation and part of the fun and challenge of doing this book was reading those interrogation reports in the 19th century handwriting here at archives. The interrogation of harry ford lasts 30 pages. They grilled him about everything from the way the box was rented out to the events of the day. And harry ford again is one distancing himself from John Wilkes Booth because they were Close Friends. They had known each other for years. He was one of the few people who could joke with John Wilkes Booth. There were harry ford joking with surrendered saying, oh, were going to bring general lee and keep him in the box tonight along with the president , knowing he was goading booth on to make him irritated. Harry ford had rented a room next door so he could keep tabs on the theater. So much time was spent interrogating people who really were innocent, and others were never questioned at all who for my money, were very close to being fully complicit. The least known of them is dick ford. Dick is older. Hes 25 years old. He lives with harry above the saloon next door. Hes more shy, reticent defers to harry. The night of the assassination, dick ford is up in baltimore. John was down in richmond checking on family members so he asked dick to go up to baltimore and check on the theater there. At 10 14, the moment of the shot, his train was just pulling back into washington, just approaching the new jersey avenue depot and immediately knowing a sense of responsibility, dick ford rushes back to the theater. Because as treasurer, he would have to account for the money at the end of the evening. Just as he gets to the theater about 10 20 he sees a man being carried out from the theater. In fact, i found out in doing the research that he was carried out on a shutter. There had been a shutter stored near the box and they were carrying the president out on that. And dick ford turned to the crowd around him saying, what drunken loafer was that . Thinking some drunk had been carried out of the theater and then realized who it was and rushed back in in a panic. John ford had applied fror a pass to see family down in richmond and to get some props in a theater in richmond that was going through dire circumstances during the war. For my money was smart enough to suppress his own personal southern sympathies. John ford at the outset of the war is as an open successionist sympathizer. But he realized for the sake of business, he would have to suppress those. He wrote his letters here in archives in the National Library of congress and the Historical Society show what his sympathies were, but he suppressed them during the course of the war and a fort was evenie erected erected on the front lawn of his home in baltimore. He remained ignorant of what had occurred. The soldiers tried to keep people from richmond from finding out what happened until two days after john fords 36th birthday, sunday, he find out what has happened, rushes back to baltimore. He is arrested. He is taken to old capitol prison, and the old capitol prison compound sat then where the Supreme Court does now and the Jefferson Building of the library of congress. And theyre kept together in one of the larger but very hot rooms upstairs with very little in the way of creature comforts. John ford thankfully for all of us who are monitoring the history of the event kept a diary when he was there in old capitol prison. He kept kind of a jailhouse jailhouse manifesto running of this struggle he had with stanton. Stanton, secretary of war, determined that theater would never reopen. And john ford was determined it would reopen. It was costing him thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. The equivalent as near as i could figure, about 440,000 today for not being able to reopen that theater in the weeks after the assassination. And he drew very keen die diagrams. He sketched out the floor plan of the theater and used in the trial of Andrew Johnson. I found this in the Benjamin Butler papers in the library of congress, because butler was the congressman who was keeping the interrogation going. If anyone knows of material that would help in john andrews impeachment. So some of this got filed in the john impeachment files. Laura keene if anything can be viewed as a tragic figure in the theatrical figure, its laura keene. Up until the assassination shes one of the most respected, feared admired theater managers in america. In a mans world shes a highly successful theater manager and actress. Shes completing her two weeks starring engagement, theyve had good audiences, the war is over, so washington crowds have been really positive and supportive. That night shes on stage. As soon as the assassination occurs, her managerial instincts kick in. She walks to the edge of the stage and she tries to quiet the audience saying, order, gentlemen. Order. If youll remain in your seats all will be well. She doesnt have much luck. Shes escorted by one of the actors who knew his way backstage, out the stage door, back upstairs, through the fords apartment, back in through the Side Entrance to the box, which was now open where she cradles the head of the dying president. I found this one comment of hers so striking. She said that holding his head, he resembled montegnes dead christ, the painting of the dead christ is what she thought of when holding lincolns head. As they carried lincoln out laura keene walks down the stairs with the sobbing hysterical mary lincoln her dress covered in blood. This picture has never been published before. I found it in harvard theater collection. This is actually the dress she wore of act 2, sooent 2. Its a dress which she could never wear again. She gave it to her daughters upon her death and it descend sbuddescended into pieces, some of the pieces showing up from time to time, some of it legitimate, some of it not so, sadly. What happened to laura keene, from