David Dorn, Witness of Murder
Mr. Dorn had served his country as a member of the 1st United States Cavalry. He had been wounded and was in the hospital at Washington. He went to the theater that night on crutches and he believes had he not been crippled he might have caught Booth.
David Dorn of Beatrice actually saw President Lincoln assassinated. Mr. Dorn was at Ford’s theater in Washington that fatal night and saw J. Wilkes Booth fire the shot that ended in cold blood the life of one of the sublimest characters in history. He gives a most graphic description of his tragedy.
“I was sitting right across the theater from the president’s box and saw the whole tragedy,” said Mr. Dorn. “I was on crutches. The president’s box was decorated with flags and the flag toward the stage side obscured a full view of all those in the box. But I think Mr. Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln, Major Rathbone, Tad Lincoln and possibly another man and woman were in the box. Mr. Lincoln sat pretty well toward the front. Laura Keene was on the stage at the moment playing ‘Our American Cousin.’
“I noticed that Mr. Lincoln was laughing at something in the play. Just then I noticed the curtain in the rear of Mr. Lincoln’s box pulled apart and I looked squarely at the man as he came in. At first I thought he was one of the theater attendants bringing in a glass of water and decanter, for something shone in each of his hands.
“Just then a shot rang out and Mr. Lincoln seemed partly to rise from his sitting posture and then sank back and his head lunged forward and I saw a little trickle of blood running down his cheek. Mrs. Lincoln screamed and Major Rathbone rose quickly and turned to seize the man, who struck at him with a dirk knife and, breaking loose from Major Rathbone, put one foot on the rail of the front of the box and sprang toward the stage. His spur caught in the flag and Booth partly fell on the stage. Laura Keene screamed as Booth rose to his feet, limping and waving the dagger, spoke out in a deeply tragic voice, ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis,’ and the ran toward the rear of the stage.
“Some boys with me made an effort to get onto the stage and catch Booth, but they were held back and someone called out, ‘Be calm, men, be calm; the president is only slightly hurt. The theater people have caught the assassin.’
“While I have suffered the tortures of the damned from my lost leg and have had to submit to two partial amputations, I never more regretted the loss of my leg than that minute. I could have caught Booth when he started to fall on the stage, for I was an active lad in those days before my wound. But there I was, helpless. All I could do was cry.
“Necessarily I was one of the last persons to leave the theater. Mr. Lincoln had been take some little time before. The curtains had been lowered in the meanwhile, though it was raised shortly afterward, when one of the theater people came to the front and said that Booth had escaped out the back window and had ridden away on a horse. Soldiers fled in immediately afterward and took possession of the theater.”
This article originally appeared in the Omaha Daily Bee, April 11, 1909. Reprinted in the Beatrice Daily Sun, February 13, 1909.
David H. Dorn enlisted on August 26, 1861 as a Private in Co. D, 34th Illinois Infantry and after eighteen months as take prisoner. He was paroled and later enlisted as a private in Company E, 1st US Army Cavalry. While in the service he participated in forty-three battles and skirmishes and during an engagement on June 12, 1864 at Trevillian Station, VA he was severely wounded in the left leg resulting in amputation. He located to Beatrice in 1889 and was an active member in Rawlins Post 35, Grand Army of the Republic. He died May 4, 1913 and is buried in Evergreen Home Cemetery., Beatrice, Nebraska.