WASHINGTON — That day, I watched an arc of justice land; that night, I paid a visit to Ford’s Theatre, site of a national calamity.

The man who wielded a Confederate flag as a weapon in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for “outrageous” crimes, the judge declared.

On the front lines of the mob storming the alabaster temple, rough-hewn Kevin Seefried, 53, climbed in through broken glass. He waved the hateful symbol of Civil War, never seen before in the Senate’s hallowed halls.

The Delaware man chased and threatened Black police officer Eugene Goodman with the Confederate flagpole. That was the cruelest cut of all.

Goodman single-handedly saved much of the Senate from the jeering mob.

No tears — yet oh yes, Seefried did cry before the judge.

Seefried drove with his family and porch flag to hear his hero Donald Trump roar. That’s all. He wouldn’t have stormed the Capitol if he knew it was wrong.

In truth, he was not part of the sedition plot to keep Trump in power.

The drywall worker wrecked his family and health. “I lost my wife,” he wept. His son Hunter was sentenced to two years for joining in lawbreaking with his father.

District Judge Trevor McFadden showed mercy and sternness.

Why was I there in court? Simple. I witnessed the Capitol siege in the House chamber.

Two years later, I felt little pity for this goateed man. Justice helped heal memories of howls, gunfire and pounding footsteps.

History always brings us up to the present moment. Delaware was a Southern slave state during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln allowed four “border” states to keep slavery intact if they stayed in the Union.

Underground Railroad guide Harriet Tubman crossed Delaware under cover of dark to reach the Mason-Dixon line: to free Pennsylvania.

In another life, a man like Seefried was a rebel or “rebby boy” in gray Confederate soldier uniform.

Hundreds of thousands died in battle or disease. That army was barefoot, hungry and in rags by General Robert E. Lee’s “Surrender” in April 1865.

No tears for Lee, either, who betrayed his own United States Army. The gleaming general in gray dress was not a cut above working stiffs like Seefried. He also owned and enslaved hundreds.

Lincoln had a week to savor the sweet spring victory.

Today, the Lost Cause is still glorified by white men like Seefried and even military veterans. Thousands came armed in force to the Capitol the day democracy almost died.

The four-year fratricidal war wasn’t enough to settle American fury over race, now, was it? The Jan. 6 white supremacist Trump mob slung racial slurs at Black police officers during the rampage.

Lincoln ended slavery and paid the price. He became the final casualty of the Civil War, shot by a Southern sympathizer.

His murder was part of a larger conspiracy to overturn the government.

From the courthouse, I walked up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Willard Hotel. This is the posh place the Lincolns stayed days before he was sworn in.

To honor my favorite president’s memory, I had a rich hot chocolate, worth every penny I paid.

Time to walk to Tenth Street, in the path the president’s carriage took from the White House.

Abraham and Mary Lincoln were flying high after wartime gloom, looking forward to a comedy at Ford’s in the presidential box. A standing ovation greeted them.

The crafty actor who slew the president knew all of Ford’s nooks. John Wilkes Booth, 26, timed his single shot for a laugh line, so the audience would not hear it.

A mighty soul was slain. But doctors found Lincoln’s 56-year-old body so strong he did not die — in a humble boarding house bed — until dawn.

Booth’s co-conspirators meant to murder the vice president and secretary of state the same night. Things did not go as planned. Four were tried and hanged, but Booth was fatally shot in a Virginia burning barn as the law closed in.

Ford’s marked Lincoln’s February birthday with an expert speaker, Allen Guelzo, on his character.

Left unsaid: not even the greatest president could end the civil war.

Jamie Stiehm may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. Follow her on Twitter @JamieStiehm.

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