that moment on her career is in a downward trajectory. She becomes ill, she never recovers. When she tries to pfr inerform in south, shes regarded as a damn yankee. When she tries to play in the north, shes associated with the assassination. Even in the days afterward, she tried to leave washington on sunday afterwards. She gets to harrisburg virginia and shes arrested, held there for two days just trying to get on to cincinnati to perform at her next engagement. A lot of people mistakenly refer to the actress that night as laura keenes acting company but in reality it was just her and two men who traveled with her. Everyone else was a member of john fords Stock Company that he circulated among his different theaters. One of the two actors traveling with her that night was john diad. Dia drks diad dyott. He was one of the older ones, he was 53 years old. He was a respected tragedian. He was kind of stiff, formal so he got those roles and never spoke about it afterwards. Of all the people who really had perhaps occasion to be interviewed you think today about how many of these people would be on talk shows so quickly dyott was reticent never spoke of it. His autobiography is in the collection, never mentioned. Even his obituaries make no mention of the assassination. However, he also shared in a very dramatic moment on april 3, 1866, after leaving laura keene he goes to new york, gets a job in the Winter Garden theater acting with edward booth. Edward booth had not returned to the stage after what his brother did out of shame but in january 1866 edward booth makes a triumphant return to the stage playing hamlett. Who was next to him but john dyott who was able to give a firsthand account of the tears running down edwards face that night. We also have harry hawk. Harry hawk was known as a lone comedian. Back in those days, you didnt play the best roles. You were the old comedian. You were the first man or woman. You were the first heavy. Heavy not in the sense of poundage, but the villain. You would play nothing but villains. Harry hawk would play nothing but comedian, meaning low level of humor the shuffling kind of humor that abe lincoln loved. The interesting thing about harry hawk is he goes on to the most successful career later, touring wildly. It affected him and he did travel under an assumed name when he would register in at hotels and i was never able to discover that name that he used so im sure there are hotel registers and records having his name all over the u. S. But i just was never able to discover it. Harry hawk, though, is the one that spoke the last words Abraham Lincoln ever heard. There is i think, a misrepresentation that he finished the line and the laughter covered the sound of the gunshot. Harry hawk maintained to his dying day that he never finished the line. He was turning upstage delivering his retort to that curtained archway that you saw when he heard the gunshot. And he spun around, and his friend and he knew him well john booth was standing there holding this 12inch buoy knife he had left the derringer up in the box and harry hawk is terrified. He backpedals, runs up the stage and hides in his dressing room. Why . Because he had been seeing one of booths women and booth said to him, if i ever catch you with her again, ill kill you. So harry hawks first instinct was, hes coming to kill me and runs off the stage. Another significant person from that night that i think has not received anywhere near the co coverts that he should have was ned emerson. Ned emerson was very Close Friends with John Wilkes Booth, had known him since childhood and bore a strong resemblance to him. This photo i got from the emerson family descendants of ned emerson. Its not been published anywhere before. Looking at it the close resemblance to booth would have led to so many complications. Indeed, in the days afterwards, emerson was identified as booth as a young woman who was arrested because it was said she was associating with booth that morning when in reality was emerson. Poor emerson, its his big night. Hes playing one of the biggest roles ever beside harry hawk. Hes got 221 lines, most of which are in the first three acts including lengthy monologues. John ford had been grooming him to play starring roles. He was impressing laura keene, the critics who might have been there, but yet from that moment forward, his career goes nowhere. He ends up going into the decorative glass blowing business here in washington and really is never successful. And yet his revered older brother had died fighting for the confederacy and he had several members of his family who were still out in the field during all this. Another interesting character backstage is john mathews known to some of the actors as crazy john mathews, and he was the heavy. He was playing the villain coyle that night. Close friend of John Wilkes Booth. In fact, he used to rent the room in the Peterson House across the street in which lincoln died when he john mathews, was in washington performing. That night, he rented that exact room, and ned emerson had come to visit him, and anotherccullough, and their good friend John Wilkes Booth, who had come in smoked a cigar and taken a nap on the very bed in which Abraham Lincoln would die a month later. These were close friend of booth. Mathews kept trying to back out of anything booth had planned. Booth had several abduction attempts that he had planned. They had each failed because president lincoln had failed to show, but mathews kept trying to back out. And booth held over his head the fact that mathews had transported to baltimore a box of supplies they were going to use. It was really a hairbrained scheme. They were going to lower the lights, lower the president over the box, get him backstage, carry him by carriage to baltimore and spirit him through Southern Maryland to richmond to hold as a