Glenn Alan Cheney*
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| Theatre box where Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865. Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. |
When I started compiling How a Nation Grieves: Press Accounts of the Death of Lincoln, the Hunt for Booth, andAmerica in Mourning, I had little intention of pulling together a whole
book. But I soon realized I was witnessing—not reading about but witnessing—the most traumatic moment in
American history. The assassination of Lincoln had shocked North and South
alike.
Except for the people at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, the American
people witnessed the national trauma through newspapers. Journalism was a
little different in those days. Its practitioners were not restricted to
today’s dispassionate, professional voice. They were expected to provide
details, and they were free to use language to connote the emotions that came
with those details.
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