Abbott, Stone, Hatch, Neal, Hall, and slowly fell, and the teeth became exposed. Lieberman, and a few others. All were About a quarter of an hour before the bathed in tears; and Secretary Stanton, President died, his breathing became very when informed by Surgeon Gen. Barnes, difficult, and in many instances seemed to that the President could not live until have entirely ceased. He would again morning, exclaimed, "Oh, no, General; rally and breathe with so great difficulty no-no;" and with an impulse, natural as as to be heard in almost every part of the it was unaffected, immediately sat down house. Mrs. Lincoln took her last leave on a chair near his bedside, and wept like of him about twenty minutes before he a child. Senator Sumner was seated expired, and was sitting in the adjoining on the right of the President, near the room when it was announced to her that head, holding the right hand of the he was dead. When the announcement President in his own. He was sobbing was made, she exclaimed, "Oh! why did like a woman, with his head bowed down you not tell me that he was dying!" almost on the pillow of the bed on which his illustrious friend was dying. In an adjoining room were Mrs. Lincoln, and her son, Capt. Rob't Lincoln; Miss Harris, who was with Mrs. Lincoln at the time of the assassination, and several others.

Mrs. Lincoln was under great excitement and agony, wringing her hands and exclaiming, "Why did he not shoot me instead of my husband? I have tried to be so careful of him, fearing something would happen, and his life seemed to be more precious now than ever. I must go with him," and other expressions of like character. She was constantly going back and forth to the bedside of the President, exclaiming in great agony, "How can it be so!" The scene was heart-rending. Captain Robert Lincoln bore himself with great firmness, and constantly endeavored to assuage the grief of his mother by telling her to put her trust in God and all would be well. Occasionally, however, being entirely overcome, he would retire by himself and give vent to most piteous lamentations. Then, recovering himself, he would return to his mother, and, with remarkable self-possession, try to cheer her broken spirits and lighten her load of

sorrow.

Sena

The surgeons and the members of the cabinet, Senator Sumner, Captain Robert Lincoln, General Todd, Mr. Field, and Mr. Rufus Andrews, were standing at his bedside when he breathed his last. tor Sumner, General Todd, Robert Lincoln, and Mr. Andrews, stood leaning over the headboard of the bed, watching every motion of the beating breast of the dying President. Robert Lincoln was resting himself tenderly upon the arm of Senator Sumner, the mutual embrace of the two

having all the affectionateness of father and son. The surgeons were sitting upon At four o'clock the symptoms of rest- the side and foot of the bed, holding the lessness returned, and at six the premo- President's hands, and with their watches nitions of dissolution set in. His face observing the slow declension of the pulse, which had been quite pale, began to as- and watching the ebbing out of the vital sume a waxen transparency, the jaw spirit. Such was the solemn stillnes for

the space of five minutes that the ticking | chairs of simple construction, adapted for of the watches could be heard in the room. sleeping rooms, and the bed upon which At twenty-two minutes past seven o'- Mr. Lincoln lay when his spirit took its clock, in the morning, April fifteenth, flight. The bedstead was a low walnut, gradually and calmly, and without a sigh the headboard from two to three feet high. or a groan, all that bound the soul of The floor was covered with Brussels carAbraham Lincoln was loosened, and the peting, which had been considerably used. eventful career of one of the most re- Everything on the bed was stained with markable of men was closed on earth. the blood of the Chief Magistrate of the As he drew his last breath, the Rev. nation. A few locks of hair were reDr. Gurley, the President's pastor, offered moved from the President's head for the a fervent prayer of supplication and sym- family, previous to the remains being pathy. The countenance of the President placed in the coffin temporarily used for was beaming with that characteristic smile removing the remains to the executive which only those familiar with him in his mansion. happiest moments could appreciate; and except the blackness of his eyes, his face appeared perfectly natural. The morning

Flight, Capture and Death of Booth. After eleven days had transpired since

was calm, and the rain was dropping the death of the President, his murderer, gently upon the roof of the humble apartment where they laid him down to die. The body servant of the President entered the room just before he died, and as the breath left the body of Mr. Lincoln, this loving and bereaved servant manifested the most indescribable sorrow. Mrs. Lincoln remained but a short time, when she was assisted into her carriage, and with her son Robert and other friends she was driven to the house which but the evening before she left for the last time with her honored husband, who never was again to enter that home alive.