hostage in exchange for confederate prisoners. It failed twice, as i said, because lincoln didnt show. Mathews tried to back out. But that very afternoon, mathews is on his way to a liquor store on pennsylvania avenue. A lot of liquor stores, a lot of drinking that day. And his friend John Wilkes Booth comes up on horseback and a costs mathews and says, john, i need you to do me this favor. I need you to take this letter and give it to the newspapers tomorrow morning. What it was was a justification for his deed. Mathews, thinking nothing of it sticks it in his pocket and goes on to perform that night until the aftermath. In the moments after the shot when hes finally allowed by the soldiers to get out or, i think snuck out, gets to his boarding house room a different boarding house opens the letter reads it realizes what it is, and hes terrified. He reads it through several times to kind of memorize it as an actor, tears it up into little pieces burns the pieces in the fireplace in fact when the detectives do come to question him they dont even find ashes. There is no mention of that letter except mathews mentioned it to john ford. And wouldnt you know three years later, when theyre doing the investigation for the Andrew Johnson impeachment, it comes out that yeah, john ford mentioned that this guy mathews knew about a letter. And they called him in and he has to relive so so many of people connected with fords theater have to relive for two nights the john andrews impeachment trial and the john serrat trial when they catch him and bring him back. Another interesting character from that night is george spear. I like george spear because he was a character. Hes older. He played an old man. Hes a longtime friend of the booths especially edwin booth. He had been touring with edwin booth in the 1850s when news reached him that the senior booth, junior brutus booth had died, and it was george spear who had to break to edwin booth in the snowstorm in the mountains in nevada the tragedy of his father dying which sent both spear and edwin booth into a long drunken spree which yielded, i think, the best single image i found in any of my research. New years eve in sacramento with george spear playing pallonius srkss and edwin booth playing hamlet at one point included beating each other over the head with chickens. George spear drank a lot, as so many people did. Committed by his wife to an asylum. Taken in by the fords. His son is wounded fighting for the union and eventually dies but the wife gets all the money and spear dies impoverished in an old actors home. Also backstage was tom gru rrksgourlay whose two daughters who had come with him and his sons. They had come because they wanted to see general grant. He had brought his family there in the 40s and they had moved to washington because his daughter jeannie was the most really, promising of all of them. Jeannie gourlay like ned emerson, had great promise and john ford was grooming her to become quite a star. And yet her career doesnt really go anywhere. She was to have her big benefit night the next night. That, of course, doesnt occur. She ends up at the moment of the shot in conversation with the conductor billy withers, who was complaining because one of his songs wasnt getting played and eventually leads to withers and Jeannie Gourlay becoming engaged within 24 hours, marrying at the end of april, moving to start an acting career together and divorce within two years. Helen muzzy played mrs. Chussington. Shes the one that insulted harrys character at the moment leading to the shot. Shes married, an older washingtonian, never questioned. Some people are never questioned at all. May hart, for my money is the lance dubois in all of this, always depending on the kindness of strangers. She was seen out in the alley with ned emerson before. She goes through bad marriage after bad marriage right after the assassination and shes arrested and held because of that association with emerson. She falls in love with a young actor who makes her a star, then cheets on cheats on her, they divorce. One of her husbands is a wealthy man from montreal who chases after her. She marries him, he cheats on her. He dies she shows up at his funeral, one of the three wives he had unable to recoup any money from that. Helen truman is fascinating. Helen truman was 19 years old the night of the assassination. She was a southerner born and raised in memphis. She was helen Truman Coleman but she dropped the surname to avoid bringing shame to her family from being in that profession of actors. Her mother was a devout methodist who detested the theater. But she was working and found out her brother was arrested and he was shot to death. They exhausted their Family Savings trying to save his life. They go to see Abraham Lincoln. He pardons her brother. And helen truman, because of her love for Abraham Lincoln records a log of the record when he came to the theater. Sometimes sitting so far back in the box the audience wouldnt even know that he was there. Most people or many people, at least, will know the story of ed spangler, the poor adjunct stagehand who gets caught up in all of this and just wanted to help his friend booth. Ned spangler is kind of a befuddled character who knew there was going to be a shot. He rushes out after john booth in the rain and cradling a small puppy in his arms. Hes chasing after booth looking for him. Spangler is arrested. He is found as one of the conspirators who is actually tried. Largely on one of the words of the stagehands, george glisbach, had only been working there for three weeks and im convinced was a spy backstage. No one heard the things that rittersbach said. Its a pretty bleak place, 70 miles off of key west, nothing there but a fort. If you notice the three Little Windows above the sally port, that was actually their cell. And even a Drainage Ditch