fbpx
Wikipedia

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play,[2] Lincoln died the following day at 7:22 am in the Petersen House opposite the theater.[3] He was the first president to be assassinated.[4] His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning.

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Part of the Conclusion of the American Civil War
LocationFord's Theatre, Washington, D.C., U.S.
DateApril 14, 1865; 158 years ago (1865-04-14)
10:15 pm
Target
Attack type
  • Political assassination
  • shooting
  • stabbing
Weapons
DeathsAbraham Lincoln (died April 15, 1865, at 7:22 am from his injuries)
Injured
PerpetratorsJohn Wilkes Booth and co-conspirators
MotiveRevenge for the Confederate States

Near the end of the American Civil War, Lincoln's assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the federal government. Conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson. Beyond Lincoln's death, the plot failed: Seward was only wounded, and Johnson's would-be attacker became drunk instead of killing the vice president. After a dramatic initial escape, Booth was killed at the end of a 12-day chase. Powell, Herold, Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt were later hanged for their roles in the conspiracy.

Background

Abandoned plan to kidnap Lincoln

 
The last known high-quality image of Lincoln, taken on the balcony at the White House, March 6, 1865
 
The Surratt house
 
Booth was present as Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address a month before the assassination.

John Wilkes Booth, born in Maryland into a family of prominent stage actors, had by the time of the assassination become a famous actor and national celebrity in his own right. He was also an outspoken Confederate sympathizer; in late 1860 he was initiated in the pro-Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle in Baltimore, Maryland.[5]: 67 

In March 1864, Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union armies, suspended the exchange of prisoners of war with the Confederate Army[6] to increase pressure on the manpower-starved South. Booth conceived a plan to kidnap Lincoln in order to blackmail the Union into resuming prisoner exchanges,[7]: 130–34  and recruited Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O'Laughlen, Lewis Powell (also known as "Lewis Paine"), and John Surratt to help him. Surratt's mother, Mary Surratt, left her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, and moved to a house in Washington, D.C., where Booth became a frequent visitor.

While Booth and Lincoln were not personally acquainted, Lincoln had seen Booth at Ford's Theatre in 1863.[8]: 419 [9][10] After the assassination, actor Frank Mordaunt wrote that Lincoln, who apparently harbored no suspicions about Booth, admired the actor and had repeatedly invited him (without success) to visit the White House.[11]: 325–26  Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865, writing in his diary afterwards: "What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration day!"[7]: 174, 437n41 

On March 17, Booth and the other conspirators planned to abduct Lincoln as he returned from a play at Campbell General Hospital in northwest Washington. But Lincoln did not go to the play, instead attending a ceremony at the National Hotel.[7]: 185  Booth was living at the National Hotel at the time and, had he not gone to the hospital for the abortive kidnap attempt, might have been able to attack Lincoln at the hotel.[7]: 185–86, 439n17 [12]: 25 

Meanwhile, the Confederacy was collapsing. On April 3, Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, fell to the Union Army. On April 9, General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Potomac after the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other Confederate officials had fled. Nevertheless, Booth continued to believe in the Confederate cause and sought a way to salvage it.[13]: 728 

Motive

There are various theories about Booth's motivations. In a letter to his mother, he wrote of his desire to avenge the South.[14] Doris Kearns Goodwin has endorsed the idea that another factor was Booth's rivalry with his well-known older brother, actor Edwin Booth, who was a loyal Unionist.[15] David S. Reynolds believes that, despite disagreeing with his cause, Booth greatly admired the abolitionist John Brown;[16] Booth's sister Asia Booth Clarke quoted him as saying: "John Brown was a man inspired, the grandest character of the century!"[16][17] On April 11, Booth attended Lincoln's last speech, in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for emancipated slaves;[18] Booth said, "That means nigger citizenship. ... That is the last speech he will ever give."[19]

Enraged, Booth urged Powell to shoot Lincoln on the spot. Whether Booth made this request because he was not armed or considered Powell a better shot than himself (Powell, unlike Booth, had served in the Confederate Army and thus had military experience) is unknown. In any event, Powell refused for fear of the crowd, and Booth was either unable or unwilling to personally attempt to kill the president. However, Booth said to David Herold, "By God, I'll put him through."[20][8]: 91 

Lincoln's premonitions

According to Ward Hill Lamon, three days before his death, Lincoln related a dream in which he wandered the White House searching for the source of mournful sounds:

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."[21]

However, Lincoln went on to tell Lamon that "In this dream it was not me, but some other fellow, that was killed. It seems that this ghostly assassin tried his hand on someone else."[22][23] Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell writes that dreams of assassination would not be unexpected in the first place, considering the Baltimore Plot and an additional assassination attempt in which a hole was shot through Lincoln's hat.[22]

For months Lincoln had looked pale and haggard, but on the morning of the assassination he told people how happy he was. First Lady Mary Lincoln felt such talk could bring bad luck.[24]: 346  Lincoln told his cabinet that he had dreamed of being on a "singular and indescribable vessel that was moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore", and that he had had the same dream before "nearly every great and important event of the War" such as the Union victories at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg and Vicksburg.[25]

Preparations

 
Advertisement for Our American Cousin (Washington Evening Star, April 14, 1865)

On April 14, Booth's morning started at midnight. He wrote his mother that all was well but that he was "in haste". In his diary, he wrote that "Our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done".[13]: 728 [24]: 346 

While visiting Ford's Theatre around noon to pick up his mail, Booth learned that Lincoln and Grant were to visit the theater that evening for a performance of Our American Cousin. This provided him with an especially good opportunity to attack Lincoln since, having performed there several times, he knew the theater's layout and was familiar to its staff.[12]: 12 [8]: 108–09  Booth went to Mary Surratt's boarding house in Washington, D.C., and asked her to deliver a package to her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland. He also asked her to tell her tenant Louis J. Weichmann to ready the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the tavern.[12]: 19 

 
Ford's Theatre

The conspirators met for the final time at 8:45 pm. Booth assigned Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward at his home, Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood Hotel, and Herold to guide Powell (who was unfamiliar with Washington) to the Seward house and then to a rendezvous with Booth in Maryland.

