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Writer's pictureQuinn Hutchison

TRIPLE CALAMITY - CHAPTER 1

The words "Triple Calamity" alongside pictures of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and William Seward
Triple Calamity - Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson & William Seward are assassinated the same night.

Triple Calamity is an alternate history story. It's told through media created from within the alternate timeline. Back in 1865, on the same night that President Lincoln was killed two other men were supposed to die. Both Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward were targets to be killed by John Wilkes Booth and his close friends. Both Seward and Johnson very nearly were killed, yet due to a bit of luck, they weren't. In Triple Calamity all three men are assassinated changing the course of US history forever.


Chapter 1: APRIL 14th, 1865

 

10:10pm

Powell vigorously pounded at the door of the residence. Perhaps a bit too vigorously.      

He stopped to calm himself as the door slid open. A black man stared back at Powell.

"Sir?"

"Ah. Uh. Yes. Uhm," Powell grabbed a small vile out of his pocket. "Terribly sorry. Doctor Verdi requested that I deliver this medicinal product to the Secretary."

The servant stared blankly at Powell. "The good doctor had requested that Mr. Seward remain undisturbed. Mister…?"

"No, no, I am the doctor’s personal assistant he simply forgot to hand this vile to the secretaries' son."

The servant looked back into the house and then back to Powell.

"If you would excuse me for just a moment-"

"No! There’s no time. I insist!" Powell knew he had pushed his luck. He rushed past the black servant to enter the home and bound up the stairs.

"Excuse me sir!" Powell looked up to see the eldest son of the man he was rushing to find.

"Ah. Uhm Mr. Seward. I must see your father I have some- Uh."

The next few seconds were a blur. Powell and Fredrick argued, and it was clearly going nowhere.

He had a mission.

Powell pulled out his gun and fired at Fredrick Seward. The gun misfired. Fuck. Powell struck Seward’s head with the butt of his gun, then barged through the bedroom door, pulled out a knife to slash a guard against the arm and found himself at the bedridden Secretary of State. Aiming at the man’s face and neck, Powell gave his all, He heard his knife clanking on some sort of metal and saw a brace around Seward’s neck that was supporting a broken jaw. In a split-second decision, Powell removed the brace just enough to thrust his knife into Seward's neck. [1]. He knew then that his role in the plan had been accomplished.

 

10:15pm

Booth knew this play. He'd performed it before. He bet he could recite every line of Our American Cousin by heart. The audience always laughed at one line. One line that blew the roof off.

Wait... Wait... Wait...

"Well, I guess I know you enough to turn you inside out old gal; you sockdologizing old mantrap!"

The president laughed for the very last time.

Booth squeezed his index finger and... BANG.

The next moments were a blur. A man jumped towards him; Booth slashed him on the arm. Seeing few other options, he jumped to the stage. He felt a sharp pain in his leg, he knew he had to say something to the audience who just witnessed John Wilkes Booth's magnum opus.

So, Uh…

"Sic Semper Tyrannus! The South is Avenged!"

 

10:17pm

Oh god. Oh god. Come on George, you have the courage. Oh lord almighty. I can do it, I can!

Atzerodt looked towards the stairs of the hotel. Then back to that sweet, sweet bar. Then to the stairs. Then to-. [2] No. No not back to that damn bar. George Atzerodt will be a name feared by the north and honored by the south! He oughta slay the traitor from Tennessee!

With all the courage he could muster he rushed up the stairs of the Kirkwood House. He walked down the hall, towards the Vice President's room for... admittedly the second time. He had chickened out first. NO MATTER! He walked up to the right door and knocked!

Oh shit. Oh fuck. What have I done by God!

The palm of the hand grasping his revolver got very sweaty as he watched the doorknob turn and then…the door opened... and then…

BANG.

 

10:22pm

"BY GOD! HAVE YOU HEARD! THE PRESIDENT'S BEEN SHOT!"

"Not just him sir! I heard from my dearest that the Secretary of State was stabbed just down the road!"

"No! That simply cannot be! I heard that the Vice President was slain at the Kirkwood House!"


TRIPLE CALAMITY!

 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN DECLARED DEAD BY DOCTORS!

 

SECRETARY OF STATE SEWARD DEAD MERE MINUTES AFTER STABBING!

 

VICE PRESIDENT JOHNSON CLINGING TO LIFE IN HIS HOTEL ROOM SURROUNDED BY FAMILY!

 

The infamous Triple Headlines from the New York Herald,

April 15, 1865

 

"News of Seward’s death traveled relatively fast. He died almost immediately following the stabbings, somewhere around 10:12 on the night of April 14th. Over the next ten minutes both the President and Vice President would be mortally wounded.

Most congressmen and cabinet members would be awoken around 11:00pm. The timeline gets confusing around here. We know that at 1:00am many members of congress convened to figure out who would succeed Lincoln, should Johnson not survive. It is not known when a consensus was reached. What is known is that there was bitter debate between many figures over whether it was to be the Senate Pro Tempore, Lafayette S. Foster, or the Speaker of the House, Schuyler Colfax. We can gather from a couple of memoirs that it was never a real debate; most people present thought the radical republicans were just complaining. To most it was natural that the head of the senate should assume the Presidency - it's the 'upper house' of course. That said, the radical view was that Colfax ought to be President because he was the Speaker of the People’s House.

After some re-readings of the constitution, it became clear that the Foster faction won out. From what I was able to piece together, this happened sometime between 3:00 and 6:00am. To appease the radicals however, a special election would be held in November to ensure the people don't have a president no one voted for.

At 7:22 in the morning President Lincoln was pronounced dead. The next day, on the 17th, as Johnson's doctors made it clearer to congress that he wouldn't make it, preparations were made to swear in Foster. The congressmen who weren't in the initial meeting were promptly informed of the line of succession around noon.

The next day's newspapers announced to the people that Foster would be sworn in should Johnson die. At 3:44am on April 19th, Vice President Johnson died. At 4:24 the same morning, Lafayette S. Foster became the 17th President of the United States (some circles like to say that he is actually the 18th President, because Johnson was president for two days, yet that is false. Johnson was never sworn in. Instead, for those two days, The United States simply had no president at all)."

 

Excerpt from “The President No One Voted For”

by Kieren Hutchinson, published 1982




[1] - The first Point of Departure, in our timeline the brace deflected the most damaging knife blows. (For those unaware, Seward had been in a carriage accident a few days prior which is why he was in a brace.)

 

[2] - The second POD, in our timeline George went to get a drink to bolster the nerves. He never went upstairs.


The words "Triple Calamity" over a picture of the Civl War
My original artwork for this story on alternatehistory.com



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