President Lincoln’s height — 6 foot, 4 inches — was considered remarkable in his own time.

In fact, it took almost 100 years before another president of his height was inaugurated.

President Lyndon Johnson, sworn in on November 22, 1963, tied Mr. Lincoln for the title of tallest president.

He also stood six foot, 4 inches.

Abraham LIncoln was one of two sitting presidents to come under fire during a war.

At the Battle of Fort Stevens in 1864 the president came under Confederate fire.

The first president to be in that position was James Madison at the Battle of Bladensburg in 1812.

Lincoln was in greater peril than Madison on the battlefield, though. He was about a foot taller.

Source: The Civil War Trust

Abraham LIncoln argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 7, 1849.

Mr. Lincoln argued a statute-of-limitations case on behalf of a public administrator who had taken over the affairs of a man who had sold 100 acres of land that he did not own.

He lost the case.

John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln at the end of Act 3, Scene 2 of “Our American Cousin.”

The deed delivered such a shock to Americans that Ford’s Theatre was immediately shuttered.

“Our American Cousin” segued from a tired comedy Laura Keene had performed for 1,000 nights to an infamous play synonymus with the country’s first presidential assassination.

Most Americans would have bet the play would never be performed again, but the assassin’s brother and brother-in-law came up with a way to make money on it before the year’s end.

Edwin Booth and John Sleeper Clarke, husband of Asia Booth Clarke, produced the play in New York City. Laura Keene, outraged, wrote a letter to the editor of a New York newspaper, to no avail.

Source: “Thy Thoughts Be Bloody” by Nina Titone and National Park Service publications.

Two co-conspirators chose very different weapons on the night of April 14.

Lewis Powell

J. Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth used a six-inch-long .44 caliber Deringer pistol to shoot President Lincoln, a gun so small that gamblers sometimes concealed them on their persons. The silver-clad gun made by Henry Deringer in his Philadelphia shop held only one shot, so Booth carried a long dagger as a backup.

Lewis Powell used a gun that dwarfed Booth’s — a three-pound Whitney revolver. The Confederate veteran aimed his long-barreled revolver at the Secretary William Seward’s son and yanked the trigger.

Click.

Fred Seward was still standing only because the revolver didn’t fire.

When he couldn’t shoot Seward, Powell used the heavy gun to pistol-whip him. Wielding it like a hammer, he clubbed Seward in the head repeatedly.

Powell only gave up when the firing pin became dislodged and the gun fell into pieces.

But, before he left, Powell stabbed the bedridden secretary in his face and neck, despite the best efforts of the secretary’s servant, his bodyguard and two of his sons.

Source: Wesley Harris address, “Tools of the Assassin, Part II,” Surratt Society Annual Conference, March16, 2013 and The Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of the President, and the Attempt to Overthrow the Government by the Assassination of its Principal Officers, U.S. Government

The diary of Sgt. Luther E. Bulck or Bulock, who was assigned to carry President Lincoln’s coffin on its 25-day funeral journey, contains a mystery.

The hand-written diary includes this entry for May 3, 1865: “On the way near Bloomington a young lady was found dead — supposed to have been killed by the pilot engine.”

The train stayed very close to its timetable state-by-state, but it was an hour late arriving in Springfield, Ill. The last stop prior to Springfield was Bloomington, Ill.

Dr. Wayne Wesolowski, co-author of “The LIncoln Train is Coming” and the researcher who is working on the exact color of the Lincoln train, wants to solve the mystery. He could not find accounts of a death in the area newspapers or in other personal accounts of the train stops in that area.

If you have any information about the event, the identity of the young lady, any delay because of a death or names of the trainmen or those who worked at the Bloomington station, please contact Dr. Wesolowski at weso@email.arizona.ed

Henry Ulke, a popular portrait painter in Washington, D.C. in 1865 and one whose work still hangs in the White House and the National Portrait Gallery, spent the evening of April 14 running up and down the curving steps that separated the Lincoln death room from the kitchen of Petersen’s Boarding House.

Ulke and his brother Julius joined other Petersen boarders in fetching hot water bottles so doctors could place them around President Lincoln’s limbs to keep the blood flowing.

Source: Washington Post, Jan. 24, 1909

There were so many crepe-draped doors across America in April 1865 that The Rev. Robert H. Williams told his flock of Presbyterians in Frederick, Md., that it seemed as if one were dead in every house.

Source: Magazine of History 1917

The New York Times printed this account regarding John Wilkes Booth’s injured leg on April 28, 1865, two days after he died at Garrett’s farm:

“The statement heretofore published that Booth had injured one of his legs by the falling of his horse has proved to be correct. After he was shot, it was discovered that one of his legs was badly injured, and that he was compelled to wear an old shoe and use crutches, which he had with him in the barn.”

Confederate Lt. Gen. R. S. Ewell was imprisoned at Fort Warren when he wrote this telegram to Gen. U.S. Grant:

“Of all the misfortunes which could befall the Southern people, or any Southern man, by far the greatest, in my judgment, would be the prevalance of the idea that they could entertain any other than feelings of unqualified abhorrence and indignation for the assassination of the president of the United States, and the attempt to assassinate the secretary of state. No language can adequately express the shock produced on myself, in common with all the other general officers confined here with me, by the occurrence of this appalling crime, and by the seeming tendency in the public mind to connect the South and Southern men with it. Need we say that we are not assassins, nor the allies of assassins, be they from the North or from the South.”

Ewell listed names of 14 other rebel officers who agreed with his sentiments.