that dr. Mudd who was in the cell with them had dug was still there. But his escape attempt led them to be moved to a dungeon cell that was an extremely unpleasant place to be. James gifford hated the booths. He had built the booth home in bel air, maryland tudor hall, and the booths never paid him for it. He ripped the roof off, but he never felt good about them. The cues left us, tranquilizer ful thankfully, his stage scrapbook. Thanks to the park service and the wonderful archivists there, i was able to go through that scrapbook and it yielded just a treasure trove of information. Also back stage was billy withers. While some people were hesitant to talk about the assassination, withers never met an interviewer he didnt like. Throughout his life he gave increasingly lurid, increasingly selfgrand selfgrandiose versions. Time after time that story was told, he was stabbed to the collarbone, almost to the head. He was killed with a fascinating character. Throughout all of this and learning about all these people, ive come to know them all so well. There was one thing that kept me going, and i have this on the wall above my computer. This great quote from film director martin scorsese. Your job is to make your audience care about your obsession. I thank you for caring about my obsession, these walking shald shadows. Thank you. [ applause ] ill be happy to answer any questions. Or try. Sir if you would go to the microphone. Professor doctor, thanks. This was an astounding and amazing lecture. Thank you. Yes. And ive got two or three questions. Ill make them real quick. Im local to here, bells hill college park. This is in the milgdddle of just the most unbelievable things, from the underground railway to Prince Georges County being 50 in these things in baltimore. Was it 50 50 in anguish of the fights, did this add to the tinderbox for security . In other words you know so much and it gleaned so much. Was there a guard or security person right behind, of the booth . There was a Security Guard assigned to the booth, but he was in the saloon next door. There was another man there but booth simply waltzed up and gave him his card like any celebrity would, and was given access to the president. Its unfathomable today to think about the lax security at that time, but thats all there was. And booth traded on his name. At one point he said, my career is my passport. Which really meant he could pretty much use his fame to go anywhere and thus got the access. In terms of the area surrounding as i said, much of Southern Maryland in a swath that curves up into baltimore was extremely sympathetic to the south, and that was the route that booth used of course, when he fled and it was the route they were going to take president lincoln in the abduction attempt. One more quick one. Have you talked any to immerse yourself in descendants and primary people source of information for the stagehands and theater people . Im sorry i have you talked directly with any of the descendants . Descendants that i was able to find of the emerson family and of helen muzzy. No others. And i really looked. Thank you. Thank you for a wonderful lecture. You had mentioned that john ford required a pass to get down to richmond, i believe which would have been after the war. I was not aware that passes were required after the end of the civil war. Was that for everyone and how long did that continue . His timing was perfect. At first i thought it was suspicious that he was out of town when the assassination occurred, but he had applied for that pass about two weeks beforehand. And the dating and the signing of it only came through on wednesday of that week. It was only at the last minute that he was able to get the pass. And there were still at that point remember, the war was still going on. Just because of aponamics the general still had an army in the field and passes were still going on. They were keeping a very strict cord cordspurgeon cordon around the city of richmond. Stanton gave the order immediately after the assassination not to allow anyone to go through. So fords timing was really fortunate for him. You had mentioned that there were many versions of the script for our american cousin and that you had read through the 1865 version. Obviously there are various versions of the script. I know some of the actors said when they heard the shot go off, they thought the actors were trying to add something new to the play. Was it common to make script changes ad hoc as well . Especially in that play and especially the character of lord dunn dreary. The actor was playing him edited in all this kind of business. It was like a saturday night skit that everybody was adding in and improvising. Laura keene did not like that she wished people would stick to the script. But it was a stage business to frighten the character of dunn dreary. Thank you. Did you do any research on other people in the theater like ushers . The reason i asked, my grandfather, who was born here in the city in 1889, always told the story that his two uncles albert and dieterich call, were ushers in fords theater the night of the assassination and were held overnight and interviewed by the police. Is there any way to ever verify that . I didnt find that. What i did find was that the ushers and the musicians left at the end of the second intermission because they werent needed anymore. The ushers had done their business. And i didnt come across anything to indicate i could identify who they were and everything they did in the course of the afternoon and in leading people to their seats. But nothing indicating that they were there at the moment of the shot, anyone in the theater. The musicians were over at the saloon because they were supposed to come back afterwards and perform this piece that withers had written called honor to our soldiers. But at that point i didnt find anything