Booth was the only well-known member of the conspiracy. Access to the theater's upper floor containing the Presidential Box was restricted, and Booth was the only plotter who could have realistically expected to be admitted there without difficulty. Furthermore, it would have been reasonable (but ultimately incorrect) for the plotters to have assumed that the entrance of the box would itself be guarded. Had it been, Booth would have been the only plotter with a plausible chance of gaining access to the President, or at least to gain entry to the box without being searched for weapons first. Booth planned to shoot Lincoln at point-blank range with his single-shot Philadelphia Deringer pistol and then stab Grant at the theater. They were all to strike simultaneously shortly after ten o'clock.[8]: 112  Atzerodt tried to withdraw from the plot, which to this point had involved only kidnapping, not murder, but Booth pressured him to continue.[7]: 212 

Assassination of Lincoln

 
Lincoln's box

Lincoln arrives at the theater

Despite what Booth had heard earlier in the day, Grant and his wife, Julia Grant, had declined to accompany the Lincolns, as Mary Lincoln and Julia Grant were not on good terms.[26]: 45 [b] Others in succession also declined the Lincolns' invitation, until finally Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (daughter of U.S. Senator Ira Harris of New York) accepted.[12]: 32  At one point, Mary developed a headache and was inclined to stay home, but Lincoln told her he must attend because newspapers had announced that he would.[28] Lincoln's footman, William H. Crook, advised him not to go, but Lincoln said he had promised his wife.[29] Lincoln told Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, "I suppose it's time to go though I would rather stay" before assisting Mary into the carriage.

The presidential party arrived late and settled into their box (two adjoining boxes with a dividing partition removed). The play was interrupted, and the orchestra played "Hail to the Chief" as the full house of some 1,700 rose in applause.[30] Lincoln sat in a rocking chair that had been selected for him from among the Ford family's personal furnishings.[31][32]

The cast modified a line of the play in honor of Lincoln: when the heroine asked for a seat protected from the draft, the reply – scripted as, "Well, you're not the only one that wants to escape the draft" – was delivered instead as, "The draft has already been stopped by order of the President!"[33] A member of the audience observed that Mary Lincoln often called her husband's attention to aspects of the action onstage, and "seemed to take great pleasure in witnessing his enjoyment."[34]

At one point, Mary whispered to Lincoln, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" Lincoln replied, "She won't think anything about it".[12]: 39  In following years, these words were traditionally considered Lincoln's last, though N.W. Miner, a family friend, claimed in 1882 that Mary Lincoln told him that Lincoln's last words expressed a wish to visit Jerusalem.[35]

Booth shoots Lincoln

 
This Currier & Ives print (1865) implies Rathbone was already rising as Booth fired; in fact, Rathbone was unaware of Booth until he heard the shot.

With Crook off duty and Ward Hill Lamon away, policeman John Frederick Parker was assigned to guard the Presidential Box.[36] At intermission he went to a nearby tavern along with Lincoln's valet, Charles Forbes, and Coachman Francis Burke. It was also the same tavern Booth was waiting by having several drinks to prepare his time. It is unclear whether Parker returned to the theater, but he was certainly not at his post when Booth entered the box.[37] In any event, there is no certainty that entry would have been denied to a celebrity such as Booth. Booth had prepared a brace to bar the door after entering the box, indicating that he expected a guard. After spending time at the tavern, Booth entered Ford's Theatre one last time at about 10:10 pm, this time through the theater's front entrance. He passed through the dress circle and went to the door that led to the Presidential Box after showing Charles Forbes his calling card. Navy Surgeon George Brainerd Todd saw Booth arrive:[38]

About 10:25 pm, a man came in and walked slowly along the side on which the "Pres" box was and I heard a man say, "There's Booth" and I turned my head to look at him. He was still walking very slow and was near the box door when he stopped, took a card from his pocket, wrote something on it, and gave it to the usher who took it to the box. In a minute the door was opened and he walked in.

Once inside the hallway, Booth barricaded the door by wedging a stick between it and the wall. From here, a second door led to Lincoln's box. There is evidence that, earlier in the day, Booth had bored a peephole in this second door.[39][40]: 173 

 
Washington Metropolitan Police De­part­ment blotter for April 14 (lower quarter of page): "At this hour the mel­an­choly intel­li­gence of the assas­si­na­tion of Mr. Lincoln ... was brought to this office ... the assassin is a man named J. Wilks [sic] Booth."

Booth knew the play Our American Cousin by heart and waited to time his shot at about 10:15 pm, with the laughter at one of the hilarious lines of the play, delivered by actor Harry Hawk: "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!". Lincoln was laughing at this line[41]: 96  when Booth opened the door, stepped forward, and shot Lincoln from behind with his pistol.[2]

The bullet entered Lincoln's skull behind his left ear, passed through his brain, and came to rest near the front of the skull after fracturing both orbital plates.[c][44] Lincoln slumped over in his chair and then fell backward.[46][47] Rathbone turned to see Booth standing in gunsmoke less than four feet behind Lincoln; Booth shouted a word that Rathbone thought sounded like "Freedom!"[48]

Booth escapes

 
Booth's dagger

Rathbone jumped from his seat and struggled with Booth, who dropped the pistol and drew a knife with which he stabbed Rathbone in the left forearm. Rathbone again grabbed at Booth as he prepared to jump from the box to the stage, a twelve-foot drop;[49] Booth's riding spur became entangled on the Treasury flag decorating the box, and he landed awkwardly on his left foot. As he began crossing the stage, many in the audience thought he was part of the play.

