15 x 10 3/4 in. printed broadside. (Corner loss, toning, minor soiling, spotting.)

In full: "A great calamity has befallen the nation in the murder of its Chief Magistrate, and attempted murder of the chief officer of his Cabinet. Citizens are requested to close their places of business and suspend their usual avocations from 12 o'clock noon until 2 o'clock P.M. of to-day, during which hours all the bells in the city will be tolled."

John Butterfield was an American transportation pioneer and businessman whose companies included American Express and the Butterfield Overland Mail Express, then the longest stagecoach line in the world. His son, Daniel Adams Butterfield, was a Union brigadier general and Assistant U.S. Treasurer who arranged the bugle call "Taps" in 1862 to replace the customary firing of three rifle volleys during military burials.