The Civil War Presidents: Abraham Lincoln (Part 10 - The War Ends/Assassination)
As the Civil War continued into 1865, Robert E. Lee’s army continued to fight a series of battles in the Appomattox Campaign against the Union Army led by Ulysses Grant. The fighting stretched the Confederate lines of defense thin. Most of the Confederate Army that remained were in small sections in a thirty mile area around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. Lee's troops were exhausted defending this line and Grant took advantage of the situation and with a series of attacks on this poorly defended front.
Lee's final stand took place at Appomattox Court House. Major General John B. Gordon's depleted corps and Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry formed line of battle there and Lee planned one last attempt to escape the closing Union army in an effort to reach his supplies at Lynchburg. At first, the Confederates drove back General Phillip Sheridan's cavalry, but when Grant's infantry arrived, the Confederate advance was stopped. Lee's outnumbered army was now surrounded on three sides. Seeing no other option, Lee surrendered his army at 3 p.m. on April 9th. He accepted the terms that Grant had proposed by letter the previous day.
News of the surrender reached Washington and jubilation ensued. The next day, despite rainy weather and muddy streets, a crown of 3,000 people took to the streets celebrating the end of the war. Crowds serenaded President Lincoln throughout the day. Eventually Lincoln came to speak to the crowd, who responded with three cheers. Lincoln's words were reported by the Daily National Intelligencer as follows:
Fellow citizens: I am very greatly rejoiced to find that an occasion has occurred so pleasurable that the people cannot restrain themselves. [Cheers.] I suppose that arrangements are being made for some sort of a formal demonstration, this, or perhaps, tomorrow night. If there should be such a demonstration, I, of course, will be called upon to respond, and I shall have nothing to say if you dribble it all out of me before. [Laughter and applause.] I see you have a band of music with you. I propose closing up this interview by the band performing a particular tune which I will name. Before this is done, however, I wish to mention one or two little circumstances connected with it. I have always thought `Dixie’ one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it. [Applause.] I presented the question to the Attorney General, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. [Laughter and applause.] I now request the band to favor me with its performance.
The news report continues as follows:
In accordance with the request, the band struck up `Dixie,’ and at its conclusion played `Yankee Doodle,’ the President remaining at the window mean-while. The President then said: `Now give three good hearty cheers for General Grant and all under his command.’ These were given with a will, after which Mr. Lincoln requested `three more cheers for our gallant Navy,’ which request was also readily granted. The President then disappeared from the window, amid the cheers of those below. The crowd then moved back to the War Department, and loud calls were again made for Secretary Stanton.
The following night, April 11, 1865, Lincoln gave a speech in which he promoted voting rights for African-Americans. This incensed a member of his audience, a famous actor named John Wilkes Booth. Booth had previously planned to kidnap the President. He now changed his plans and became determined to assassinate Lincoln. Booth learned that the President, First Lady, and General Ulysses S. Grant would be attending Ford's Theatre in a few days. Booth assembled a number of co-conspirators and a plan was put together that included the assassination of Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William H. Seward and General Grant.
According to Lincoln's friend Ward Hill Lamon, three days before his assassination Lincoln discussed with Lamon and others a dream he had. Lamon wrote:
About 10 days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since.
On April 14th, Lincoln's day started well for the first time in a long time. Hugh McCulloch, the new Secretary of the Treasury, later said that on that morning, "I never saw Mr. Lincoln so cheerful and happy". Lincoln himself told people how happy he was.
On the night of April 14, 1865 the Lincolns attend Ford's Theatre to see the play Our American Cousin. The Grants decided, at the last minute, to travel to Philadelphia instead of attending the play. Julia Grant was not fond of Mary Rodd Lincoln. The Lincolns went to the play accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and Miss Clara Harris. For some reason Lincoln's bodyguard, John Parker, left Ford's Theater during intermission to join Lincoln's coachman for drinks in the Star Saloon next door. The Lincolns remained unguarded in the state box in the balcony. Booth crept up from behind and at about 10:13 pm, he aimed his Philadelphia Deringer at the back of Lincoln's head and fired at point-blank range, mortally wounding the President. Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped.
An Army surgeon, Doctor Charles Leale, was sitting nearby at the theater and immediately assisted the President. He found the President unresponsive, barely breathing and with no detectable pulse. Leale made an attempt to clear the blood clot. The President was taken across the street to Petersen House. After remaining in a coma for nine hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15. Presbyterian minister Phineas Densmore Gurley offered a prayer, and Secretary of War Stanton then said, "Now he belongs to the ages."
After being on the run for 10 days, Booth was tracked down and found on a farm in Virginia, some 70 miles (110 km) south of Washington, D.C. After a brief fight with Union troops, Booth was killed by Sergeant Boston Corbett on April 26.
