William A. Browning, also known as Colonel Browning (1835 – March 2, 1866), was a 19th-century American political staffer. He served as a private secretary to U.S. Senator, then military governor of Tennessee, then Vice President and U.S. president, Andrew Johnson. Browning is mostly remembered today for being the recipient of a note from Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Biography 

Browning, born in 1835 to a tailor named Peregrine Browning and his wife Margaret A. (Wood) Browning, was a native of the District of Columbia. William A. Browning was one of 12 children born to the couple, and the eldest son. Browning was said to be a graduate of Yale College. He may have married Gertrude Allis (1835 – March 1, 1858), the daughter of Emily Stockbridge and Salmon White Allis, who kept the Tontine Hotel in New Haven, Connecticut.

He had been admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Andrew Johnson had apparently known him "since his boyhood, and obtained for him an appointment to a government job." Browning eventually left his position "at one of the Departments" to go work for Johnson. He began working as Johnson's secretary when Johnson was a U.S. Senator from Tennessee and stayed with him until his first year in the White House. In 1863, while Johnson was military governor of Tennessee, Browning was appointed adjutant general of Tennessee, succeeding Alvan C. Gillem. A Memphis newspaper wrote at the time, "The appointment of Col. Browning to so important an office is a most proper acknowledgment of his eminent worth and executive ability." On the Fourth of July 1864, Browning read the Declaration of Independence as part of a Union celebration at Nashville, following a parade that included "a procession over a mile long, consisting of the 31st Wisconsin, 13th regulars, 10th Tennessee, 5th Iowa cavalry, several batteries of artillery, the Fire Department, [and] citizens on foot and on horseback."

During the fall 1864, he was apparently working for Johnson but was unable to do much work writing letters and private dispatches "due to illness." Browning was commissioned November 14, 1865 and/or nominated December 9, 1865 to be secretary of legation to Mexico under Gen. John A. Logan of Illinois as Minister to Mexico. However, Browning died in Washington, D.C., in March 1866 "after several weeks' sickness." He never left the United States or took up the position. The cause of death was said to be, variously, an "inflammation of the bowels" or "a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism, which resulted in paralysis." His health had declined over a period of two months and then taken a turn for the worse when he was in New York. He apparently died at his parents' home on Missouri Avenue. Upon hearing the news of his death, Andrew Johnson's daughters Martha Patterson and Mary Stover, who served as his political hostesses, canceled the White House public receptions planned for the week and were said to have been "at the residence of Col. Browning most of the day." President Johnson, Martha Patterson, David T. Patterson, Mary Stover, and several members of Congress all attended the funeral. Browning was buried at the Congressional Cemetery, in Washington, D.C.

Shortly after his funeral, a North Carolina newspaper opined, "The death of Col. Browning, formerly private secretary to the president, was hastened by his own acts. He could not resist the seductive bowl and fell a victim to its temptations. The deceased was possessed of excellent talents and was capable of filing the most responsible positions with honor. Let others take warning from his fate." After Andrew Johnson's son Robert Johnson died of an overdose in 1869, an anonymous columnist wrote a widely reprinted recollection of some of the figures of the Johnson era, including Browning:

April 1865 

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth left a note at Kirkwood House (where Andrew Johnson and William A. Browning had rooms) that read, "Don't wish to disturb you Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth" Browning later testified about finding the note and that Vice President Johnson was home that day at 5 p.m. and stayed in the rest of the evening. The note has fueled decades of debate as to whether Booth meant to slay Johnson himself, whether Booth and Johnson were co-conspirators, or if the note was actually meant for Browning "since one of Browning's brothers was said to be seen drinking with Booth the day of the assassination." Booth and Browning had apparently had past dealings regarding the end of the war, and Booth reportedly felt betrayed by Browning's conduct.

See also
 Presidency of Andrew Johnson
 Andrew Johnson alcoholism debate

References

1835 births
1866 deaths
Andrew Johnson administration personnel
Burials at the Congressional Cemetery
People from Washington, D.C.
People associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Personal secretaries to the President of the United States