Skip to main content

What If?

December 2023
1min read

What prompted me to write is the illustration by Neal McPheeters on page 20 showing the Bowie knife used to stab Secretary of State Seward on the night Lincoln was shot. Your artist obviously went to extraordinary pains to try to track down the actual knife and did an excellent job of reproducing it.

I know because the knife is in my collection of Lincoln assassination relics, along with the manacles kept on Payne, the wielder of the knife, and the noose that was used to hang him.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate