Michael Williams - Stranger Than Fiction: The Lincoln Curse

Truth is stranger than Fictionto

some people, but I am measurably

familiar with it.

Mark Twain.

STRANGER THAN FICTION:

The Lincoln Curse

By

Michael L. Williams

East Tennessee Publishing, Co.

Contents

There is a prevailing legend in the south that has been passed down for several generations since shortly after the end of the Civil War. The legend tells of a curse placed on the family of President Abraham Lincoln by a dying Confederate soldier who had been educated in the dark arts.

Since 1865, four American presidents have died at the hands of an assassin. Each time a president is murdered he is in the company of a member of the Lincoln family when he is killed. Tragedy has befallen every president who has associated with the Lincoln family since the curse was supposedly placed. Is the Lincoln Curse true or just a myth?

Two other presidents have been shot by would be assassins. Although both survived, one of the two presidents was carrying a Lincoln artifact when he was shot. In the other instance, the president was getting into a car named for the 16th president.

Historically, when a president is shot and a member of the Lincoln family is near, the president dies. If a president is shot and there are no Lincolns present, the president survives.

After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln several people helped the grieving family. Several of these compassionate people met with tragedy soon afterwards.

This bizarre series of events began on April 9, 1865.

Robert E. Lee, the General of the Confederate Army arrived at the home of Wilmer McLean in Appomattox, Virginia where he met with General Ulysses S. Grant, the Commanding General of the United States Army. His aide, Captain Robert Lincoln, the eldest son of President Lincoln, accompanied Grant. The two generals met and at the conclusion of the meeting, Lee signed the peace treaty that ended the Civil War thus dissolving the Confederate States of America. Robert Lincoln had just witnessed the death of a nation. In the years to come he would witness the deaths of three American presidents. These events would lead him to believe he was jinxed.

Lee departed and prepared to return to his home unaware he would soon find out he was homeless. His estate, Arlington, had been confiscated by the federal government and turned into a national cemetery. Before he departed for Virginia, Lee sent riders into several directions to spread the word that the war was over and instructed all Confederate servicemen to put down their weapons and end the hostilities.

According to legend, one of the riders rode into a small encampment of Confederates just a few miles outside Appomattox. The rider rode into the camp where he found a handful of soldiers gathered around a campfire. Several tents that offered shelter to the sick and dying soldiers lined a nearby hillside. The commanding officer of the unit approached the rider who handed him the letter.

I have orders from General Lee he exclaimed.

General Lee! came an enthusiastic response. His enthusiastic men who had been anticipating orders to move out and attack quickly surrounded the officer. The officer read the orders to himself and was astonished at what he read. In disbelief, and with heavy heart, he turned to his men and read the orders aloud. They were stunned to hear the war was over and the south had lost. The Confederacy was no more and their dream of independence was vanquished. What would happen to them now? Countless men had been slain and countless others had been maimed and all was lost.

Two teary-eyed soldiers went to the makeshift flagpole and took down the Confederate flag. As they rolled it up, the other soldiers wept as they stood and saluted. One of the soldiers went to the tents on the hillside to spread the distressing news to the sick and wounded.

Among the gravely ill was a young officer of Cherokee descent. He was the grandson of a tribal medicine man and was said to have been born near New Orleans where, according to legend, he had learned Voodoo and was highly skilled in the dark arts. Upon hearing of the defeat of the south he sat up and began cursing the Lincoln family. He cursed their name and anyone who abets them while wishing death and calamity to befall the family and all their acquaintances. He ranted on for a while longer, then, delirious from fever, he reached for a small leather pouch from which he retrieved several herbs and talismans he mixed into a potion. He began to chant as he danced and continued to curse the first family. He soon slipped into a trance as he continued to chant. Several hours later, he was exhausted and lay down to sleep. He died as he slept.

In the days to come a series of tragedies and bizarre events began to occur that would span more than a hundred years and lead some to believe that maybe the Lincolns were cursed.

Robert Lincoln returned to Washington D.C. on April 14th. The mood in the city was festive. Arriving at the White House, he was elated to see his parents whom he had not seen in almost a year.

He found his father to be in high spirits for the first time since the Lincolns had moved to Washington. The president and first lady were planning to attend the theatre that night to see a stage production of Our American Cousin. The president invited Robert to attend but the youth declined stating that he wanted to rest up from his long journey.

That evening, President and Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and his fiance, Clara Harris, arrived at Fords Theatre.

They strode upstairs to the now infamous Presidential Box where Lincoln took a seat in a rocking chair overlooking the stage while Mrs. Lincoln sat in the chair next to him. A short distance away sat a couch on which Major Rathbone and Miss Harris sat. The four seemed to enjoy the evening unaware that tragedy was about to strike and the curse was about to claim its first victim.

Shortly after 9 p.m., an actor named John Wilkes Booth made his way up the stairs to the Presidential Box. Booth was the son of a legendary stage actor, Junius Brutus Booth, and the brother of two other famous actors, Edwin and Junius Booth. The Booths were a dynasty in American theatre. Stalking or threatening an American president was nothing new to the Booths. Junius Brutus Booth once sent a letter to President Andrew Jackson threatening to cut his throat while he slept. Obviously, insanity ran in the family.

There was only one guard protecting the president that night. He was a Washington policeman named John Parker who was supposed to be guarding the door leading to the Presidential Box. But, he foolishly believed the president was in no danger so he left his post and went out to get a drink. Incredibly, the president of the United States was unprotected and at anyones mercy.

Booth entered the Presidential Box and quietly barricaded the door behind him. Booth, President and Mrs. Lincoln, Major Rathbone and Miss Harris, were the last five people to occupy the Presidential Box, a box some believe is jinxed. Booth had unwittingly sealed the fates of all the occupants of the box and himself as well. Soon, three would die violently and the other two would end up in mental hospitals.

Booth crept quietly up behind Lincoln then raised a derringer to the back of Lincolns head and fired point blank. The thunderous gunshot startled Mrs. Lincoln who turned, saw Booth, and screamed hysterically. Major Rathbone rushed Booth who pulled a dagger from his coat and slashed the soldier. Booth then leapt from the box to the stage below. His spur became tangled in the flag draping the box causing him to lose his balance. His haphazard landing on the stage fractured his leg. Racked with pain, he stood up, raised the dagger and shouted Sic Semper Tyrannis! the state motto of Virginia, which means Thus always to tyrants! In excruciating pain, he hobbled off stage and escaped through the back stage door where he mounted a waiting horse and fled into the night.