Tomb Case 2

An Illinois Solider Mourns Lincoln

Charles Deamude was stationed with the 150th Illinois Infantry Regiment in Cleveland, Tennessee, when he heard the news of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Only two days later, he wrote to his father about his grief and the reactions in camp. Like many who heard the news, Deamude did not believe it at first but soon the soldiers confirmed the news and the chaplain held a service that night.

For his part, Deamude’s comments reveal he was primarily upset about the injustice of the act. He doesn’t identify John Wilkes Booth by name but describes him as a “contemptable and damnable villain a northern copperhead”—using the common term for Northerners who opposed the war. Of Lincoln’s death, he continues, “it is two awful for mortal flesh and blood to think he had run the machien all the way through” only to be cut down by an assassin. He finishes by worrying Lincoln’s death may extend the war.

Gift of Sylvia P. Hadden, 1961