John Wilkes Booth and Robert Lincoln: Rivals in Love?

By James L. Barbour

Reprinted in its entirety, is the fascinating tale of jealous rivalry for the affections of the beautiful socialite, (Lucy) Bessie Hale — her suitors being none other than John Wilkes Booth and Robert Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln — the date being 1865 in the days leading up to the President’s assassination. The eye-witness account is that of a Mrs. Temple, who lived at the National Hotel with the Hale family and Bessie, and who was also a friend to both Booth and Lincoln. She provided the account to Alexander Hunter who later published it in 1878 in a Chicago newspaper, the Daily Inter-Ocean. Barbour brings this absorbing story to light once more in this reprint and adds supplemental material in his “After Notes.” As he states, “Many theories have been advanced concerning Booth’s motives for assassinating President Lincoln. This story provides yet another.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: ByDand Publishing
• Release date: Dec 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301752164

James L. Barbour

James L. Barbour is a former officer of the Federal Government whose entire career of over thirty years was devoted to the organization and management functions of U.S. and State agencies. He participated in many reorganization efforts including the development and implementation of plans requiring Presidential and Congressional approval. Equally important, he had the opportunity to observe overall government operations at high levels and the related interplay of human emotions and institutional considerations from an inside perspective. Following a distinguished thirty-plus year career with the Federal Government, the author retired to his native Southern Maryland where so many of major events of our nation’s history played out. There he began a second career and operated a successful antiquarian book business, specializing in (but not limited to) the Civil War era. Mr. Barbour subsequently researched, authored, and issued several publications relating to the Civil War and the Lincoln assassination, in addition to other works.

Book preview

Smashwords Edition: 2015

Reprinted from

THE INTER OCEAN, June 18, 1878 issue

by

James L. Barbour, Sr.

www.jameslbarbour.com

Added text

Copyright © 1991, 2012 James L. Barbour, Sr.

ISBN-13: 978-1624540127

Cover illustration

Courtesy National Park Service

e-Book preparation by

ByDand Publishing

www.ByDandPublishing.com

FOREWARD

We reprint herein, in its entirety, from the DAILY INTER-OCEAN of June 18, 1878, a Chicago newspaper, the story entitled BOOTH AND BOB LINCOLN. The following editorial comment appeared elsewhere in the same issue:

We publish this morning an extraordinary story connecting the names of Robert Lincoln and J. Wilkes Booth as lovers of Miss Bessie Hale, and assigning a new motive for Booth’s action in regard to President Lincoln. The editor of the Occasional introduces the sketch with this note: "The sketch in relation to John Wilkes Booth, printed in this issue of the Occasional, from the accomplished pen of Alexander Hunter, Esq., of Alexandria, will be read with intense interest. It is, as will be seen, a part of the heretofore unpublished history of events that occurred in an epoch in which some of the most thrilling scenes in the annals of the American Government were enacted, and will doubtless create a profound sensation. It purports to be a true narrative, and the brilliant writer, who gives it for the first time to the public, deals, we are assured, only with facts."

Alexander Hunter, the writer, is probably best known for his Civil War works JOHNNY REB AND BILLY YANK (1905); and THE WOMEN OF THE DEBATABLE LAND (1912). Also, he served as co-editor of the VIRGINIA SENTINEL, an Alexandria, Virginia newspaper, in 1875. The illustrations and related text, and the after notes have been added by the undersigned.

James L. Barbour

www.jameslbarbour.com

BOOTH AND BOB LINCOLN

National Park Service

BESSIE HALE

Younger daughter of prominent New Hampshire Republican Senator John P. Hale. Bessie’s photograph was one of five removed from John Wilkes Booth’s pockets as he lay mortally wounded in Virginia. Bessie’s given names were Lucy Lambert. She was a belle of Washington society during the early 1860’s. She married