Booth held his bloody knife over his head and yelled something to the audience. While it is traditionally held that Booth shouted the Virginia state motto, Sic semper tyrannis! ("Thus always to tyrants") either from the box or the stage, witness accounts conflict.[13]: 739  Most recalled hearing Sic semper tyrannis! but others – including Booth himself – said he yelled only Sic semper![50][51] (Some did not recall Booth saying anything in Latin.) There is similar uncertainty about what Booth shouted next, in English: either "The South is avenged!",[12]: 48  "Revenge for the South!", or "The South shall be free!" (Two witnesses remembered Booth's words as: "I have done it!")

Immediately after Booth landed on the stage, Major Joseph B. Stewart climbed over the orchestra pit and footlights and pursued Booth across the stage.[49] The screams of Mary Lincoln and Clara Harris, and Rathbone's cries of, "Stop that man!"[12]: 49  prompted others to join the chase as pandemonium broke out.

Booth exited the theater through a side door, en route stabbing orchestra leader William Withers, Jr.[52][53] As he leapt into the saddle of his getaway horse Booth pushed away Joseph Burroughs,[a] who had been holding the horse, striking Burroughs with the handle of his knife.[54][55][56][1]

Death of Lincoln

 

Charles Leale, a young Union Army surgeon, pushed through the crowd to the door of the Presidential Box, but could not open it until Rathbone, inside, noticed and removed the wooden brace with which Booth had jammed the door shut.[8]: 120 

Leale found Lincoln seated with his head leaning to his right[43] as Mary held him and sobbed: "His eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous."[57][58] Thinking Lincoln had been stabbed, Leale shifted him to the floor. Meanwhile, another physician, Charles Sabin Taft, was lifted into the box from the stage.

After Leale and bystander William Kent cut away Lincoln's collar while unbuttoning his coat and shirt and found no stab wound, Leale located the gunshot wound behind the left ear. He found the bullet too deep to be removed but dislodged a blood clot, after which Lincoln's breathing improved;[8]: 121–22  he learned that regularly removing new clots maintained Lincoln's breathing. After giving Lincoln artificial respiration, Leale allowed actress Laura Keene to cradle the President's head in her lap. He pronounced the wound mortal.[12]: 78 

 
Skull fragments and probe used.

Leale, Taft, and another doctor, Albert King, decided that Lincoln must be moved to the nearest house on Tenth Street because a carriage ride to the White House was too dangerous. Carefully, seven men picked up Lincoln and slowly carried him out of the theater, where it was packed with an angry mob. After considering Peter Taltavull's Star Saloon next door, they concluded that they would take Lincoln to one of the houses across the way. It was raining as soldiers carried Lincoln into the street,[59] where a man urged them toward the house of tailor William Petersen.[60] In Petersen's first-floor bedroom, the exceptionally tall Lincoln was laid diagonally on a small bed.[8]: 123–24 

 
Lincoln's deathbed[d]

After clearing everyone out of the room, including Mrs. Lincoln, the doctors cut away Lincoln's clothes but discovered no other wounds; finding that Lincoln was cold, they applied hot water bottles and mustard plasters while covering his cold body with blankets. Later, more physicians arrived: Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes, Charles Henry Crane, Anderson Ruffin Abbott, and Robert K. Stone (Lincoln's personal physician). All agreed Lincoln could not survive. Barnes probed the wound, locating the bullet and some bone fragments. Throughout the night, as the hemorrhage continued, they removed blood clots to relieve pressure on the brain,[62] and Leale held the comatose president's hand with a firm grip, "to let him know that he was in touch with humanity and had a friend."[8]: 14 [63]

 
The Last Hours of Abraham Lincoln (Alonzo Chappel, 1868)[e]

Lincoln's older son Robert Todd Lincoln arrived at about 11 pm, but twelve-year-old Tad Lincoln, who was watching a play of Aladdin at Grover's Theater when he learned of his father's assassination, was kept away. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton arrived. Stanton insisted that the sobbing Mrs. Lincoln leave the sick room, then for the rest of the night he essentially ran the United States government from the house, including directing the hunt for Booth and the other conspirators.[8]: 127–28  Guards kept the public away, but numerous officials and physicians were admitted to pay their respects.[62]

 
A minute-by-minute timeline of Lincoln's worsening medical condition throughout the day of April 15, 1865, published by The New York Times.

Initially, Lincoln's features were calm and his breathing slow and steady. Later, one of his eyes became swollen and the right side of his face discolored.[64] Maunsell Bradhurst Field wrote in a letter to The New York Times that Lincoln then started "breathing regularly, but with effort, and did not seem to be struggling or suffering."[65][66] As he neared death, Lincoln's appearance became "perfectly natural"[65] (except for the discoloration around his eyes).[67] Shortly before 7 am Mary was allowed to return to Lincoln's side,[68] and, as Dixon reported, "she again seated herself by the President, kissing him and calling him every endearing name."[69]

Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15.[3] Mary Lincoln was not present.[70][71] In his last moments, Lincoln's face became calm and his breathing quieter.[72] Field wrote there was "no apparent suffering, no convulsive action, no rattling of the throat ... [only] a mere cessation of breathing".[65][66] According to Lincoln's secretary John Hay, at the moment of Lincoln's death, "a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features".[73] The assembly knelt for a prayer, after which Stanton said either, "Now he belongs to the ages" or, "Now he belongs to the angels."[8]: 134 [74]

On Lincoln's death, Vice President Johnson became the 17th President of the United States. The presidential oath of office was administered to Johnson by Chief Justice Salmon Chase sometime between 10 and 11 am.[75]

Powell attacks Seward

 
An artist's depiction of Lewis Powell attacking William Seward's son, Frederick W. Seward

Booth had assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. On the night of the assassination, Seward was at his home on Lafayette Square, confined to bed and recovering from injuries sustained on April 5 from being thrown from his carriage. Herold guided Powell to Seward's house. Powell carried an 1858 Whitney revolver (a large, heavy, and popular gun during the Civil War) and a Bowie knife.

William Bell, Seward's maître d', answered the door when Powell knocked 10:10 pm, as Booth made his way to the Presidential Box at Ford's Theater. Powell told Bell that he had medicine from Seward's physician and that his instructions were to personally show Seward how to take it. Overcoming Bell's skepticism, Powell made his way up the stairs to Seward's third-floor bedroom.[12]: 54 [13]: 736 [76] At the top of the staircase he was stopped by Seward's son, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward, to whom he repeated the medicine story; Frederick, suspicious, said his father was asleep.

 
William and Fanny Seward in 1861

Hearing voices, Seward's daughter Fanny emerged from Seward's room and said, "Fred, Father is awake now" – thus revealing to Powell where Seward was. Powell turned as if to start downstairs but suddenly turned again and drew his revolver. He aimed at Frederick's forehead and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired, so he bludgeoned Frederick unconscious with it. Bell, yelling "Murder! Murder!", ran outside for help.

Fanny opened the door again, and Powell shoved past her to Seward's bed. He stabbed at Seward's face and neck, slicing open his cheek.[12]: 58  However, the splint (often mistakenly described as a neck brace) that doctors had fitted to Seward's broken jaw prevented the blade from penetrating his jugular vein.[13]: 737  Seward eventually recovered, though with serious scars on his face.

Seward's son Augustus and Sergeant George F. Robinson, a soldier assigned to Seward, were alerted by Fanny's screams and received stab wounds in struggling with Powell. As Augustus went for a pistol, Powell ran downstairs toward the door,[77]: 275  where he encountered Emerick Hansell, a State Department messenger.[78][79] Powell stabbed Hansell in the back, then ran outside exclaiming, "I'm mad! I'm mad!" Screams from the house had frightened Herold, who ran off, leaving Powell to find his own way in an unfamiliar city.[12]: 59 

Atzerodt fails to attack Johnson

Booth had assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was staying at the Kirkwood House in Washington. Atzerodt was to go to Johnson's room at 10:15 pm and shoot him.[13]: 735  On April 14, Atzerodt rented the room directly above Johnson's; the next day, he arrived there at the appointed time and, carrying a gun and knife, went to the bar downstairs, where he asked the bartender about Johnson's character and behavior. He eventually became drunk and wandered off through the streets, tossing his knife away at some point. He made his way to the Pennsylvania House Hotel by 2 am, where he obtained a room and went to sleep.[8]: 166–67 [77]: 335 

Earlier in the day, Booth had stopped by the Kirkwood House and left a note for Johnson: "I don't wish to disturb you. Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth."[76] One theory holds that Booth was trying to find out whether Johnson was expected at the Kirkwood that night;[8]: 111  another holds that Booth, concerned that Atzerodt would fail to kill Johnson, intended the note to implicate Johnson in the conspiracy.[80]

Reactions

 
Lincoln's funeral train

Lincoln was mourned in both the North and South,[77]: 350  and indeed around the world.[81] Numerous foreign governments issued proclamations and declared periods of mourning on April 15.[82][83] Lincoln was praised in sermons on Easter Sunday, which fell on the day after his death.[77]: 357 

On April 18, mourners lined up seven abreast for a mile to view Lincoln in his walnut casket in the White House's black-draped East Room. Special trains brought thousands from other cities, some of whom slept on the Capitol's lawn.[84]: 120–23  Hundreds of thousands watched the funeral procession on April 19,[12]: 213  and millions more lined the 1,700-mile (2,700 km) route of the train which took Lincoln's remains through New York to Springfield, Illinois, often passing trackside tributes in the form of bands, bonfires, and hymn-singing.[85]: 31–58 [41]: 231–38 

 
"The Apotheosis of Lincoln": Lincoln ascending to heaven, where George Washington embraces him and crowns him with laurels. (Unknown artist)

Poet Walt Whitman composed "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", "O Captain! My Captain!", and two other poems, to eulogize Lincoln.[86][87]

Ulysses S. Grant called Lincoln "incontestably the greatest man I ever knew."[13]: 747  Robert E. Lee expressed sadness.[88] Southern-born Elizabeth Blair said that "Those of Southern born sympathies know now they have lost a friend willing and more powerful to protect and serve them than they can now ever hope to find again."[13]: 744  African-American orator Frederick Douglass called the assassination an "unspeakable calamity".[88]

British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell called Lincoln's death a "sad calamity."[83] China's chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, Prince Kung, described himself as "inexpressibly shocked and startled".[82] Ecuadorian president Gabriel García Moreno said, "Never should I have thought that the noble country of Washington would be humiliated by such a black and horrible crime; nor should I ever have thought that Mr. Lincoln would come to such a horrible end, after having served his country with such wisdom and glory under so critical circumstances."[82][83] The government of Liberia issued a proclamation calling Lincoln "not only the ruler of his own people, but a father to millions of a race stricken and oppressed."[83] The government of Haiti condemned the assassination as a "horrid crime".[83]