Lincoln's body was wrapped in a flag and was then escorted in the rain to the White House by Union officers, while the city's church bells rang. Andrew Johnson was sworn in as President at 10:00 am, less than 3 hours after Lincoln's death. Lincoln's body lay in state in the East Room, and then in the Capitol Rotunda from April 19 through April 21. His body was transported in the executive coach "United States" and for three weeks the Lincoln Special funeral train decorated in black bunting transported Lincoln's remains on a slow circuitous waypoint journey from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois stopping at many cities across the North for large-scale memorials attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
Lee's final stand took place at Appomattox Court House. Major General John B. Gordon's depleted corps and Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry formed line of battle there and Lee planned one last attempt to escape the closing Union army in an effort to reach his supplies at Lynchburg. At first, the Confederates drove back General Phillip Sheridan's cavalry, but when Grant's infantry arrived, the Confederate advance was stopped. Lee's outnumbered army was now surrounded on three sides. Seeing no other option, Lee surrendered his army at 3 p.m. on April 9th. He accepted the terms that Grant had proposed by letter the previous day.
News of the surrender reached Washington and jubilation ensued. The next day, despite rainy weather and muddy streets, a crown of 3,000 people took to the streets celebrating the end of the war. Crowds serenaded President Lincoln throughout the day. Eventually Lincoln came to speak to the crowd, who responded with three cheers. Lincoln's words were reported by the Daily National Intelligencer as follows:
Fellow citizens: I am very greatly rejoiced to find that an occasion has occurred so pleasurable that the people cannot restrain themselves. [Cheers.] I suppose that arrangements are being made for some sort of a formal demonstration, this, or perhaps, tomorrow night. If there should be such a demonstration, I, of course, will be called upon to respond, and I shall have nothing to say if you dribble it all out of me before. [Laughter and applause.] I see you have a band of music with you. I propose closing up this interview by the band performing a particular tune which I will name. Before this is done, however, I wish to mention one or two little circumstances connected with it. I have always thought `Dixie’ one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it. [Applause.] I presented the question to the Attorney General, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. [Laughter and applause.] I now request the band to favor me with its performance.
The news report continues as follows:
In accordance with the request, the band struck up `Dixie,’ and at its conclusion played `Yankee Doodle,’ the President remaining at the window mean-while. The President then said: `Now give three good hearty cheers for General Grant and all under his command.’ These were given with a will, after which Mr. Lincoln requested `three more cheers for our gallant Navy,’ which request was also readily granted. The President then disappeared from the window, amid the cheers of those below. The crowd then moved back to the War Department, and loud calls were again made for Secretary Stanton.
The following night, April 11, 1865, Lincoln gave a speech in which he promoted voting rights for African-Americans. This incensed a member of his audience, a famous actor named John Wilkes Booth. Booth had previously planned to kidnap the President. He now changed his plans and became determined to assassinate Lincoln. Booth learned that the President, First Lady, and General Ulysses S. Grant would be attending Ford's Theatre in a few days. Booth assembled a number of co-conspirators and a plan was put together that included the assassination of Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William H. Seward and General Grant.
According to Lincoln's friend Ward Hill Lamon, three days before his assassination Lincoln discussed with Lamon and others a dream he had. Lamon wrote:
About 10 days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since.
On April 14th, Lincoln's day started well for the first time in a long time. Hugh McCulloch, the new Secretary of the Treasury, later said that on that morning, "I never saw Mr. Lincoln so cheerful and happy". Lincoln himself told people how happy he was.
On the night of April 14, 1865 the Lincolns attend Ford's Theatre to see the play Our American Cousin. The Grants decided, at the last minute, to travel to Philadelphia instead of attending the play. Julia Grant was not fond of Mary Rodd Lincoln. The Lincolns went to the play accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and Miss Clara Harris. For some reason Lincoln's bodyguard, John Parker, left Ford's Theater during intermission to join Lincoln's coachman for drinks in the Star Saloon next door. The Lincolns remained unguarded in the state box in the balcony. Booth crept up from behind and at about 10:13 pm, he aimed his Philadelphia Deringer at the back of Lincoln's head and fired at point-blank range, mortally wounding the President. Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped.
An Army surgeon, Doctor Charles Leale, was sitting nearby at the theater and immediately assisted the President. He found the President unresponsive, barely breathing and with no detectable pulse. Leale made an attempt to clear the blood clot. The President was taken across the street to Petersen House. After remaining in a coma for nine hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15. Presbyterian minister Phineas Densmore Gurley offered a prayer, and Secretary of War Stanton then said, "Now he belongs to the ages."
After being on the run for 10 days, Booth was tracked down and found on a farm in Virginia, some 70 miles (110 km) south of Washington, D.C. After a brief fight with Union troops, Booth was killed by Sergeant Boston Corbett on April 26.
Lincoln's body was wrapped in a flag and was then escorted in the rain to the White House by Union officers, while the city's church bells rang. Andrew Johnson was sworn in as President at 10:00 am, less than 3 hours after Lincoln's death. Lincoln's body lay in state in the East Room, and then in the Capitol Rotunda from April 19 through April 21. His body was transported in the executive coach "United States" and for three weeks the Lincoln Special funeral train decorated in black bunting transported Lincoln's remains on a slow circuitous waypoint journey from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois stopping at many cities across the North for large-scale memorials attended by hundreds of thousands of people.