“They have killed our good president”: Remembering the horror of the Lincoln assassination — salon.com

People had run straight from Tenth Street to the telegraph office, spreading word beyond the capital. The government-owned telegraph was central to Civil War military operations, with its speedy transmission over great distances, and Lincoln had spent hours at the office every week, waiting for communications from the front and conversing with the operators, who received and delivered messages day and night. Early transmissions about the crime at Ford’s were not entirely clear as to the president’s state, but in time official confirmation of death reached communities wherever the wires ran. Newspapermen wrote headlines from the dispatches, and printers hurried through their mechanical tasks. Newsboys scooped up the bundles of papers or sheaves of “extras” and set out on their rounds, calling out the tidings. The Berkshire Courier extra in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, with a 10:00 a.m. dateline, read “Terrible news! Lincoln dead! He is Shot by an Assassin!”

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