John Wilkes Booth, was discovered in, a barn on Garrett's farm, near Port Royal, on the Rappahannock. Immediately after the murder, Colonel Baker, of the detective service, set out to find Booth's hidingplace. He soon succeeded in capturing Atzerodt, the would-be assassin of VicePresident Johnson, and Dr. Mudd. It was Dr. M. who attended to Booth's leg, crippled by his getting entangled with the flag that decorated the President's box, and a boot with Booth's name in it was found in his possession. A negro was then arrested, who said he had seen Booth and another man cross the Potomac in a fishing-boat. Col. Baker sent to Gen. Hancock for twenty-five mounted men to aid him in the pursuit. These were sent under Lieutenant Dougherty, and Baker placed them under the control of Lieutenant-Colonel Conger, and of his cousin, Lieutenant L. B. Baker, and dispatched them to Belle Plain, with orders to scour the country about Port Royal.

The room, into which the most exalted of mortal rulers was taken to die, was in the rear part of the dwelling, and at the end of the main hall, from which rises a stairway. The dimensions of the room are about ten by fifteen feet, the walls being covered with a brownish paper, figured with a white design. Some engravings and a photograph hung upon the walls. The engravings were copies of the "Village Blacksmith," and "Stable and Barn- The detectives and cavalrymen left yard Scenes; the photograph was one Washington at two P. M. on the 23d of taken from an engraved copy of Rosa April, and at ten o'clock disembarked at Bonheur's "Horse Fair." The furniture Belle Plain, near Fredericksburg. Here of the apartment consisted of a bureau they commenced their inquest, but without covered with crochet, a table, several any result. The next morning they came

"Who are you, and what do you want with us?"

"We want you to deliver up your arms and become our prisoners," said Baker. "But who are you?"

We know

"That makes no difference. who you are, and we want you. We have here fifty men with carbines and pistols. You cannot escape."

After a pause, Booth said: " Captain, this is a hard case, I swear. Perhaps I am being taken by my own friends." He then asked time to consider, which was

to Port Royal ferry, and crossed. At Port Royal they found one Rollins, a fisherman, who referred them to a negro named Lucas as having driven two men a short distance toward Bowling Green in a wagon. These men perfectly answered the description of Booth and his accomplice Harold. Some disbanded men, it was learned, belonging to Mosby's command, took Booth under their protection on the way to Bowling Green. On the 25th Baker and his party proceeded to Bowling Green, a small court-house town in Caroline County. Here they found the granted. After a little interval, Baker captain of the rebel cavalry, and extorted threatened to fire the barn, if they did not from him a statement of Booth's hiding- come out. Booth replied that he was a place. It was found that this was at the cripple, and begged a chance for his life, house of a Mr. Garrett, which they had declaring that he would fight them all at passed on their way to Bowling Green. so many yards apace, and that he would never be taken alive. Baker replied that he did not come there to fight but to capture him, and again threatened to fire the barn.

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Well, then, my brave boys," said Booth, "prepare a stretcher for me.”

Harold now wanted to surrender, and, in the midst of a shower of imprecations from Booth, did so. Conger then set fire to the barn.

Returning with the captain for a guide, the worn-out command halted at Garrett's gate, at two o'clock on the morning of the 26th. Without noise the house was surrounded, and Baker went up to the kitchen door on the side and rapped. An old man in half undress undrew the bolts, and had scarcely opened the door before Baker had him by the throat with a pistol at his ear, and asked, "Where are the men who stay with you?" Under the menace The blaze lit up the black recesses of of instant death the old man seemed para- the great barn till every wasp's nest and lyzed, but at Baker's order lit a candle. cobweb in the roof was luminous, flinging The question was then repeated. They streaks of red and violet across the tumare gone," replied the old man. Soon a bled farm-gear in the corner, and bathed young boy appeared, and told Baker the the murderer's retreat in a vivid illuminamen he sought were in the barn. The tion, and while in bold outline his figure barn was then surrounded. Baker and stood revealed, they rose like an impeneConger went to the door. The former trable wall to guard from sight the dreadcalled out signifying his intention to have ed enemy who lit them. Behind the blaze, a surrender on the part of the men inside, with his eye to a crack, Conger saw Wilkes or else to fire the barn, and shoot thern on Booth standing upright upon a crutch. the spot. The young boy was sent in to He likens him at this instant to his emireceive their arms. To the boy's appeal nent brother Edwin, whom he says he so Booth answered with a curse, accusing the much resembled that he half believed, for boy of having betrayed him. The boy the moment, the whole pursuit to have then came out, and Baker repeated his de- been a mistake. At the gleam of fire mand, giving Booth five minutes to make Wilkes dropped his crutch and carbine, up his mind. Booth repliedand on both hands crept up to the spot to

