Henry Rathbone
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Major Henry Rathbone |
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| Birth name | Henry Reed Rathbone |
| Born |
July 1, 1837 Albany, New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 14, 1911 (aged 74) Hildesheim, Prussia, Germany |
| Buried at | Stadtfriedhof Engesohde (disinterred in 1952) |
| Allegiance |
 United States of AmericaUnion |
| Service/branch |
 United States ArmyUnion Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1870 |
| Rank |
 Brevet Colonel
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| Unit | 12th U.S. Infantry |
| Battles/wars | |
| Spouse(s) | Clara Harris (m. 1867; d. 1883) |
| Relations |
Ira Harris (stepfather) Henry Riggs Rathbone (son) |
| Other work | Attorney, U.S. consul to Hanover, Germany |
Henry Reed Rathbone (July 1, 1837 – August 14, 1911) was a United States military officer and diplomat who was present at the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Rathbone was sitting with his fiancée, Clara Harris, next to the President and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, when John Wilkes Booth entered the president's box at Ford's Theatre and fatally shot Lincoln in the head. When Rathbone attempted to prevent Booth from fleeing the scene, Booth stabbed and seriously wounded him.
Rathbone was born in Albany, New York, one of four children of Jared L. Rathbone, a merchant and wealthy businessman, who later became Albany's mayor, and Pauline Rathbone (née Penney). Upon his father's death in 1845, Rathbone inherited the very considerable sum of two hundred thousand dollars. His widowed mother, Pauline Rathbone, married Ira Harris in 1848. Ira Harris was appointed U.S. Senator from New York after William H. Seward became President Lincoln's Secretary of State. Harris was a widower with four children whose wife Louisa had also died in 1845. As a result of this marriage, Ira Harris became Rathbone's stepfather and his daughter, Clara, became Rathbone's stepsister. Although this unusual series of events made them stepbrother and stepsister, they were not related by blood. Rathbone and Harris formed a close friendship and later fell in love. The two became engaged shortly before the American Civil War.
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Wikipedia