Spencer Bronson: Witness to Murder
On April 14, 1865, during a performance of the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth slipped into the theater box and shot President Abraham Lincoln at point blank range before fleeing. Lincoln died on April 15th, becoming the first American president to be assassinated. Booth
The Iron Brigade & the Black Hat
“There are them damned black hatted fellows again!” This cry, and others like it, were made by disheartened Confederate troops on the first day of fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg Under the impression that they faced untrained militia, the Rebel troops quickly recognized the distinctive black Model 1858 “Hardee”