Flight and capture of the conspirators

 
Booth's escape route

Booth and Herold

Within half an hour of fleeing Ford's Theatre, Booth crossed the Navy Yard Bridge into Maryland.[12]: 67–68  A Union Army sentry questioned him about his late-night travel; Booth said that he was going home to the nearby town of Charles. Although it was forbidden for civilians to cross the bridge after 9 pm, the sentry let him through.[89] Herold made it across the same bridge less than an hour later[12]: 81–82  and rendezvoused with Booth.[12]: 87  After retrieving weapons and supplies previously stored at Surattsville, Herold and Booth rode to the home of Samuel A. Mudd, a local doctor, who splinted the leg[12]: 131, 153  Booth had broken in his escape and later made a pair of crutches for Booth.[12]: 131, 153 

After a day at Mudd's house, Booth and Herold hired a local man to guide them to Samuel Cox's house.[12]: 163  Cox, in turn, took them to Thomas Jones, a Confederate sympathizer who hid Booth and Herold in Zekiah Swamp for five days until they could cross the Potomac River.[12]: 224  On the afternoon of April 24, they arrived at the farm of Richard H. Garrett, a tobacco farmer, in King George County, Virginia. Booth told Garrett he was a wounded Confederate soldier.

 
Reward broadside with photographs of John H. Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, and David E. Herold

An April 15 letter to Navy Surgeon George Brainerd Todd from his brother tells of the rumors in Washington about Booth:

Today all the city is in mourning nearly every house being in black and I have not seen a smile, no business, and many a strong man I have seen in tears – Some reports say Booth is a prisoner, others that he has made his escape – but from orders received here, I believe he is taken, and during the night will be put on a Monitor for safe keeping – as a mob once raised now would know no end.[38]

The hunt for the conspirators quickly became the largest in U.S. history, involving thousands of federal troops and countless civilians. Edwin M. Stanton personally directed the operation,[90] authorizing rewards of $50,000 (equivalent to $900,000 in 2021) for Booth and $25,000 each for Herold and John Surratt.[91]

Booth and Herold were sleeping at Garrett's farm on April 26 when soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry arrived and surrounded the barn, then threatened to set fire to it. Herold surrendered, but Booth cried out, "I will not be taken alive!"[12]: 326  The soldiers set fire to the barn[12]: 331  and Booth scrambled for the back door with a rifle and pistol.

Sergeant Boston Corbett crept up behind the barn and shot Booth in "the back of the head about an inch below the spot where his [Booth's] shot had entered the head of Mr. Lincoln",[92] severing his spinal cord.[12]: 335  Booth was carried out onto the steps of the barn. A soldier poured water into his mouth, which he spat out, unable to swallow. Booth told the soldier, "Tell my mother I die for my country." Unable to move his limbs, he asked a soldier to lift his hands before his face and whispered his last words as he gazed at them: "Useless ... useless." He died on the porch of the Garrett farm two hours later.[12]: 336–40 [76] Corbett was initially arrested for disobeying orders from Stanton that Booth be taken alive if possible, but was later released and was largely considered a hero by the media and the public.[41]: 228 

Others

 
The Garrett farmhouse, where Booth died April 26

Without Herold to guide him, Powell did not find his way back to the Surratt house until April 17. He told detectives waiting there that he was a ditch-digger hired by Mary Surratt, but she denied knowing him. Both were arrested.[8]: 174–79  George Atzerodt hid at his cousin's farm in Germantown, Maryland, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Washington, where he was arrested April 20.[8]: 169 

The remaining conspirators were arrested by month's end – except for John Surratt, who fled to Quebec where Roman Catholic priests hid him. In September, he boarded a ship to Liverpool, England, staying in the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross there. From there, he moved furtively through Europe until joining the Pontifical Zouaves in the Papal States. A friend from his school days recognized him there in early 1866 and alerted the U.S. government. Surratt was arrested by the Papal authorities but managed to escape under suspicious circumstances. He was finally captured by an agent of the United States in Egypt in November 1866.[93]

Conspirators' trial and execution

 
Trial of the conspirators, June 5, 1865

Scores of persons were arrested, including many tangential associates of the conspirators and anyone having had even the slightest contact with Booth or Herold during their flight. These included Louis J. Weichmann, a boarder in Mrs. Surratt's house; Booth's brother Junius (in Cincinnati at the time of the assassination); theater owner John T. Ford; James Pumphrey, from whom Booth hired his horse; John M. Lloyd, the innkeeper who rented Mrs. Surratt's Maryland tavern and gave Booth and Herold weapons and supplies the night of April 14; and Samuel Cox and Thomas A. Jones, who helped Booth and Herold cross the Potomac.[84]: 186–88  All were eventually released except:[84]: 188 

The accused were tried by a military tribunal ordered by Johnson, who had succeeded to the presidency on Lincoln's death:

The prosecution was led by U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, assisted by Congressman John A. Bingham and Major Henry Lawrence Burnett.[94]

The use of a military tribunal provoked criticism from Edward Bates and Gideon Welles, who believed that a civil court should have presided, but Attorney General James Speed pointed to the military nature of the conspiracy and the facts that the defendants acted as enemy combatants and that martial law was in force at the time in the District of Columbia. (In 1866, in Ex parte Milligan, the United States Supreme Court banned the use of military tribunals in places where civil courts were operational.)[8]: 213–14  Only a simple majority of the jury was required for a guilty verdict and a two-thirds for a death sentence. There was no route for appeal other than to President Johnson.[8]: 222–23 

The seven-week trial included the testimony of 366 witnesses. All of the defendants were found guilty on June 30. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by hanging; Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison.[95] Edmund Spangler was sentenced to six years. After sentencing Mary Surratt to hang, five jurors signed a letter recommending clemency, but Johnson refused to stop the execution; he later claimed he never saw the letter.[8]: 227 

Mary Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7.[12]: 362, 365  Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the United States government.[96] O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were pardoned in February 1869 by Johnson.[12]: 367  Spangler, who died in 1875, always insisted his sole connection to the plot was that Booth asked him to hold his horse.[citation needed]