He could not speak

espy the incendiary and shoot him dead. could talk in a whisper so as to be intelliHis eyes were lustrous like fever, and gibly understood. swelled and rolled in terrible anxiety, above a whisper. He wanted water; I while his teeth were fixed, and he wore gave it to him. He wanted to turn on the expression of one in the calmness be- his face; I said he could'nt lie on his face. fore frenzy. In vain he peered with ven- He wanted to be turned on his side; we geance in his look; the blaze that made turned him on his side three times, but he him visible concealed his enemy. A could not lie with any comfort, and asked second he turned glaring at the fire, as if immediately to be turned back. He asked to leap upon and extinguish it, but the me to put my hand on his throat, and flames had made such

headway that this was a futile impulse, and he dismissed it. As calmly as upon the battle-field a veteran stands amidst the hail of ball and shell and plunging iron, Booth turned at a man's stride, and pushed for the door, carbine in poise, and the last resolve of death-de

spair-set on his high,

bloodless forehead.

He said

necessary. He made a very strong exertion to cough, but was unable to do so. I suppose he thought there was blood in his throat. I asked him to put out his tongue, which he did. I said, "There is no blood in your throat." He repeated several times-two or three times at least-" Kill me! kill me!" I replied, "I do not want to kill you. I want you to get well."

At this instant, Sergeant Boston Cor- press down, which I did. bett fired through a crevice and shot Booth" Harder"; I pressed as hard as I thought in the neck. They then took him up and carried him out on the grass, a little way from the door, beneath a locust tree. Conger went back to the barn, to see if the fire could be put out, but found it could not, and returned to where Booth was lying. Before this (says LieutenantColonel Conger) I supposed him to be dead; he had all the appearance of a dead man; but when I came back his eyes and mouth were moving. I called immediately for water and put some on his face. He seemed to revive, and attempted to speak. I put my ear down to his mouth, and heard him say, "Tell my mother I died for my country." I repeated the words to him and said, "Is that what you would say?" He said "Yes." They carried him to the porch of Garrett's house, and laid him on a straw bed or tick. At that time he revived considerably, and

When the doctor, whom Conger had sent for, arrived, Booth asked to have his hands raised and shown him. When this was done, he muttered "Useless, useless!" These were his last words. He died about four hours after he was shot.

Booth and Harold were dressed in rebel gray uniform. Booth's mustache had been cut off, apparently with scissors, and his beard allowed to grow, thus changing his appearance considerably. His hair had been cut somewhat shorter than he usually

wore it. Being taken to Washington, a | and, observing that the President looked post-mortem examination of the remains weary, Mr. Fessenden remarkedtook place on board the monitor Montauk,

"Mr. President, the people of the the body being laid out on a carpenter's United States are praying that God bench between the stern and turret.

The

shot which terminated his life entered on the left side, at the back of the neck, a point not far different from that in which his victim, the lamented President, was shot.

On the night of the 27th of April a small row-boat received the remains of the assassin, and no one save two men-sworn to irrevocable secrecy-it is said, know the place or manner of his sepulture.

The capture and solemn trial of the other accomplices and conspirators in the great crime of simultaneously murdering the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and Lieutenant-General Grant-viz., the Surratts, mother and son, Payne, Atzerodt, Harold, O'Loughlin, Arnold, etc.,-constitute the remainder of this darkest chapter in the annals of human crime. Four of these expiated their crime on the gallows, and the blood of the Martyred President was avenged.

Conversation on his Threatened Assassina

tion.

Secretary Fessenden.

would spare your life to see the end of this rebellion."

"Mr. Fessenden," replied the President,." it may be that I shall not live to see it, and sometimes I think I shall not; but if I were taken away, there are those who would perform my duties better."

Patience of Mr. Lincoln Tried too Far.

It is a most noteworthy incident that one of the latest, if not the very last of the letters written by Mr. Lincoln, was in reply to Gen. Van Alen, who wrote to the President a short time previously, asking him not to expose his life unnecessarily, as he had done at Richmond, and assuring him of the earnest desire of all his countrymen for him to close the war he had so successfully conducted. After acknowledging the receipt of the letter-which he in a way quite the reverse. did on the 14th of April, the very day of pleased, and saidhis assassination-Mr. Lincoln said, "I intend to adopt the advice of my friends, and use due precaution." Alas!

One day President Lincoln was found in a close and loud conversation with a gentleman from a certain portion of reclaimed southern territory. The visitor professed to be a southern loyalist, and wanted certain papers signed by the President, making good a considerable amount of damage inflicted upon him by the war. The claimant urged his claims in soft, timid tones, and the President answered He was not

Senator Fessenden states that one day he was standing with Mr. Lincoln on the steps of the Secretary of State's office,

"Why! this paper does not say you are entitled to the money."

for

"No, Sir, but it recommends my claim your consideration."

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But, Sir, you do not prove your

claim."