Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1897-10-06
He SAW LINCOLN SHOT.
MILLS Apprised the Guards and Helped
Mrs. Lincoln From the Theater.

Mrs. Lincoln From the Theater.
/ James N. Mills of Brooklyn says:
II was born in Brooklyn in 1845,
so that's at the outbreak of the war !
was under is years of age. want
ed to go to the front as drummer
boy, but when applied to the Off
GERS of a regiment called the Brook
Ign Phalanx, afterward known as
the First Long Island regiment, they
told me ! was too young | after
ward made my way to Washington
without my mothers consent and
enlisted as drummer boy in 1862.
| I served in the Army of the Potomac
for three years, and during the clos
ing days of the war was a clerk in
the war department,
ION the night of the assassination
of President Lincoln I attended the
theater to see Laura Keene in Our
American Cousin. The theater was
packed. There must have been 1000
people in the house, every one de-
sirous of seeing the president and
General Grant, who was also expect
ed to be present. After the president
took his seat in the box and the
cheering ceased the crowd was alb
solutely still. / can account for
their silence by the fact that it was
a cosmopolitan crowd, representing
about every regiment located near
Washington and including travellers
from every state in the Union.
General Grant did not attend, I
and Mr.. Lincoln, accompanied by
Mrs. Lincoln and Colonel Rathbone
of the United States army, made up
the presidential party. They occu-
pied the right hand box on the dress
circle WIG or a1laa1F GA@
1.-THE third act of the play had be-
gun and Harry Hawk, an actor in
the company, had just appeared on
the stage from the left, when there
was the report of a pistol shot.
Looking over at the presidents box,
I saw man standing and gesticu-
lating at the occupants. An instant
later the man jumped from the box
to the stage; turned, looked at the
audience, and then disappeared. He
mutte1ed something as he looked
toward the audience, but / have
never been able to recall just what
he said
{ II Instantly the, audience arose as
if spellbound, the whisperings of a
moment before became a roar of !
voices, and when it dawned upon
the audience that the president had |
been assassinated the confusion was
indescribable. / made my way to
the head of the stairs as quickly as
the crowded condition of the house
would permit, and, passing out into
Tenth street, gave the alarm to the
provost guards These guards, by
the way, were stationed at all thea
ters to examine the passes of sol
diers in uniform who were in the
city after nightfall. The guard I
spoke to ran around to the alley en-
trance of the theater on F street and
entered the back door
II returned to the front OF the
theater and made my way to the
dress circle and to the private box
of the presidential party just as Mr..
Lincoln was being carried out on
the shoulders of two men. One of
these was the proprietor of saloon
adjoining the theater. He was in
his shirt sleeves, the head of Mr..
Lincoln resting on his shoulder and
the blood t1ickling down the sleeves
and the back of his shirt. The pres
ident was carried down stairs and
across the street into Mrs. Peterson's
boarding house, directly opposite
the theater. AS Mrs Lincoln was
for the moment without an escort,
I gently grasped her arm and led
her from the box She was nearly
hysterical, crying and sobbing bit
terly: We followed the men as they
carried Mr.. Lincoln across the street.
He was placed on bed in a room
on the ground floor, where he died
the following morning. Tgaa
''The proprietor of the saloon who
carried Mr.. Lincoln from the thea
ter subsequently informed me that
john Wilkes Booth had spent a few
moments in his place just before
the close of the second act of the
play While there he drank nearly
a glassful of brandy. New York
Sun. as5eEa.e
a5 The Irony of Fate. ~