The Death of Abraham Lincoln Trivia Quiz

Answer: Two

Major Henry Reed Rathbone and his fiance (who was also his stepsister) Clara Harris. Others had been invited such as General and Mrs. Grant and Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Stanton (Stanton was Secretary of War). Neither of these couples went as the wives would not associate with Mary Todd Lincoln.

The Lincoln son, Robert, had been invited but did not go as he was just home from the war and was exhausted. It was the 5th day of peace following the Civil War.

Answer: April 14, 1865

It was Good Friday that year.

Answer: "You sockdologizing old mantrap."

"Our American Cousin" was a humorous play that caricatured American backwoodsmen arriving in England to visit their British cousins. The last words of the President were, "She won't think anything about it" as he responded to Mary's "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" This was said by Mary because she was leaning very close to him across the arm of the President's chair.

Answer: Brandy

And so, the last thing that passed his lips was alcohol, a substance that he avoided all his life. He said it made him feel "flabby and undone". He was beyond any feelings by then though.

Answer: She was banned from the room.

On her last visit to the death room at 3:00 a.m., she wept piteously and threw herself across her husband's body. A loud rattling breath by the President startled her and she fell to the floor in a faint. Edwin Stanton ordered: "Take that woman out and do not let her back in again!"

Answer: During the autopsy

During the autopsy while lifting the brain from the skull, the bullet dropped out through the doctor's fingers and fell into an empty basin. Following the autopsy, Lincoln was embalmed. They force pumped a chemical which soon hardened the body like marble. The face was shaved except for a small tuft at the chin. The eyebrows were arched and the mouth was set in a very slight smile.

Answer: Twelve

Lincoln stayed 6 days in Washington and it was here that the first funeral was held. A funeral train carried his body back to Springfield, Illinois. The first stop was Baltimore and then on to Harrisburg, to Philadelphia, New York and all across the country to Illinois.

Answer: Four

One was Mrs. Mary Surratt, the owner of an inn where the conspiracy was hatched. She maintained to the end that she was innocent. The others were the very handsome Lewis Paine, George Atzerodt and David E. Herold.

John Wilkes Booth, the actor who fired the gun that killed Lincoln, said a year before, "What a glorious opportunity to immortalize himself by killing Lincoln." He escaped following the shooting to Virginia along with Herold but they were tracked down to where they were hiding in a tobacco barn on April 26th---12 days after Lincoln's death. Herold surrendered and came out of the barn. The barn was set fire to smoke Booth out. Sergeant Boston Corbett broke orders and shot Booth in almost the same spot where Lincoln had been shot. Booth died on the porch of a farmhouse near Port Royal, Virginia.

Answer: Chicago & Washington D.C.

Mary Todd Lincoln thought that a quiet place on the shore of Lake Michigan might be nice---particularly since Stephen A. Douglas, his old adversary, was also buried there. Another reason might have been because Stephen A. Douglas courted Mary Todd at the same time that Abraham Lincoln did.

In her eyes, it was either Chicago or the Rotunda at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. She never wanted him to be buried in Springfield because she had fought and quarreled with just about everybody there and didn't want to set foot in the town again.

The town of Springfield won out but Mary Todd Lincoln did not show up for the funeral. She never showed up for any of the 12 funerals as she refused to leave her Washington bed. I come from Lincoln country and there are lots of stories about Lincoln that have been handed down.

It was true that Mary Todd Lincoln was a real terror and that nobody could stand her. One of the stories was about when she chased Lincoln around the block waving a large butcher knife and screaming at the top of her lungs.

Answer: Fido

When the Lincolns moved to Washington, they had to leave poor Fido at home because they were told that there were no dogs allowed in the White House. Fido went to live with friends but when his dead master was brought home to Springfield for the last time, he arrived and was one of the members of the funeral party. People thought of him as an historical figure and he was taken to a photographer.

While Fido's nose is slightly out of focus, card photographs were sold throughout the country.