that the ushers were in the theater at the moment of the shot. Hi. Good to see you again, because i saw you at the d. C. Historical society meeting. My question is about booth and spangler, i know, were rumored to be knights of the golden circle. I wonder if you knew of any of the other actors or actresses, if they were considered knights or rumored to be knights. Mr. Call was rumored to be a knight, but ironically they had just expelled him the night before. It was the letter found in calls room that got him in trouble afterwards. Carland, like several of the other, were flipped. I found some lists the prosecutors were using. There were more people they were going to charge but then they were called in for interviews that nobody quite recorded the substance of and then lo and behold they appear as witnesses for the prosecution. So hes one of those that was flipped. There is a really good book out on this that dave keene has written, knights of the golden circle, but other than we talked about i didnt find evidence that any others were members of that. Thank you again for the lecture. The question i have is, you mentioned, i think laura keene was taken to the president ial box, and she held the president s head. Why was she taken there . There are people who say she never could have fought her way through the audience. And thats true because the audience was in absolute pandemonium, people clam bering up over the footlights. In fact, the gas man had to quickly turn off the foot lights so their dresses wouldnt ignite from the gas footlights. Breaking seats climbing on seats, howling screaming. As near as i can figure from accounts that i read actor tom gourlay, who knew the theater well, let her out the stage left door. Not the one booth used in the back but the stage left door, up a set of back doors to the ford brothers apartment next door and in. The park service uses that area now above what used to be the ford brothers room for offices, and then through to a waiting room thats still there today on the level with the box and back into the theater through a doorway that the ford in order to not walk through the mud and rain of 10th street. They could go from their apartment directly back in the theater, and thus she avoided entirely trying to fight her way through the audience. Why was she taken there . You said how they did it but why did she do that . First they were calling for water in the booth, and jimmy maddox, the prop man, filled up a pitcher with water and carried it up to the booth that way also and was dabbing water on his head. And i think part of it, again, is her managerial instincts. She wants to be where she can be of the most help. When she find shes not able to quiet the audience she wants to go i dont think it was op o opportunistic, she really adores lincoln. There was a box below the president s box. That was open that night. Which was fortunate because two women fainted quickly, and ed fanned them with his wig and helped them into the lowered box to get them away from the panicked crowd. There was no one in it. That was my question thank you. That was one of the questions raised in the johnson impeachment questions why was that box left unsold . No one knows for sure, but it wasnt part of a conspiracy, just the fact they didnt sell that one. Two questions. One, i visited the grave of laura keene up in brooklyn, Greenwood Cemetary and the tour guide said i believe that laura keene was at the time the mistress of edwin booth. Number two i noticed when he told the story about the booths jumping down onto the stage, you did not say, as is properly believed i know most people believed it and later when his horse fell on him in the escape. On laura keene, in 1858, she traveled to australia. She had been married and her husband was a military officer in britain. He was sent to the australian penal colony. She went to australia to seek a divorce from him only to find the ruling and being held prisoner there was tantamount to divorce. On board with her was Edwin Forrest and they do appear to have a shipboard dalliance. She was actually married to a man named john lutz, who was a riverboat sort, and theyre marriage certificate has never surfaced. But several contemporary accounts indicate they were married, and they also refer to each other as husband and wife. Theyre counting the money because it was her benefit night, takes her upstage. But nothing more other than that shipboard occurrence with edwin booth. In terms of i just forgot your second question. About booth possibly breaking his leg. He landed off balance. He was hoblbling in pain, and i decided not to come down on one side or the other on that because im not really telling booths story or lincolns story. Terry oxford who was writing what i hope is the definitive version of John Wilkes Booths life, is going to take a position on that. His book comes out next year. Its called fortunes fool. People went back and forth so many times in that. Hes in pain. He jumps up 11 feet 6 inches. My instinct is, yes, he did break it. Clearly it was broken by the time he gets to dr. Mudds house. Ill stay away from that one since im telling the others. Thank you for your research. Was there an aha moment or was there something you wish you had found that you didnt . Wonderful questions. The aha moment was, i think, at the harvard theater question one of the wonderful archivists brought me over a folder and he said, i think you might be interested in this. It was miscellaneous actors letters, and it contained letters from george spears doctor about his alcohol treatment, letters from the gourlays. It was a treasure trove of letters that nobody had ever asked to look at because nobody looked at these people because they werent very significant. And the thing that i wish i had found there is here in archives receipts from the National Detective police. I was