John Surratt stood trial in Washington in 1867. Four residents of Elmira, New York,[12]: 27 [97]: 125, 132, 136–37 [98]: 112–15  claimed they had seen him there between April 13 and 15; fifteen others said they either saw him or someone who resembled him, in Washington (or traveling to or from Washington) on the day of the assassination. The jury could not reach a verdict, and John Surratt was released.[8]: 178 [97]: 132–33, 138 [99]: 227 

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Burroughs was also known as "John Peanut", "Peanut John", John Bohran, and other aliases.[1]
  2. ^ There is evidence to suggest that either Booth or fellow conspirator Michael O'Laughlen – who resembled Booth – followed the Grants to Union Station late that afternoon and discovered that they would not be at the theater. The Grants later received an anonymous letter from someone who claimed to have boarded their train intending to attack them but was thwarted because the Grants' private car was locked and guarded.[27]
  3. ^ Though the steel ball Booth used as a bullet was of a .41 caliber, the deringer type was a small, easily concealable gun known to be inaccurate and usually just used in close quarters.[42] The bullet most probably passed mainly through the left side of the brain, causing massive damage including the skull fractures, hemorrhaging, and secondary severe edema of the brain. While Dr. Leale's notes mention Lincoln's bulging right eye,[43] the autopsy only specifically states the damage to the left side of the brain.[44][45]
  4. ^ Julius Ulke, who was a boarder at the Petersen House, took this photograph shortly after Lincoln's body was removed.[61]
  5. ^ Designed by John B. Bachelder, this painting depicts the various people who visited Lincoln's room at different times throughout the night as he lay dying; they were not all present simultaneously.

