JOHN J BIRMINGHAM, CIVIL WAR SOLDIER, FROM LUSMAGH COUNTY OFFALY WAS ON DUTY AT FORD’S THEATRE, WASHINGTON IN APRIL 1865 WHEN PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS SHOT AND KILLED BY JOHN WILKES BOOTH

“I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. “Who is dead in the White House?” I demanded of one of the soldiers, “The President,” was his answer; “he was killed by an assassin.” – ABRAHAM LINCLOLN , APRIL 12th 1865

These are the words of President Abraham Lincoln spoken to his bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, only a few days before his assassination by John Wilkes Booth in Fords Theatre in Washington. He was recounting a vivid dream he had experienced the previous night and it would prove to be a weirdly and profoundly accurate premonition of what was in store for arguably America’s greatest President.

Offaly’s John Bermingham and members of his regiment were on guard duty at Fords Theatre in Washington DC on 14th April 1865 as President Lincoln and his wife Mary arrived to take their places in the Presidential booth to watch a performance of the comedic play “Our American Cousin”. In hindsight nobody could have been suspicious as John Wilkes Booth made his way up the stairs to the Presidential area. Booth was then an extremely famous actor and known by everyone at Fords Theatre. In todays world would anyone be suspicious of a current movie star in the company of the US President ? Strangely though, Lincoln had sent his previously mentioned bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, on other business which left him practically unprotected as Booth entered the Presidential box. Booth was a Confederate sympathizer and blamed Lincoln for the defeat of the Southern states in the Civil War. He would shoot Lincoln in the back of the head as he watched the performance of his favorite play. Lincoln would linger between life and death over the next few hours but would pass away at 7:22am on April 15th 1865. His death was an incalculable loss to the then still divided America and would arguably reverberate down the generations.

John Bermingham from Lusmagh had spent his term in the Civil War as a member of the 6th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment having enlisted at only 17 years of age. After 4 years of service John and his company would find themselves in Washington in April 1865 as the bitter Civil War was coming to a sudden end. They were assigned on that fateful night to the protection of the perimeter of Fords Theatre as the President and his party arrived to enjoy an, up until then, rare night of light hearted entertainment. John Bermingham and his unit would also be used later that week as the Guard of Honor for the Presidential Hearse’s procession as it made its way through Washington DC to a special train which would carry Lincoln on his final journey back home and his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois.

Offaly soldier, John Bermingham, would live to the ripe old age of 94 before his death in October 1939 in Rosendale, New York. He had been a valued member of the Union army and would be a proud and prominent veteran soldier in the parades and memorials of the Civil War right up to the year he died. At 94 he would be the last surviving member of his unit.

On reading the accounts in the papers of the time of John Bermingham, and his long life, it is clear that night in April 1865 had played on his mind over the following decades. Several mentions are made of how John had always recounted to people of his experiences during what were some of the most tragic days in American history. This soldier from Lusmagh in County Offaly was present at the death of Americas greatest President and he probably knew it.

“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher” – ABRAHAM LINCOLN