The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-06-03
SAW LINCOLN KILLED
4 MAN WHO wAs At FoRD's THEA
: Ten ON THE FATAL NIGHT

n. w. Lewis Was In ths Gallery when AAe
Heard tho shot Fired and sew tho Pres
sdsurs Head Drop : lie Also saw the
First Shot In tho War.
The Sun printed letter from Brook
lyn correspondent asking II The Sun had
sever heard Of or from anybody who at
tended the theator In Washington on the
night that Abraham Lincoln was shot bo-
sides those who became moro or less well
known by their connection with the inci-
dcnts Of that night"
The Sun has received several letters from
persons who wero In Ford's theator on the
night Of Lincoln's assassination or know OF
others who were there. Ono Of these let
tors said that Henry W. Lowis OF "a VOL
sOtt street, Brooklyn, witnessed the MUIR
der Of the president. A Sun reporter went
to see Mr.. Lewis. Mr.. Lewis is 90 years
old and somewhat feeble In health, but has
vigorous memory. He recalls with lively
interest the occurrences In Ford's theater
on the night Of April II, 1865. In his
younger days Mr.. Lewis used to be sea-
man. BY the time he was 90 years old he
had been around tho world. He saw the
gold rush to California and that to Aus
tralia, which country be visited In 1850.
In the latter part Of the civil war Mr..
Lewis was employed on the government
transport Constitution, which piled be-
tween Washington and tho Army OF the
Potomac In Virginia.
On April IA the Constitution reached
Washington from City Point, where she
had delivered a cargo of bread for the
army. She brought back part of the Ninth
corps to Washington. When she reached
town, the members Of the crew read that
Lincoln and Grant would attend Ford's
theater that night.
"I had often seen Lincoln" said Mr..
Lewis, "but had never seen Grant, and
proposed to several Of my mates to 60 to
the theatef to see Grant and the play, Our
American Cousin We arrived at the
theater just before the performance was to
begin. There were no seats 10 be had, and
we passed in on admission prices and stood
up behind the seats in the upper gallery.
We watched the incidents Of the night ca
Gerly, and In the third act of the play heard
the pistol shot that Booth Gred.
Instantly there was much confusion.
think the excitement In the gallery was
as great as that In the other parts Of the
theater, of which 50 much has been writ
ten. There was great oommotion and
great craning of neoks. remember dis
tinctly seeing Lncoln's head drop to his
arm. He was unconscious, Of course, and
no one had yet reached him. also saw
Booth jump to the stage and sink to the
floor on one knee. We could tell that he
was saying something just before he drag
ged himself off the stage. The noise In
the place was that Of a roar BY this time.
Those in the gallery were on their feet,
and we could see no more. A stampede
began, such as suppose occurs at time
of fire In theater. To this day ! do not
know how reached the street. have
absolutely no recollection about it and
never had. My mates also did not remOm-
ber how they got out. All we knew was
that we. .wero swept out Of the place and
found tho street throngcd. 1t was sad
night, and wc were late In reaching our
quarters.
"Curiously enough, In all my work and
on what few journeys have made since,
have never met man and never heard Of
one except the officials who were In Ford's
theater on that night. Instead of there
being 1000 persons present, as The Suns
correspondent suggested, there must have
been 2,5C0. There was standing room
only, and it is strange that 80 few of those
present have been heard from. For years
the incidents Of that night came to me
with n sense Of horror. 1t was long
time before could shake It of. -
Mr.. Lewis has another reminiscencc that
his friends have always liked to hear him
tell. He saw tho first shot fired at the out
break of tho civil war. 1t was in Charles
ton harbor on April 10, 1861, but he
says 1t was not at Fort Sumter. 1t was at
the coaster Nashville at 80 o oclock in the
morning. Mr.. Lewis was the lookout on
the Nashville. Tho Union fleet, consisting
of the transport Baltic and the warships
Pawnee, Pocahontas and Harriet Lane,
had left New York before the Nashville,
but the Nashville passed them and arrived
of the bar of Charleston harbor first The
Nashville, which belonged to line run
ming boats between Charleston and New
York regularly, and had carried arms and
ammunition to the southerners, resembled
the Harriet Lane in her size and rig, and
when she approached the bar the southern
ers thought she was the Harriet Lane.
They had been warned that the Harriet
Lane was coming down. The famous bat
terry on Morris island threw shot at the
Nashville on this supposition, and this
opened the hostilities in Charleston harbor.
The shot fell half mile from the Nash
willie. II was followed BY another, which
came within quarter Of mile Of the ves.
eel Captain Murray, who commanded the
Nashville, gave orders at once to retire
from the bar. To have gone in would have
been certain destruction.
Az the Nashville was leaving the bal
the Harriet Lane hove In sight. Captain
Murray didn't want the captain Of the
Lane TO examine his papers, and he shout
ed to his chief engineer. named Hood, tc
S'shake her up." The captain Of the Lane
ssw what was going on and fired blank
shot ~ warning to stop. The Nashville
went on. The Harriet Lane swung around
frosdside ON and fired . solid shot.
"6top her, Hoodr' shouted Captain
Murray to his chief engineer, and forth
with the Nashville csme around.
The captain Of the Harriet Lane simply
asked some psrfunotnRy questions, and
both ships lay Oh the bar and watched no
only the nrst shot fired on Fort Sumter
but also the entire bombardment of 81
hours. On Sunday. April II, the day o
the evacuation Of Fort Sumter, the Nash
VILE went into the harbor, and Mr.. Lewis