References

  1. ^ a b Edwards, William C.; Steers, Edward, eds. (2010). John Bohran (Joseph Burroughs) – The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence. University of Illinois Press. pp. 140–41. ISBN 9780252091070. He came up to the horse and put one foot in the stirrup and struck me with the butt of his dagger and knocked me down.
  2. ^ a b Abel, E. Lawrence (2015). A Finger in Lincoln's Brain: What Modern Science Reveals about Lincoln, His Assassination, and Its Aftermath. ABC-CLIO. p. 63. ISBN 9781440831195. Forensic evidence clearly indicates Booth could not have fired at point-blank range ... At a distance of three or more feet, the gunshot did not leave any stippling or any other residues on the surface of Lincoln's head ... Dr. Robert Stone, the Lincoln's' family physician, was explicit: "The hair or scalp (on Lincoln's head) was not in the least burn[t]."
  3. ^ a b Richard A. R. Fraser, MD (February–March 1995). "How Did Lincoln Die?". American Heritage. 46 (1).
  4. ^ "Lincoln Shot at Ford's Theater".
  5. ^ Getler, Warren; Brewer, Bob (2003). Shadow of the Sentinel. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-1968-6.
  6. ^ "Prisoner exchange". Spartacus-Educational.com. from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d e Kauffman, Michael W. (2004). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50785-4.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Steers, Edward. Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. University Press of Kentucky, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8131-9151-5
  9. ^ "5 facts you may not know about Lincoln's assassination". CBS News. Retrieved March 1, 2017. Just a few days before delivering the Gettysburg Address in 1863, Lincoln went to the theater to see a play called "The Marble Heart" – a translated French production in which Booth played the villain.
  10. ^ Bogar, Thomas A. (2006). American Presidents Attend the Theatre: The Playgoing Experiences of Each Chief Executive. McFarland. pp. 100, 375–76. ISBN 9780786442324.
  11. ^ Hay, John (1999). Burlingame, Michael; Ettlinger, John R. Turner (eds.). Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809322626.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Swanson, James. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. Harper Collins, 2006. ISBN 978-0-06-051849-3
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: the political genius of Abraham Lincoln. Simon and Schuster, New York, 2005. ISBN 978-0-684-82490-1
  14. ^ Kauffman, John W. (2007). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. Random House. p. 252. ISBN 9780307430618. "...that I have not a single selfish motive to spur me on to this, nothing save the sacred duty, I feel I owe the cause I love, the cause of the South.
  15. ^ Goodwin, Doris Kearns (2010). My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy (Foreword). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781416586166.
  16. ^ a b Reynolds, David S. (April 12, 2015). "John Wilkes Booth and the Higher Law". The Atlantic.
  17. ^ Clarke, Asia Booth (1938). The Unlocked Book: A Memoir of John Wilkes Booth by his Sister. Faber & Faber. p. 124.
  18. ^ . Speeches and Writings. Abraham Lincoln Online. April 11, 1865. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
  19. ^ Masur, Louis P. (2015). McPherson, James (ed.). Lincoln's last speech : wartime reconstruction and the crisis of reunion. pp. xiii–xiv. ISBN 978-0-19-021840-9. OCLC 900633130.
  20. ^ Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 588.
  21. ^ pp. 116–17 of Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847–1865 by Ward Hill Lamon (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1999).
  22. ^ a b Nickell, Joe. "Premonition! Foreseeing What Cannot Be Seen". Skeptical Inquirer. 43 (4).
  23. ^ Sandburg, Carl (2002). Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years. Harcourt. p. 698. ISBN 0-15-602752-6.
  24. ^ a b Kunhardt Jr., Phillip B., Kunhardt III, Phillip, and Kunhardt, Peter W. Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography. Gramercy Books, New York, 1992. ISBN 0-517-20715-X
  25. ^ "American Experience | The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln". PBS. Retrieved December 14, 2012.
  26. ^ Vowell, Sarah. Assassination Vacation. Simon and Schuster, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-6003-1
  27. ^ McFeely (2002), Grant: A Biography, pp. 224–25
  28. ^ Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 593.
  29. ^ Lewis, Lloyd (1994). The Assassination of Lincoln: History and Myth. University of Nebraska Press. p. 297. ISBN 978-0-8032-7949-0.
  30. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions – Ford's Theatre National Historic Site". Nps.gov. February 12, 1932. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  31. ^ Sneller, Rhoda; Sneller, PhD, Lowell. "Lincoln Assassination Rocking Chair". Retrieved August 26, 2017. Theatre employee Joe Simms concurred ... saying, 'I saw Mr. Harry Ford and another gentleman fixing up the box. Mr. Ford told me to go to his bed-room and get a rocking chair, and bring it down and put it in the President's box ...' James L. Maddox, another theatre worker, remembered Simms carrying the rocker into the building on his head. 'I had not seen that chair in the box this season; the last time I saw it before that afternoon was in the winter of 1863, when it was used by the President on his first visit to the theater.'
  32. ^ "Curating & Preserving The Lincoln Rocker". The Henry Ford Museum. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
  33. ^ Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 595.
  34. ^ The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. p. 88
  35. ^ Miner, Noyes W. (July 10, 1882). . Chronicling Illinois. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2017. He said we will visit the Holy Land, and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Saviour. He was saying there was no city on earth he so much desired to see as Jerusalem
  36. ^ . Mrlincolnswhitehouse.org. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
  37. ^ John F. Parker: The Guard Who Abandoned His Post at the Abraham Lincoln's Assassination website
  38. ^ a b Dr. George Brainerd Todd (April 14, 1865). "Dr. George Brainerd Todd Letter". Sauerbraten, Tea Time & Scones (B.J. Peters). Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  39. ^ Taylor, Dave (June 10, 2012). "Thoughts From Major Rathbone". BoothieBarn. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  40. ^ Bishop, Jim. The Day Lincoln Was Shot. Harper, New York, 1955. OCLC 2018636
  41. ^ a b c Goodrich, Thomas (2006). The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253218896.
  42. ^ Abel, E. Lawrence (2015). A Finger in Lincoln's Brain: What Modern Science Reveals about Lincoln, His Assassination, and Its Aftermath. ABC-CLIO. Chapter 4.
  43. ^ a b Leale, Charles A. . papersofabrahamlincoln.org. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2017. Mr. Lincoln was seated in a high backed arm chair with his head leaning towards his right side supported by Mrs. Lincoln
  44. ^ a b Mackowiak, Phillip (November 29, 2013). "Would Lincoln Have Survived If He Was Shot Today?". The Atlantic.
  45. ^ Staff. "The autopsy of President Abraham Lincoln". United States National Library of Medicine. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  46. ^ "NPS Historical Handbook: Ford's Theatre". nps.gov. National Park Service. 2002. Retrieved August 26, 2017. The President slumped forward in his chair, and then backward, never to regain consciousness.
  47. ^ Kaplan, Debbie Abrams (April 10, 2015). "President Lincoln's slaying 150 years ago recalled at Ford's Theatre". Los Angeles Times.
  48. ^ "President Lincoln is Shot, 1865". EyeWitnesstoHistory. Ibis Communications. Retrieved August 27, 2017. while I was intently observing the proceedings upon the stage, with my back toward the door, I heard the discharge of a pistol behind me, and, looking round, saw through the smoke a man between the door and the President. The distance from the door to where the President sat was about four feet. At the same time I heard the man shout some word, which I thought was 'Freedom!'
  49. ^ a b Lincoln Assassination, History Channel
  50. ^ Booth, John Wilkes (April 1865). "John Wilkes Booth's Diary". Roger J. Norton. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  51. ^ "TimesMachine April 15, 1865". The New York Times.
