Clara Harris sat in Abraham Lincoln's theatre box when he was shot, and eighteen years later she was killed by the man who had tried to stop the assassin, her husband.
Clara Harris (1834–1883) was the daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris and a friend of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln; she was engaged to Major Henry Rathbone, her stepbrother through her father's 1848 marriage to Rathbone's mother [1].
On 14 April 1865 she and Rathbone were the guests of President Abraham Lincoln and his wife at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Three days later she swore before Judge Abram Olin that she heard the pistol, saw Rathbone struggling with a man she could not see clearly through the smoke, and saw the man jump to the stage. The man was the actor John Wilkes Booth, who had just shot Lincoln. She repeated Rathbone's cry, "Stop that man! Won't somebody stop that man?" When someone on the stage asked what was the matter, she answered, "The President is shot." She then helped two men climb up from the stage into the box.
Booth had cut Rathbone's arm with a knife, and Rathbone's blood covered her clothes, hands and face. Through the night at the house across the street where Lincoln lay dying, Mary Lincoln kept looking at her and screaming, "Oh! my husband's blood". She stayed with Mrs. Lincoln for about nine hours. She married Rathbone on 11 July 1867 and they had three children. As his mind worsened she took the family on long trips to Europe, and she refused advice to leave him or have him put in an asylum. In Hanover, Germany, early in the morning in late December 1883, she told her sister Louise to lock the children's door and tried to lead her armed husband back to their bedroom; he dragged her in and shot and stabbed her. Accounts differ on where she was shot and on the exact date: the 23rd, 24th or 25th. Her children were raised by her brother William Harris. She was buried in Hanover, and in 1952 the cemetery removed her remains.
Her sworn statement backs Rathbone's on what she could see, and says the smoke hid the attacker from her. A later letter about her husband's distress is often quoted as hers, but the same words also appear in a newspaper review of a 1994 novel about the couple, so it is not certain that she wrote them.
[Report #200] WHO. 'Clara Hamilton Harris (September 9, 1834 – December 24, 1883) was an American socialite.' (
en.wikipedia.org) 'one of four children of U.S. Senator Ira Harris of New York, and his second wife Louisa Harris (née Tubbs).' (
en.wikipedia.org) 'On August 1, 1848, Ira Harris married Pauline Rathbone (née Penney), the widow of Jared L. Rathbone' (
en.wikipedia.org). 'Miss Harris’ fiance, Maj. Henry R. Rathbone, U. S. A., was likewise her stepbrother and they lived under the same roof—that of Ira Harris, who had taken Seward’s place as senator from New York.' (
archive.org)
FRIEND OF MARY LINCOLN. 'As Harris wrote in April 1865, she and the first lady “have been constantly in the habit of driving and going to the opera and theater together.”' (
nationalgeographic.com) 'Mrs. Lincoln was fond of Clara, having previously invited her to attend numerous social functions at the White House.' (
military-history.fandom.com) 'a very warm friendship had developed between Mrs. Lincoln and the young lady.' (
upload.wikimedia.org) 'Mrs. Lincoln finally invited Major Rathbone and Clara Harris, and they accepted.' (
military-history.fandom.com)
THAT NIGHT. 'who had been invited to join the Lincolns after the Grants had canceled, sat on the right side of the box.' (
history.army.mil) Her sworn affidavit, 17 April 1865, endorsing Rathbone’s: 'and knows the contents thereof; that she was present at Ford’s Theatre with the President and Mrs. Lincoln and Major Rathbone on the evening of the 14th of April instant' (
upload.wikimedia.org); 'looking round she saw Major Rathbone spring from his seat and advance to the opposite side of the box; that she saw him engaged as if in a struggle with another man' (
upload.wikimedia.org); 'that the first time she saw him distinctly was when he leaped from the box upon the stage' (
upload.wikimedia.org); 'and this deponent then immediately repeated the cry, "Stop that man! Won’t somebody stop that man?"' (
upload.wikimedia.org); 'and deponent replied, "The President is shot."' (
upload.wikimedia.org); 'the deponent assisted them in climbing up to the box.' (
upload.wikimedia.org) 'Subscribed and sworn before me this 17th day of April, 1865.' (
upload.wikimedia.org) A letter-writer to the New York Tribune (undated clipping): 'Miss Harris told me that all the three survivors who occupied the box were leaning out of it when the shot was fired' (
upload.wikimedia.org).
