89. RARE CDV OF CAPTAIN EDWIN E. BEDEE, 12TH N.H., SAW LINCOLN SHOT,

Auction: 2008, Historic Americana Auction, Dec 4 & 5

Price Realized: $0.00

no back mark, signed definitively in period ink on verso, Capt. E.E. Bedee/12th N.H. Vols. with flourish. Captain Edwin Elzaphan Bedee (1837-1908) was an eyewitness to the stage at Ford’s Theater, watching awestruck as the assassin John Wilkes Booth vaulted from the President’s box with the infamous utterance “Revenge for the South!” Recognizing the surreal scene playing out before him, the veteran officer surged into action and was the first to reach the stricken President followed in near time by Surgeon Charles A. Leale, another chance participant in the unfolding national drama. The pandemonium was captured by author Charles E. Greenwood who later wrote, When Bedee and the surgeon reached the box, President Lincoln lay in his chair, his head titled back as though he were asleep. The doctor searched for the wound. Seeking some evidence of blood or torn clothing, he started to remove Lincoln’s coat and unbutton his vest. Meanwhile, Captain Bedee was holding the President’s head. Suddenly he felt a warmth trickling into his hand. "Here is the wound, doctor," Captain Bedee said, as one of his fingers slid into the hole in the back of Lincoln’s head where the ball had only moments before forced an entry.

From Meredith, New Hampshire, Edwin E. Bedee enlisted as regimental sergeant major of the 12th NH in August 1862. He became 1st lieutenant of Company G. in December 1862 and was twice wounded in action during the war, at Chancellorsville and severely at Cold Harbor. While in command of Company G., Captain Bedee was captured at Bermuda Hundred on November 17, 1864 and not paroled until February 1865. Shortly afterwards while in Washington on detached staff duty Captain Bedee happened to be in attendance at Ford’s Theater on the fateful evening of April 14, 1865. Bedee’s role as Lincoln’s caretaker in death is mentioned in the standard bibliography of the assassination and more recently in Michael W. Kaufmann’s American Brutus-John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. Following a misunderstanding over papers belonging to the dead President then in Bedee’s possession, the distraught captain was arrested and held until the matter was clarified by none other than Secretary of War Stanton who later personally commended Bedee for his diligence in handling the duties assigned him. Edwin Bedee was promoted to major (although never mustered) in May 1865 and mustered out with the regiment in June 1865 at Richmond. Bedee later went to South Africa and is said to have made a fortune in the diamond fields. He retuned to Boston and became a diamond broker and GAR enthusiast giving Meredith, New Hampshire funds to purchase a granite and marble statue “to perpetuate the memory of the boys who enlisted in the Twelfth Regt.” Edwin Bedee was 75 when he died on January 13, 1908 and was buried in the Meredith Village Cemetery.

Carte with soft corners showing moderate wear and handling, G+.

(EST $2000-$3000)