Henry Rathbone

Early life

Henry Rathbone was born in Albany, New York, one of four children of Jared L. Rathbone, a merchant and wealthy businessman, who later became Albany's mayor, and Pauline Rathbone (née Penney). Upon his father's death in 1845, Rathbone inherited the very considerable sum of two hundred thousand dollars. His widowed mother, Pauline Rathbone, married Ira Harris in 1848. Ira Harris was appointed U.S. Senator from New York after William H. Seward became President Lincoln's Secretary of State. Harris was a widower with four children whose wife Louisa had also died in 1845. As a result of this marriage, Ira Harris became Rathbone's stepfather and his daughter, Clara, became Rathbone's stepsister. Although this unusual series of events made them stepbrother and stepsister, they were not related by blood. Rathbone and Harris formed a close friendship and later fell in love. The two became engaged shortly before the American Civil War.

Rathbone studied law at Union College and briefly worked in a law partnership in Albany before entering the Union Army at the start of Civil War. During the war, Rathbone served as Captain in the 12th Infantry Regiment and was at the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg. By the war's end, he had attained the rank of major.

Lincoln assassination

On April 14, 1865, Major Rathbone and his fiancee Clara Harris accepted an invitation to see a play at Ford's Theatre from President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. The couple, who had been friends with the President and his wife for some time, were invited after Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia, Thomas Eckert and several other people had declined Mrs. Lincoln's invitation to the play.

During the play, noted stage actor John Wilkes Booth surreptitiously entered the Presidential box and fatally shot Lincoln in the head with a pistol. As Rathbone attempted to apprehend Booth, Booth slashed Rathbone's left arm with a dagger from the elbow to his shoulder. Rathbone later recalled that he was horrified at the anger on Booth's face. Rathbone again grabbed at Booth as Booth prepared to jump from the sill of the box. He grabbed onto Booth's coat causing Booth to fall awkwardly to the stage, breaking his leg. Booth nonetheless escaped, and remained at large for twelve days.

Despite his serious wound, Rathbone escorted Mary Lincoln to the Petersen House across the street, where the president had been taken. Shortly thereafter he passed out due to blood loss. Harris arrived soon after and held his head in her lap while he lay semiconscious. When a surgeon who had been attending Lincoln finally examined him, it was realized that his wound was more serious than initially thought. Booth had cut him nearly to the bone and severed an artery. Rathbone was taken home while Harris remained with Mary Lincoln as Lincoln lay dying over the next nine hours. This death vigil lasted through the night, until morning, when President Lincoln died at 7:22 A.M. on April 15, 1865.

Diplomatic career and mental decline

Although Rathbone's physical wounds healed, his mental state deteriorated in the years following Lincoln's death as he anguished over his perceived inability to thwart the assassination attempt. He married Harris on July 11, 1867 and the couple had three children: Henry Riggs (born February 12, 1870 who later became a U.S. Congressman), Gerald Lawrence (born August 26, 1871) and Clara Pauline (born September 15, 1872).

Rathbone resigned from the Army in 1870, having risen to the rank of brevet colonel. After his resignation, he struggled to find and keep a job due to his mental instability. He became convinced that Harris was unfaithful. He also resented the attention Harris paid their children and reportedly threatened his wife on several occasions after deciding that she was going to divorce him and take the children. Nonetheless, President Chester Alan Arthur appointed Rathbone as the U.S. Consul to the Province of Hanover in 1882. The family relocated to Germany where Rathbone's mental health continued to decline.

On December 23, 1883, Rathbone attacked his children in a fit of madness. Rathbone fatally shot and stabbed his wife, who was attempting to protect the children. Rathbone then stabbed himself five times in the chest in an attempted suicide. He was charged with murder but was declared insane by doctors after blaming the murder on an intruder. He was convicted and committed to an asylum for the criminally insane in Hildesheim, Germany. The couple's children were sent to live with their uncle, William Harris, in the United States.

Final years and death

Rathbone spent the rest of his life in the asylum. He died on August 14, 1911 and was buried next to Harris in the city cemetery at Hanover/Engesohde. As time passed, the cemetery management, looking over records concerning plots without recent activity or family interest, decided in 1952 that Rathbone's and Harris's remains could be disposed of. They were both disinterred and their remains were disposed of.

Cultural depictions

On film and television Rathbone has been portrayed by

The biography of Henry Rathbone, his experience at the Lincoln Assassination and the murder of Clara Harris is covered in the non-fiction book Worst Seat in the House: Henry Rathbone's Front Row View of the Lincoln Assassination by Caleb Stephens

Henry Reed Rathbone and Harris are the subjects of Henry and Clara (1994, published by Ticknor & Fields), a historical fiction novel by Thomas Mallon.