May 24, 2012
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- April 14th, 1865. Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. is packed.
Ohio Congressman James Morris is in the audience watching as Abraham Lincoln is shot. He documented that night through a detailed letter to a Senator friend.
"As soon as I saw the President and Mrs. Lincoln enter the box in the balcony tier, I called Captain Keers attention to the fact."
Many years later the stories and the letter filtered down through relatives. It's now in the hands of his great - great grandson Foy McDavid, Junior, who lives in Knoxville.
"I was really interested and almost shocked when I found an eyewitness to the thing. A few years ago my daddy told me about it and shared that account".
Morris wrote, "The curtain had just been rolled up for another act and almost immediately thereafter the audience was startled."
Morris explained."I saw the assassin, as he proved to be, in the President's box making for the front. when he had reached it he placed his hand on the banister and cried out sic semper tyrannis and leaping over alighted on the stage bringing down with him some of the drapery surrounding the box. The President fell or leaned forward, and I think his head rested on the banister front."
Morris said he hollered out, "Hang the_______________scoundrel,"(using some expletives not very credible to myself.)
Morris then ran out the door to the chief of police who told him, "Morris, it is reduced to a dot that the assassin is Wilkes Booth, but say nothing about it until you hear from other sources."
Morris left Washington the next day by train. Nine miles from Baltimore it stopped until late in the afternoon.
In honor of a dead President whose legacy we still honor this day.
