When the Last Witness to Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination Recalled It for the First Time on Television
On the evening of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was attending a special performance of the play Our American Cousin when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Years later the final living eyewitness, 95-year-old Samuel J. Seymour, made a rare television appearance in February 1956 on the I've Got a Secret program to reveal the details of the historic night on television for the first time. Seymour was present at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., along with about 1,700 other people when the tragic incident took place. The five-year-old, accompanied by his caregiver Sarah Cook, and his father's employer's wife, Mrs. Goldsboro, had attended the performance. "I saw Lincoln slumped forward in his seat," Seymour recalled.
He continued, "That night I was shot 50 times, at least, in my dreams—and I sometimes relive the horror of Lincoln's assassination, dozing in my rocker as an old codger like me is bound to do." As per Upworthy, Seymour recalled, that in order to avoid being heard, Booth squeezed the trigger amid the night's loudest laugh, which is when he shot Lincoln. As a young boy, he was drawn to Booth's fall from the balcony following an altercation with Henry Reed Rathbone. Seymour's nurse escorted him out as chaos broke out in the theater. As they were running, he heard shouts, "Lincoln's shot!"There's no more President!"
Samuel James Seymour (1860 – 1956) was the last surviving person to witness the assassination of U.S. President Lincoln on April 14, 1865. At five years old, Seymour was at Ford’s Theater the night Lincoln was shot. He sat in the balcony across from the presidential box. pic.twitter.com/OUnoXRnq4R
— History Calendar (@historycalendar) October 21, 2022
Although Seymour remained silent throughout the broadcast, he did make a historic remark when panelist Jayne Meadows questioned whether or not his secret was "a pleasant thing." “Not very pleasant I don’t think. I was scared to death,” he had replied. According to The Daily Mail, Seymour had given himself a black eye after falling down some steps in his hotel room while appearing on the show.
"We urged him not to come onto the show tonight as a matter of fact. We finally got in touch with his doctor, and the doctor said it was up to Mr Seymour. Mr Seymour said he wouldn’t miss it, so here he is," host Garry Moore said while introducing him on the show. About two years after recounting the horrific day in an article published in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Seymour made his television debut. For his appearance on the show, the Lincoln assassination eyewitness received a can of Prince Albert pipe tobacco and a $80 award, even though the celebrity panel was able to predict the secret. On April 12, 1956, Seymour passed away, barely two months after his debut.
According to the Library of Congress, Dr. Charles Leale, a physician in the audience, went straight to the box. Lincoln's right eye was damaged by the bullet that had entered through his left ear. He was breathing heavily and immobile. Despite the doctors' best attempts, he was transported across Tenth Street to a boarding house across from the theater. President Lincoln passed away nine hours later, on April 15, at 7:22 a.m. On April 26, 1865, Booth was shot and taken into custody while hiding in a barn close to Bowling Green, Virginia. He passed away that same day.
