Henry Rathbone Henry Reed Rathbone ( July 1 , 1837 – August 14 , 1911 ) was a United States military officer and diplomat who was present at the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln . Rathbone was sitting with his fiancée , Clara Harris , next to the President and his wife , Mary Todd Lincoln , when John Wilkes Booth entered the president ' s box at Ford ' s Theatre and fatally shot Lincoln . When Rathbone attempted to prevent Booth from fleeing the scene , Booth stabbed and seriously wounded him . Biography . Early years . Henry R . Rathbone was born in Albany , New York and was the son of Jared L . Rathbone , a merchant and businessman , who later became Albany ' s mayor . At the time of his father ' s death , Rathbone inherited the very considerable sum of two hundred thousand dollars from his family ' s estate . His widowed mother , Pauline Rathbone , remarried Ira Harris , who was appointed U . S . Senator from New York after William H . Seward became Lincoln ' s Secretary of State . As a result of this marriage , Ira Harris became Rathbone ' s stepfather and his daughter , Clara , became Rathbone ' s stepsister . Although this unusual series of events made them stepbrother and stepsister , they were not related by blood . Rathbone studied law at Union College , was a member of the Sigma Phi Society , and briefly worked in a law partnership in Albany before entering the Union Army at the start of American Civil War . During the war , Rathbone served as Captain in the 12th infantry regiment and was at the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredricksburg ; by the war ' s end , he had attained the rank of major . Presence during the assassination . On April 14 , 1865 , President Lincoln and his wife Mary decided to attend a performance of the play " Our American Cousin " at Ford ' s Theatre . Earlier that day the Lincolns had invited several people to accompany them , including General Ulysses S . Grant and his wife , but all of them declined for various reasons . Mrs . Lincoln finally invited Major Rathbone and Clara Harris , and they accepted . The young couple had recently become engaged . Mrs . Lincoln was fond of Clara , having previously invited her to attend numerous social functions at the White House . During the play , John Wilkes Booth surreptitiously entered the Presidential box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head with a Derringer pistol . Rathbone grappled with the assassin and was severely wounded by Booth , who also wielded a large dagger . After stabbing Rathbone in the arm and slashing at his head , the assassin leapt from the box onto the stage and reputedly cried out " Sic semper tyrannis , " then " Thus always to tyrants . " Although he had broken his leg ( fibula ) two inches above the ankle jumping on to the stage , Booth successfully escaped , and remained at large for almost two weeks . Meanwhile the dying Lincoln was taken across the street to the house of William Petersen , where Clara Harris remained with Mrs . Lincoln during her vigil of some nine hours . This death watch lasted through the night , until morning , when Lincoln died at 7 : 22 A . M . on April 15 , 1865 . Another tragedy . Although Rathbone ' s physical wounds healed , his mental state deteriorated in the years following Lincoln ' s death as he anguished over his perceived inability to thwart the assassination attempt . He married Clara Harris on July 11 , 1867 and the couple had three children . In 1882 , Rathbone was appointed U . S . consul to Hanover , Germany , and his family accompanied him there . His mental decline culminated in his murdering his wife on December 23 , 1883 , fatally shooting her then stabbing her several times . After he killed Clara , Rathbone attempted suicide by stabbing himself . When the police arrived , the bleeding Rathbone claimed there were people hiding behind the pictures on the wall . The couple ' s children , who were also almost killed by their father , were taken to live with their uncle , William Harris , in the United States . Final years & Death . Rathbone spent the rest of his life in the asylum for the criminally insane in Hildesheim , Germany . He died on August 14 , 1911 and was buried next to Clara in the city cemetery at Hanover / Engesohde . As time passed , the cemetery management , looking over records concerning plots without recent activity or family interest , decided in 1952 that Rathbone ' s and Clara ' s remains could be disposed of . They were both disinterred and cremated . Family and cultural depictions . Rathbone ' s eldest son , Henry Riggs Rathbone ( 1870 – 1928 ) , was a U . S . Congressman from Illinois . Henry Reed Rathbone and his wife , Clara Harris , are the subjects of " Henry and Clara " ( 1994 , published by Ticknor & Fields ) , a historical fiction by Thomas Mallon . He was a distant cousin of stage and film actor Basil Rathbone .