She and her then fiancé, and future husband, Henry Rathbone, were the guests of President Abraham Lincoln the night he was shot at Ford's Theatre.

[6] Although Harris and Henry Rathbone were raised in the same household and were related by their parents' marriage, they fell in love and later became engaged.

[10] While they watched the play Our American Cousin in the Presidential Box at Ford's Theatre that evening, John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln in the back of the head.

[11][12] Rathbone lost a considerable amount of blood which stained Harris' white dress, face and hands when she attempted to aid him.

[13] Although wounded, Rathbone escorted First Lady Mary Lincoln to the Petersen House where doctors had taken the unconscious President.

A surgeon who had been attending the President finally examined Rathbone and realized his wound was more serious than initially thought.

He spent the remainder of his life battling delusions and seeking treatments for other physical problems including constant headaches.

Unable to bring herself to wash or destroy it, she eventually stored it in a closet in the family's summer home near Albany.

After experiencing what she claimed was a visit from Lincoln's ghost,[citation needed] Harris had the closet in which the dress was stored covered with bricks.

Due to his behavior, Rathbone found it difficult to hold a job for an extended period of time.

Harris later wrote to a friend: I understand his distress...in every hotel we're in, as soon as people get wind of our presence, we feel ourselves become objects of morbid scrutiny....