THE BLOOD. 'Rathbone’s blood sprayed his fiancée as Booth escaped.' (
nationalgeographic.com) 'Harris created a makeshift torniquet for him before he collapsed.' (
nationalgeographic.com) Her own letter, as quoted in a newspaper review of 'Henry and Clara , a 1994 historical fiction novel by Thomas Mallon' (
en.wikipedia.org): 'My whole clothing as I sat in the box was satu-rated literally with blood' (
upload.wikimedia.org); 'Poor Mrs. Lincoln all through that dreadful night would look at me in horror & scream. Oh! my husband’s blood' (
upload.wikimedia.org). 'where Clara Harris remained with Mrs. Lincoln during her vigil of some nine hours.' (
military-history.fandom.com) 'Nearly two weeks later, Harris shared some of these images in a letter to a friend. They still haunted her. “I really cannot fix my mind on anything else,” she wrote .' (
nationalgeographic.com)
MARRIAGE AND AFTER. 'The awful tragedy at Ford’s Theatre, which Rathbone and Miss Harris witnessed brought them into a "singular sympathy" and on July 11, 1867, they were married.' (
upload.wikimedia.org) 'The couple had three children: Henry Riggs (born February 12, 1870), who later became a U.S. Congressman from Illinois, Gerald Lawrence (born August 26, 1871) and Clara Pauline (born September 15, 1872).' (
en.wikipedia.org) 'Clara Rathbone was very much in tune with her husband’s mental struggles. The family’s long vacations to Europe were her efforts to bring about a change of scenery and mood for Henry' (
lincolnconspirators.com). 'But Clara felt that Henry was better off in the company of her and their children than in the care of strangers.' (
lincolnconspirators.com) 'However, Clara did ask for her sister, Louise, to join the family in Hanover in order to help her with the children and Henry.' (
lincolnconspirators.com) A later letter quoted by Wikipedia ('I understand his distress...in every hotel we’re in, as soon as people get wind of our presence, we feel ourselves become objects of morbid scrutiny....' (
en.wikipedia.org)) also appears in the review of Mallon’s novel ('"I understand his distress," wrote Clara in a letter.' (
upload.wikimedia.org)) — whether it is a real letter or the novel’s: held; would settle: the letter’s manuscript or a documentary edition.
DEATH, HANOVER, 1883. 'She called out to her sister to “lock the door and save the children; there is going to be dreadful work.”' (
lincolnconspirators.com) 'Not long after, Louise heard Clara scream, “Henry, let me live!” followed by gunshots and a long silence.' (
lincolnconspirators.com) 'Her sister was sprawled on the bed with two bullets in her chest and a knife wound to her heart.' (
lincolnconspirators.com) / 'He fatally shot his wife in the head and then attempted to kill the children, but a groundskeeper prevented him from doing so.' (
en.wikipedia.org) — both held. 'He shot his wife and stabbed her before stabbing himself. She died on their bed.' (
nationalgeographic.com) 'Louise fled to her sister, whose last words were, “He has killed us both at last.”' (
lincolnconspirators.com) Date held: 'On December 23, 1883, he attacked his children in a fit of madness.' (
en.wikipedia.org) / 'On December 24, 1883, Rathbone attacked his family in a fit of madness.' (
en.wikipedia.org) / 'died December 25, 1883' (
en.wikipedia.org) (infobox). 'The three Rathbone children, left without either parent, were taken in by Clara’s brother William Harris, and moved to Ohio.' (
lincolnconspirators.com) Burial: 'She was buried in Engesohde, Germany.' (
upload.wikimedia.org) 'In 1952, the Rathbones’ remains were disinterred and their remains disposed of in accordance with the German cemetery’s policies' (
en.wikipedia.org)
THE OCTOBER 2026 RESEARCH REPORT SAID she attested '"the deponent heard the discharge of a pistol, and looking around, saw the flash and smoke, and immediately Major Rathbone sprang upon the man who had fired the shot"' (report.txt); her affidavit says 'but the smoke with which he was envel-oped prevented this deponent from seeing distinctly the other man' (
upload.wikimedia.org). It also said 'Clara died on the bedroom floor within minutes' (report.txt); its source says 'She died on their bed.' (
nationalgeographic.com).