Summary

The article recounts the tragic fate of Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone, who were with President Abraham Lincoln during his assassination and suffered long-term psychological and social consequences, ultimately leading to Clara's murder and Henry's descent into insanity.

Abstract

On the 157th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, the article reflects on the lesser-known victims, Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone, who accompanied the Lincolns to Ford's Theater on that fateful Good Friday in 1865. Henry attempted to thwart the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, but was injured in the process. The couple's lives were forever altered by the trauma, with Henry blaming himself for Lincoln's death and Clara preserving the blood-stained dress she wore that night. Their marriage was marred by Henry's deteriorating mental health, jealousy, and alcoholism. Despite holding positions in the U.S. Army and as a U.S. Consul, Henry's instability led to the tragic murder of Clara and his subsequent confinement in an asylum. Their children were left orphaned, and the couple's remains were eventually disinterred due to neglect. The article underscores the enduring impact of the assassination on the Rathbone family, suggesting that their association with the event may have cursed them.

Opinions

The author suggests that the Rathbones' connection to Lincoln's assassination may have led to a curse on their family, as evidenced by their subsequent misfortunes.
The article implies that Clara and Henry's lives might have been spared from tragedy had Ulysses S. Grant and his wife attended the play as originally planned.
The author expresses a belief in the significance of the anniversary of tragic events, as indicated by the eerie occurrences reported by the Rathbones and subsequent occupants of their home on the anniversary of Lincoln's assassination.
Henry Rathbone's guilt and mental instability are portrayed as a direct result of his inability to prevent Lincoln's assassination, which the author sees as a burden he carried throughout his life.
The preservation of Clara's blood-stained dress and the eventual decision to burn it are presented as symbolic acts reflecting the family's attempt to cope with their traumatic legacy.

Unheard Victims of the Lincoln Assassination

History Rarely Mentions Them

Good Friday April 15, 2022 was the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic even though it struck an iceberg a few minutes before midnight on April 14, 1912, by the time it sank it took two hours and 40 minutes and sank at 2:20 a.m. It was also the 157th anniversary of another tragic event that happened in American history, coincidentally on a Good Friday. It was the day, Abraham Lincoln; America’s 16th President was shot. However, he was shot on Good Friday April 14, 1865, but died the following day, April 15. Confusing, I know, but one has to read carefully in order to understand and get it right.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article if an Egyptian mummy’s curse was responsible for the sinking of the Titanic. I will link that article here. The American Civil War ended on April 8, 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops to General Ulysses S. Grant, the Union General, at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. However, the final surrender in the west by the Confederate Army was in Galveston, Texas on June 2, 1865.

Now fast forward to April 14, 1865, it was Good Friday and President Lincoln and his First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln were scheduled to go to Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C., to see the play Our American Cousin. Initially General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife were supposed to go with them, but they said they were going to New Jersey to see relatives and also it was known that Grant’s wife did not like Mrs. Lincoln. Therefore, Clara Harris (friend of Mary), who was the daughter of a wealthy New York family and her fiancée Henry Reed Rathbone were selected to go with the Lincolns. Clara and Henry were actually step brother and sister. Clara’s father had married Henry’s mother and she was three years older than Henry having been born in 1834 and Henry in 1837. They were engaged in 1861, but Henry had not yet set a wedding date. So, Clara was practically an old maid by 19th century standards.

During the second act of the play, John Wilkes Booth, the actor entered the presidential booth where the Lincolns and their two guests were sitting and shot Lincoln in the back of his head with a deringer pistol. Rathbone tried to fight with Booth, but Rathbone’s inner arm was sliced from elbow to shoulder with a dagger Booth was carrying. The assassin, then jumped onto the stage, where he broke his leg and ran out of the theater to the shocked look of the actors and the audience. Clara’s white satin dress was stained with Rathbone’s blood, which Mary Todd presumed was Lincoln’s blood and screamed, “oh! My husband’s blood.” Only later, they would find out that it was Rathbone’s blood since Lincoln’s wound did not bleed externally.

The now dying president was carried to a boarding house across the street. Henry and Clara, helped Mary Todd to the boarding house to be with her dying husband. He succumbed to his bullet wound at 7:22 a.m. on April 15th 1865. Henry passed out from blood loss and was taken back to Senator Harris’ home. An army surgeon was called and his wound was stitched up.

Although the flesh wound healed, the guilt and internal wound within Rathbone did not heal. He blamed himself for not being able to save the president. Clara and Rathbone eventually married on July 11, 1867. He had been sick during the Civil War as a soldier and he continued being sick after the war as well compounded with his feelings of guilt and also his mental health deteriorating. Clara did not have the heart to wash the dress stained with Henry’s blood. She had it hung up in her closet and then boarded the closet with bricks. She even had herself photographed wearing that dress a few weeks after the assassination by photographer Matthew Brady. One year to the date after the assassination she said she woke up at night to the sound of Lincoln laughing. The same laugh was heard a year later by a guest staying in the room. Later occupants of the house claimed to have heard a gunshot and a sobbing young woman soaked in blood, standing with Lincoln on the anniversary of the assassination.

They had three children: Henry Riggs (1870–1928) Gerald Lawrence (1871–1936) and Clara Pauline (1872–1918). Rathbone who had risen to the rank of colonel in the US Army resigned in 1870, and the family then settled in Washington D.C. As the years went by, he became erratic and an alcoholic. He started becoming jealous of his wife threatening her, thinking she was unfaithful and that she would divorce him and take the children away. Due to his unstable behavior, he found it difficult to hold a job for a long time. To add to it, whenever it was the anniversary of the assassination journalists would contact the couple further making him feel guilty.

Under the presidency of Chester Alan Arthur, he was given the position of U.S. Consul to the Province of Hanover in 1882. The whole family relocated to Germany along with Clara’s sister Louise. However, his mental health further deteriorated.

On December 23, 1883, he went into one of his fits of madness and went into his children’s room apparently to kill them. Clara coaxed him into their room where he shot and some say stabbed her, killing her, and then tried to turn on the children, but was prevented by doing so by the servants or groundskeeper. Then he turned the knife on himself and even though he stabbed himself in the chest five times, he still didn’t die. He tried to blame the crime on an intruder but the doctors declared him insane. After he was convicted, he was put in an asylum in Hildesheim, Germany. He died there on August 14, 1911 and was buried next to his wife in a cemetery in Hanover/Engesohde. The three children returned to America and were raised by their maternal uncle William Harris.

In 1952, since the graves were not visited in a long time, based on the policy of the cemetery, they disinterred the graved and disposed of the remains. Some say they were cremated, but some sources maintain that nobody knows what happened to the remains.

What became of the bloodied dress of Clara Harris? In 1910, Henry Riggs Rathbone, the eldest son, removed the bricks and had the dress burned claiming that the dress had brought a curse on the family. He became U.S. Congressman (Republican Party) from Illinois from 1923 to 1928.

Thus ended the sad story of John Booth’s other victims who just happened to be at the presidential booth with Abraham Lincoln at the time of his assassination. Who knows what else would have happened if Ulysses S. Grant and his wife were there instead of Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone? But I guess one cannot run away from their destiny.

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