Henry Rathbone by all appearances was a successful figure in a Washington, D.C., celebrating the end of the long and painful Civil War. He was a dashing Union army officer from a wealthy family and was newly engaged to a senator's daughter. His life changed the fateful night he accompanied President and Mrs. Lincoln to the Ford's Theatre, and though he played an intimate role in the infamous assassination, his name has fallen into relative obscurity.
Early Life of Henry Rathbone
Born in Albany, New York, in 1837, Henry Reed Rathbone was the son of a well-to-do businessman who became Albany's mayor. When Rathbone was seventeen, his father died and he inherited a substantial fortune.
Rathbone studied law at Union College and worked in an Albany law partnership before entering the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. Initially serving as a captain he gained respect as a brilliant and brave young officer and by the war's end he had attained the rank of major.
