Albert Daggett, private secretary to Secretary of State William Seward, was walking into Ford’s Theatre when he heard the shot that killed President Lincoln.

“I heard the report of a pistol and turned just in time to see the hell hound of treason leap from the box upon the stage and, with glittering dagger flourishing above his head, disappear behind the scenes. As he leaped from the box he exclaimed ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis!’ and, just before he disappeared from the stage,  he cried out, ‘I have done it — the South is avenged.’

“It is impossible to describe the intense excitement that prevailed in the theater. The audience arose as one person and horror was stamped upon every face.”