Edwin Booth was a famous actor and the brother of John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln. In an incident likely in 1864-5 (as recalled by the younger Lincoln) Edwin rescued Lincoln’s son Robert from falling under a train at a station in New Jersey. Robert recognised the man who saved him, but only later did Edwin realise he had saved Lincolns son. This was some comfort to him after the shock of his brother John shooting President Lincoln.

Edwin himself was subject to an assassination attempt by travelling salesman Mark Gray during a performance of Richard II in 1879. The pistol rounds missed the actor and embedded in the stage.