When John Wilkes Booth’s brother saved the life of Abraham Lincoln’s s

Abraham Lincoln’s assassination on April 14, 1865, was unexpected and tragic. John Wilkes Booth was a surprising assassin, a prominent actor from a famed family. The two men had never met before that night, although actor Frank Mordaunt professed that Lincoln had tried. Lincoln saw Booth in “The Marble Heart” in 1863, just days before he gave the Gettysburg Address, and as a result, repeatedly tried to invite him to the White House.

John Wilkes Booth reportedly directed villainous speeches at Abraham Lincoln during this 1863 performance. Lincoln’s companion remarked, “He almost seems to be reciting these lines to you.” Abe replied: “He does talk very sharp at me, doesn’t he?” While this may seem incredible, it wasn’t the only coincidence these men shared – one of the most surprising involved Booth’s brother, Lincoln’s son, and a life saved.

Robert Todd Lincoln

Robert Todd Lincoln was the eldest of Abraham Lincoln’s four boys and the only one to outlive his parents. At the start of the American Civil War, Robert was a Harvard student, and his mother, Mary Todd Lincoln (who had already lost two sons), wanted him to stay in school and out of the war. Yet President Lincoln argued, “[Our] son is not more dear to us than the sons of other people are to their mothers.” In January of 1865, Mary Todd gave in.

 

 

President Lincoln wrote to General Ulysses S. Grant and asked if Robert could be a member of his staff. So, from February 11 to June 12, 1865, Robert Todd Lincoln was an assistant adjutant on General Grant’s staff, a position unlikely to see combat. In this role, Robert was present at Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender. This job in the army began his long and high-profile career in public service and politics which eventually saw him as Secretary of War under Presidents James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, and then Minister to Great Britain under President Benjamin Harrison.

Yet, throughout his life, a specter followed Robert Todd Lincoln. The night his father was assassinated, Robert turned down an invitation to go with his father to the theater as he was recovering from a rough wagon ride from the battlefront. This would be the last time Robert was anything more than a few steps away from a presidential assassination that happened during his life. In 1881, he was an eyewitness to the assassination of President James A. Garfield. Then, in 1901, he was outside the room where President William McKinley was shot and killed. He refused other presidential invitations, saying, “… there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present.” Oddly enough, Robert Todd Lincoln almost didn’t live long enough to be present at any of these events, and the only reason he was because of the brother of his father’s murderer, Edwin Booth.

Edwin Booth

Born in 1833, Edwin Booth was the older brother of John Wilkes Booth and one of twelve children born to English actor Junius Brutus Booth. Junius was the most prominent Shakespearean actor in the U.S. at the time. A well-known manic alcoholic, in 1835, Junius wrote a letter threatening to kill then-President Andrew Jackson if he didn’t free two men convicted of piracy. Jackson had survived an assassination attempt earlier that same year, but the letter was written off as a joke.

 

 

Several of Junius’s children became actors. In 1864, three of his sons, Edwin, Junius Jr., and John Wilkes, performed together in a New York production of “Julius Caesar.” Though little known today, Edwin Booth was the most prominent of his siblings at the time. While John Wilkes Booth was an actor known for his looks, Edwin was an actor known for his unparalleled talent. It was enough of a talent that their famous father had Edwin accompany him on a world tour, leaving John Wilkes behind and starting a rivalry that spanned art and politics.

After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Edwin was distraught and nearly quit acting. Eventually, he wrote a public apology letter for his brother’s deeds and returned to the stage. He established a renowned theater in New York, became famous for his performances of “Hamlet,” and even made a rare 1890 recording performing “Othello”.

Surprisingly, Edwin survived his own assassination attempt in 1879 while performing “Richard II” at McVicker’s Theatre in Chicago. A man who had seen Edwin perform before did not think him worthy of acclaim and fired twice at the stage during the show, with fortunately no injuries.

When Edwin Booth saved Robert Todd Lincoln

Before the tragic events of April 14, 1865, at some point between 1863 and the first few months of 1865, both Robert Todd Lincoln and Edwin Booth stood together on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. At the time, Booth would not have known the identity of the young man as he was not yet a widely known public figure. In 1909, Robert Todd Lincoln himself detailed, in a letter to the editor of The Century Magazine, the incident where Edwin Booth saved him from serious injury or even death:

“…The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name.“

It was Colonel Adam Badeau, an officer on General Grant’s staff and a friend of Edwin’s, who informed Booth about whom he had rescued. Although the two men never spoke to each other after this event, it was said that Edwin Booth took great comfort in saving Robert Todd Lincoln’s life.