convinced i would find a receipt proving that james ritterbach was a spy and paid detective police. I spent three days looking at little bundles that are tied with pink ribbon still today going through one by one looking for the one that would prove it and i never found the absolute hard proof. But im pretty sure he was only there three weeks. He was a union veteran. His unit was coming through washington right at the time when Lafayette Baker was there, and lafayette was going through recruiting spies. Thats what i think happened. It looks like im the last question here. You had mentioned before i always kind of see fords theater itself as kind of the last character in the production. You mentioned that for several weeks fords theater was closed down. Can you briefly tell us what happened to fords theater . They set up their camping and cooking inside the theater and it became a mess very quickly. Finally after 39 days when john ford is released stanton previously in transit said, okay, you can reopen the theater. Theyre scheduled for a july 10 reopening. Timing is bad because of the execution of the ones who were found guilty was the week before, so emotion is rising high again. They schedule a reopening. Its going to be the octeroon, which was jeannies benefit. They brought back the actors the stage crew rushes around cleaning up getting everything ready. 5 00 that afternoon soldiers came back, stacked arms, closed the theater down on stantons orders. It was not allowed to reopen. No performance for another 100 years at fords theater. It is converted to a warehouse for federal records. And on the day of edwin booths funeral, it collapses killing 27 clerks in the believe ofuilding of fords theater. Thank you. [ applause ] youre watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan tv. If you like us like us on facebook at cspan history. This week while congress is in recess, book tv and American History tv are in prime time. Beginning tuesday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, war on terror. The green berets and guantanamo diary. On wednesday talking about chinas secret plan to replace america as a superpower, the egyptian revolution and the emerging crisis on europe. On thursday politics and the white house from our afterwards programs with david axelrod, Mike Huckabee and april ryan. And on friday, a look at pakistan from the eyes of a woman who was named in kurachi. And on tuesday on cspan3, a look at the korean war veterans digital memorial. Skpl i showing of the entire 1915 film the birth of a nation, followed by a reair of our callin program with author dick lehr. And thursday social changes in the 1970s at the 2015 American Historical Association meeting. Book tv and American History tv this week in prime time. Up next, Thomas Jefferson and union of the states. They debate jeffersons provocative relief in the preservation of races, preservation of union during the civil war and how jefferson would view todays federal government. This session from the Miller Center of the university of virginia is about two hours. Anyone who hopes to understand the 19th century in the United States has to come to terms with the importance of union as a deeply important concept and highly charged word in the political vocabulary. Its a word thats gone from our political vocabulary now. It literally Means Nothing to most americans now. The word union if it isnt associated with labor. Union in the sense was so important during the 19th century was gone. There were contending understandings of the meaning of the word union almost always tied to ideas about liberty and opportunity and frequently enmeshed with beliefs about the institution of slavery in the american public. All the individuals who have been the subjects of lectures in this series talked about union, from adamson and other framers of the constitution who drafted what they thought would lead to a more perfect union, to Andrew Jackson who more famously referred to union while making a toast while he looked at calhoun in 1832. He said, our federal union, it must be preserved. Which as you know calhoun replied, the union to our liberty most dear. In 1816 when four candidates ran for the presidency under fourparty standards, all of them talked about union. All of them wanted to be right with the union. For lincoln and most republicans, the union was a sort of mystical perpetual, indivisible, eternal thing. Steven douglas, who was the regular democratic candidate, stated over and over that whatever happened, the union must be preserved after the election of 1860. John c. Breckenridge who was the southern democratic candidate, said the constitution and the equality of the states are symbols of everlasting union. And the fourth candidate, old john bell, who ran as the candidate of the Constitutional Union party didnt talk about anything else. They didnt even have a platform. Their platform was in their title. It was union. And the constitution. Union comes up so often during this century which is not peters perfect century but its his second favorite century after the late 18th century. Lincolns union rested on common citizens and the potential to rise economically. Not the guarantee but the potential. Jefferson davis also believed in the union as safeguarding selfgovernment and economic opportunity, but of course he also saw it as guaranteeing slavery in its expansion. Both men celebrated the declaration of independence. That is lincolns great founding document. In his view, its the declaration. Both invoked jefferson repeatedly and throughout their careers. Jeffersons union was immense and very important. Were almost to you, peter. They resonated throughout the 19th century on both sides of the potomac river, or the ohio if you prefer. The United States put Thomas Jefferson on its 5 cent stamp in 2006. Only two people preceded jefferson on the