Rain began on the evening of April 14 and continued into the next day, turning unpaved Tenth Street into a mess for the president’s deathbed visitors and, later, for his hearse.

The men who attended Ford’s Theatre usually wore boots with their formal clothing, as President Lincoln did on April 14, because the wet sand-and-loom soil along Tenth Street became mucky enough to pull shoes completely off.

Sources: Soil Survey of the District of Columbia and Meteorological Journal 1865 Washington City.