Well its just hours away

Its April 14th again and if your reading this then you know what that means. Tonight is the 144th Anniv. of the Lincoln Assassination. It is also the 97th Anniv. of the steamship Titantic meeting its fate during its maiden voyage. These tragedies have always stuck my interest and I wanted to acknowledge them and take a moment to honor those who were lost. God Speed!

I honored the 143rd anniv. of the Lincoln Assassination last year. Just click here to read it.

Also, if you want to learn more about the Lincoln Assassination then I suggest two books for you to read. I wrote a great blog on them and you can read that blog here.

143 years ago today

April 14 has some significance in the eyes of the world because of two tragic events that occurred just forty-seven years apart. On April 14, 1865 the most beloved actor of his day, John Wilkes Booth stepped forward and fired a fatal shot into the head of President Abraham Lincoln. As Lincoln slumped forward in his seat, Mr. Booth leaped out of the box and yelled “Sic Semper tyrannis” which is a Latin phrase meaning "thus ever (or always) to tyrants." Booth then left the theatre and after a twelve day manhunt he was gunned down and captured by Union troops. Lincoln passed away on the morning of April 15, 1865.



Eleven years later, abolitionist Fredrick Douglass dedicated a freedmans monument to Lincoln in Washington D.C. eulogized his former friend by stating “But dying as he did die, by the red hand of violence, killed, assassinated, taken off without warning, not because of personal hate--for no man who knew Abraham Lincoln could hate him--but because of his fidelity to union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and his memory will be precious forever.”

John Wilkes Booth thought that he was doing the United States a favor by assassinating Lincoln but everyone knows that Booth’s belief was utterly wrong. The first presidential assassination in United States history began a long and bitter reunion for both north and south and it paved the way for blacks to suffer the consequences of racism and segregation from 1865-1964. In reality, Booth failed in his quest to stop black citizenship because the pressure of segregation opened up the world to the Civil Rights Movement and that forever ended racial separation in America. Booth won a small battle by killing Lincoln but African-Americans won the war. Blacks won out in the war of attrition. As for Lincoln, poet Walt Whitman wrote a poem about the fallen president and a excerpt of that is:

“CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.”

Fast forward now to April 14, 1912 and the R.M.S. Titantic. The vessel struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, taking the lives of over 1,500 people. Today, the ship rests nearly three miles below the oceans surface and just off the coast of Newfoundland. It was on its maidian voyage from England to New York when lookouts spotted the iceberg and a later investigation showed that the crew had failed to follow safety procedures. The ship sank in less than three hours and many of its crew and passengers were trapped because it lacked sufficient lifeboats for everyone onboard. Thereafter no sailing vessel is allowed to leave port without sufficient knowledge of safety procedures and enough lifeboats for everyone onboard.





Information on the “Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. is located here:

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc87.htm

The best webpage on Lincoln’s murder is at

http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln.html

What do the Civil War and the Titanic have in common?

I have always been fascinated with the things that make history so unique. I really enjoy reading about the connections that occur between key historical events such as the story of a father who fought for the Confederacy and his son who was a passenger onboard a ship called Titanic.

When the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912 only 800 passengers survived. One of those rescued was Colonel Archibald Gracie who had a direct family tie to the American Civil War. Colonel Gracie was born in 1859 in Mobile, Alabama which was a key port for the Confederacy during the Civil War. He grew up and became an author and was educated at West Point where he became a colonel. Gracie was very weathly and his fortune allowed him to spend time as a research historian. Besides being a Titanic survivor in 1912 his father was a Civil War general for the Confederacy. His father, Archibald Gracie Jr., had been an officer with the Washington Light Infantry of the Confederate Army, serving at the Battle of Chickamauga. Garcie was killed while observing Federal troop movements at Petersburg, Virginia in 1864. The other Gracie took seven years to write the The Truth About Chickamuaga in honor of his fallen father. Writing to book took its toll on Gracie who sought refuge in Europe for rest and relaxation. He booked a return trip on a brand new passenger ship called Titanic. After the ship sank Gracie testified at hearings that investigated the sinking and he wrote a popular book about his experiences aboard the Titanic. Gracie wrote in detail about the events that he experienced and painted the best picture of the Titanic's luvurious features. In part he wrote:

"I enjoyed myself as if I were on a summer palace by the seashore surrounded by every comfort. I was up early before breakfast and met the professional racquet player in a half hour's warming up preparatory for a swim in the six foot deep tank of saltwater heated to a refreshing temperature."

Gracie never finished proofreading his manuscript about the Titanic and died in 1913. It is very likely that the frigid waters of that April night took its toll on him and his book was published after his death. The other component of the Gracie tragedy is the story of his children. Colonel Gracie only had four daughters but only one lived to maturity. Col. Gracie's final surviving child, Edith Temple Gracie Adams, died childless in 1918, about a year after her marriage.

Sources:

Titanic: A Survivor's Story and the Sinking of the S.S. Titanic by Archibald Gracie and Jack Thayer, Academy Chicago Publishers, 1988.

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/137/