Autograph Of Ford’s Theater Guard -Harry H. Hoover -Lincoln Assassination Related -Sold

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Autograph Of Ford’s Theater Guard -Harry H. Hoover -Lincoln Assassination Related.  This small grouping of items belonged to Harry H. Hoover, a guard who was duty at Ford’s Theater, the tragic night of President Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865.

The group consists of the following:

• Sol. Meredith Post, No. 55, G.A.R., Richmond, Indiana, membership dues receipt dated Feb’y 1, 1894, by then adjutant of the post, Harry H. Hoover, who signed this document in period ink.
• G.A.R. Hat cord
• G.A.R. Hat insignia
• Lot of G.A.R. coat & cuff sized buttons, 6 each.
• Copper spoon from the 29th National Encampment with Lincoln’s cabin near Louisville, Ky, dated 1895.

The receipt has notes in pen and pencil about Hoover, being at Ford’s Theater the night Lincoln was shot, and other information about him. On the top front, “Autograph of Harrison H. Hoover a Guard in Ford’s Theater The Night Lincoln was shot, His reminiscences have been published several times in the Richmond, Ind. Palladium..”  On the back in pen, “Autograph of one of the guards at Ford’s Theatre Washington, D.C. the night Pres. A. Lincoln was assassinated.  He used to give talks in this community and his reminiscences were published in the “Richmond Palladium.”  “I recall it, he and his wife were found dead in their home a number of years ago. They were asphyxiated by fumes. They wee both in advanced years –  Argus Osborne Civil War Collection  Lot 628.”

The receipt was made out to William Blose, who served 4 months in the 67th Penn Vols.  This document was also countersigned by J.C. Doan. (not sure of the first initial).

The reminiscences mentioned were written by Hoover in 1921, and are now housed in the Wayne County Historical Museum. These are some of the excerpts from his personal account.  “A patrol guard, consisting of sixteen members, were just passing down the aisle of the theater when the fatal shot was heard, and the screams of Mrs. Lincoln, and the jumping from the private box to the stage of the assassin John Wilkes Booth, and his escape behind the scenery. The play was scraped…the news that Lincoln was shot threw the large audience into great pandemonium of excitement. In order to restrain the excited throng from crowding in upon those bearing the bleeding form, we were forced to bring our guns to a charge bayonet….It was all we guards could do to form a passage out of the theater and across the street to the Peterson House….men, women, and children in their nightclothes were on the street…Thousands of excited people gathered around that little building and we had to use our bayonets to keep them from coming into the house…..That morning the Cavalry were sent out in search of the assassins, and soldiers were on constant duty in the city, with instructions to shoot anyone who acted disrespectful of the dead president….The morning of the second day I was detailed as a guard at the White House where the mortal remains of the martyred president lay in state. I hoped to be on the guards of honor to accompany the cortege to Springfield, Illinois, but I was destined to disappointment. A few hours before the funeral in Washington, I was detailed as one of the guards for the prison, where Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, David E. Herold, George A. Atzerodt, Lewis Payne, alais James Thronwall Powell, were soon ensconced…..I remained on duty until about two weeks before the execution of the conspirators. The prisoners and the guards were not permitted to speak to each other.  All communication was by means of signs and gestures. Even in the courtroom this absolute silence was maintained between the accused and the guards. ….One night while on guard at the door of Mrs. Surratt, we were ordered to remove one of the large marble slabs from the floor of the jail, and executed the order. Beneath the place where this had rested, in the darkness of the night, was dug a grave for John Wilkes Booth, a hole deep and dark and dank…I shall not say that Booth is buried there, as the official report says no.  It has been said that his body found its repose in the muddy stinking ooze of the Potomac. I know that when I was released from duty one evening this slab was still up and this black hole still yawned. I saw government workmen take up the marble slab in the courtyard of the prison, dig a grave and deposit a boy therein. I always thought it was the body of Booth. Next morning that slab had been replaced and the floor looked as if it had never been disturbed. A spot of blood on a slab nearly was said to have been caused by the bleeding of a finger mashed in replacing the stone….”