On April 14, 1865, at the climax of a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth entered Abraham Lincoln’s private balcony and shot the president in the back of the head. After struggling...
Samuel J. Seymour was present at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, the night that President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Samuel J. Seymour was born on March 28th, 1860, in Maryland, United States. He was five years old when his father took him...
Emily Todd was Mary Todd Lincoln’s half-sister. In 1856 she married Benjamin Helm, later to become a Confederate general. After Helm’s death in 1863 Emily Helm passed through Union Lines to visit her sister in the White House. This caused great...
Happy Birthday General Robert E. Lee Confederate General Robert Edward Lee was born on this day in 1807. He was the fifth child of Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee. In 1829 he was graduated second in his class at West Point without having incurred a single demerit in his...
A Secret Civil War Engagement At the time that he was killed during the first day of the battle, John Reynolds was secretly engaged to a woman by the name of Kate Hewett. His family did not even know about Kate. But when Reynolds’ body was returned home to...
On Wednesday, August 8, 1860, the Illinois Republicans hold an immense rally to celebrate Lincoln’s nomination in Springfield. Thousands of people attend and a giant morning procession passes Lincoln’s residence which he reviews from his doorway. In the...
