Bloody Crimes Quotes

“My poor friends, you are free—free as air. You can cast off the name of slave and trample upon it. . . . Liberty is your birthright. . . . But you must try to deserve this priceless boon. Let the world see that you merit it, and are able to maintain it by your good works. Don’t let your joy carry you into excesses. Learn the laws and obey them. . . . There, now, let me pass on; I have but little time to spare. I want to see the capital.”
― James L. Swanson, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis

“The Confederates accidentally set their own city afire when they burned supplies to keep them from Union hands. The flames spread out of control and reduced much of the capital to ruins.”
― James L. Swanson, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis

“Both Davis and Lincoln loved books and reading. Both had children who died young. One of Davis’s sons, Samuel, died when he was still a baby, and another, Joseph, died after an accident while Davis was the president of the Confederacy. Lincoln, too, lost one son, Eddie, at a very young age and another, Willie, his favorite, while he was president of the United States.”
― James L. Swanson, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis

“The embalmer and undertaker opened Lincoln’s coffin. He had been dead for eighteen days. Only chemicals and makeup had kept him presentable during the journey. At the beginning, at the White House funeral, Lincoln’s face had looked almost natural. He had changed along the way. The face continued to darken, and more and more white face powder had to be applied. Lincoln no longer resembled a sleeping man. Now he looked like a ghastly, pale, waxlike statue.”
― James L. Swanson, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis

“The embalmer opened the coffin to check on the body. Lincoln’s face was turning darker by the day, which the embalmers tried to conceal by coating the skin with chalk-white potions.”
― James L. Swanson, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis

“It is for Your Excellency to decide, should you agree with me in opinion, what is proper to be done. . . . I would recommend measures be taken for . . . the restoration of peace.”
― James L. Swanson, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis

“the end of Davis’s speech, somebody handed him a telegram from John C. Breckinridge. Davis read the words in silence: “President Lincoln was assassinated in the theatre in Washington.” A few minutes later Davis spoke to his secretary of the navy, Stephen Mallory. In a sad voice, Davis said, “I certainly have no special regard for Mr. Lincoln; but there are a great many men of whose end I would much rather have heard than his. I fear it will be disastrous to our people, and I regret it deeply.” Jefferson”
― James L. Swanson, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis

“When the procession reached the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, soldiers carried the flag-draped coffin up the steps of the Capitol. The crowds watched in silence as the soldiers carried the coffin inside and laid it upon a platform. It was left under the dome with a guard of soldiers keeping watch over the dead president.”
― James L. Swanson, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis

“On April 17 Jefferson Davis was still on his way to Charlotte. Seventy-two hours after Lincoln’s assassination, he still had no idea that Lincoln had been murdered.”
― James L. Swanson, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis