Autograph letter signed by Wilbur Clark. Battery Cameron, [Washington] D.C., 17 April 1865. 4 pages, 8vo. With original envelope with Georgetown, D.C. cancel and red 3-cent stamp. 

William Clark enlisted late in the war on 3 September 1864 as a corporal, mustering into Company D of the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery, a regiment assigned to the defenses of Washington, D.C. He was on duty at Battery Cameron, located west of Georgetown along the Potomac, when he wrote this letter to his sister just two days after Lincoln's death. 

He reports on the high alert among the troops: "Our boys are all in picket except barely enough to guard the batteries...the picket is not relieved at all...The authorities are searching all places of retreat within the lines. A great many are arrested. A man was caught by our boys last night while trying to pass the picket line on his hands and knees. He was armed with two revolvers heavily loaded. He was coming in. The guerrillas fired into the canal boat above Fort Sumner yesterday."

Clark then turns his description to the general atmosphere in the capital and the swirling rumors and stories surrounding the assassination and plots: "You cannot even imagine the state of affairs. Persons that are secession at heart have dressed their houses in mourning and people dare talk nothing but Union sentiments for fear of their lives. Several have been shot already for saying that they were glad that Lincoln was dead...The boys that have been into the City say that every building on the street is draped in mourning. The Light Artillery was just in season to prevent the mob from breaking into the old Capitol Prison and murdering Gen. Lee's son [who] is confined there. And Gen. Early is at Williard's [Hotel] under guard, so I hear, but you must take that for what it is worth. I have just seen a column of cavalry come from Virginia across the river."

A very good and descriptive assassination letter. 

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