The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
April 14, 1865 (147 years ago today) was Good Friday, but it turned out to be anything but good. It was the day that John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln while the President was attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln would die the following day from the head wound he sustained in the shooting.
The assassination occurred five days after General Robert E. Lee, the Commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, had surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac. The assassination was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, as part of a larger conspiracy which Booth believed would revive the Confederate cause. Booth's co-conspirators were Lewis Powell and David Herold, who were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt who was to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. By simultaneously eliminating the top three in the line of succession in the Federal government, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to throw the United States government into chaos.
Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on the night of April 14, 1865. He died early the next morning. The rest of the conspirator's plot failed as Powell only managed to wound Seward, while Atzerodt, Johnson's would-be assassin, lost his nerve, got drunk and fled Washington.
Originally, General and Mrs. Grant were invited to attend the play with the Lincolns, but they declined the invitation because Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant were not on good terms with each other. Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris) were guests of the Lincolns that evening. The Lincoln party arrived late and settled into the Presidential Box, which was actually two corner box seats with the dividing wall between them removed. Mrs. Lincoln whispered to her husband, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" The president replied, "She won't think anything about it". Those were the last words ever spoken by the eloquent President.
The box was supposed to be guarded by a policeman named John Frederick Parker, but during the intermission, Parker went to a nearby tavern with Lincoln's footman and coachmanand he was not at his post when Booth entered the box at 10:15 p.m. Booth's celebrity status did not raise any concern about his coming to call on the President. He gained access through the first door to the Presidential Box and then he barricaded the inward-swinging door behind him with a wooden stick.
Booth knew the play by heart, and he waited for the precise moment when actor Harry Hawk (playing the lead role of the "cousin", Asa Trenchard), would be onstage alone, engaging the audience with what was considered to be the funniest line of the play. Booth hoped to employ the enthusiastic response of the audience to muffle the sound of his gunshot. With the stage to himself, Hawk (Asa) responded to the recently departed Mrs Mountchessington, "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!" With laughter permeating the theatre, Booth opened the door, stepped forward and shot the President in the back of the head, behind his left ear.
Lincoln immediately slumped forward in his rocking chair, mortally wounded. Mary reached out, caught him, and then screamed. Major Rathbone quickly jumped from his seat and tried to prevent Booth from escaping. Booth drew a knife and stabbed the major violently in the arm. Rathbone tried to grab Booth as he was preparing to jump from the sill of the box. Booth again stabbed at Rathbone, and then vaulted over the rail of the box down to the stage below (about a twelve-foot drop). In the process, his riding spur became caught on the Treasury flag decorating the box, and he landed awkwardly on his left foot, fracturing his left fibula just above the ankle.
Booth raised himself up and began crossing the stage, making the audience believe that he was part of the play. He held his bloody knife over his head, yelled "Sic semper tyrannis!" the Virginia state motto, which is Latin for "Thus always to tyrants. Some witnesses claim that he also said "The South is avenged!"
Mary Lincoln and Clara Harris screamed and Rathbone cried out "Stop that man!" The audience then understood that this was not part of the show, but Booth made it across the stage and out the side door to the horse he had waiting outside. Some of the men in the audience chased after him, but failed to catch him. Booth struck "Peanuts" Burroughs (who was holding Booth's horse) in the forehead with the handle of his knife, leaped onto the horse, kicked Burroughs in the face with his good leg, and rode away. He headed toward the Navy Yard Bridge to meet up with Herold and Powell. He was captured 12 days later on April 26th when he was shot by a soldier named Boston Corbett and died from his wounds.
Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated. He was mourned throughout the country in both North and South. On Easter Sunday clergymen around the country praised Lincoln in their sermons.Millions of people came to Lincoln's funeral procession in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 1865, and as his body traveled 1,700 miles to Springfield, Illinois, his body and funeral train were viewed by millions along the route.
After Lincoln's death, Ulysses S. Grant called him "incontestably the greatest man I ever knew."
The assassination occurred five days after General Robert E. Lee, the Commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, had surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac. The assassination was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, as part of a larger conspiracy which Booth believed would revive the Confederate cause. Booth's co-conspirators were Lewis Powell and David Herold, who were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt who was to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. By simultaneously eliminating the top three in the line of succession in the Federal government, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to throw the United States government into chaos.
Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on the night of April 14, 1865. He died early the next morning. The rest of the conspirator's plot failed as Powell only managed to wound Seward, while Atzerodt, Johnson's would-be assassin, lost his nerve, got drunk and fled Washington.
Originally, General and Mrs. Grant were invited to attend the play with the Lincolns, but they declined the invitation because Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant were not on good terms with each other. Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris) were guests of the Lincolns that evening. The Lincoln party arrived late and settled into the Presidential Box, which was actually two corner box seats with the dividing wall between them removed. Mrs. Lincoln whispered to her husband, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" The president replied, "She won't think anything about it". Those were the last words ever spoken by the eloquent President.
The box was supposed to be guarded by a policeman named John Frederick Parker, but during the intermission, Parker went to a nearby tavern with Lincoln's footman and coachmanand he was not at his post when Booth entered the box at 10:15 p.m. Booth's celebrity status did not raise any concern about his coming to call on the President. He gained access through the first door to the Presidential Box and then he barricaded the inward-swinging door behind him with a wooden stick.
Booth knew the play by heart, and he waited for the precise moment when actor Harry Hawk (playing the lead role of the "cousin", Asa Trenchard), would be onstage alone, engaging the audience with what was considered to be the funniest line of the play. Booth hoped to employ the enthusiastic response of the audience to muffle the sound of his gunshot. With the stage to himself, Hawk (Asa) responded to the recently departed Mrs Mountchessington, "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!" With laughter permeating the theatre, Booth opened the door, stepped forward and shot the President in the back of the head, behind his left ear.
Lincoln immediately slumped forward in his rocking chair, mortally wounded. Mary reached out, caught him, and then screamed. Major Rathbone quickly jumped from his seat and tried to prevent Booth from escaping. Booth drew a knife and stabbed the major violently in the arm. Rathbone tried to grab Booth as he was preparing to jump from the sill of the box. Booth again stabbed at Rathbone, and then vaulted over the rail of the box down to the stage below (about a twelve-foot drop). In the process, his riding spur became caught on the Treasury flag decorating the box, and he landed awkwardly on his left foot, fracturing his left fibula just above the ankle.
Booth raised himself up and began crossing the stage, making the audience believe that he was part of the play. He held his bloody knife over his head, yelled "Sic semper tyrannis!" the Virginia state motto, which is Latin for "Thus always to tyrants. Some witnesses claim that he also said "The South is avenged!"
Mary Lincoln and Clara Harris screamed and Rathbone cried out "Stop that man!" The audience then understood that this was not part of the show, but Booth made it across the stage and out the side door to the horse he had waiting outside. Some of the men in the audience chased after him, but failed to catch him. Booth struck "Peanuts" Burroughs (who was holding Booth's horse) in the forehead with the handle of his knife, leaped onto the horse, kicked Burroughs in the face with his good leg, and rode away. He headed toward the Navy Yard Bridge to meet up with Herold and Powell. He was captured 12 days later on April 26th when he was shot by a soldier named Boston Corbett and died from his wounds.
Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated. He was mourned throughout the country in both North and South. On Easter Sunday clergymen around the country praised Lincoln in their sermons.Millions of people came to Lincoln's funeral procession in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 1865, and as his body traveled 1,700 miles to Springfield, Illinois, his body and funeral train were viewed by millions along the route.
After Lincoln's death, Ulysses S. Grant called him "incontestably the greatest man I ever knew."