  52. ^ Bleyer, Bill (June 2012). . Civil War News. Historical Publications Inc (Kathryn Jorgensen). Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
  53. ^ Good, Timothy S., ed. (1995). We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts (quoting Katherine M. Evans interview from April 1915 New York Tribune). University Press of Mississippi. pp. 148–49.
  54. ^ . National Park Service. Archived from the original on December 9, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
  55. ^ . National Park Service. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
  56. ^ Good, Timothy S., ed. (1995). We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts (quoting John Miles from Lincoln Conspiracy Trial transcripts). University Press of Mississippi. p. 81.
  57. ^ Leale, Charles A. . papersofabrahamlincoln.org. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Archived from the original on August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
  58. ^ O'Connor, John (June 5, 2012). "Report of first doctor to reach shot Lincoln found". Associated Press. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
  59. ^ Blower, Janis (March 14, 2013). . South Shields Gazette. England: shieldsgazette.com. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  60. ^ . rogerjnorton.com. Archived from the original on June 1, 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
  61. ^ "Robert King Stone – Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, 1865". Eyewitness – American Originals from the National Archives. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
  62. ^ a b Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 594.
  63. ^ Jim Bishop, "Abe Lincoln's Last Friend," Reb Acres, December 27, 1977, September 27, 2009 Abe Lincoln's Last Friend 2009-01-29 at the Wayback Machine
  64. ^ "The Death of President Lincoln, 1865". EyeWitness to History. Ibis Communications, Inc. Retrieved August 26, 2017. His slow, full respiration lifted the clothes with each breath that he took. His features were calm and striking. I had never seen them appear to better advantage than for the first hour, perhaps, that I was there. After that his right eye began to swell and that part of his face became discolored.
  65. ^ a b c Fox, Richard (2015). Lincoln's Body: A Cultural History. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393247244.
  66. ^ a b "OUR GREAT LOSS; The Assassination of President Lincoln. DETAILS OF THE FEARFUL CRIME. Closing Moments and Death of the President. Probable Recovery of Secretary Seward. Rumors of the Arrest of the Assassins. The Funeral of President Lincoln to Take Place Next Wednesday. Expressions of Deep Sorrow Through-out the Land. OFFICIAL DISPATCHES. THE ASSASSINATION. Further Details of the Murder Narrow Recape of Secretary Stanton Measures Taken is Prevent the Escape of the Assassin of the President. LAST MOMENTS OF THE PRESIDENT. Interesting Letter from Maunsell B. Field Esq. THE GREAT CALAMITY". The New York Times. April 17, 1865. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  67. ^ Canavan, Kathryn (2015). Lincoln's Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America's Greatest President. University of Kentucky Press. p. 145. ISBN 9780813166094.
  68. ^ "The Death of President Lincoln, 1865". EyeWitness to History. Ibis Communications, Inc. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
  69. ^ Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 599.
  70. ^ Bain, Robert T. (2005). Lincoln's Last Battleground: A Tragic Night Recalled. AuthorHouse. p. 6. ISBN 9781467029919.
  71. ^ Emerson, Jason (2012). Mary Lincoln's Insanity Case: A Documentary History. University of Illinois Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780252037078.
  72. ^ Tarbell, Ida Minerva (1920). The Life of Abraham Lincoln. Vol. 4. p. 40. ISBN 9781582181257.
  73. ^ Hay, John (1915). The Life and Letters of John Hay Volume 1 (quote's original source is Hay's diary which is quoted in "Abraham Lincoln: A History", Volume 10, p. 292 by John G. Nicolay and John Hay). Houghton Mifflin Company.
  74. ^ Townsend, George Alfred (1865). The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth. New York: Dick and Fitzgerald.
  75. ^ Trefousse, Hans L. (1989). Andrew Johnson: A Biography. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 194.
  76. ^ a b c Townsend, George Alfred. The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth. ISBN 9780795007262.
  77. ^ a b c d Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The War Years IV. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1936. OCLC 46381986
  78. ^ Swain, Claudia (March 28, 2013). "Even More Little Known Victims of the Lincoln Assassination Plot". WETA. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  79. ^ Taylor, Dave (September 4, 2015). "Emerick Hansell: The Forgotten Casualty". BoothieBarn. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  80. ^ U.S. Senate: Art & History Home. "Andrew Johnson, 16th Vice President (1865)", United States Senate. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  81. ^ Ford, Matt (April 14, 2015). "How the World Mourned Lincoln". The Atlantic.
  82. ^ a b c Northam, Jackie (April 15, 2015). "Documents Show Global Outpouring of Grief Over Lincoln's Assassination". NPR. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
  83. ^ a b c d e Marrs, Aaron (December 12, 2011). "International Reaction to Lincoln's Death". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
  84. ^ a b c Kunhardt, Dorothy Meserve, and Kunhardt Jr., Phillip B. Twenty Days. Castle Books, 1965. ISBN 1-55521-975-6
  85. ^ Trostel, Scott D. (2002). The Lincoln funeral train: the final journey and national funeral for Abraham Lincoln. Fletcher, Ohio: Cam-Tech Pub. ISBN 978-0925436214.
  86. ^ Staff. "The Walt Whitman Archive – Published Works: O Captain! My Captain!". www.whitmanarchive.org. Center for Digital Research (University of Nebraska-Lincoln). Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  87. ^ Peck, Garrett (2015). Walt Whitman in Washington, D.C.: The Civil War and America's Great Poet. Charleston, SC: The History Press. pp. 118–23. ISBN 978-1-62619-973-6.
  88. ^ a b Kunhardt III, Philip B., "Lincoln's Contested Legacy," Smithsonian, pp. 34–35.
  89. ^ O'Reilly, Bill (2011). Killing Lincoln. Henry Holt & Company, LLC. p. 215.
  90. ^ Martelle, Scott (2015). The Madman and the Assassin: The Strange Life of Boston Corbett, the Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth. Chicago Review Press. p. 87.
  91. ^ "$100,000 Reward!". CivilWar@Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
  92. ^ "The Death of John Wilkes Booth, 1865". Eyewitness to History/Ibis Communications. Retrieved August 16, 2012. (Quoting Lieutenant Edward Doherty, the officer in charge of the soldiers who captured Booth)
  93. ^ Harris, Thomas M., Brig. Gen.. Rome's [i.e. the Vatican's] Responsibility for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Petersburg, Ohio: Pilgrim Brethren Press, 1897. Without ISBN
  94. ^ Linder, Doug. . Law.umkc.edu. Archived from the original on June 20, 2010. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
  95. ^ Steers, Edward (2014). Lincoln's Assassination. SIU Press. p. 116. ISBN 9780809333509.
  96. ^ Linder, D: "Biography of Mary Surratt, Lincoln Assassination Conspirator 2009-02-24 at the Wayback Machine", University of Missouri–Kansas City. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
  97. ^ a b Serup, Paul. Who Killed Abraham Lincoln?: An investigation of North America's most famous ex-priest's assertion that the Roman Catholic Church was behind the assassination of America's greatest President. Salmova Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9811685-0-0
  98. ^ Jampoler, Andrew. The Last Lincoln Conspirator: John Surratt's Flight from the Gallows. Naval Institute Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59114-407-6
  99. ^ Larson, Kate. The Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln. Basic Books, 2008. ISBN 978-0-465-03815-2

Further reading

  • Hodes, Martha. Mourning Lincoln, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. ISBN 9780300195804
  • Holzer, Harold (compiled and introduced by). President Lincoln Assassinated!!: The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning. Library of America/Penguin Random House Inc. 2014. ISBN 978-1-59853-373-6
  • Holzer, Harold; Symonds, Craig L.; Williams, Frank J., eds., The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory, New York: Fordham University Press, 2010. ISBN 9780823232260 Review
  • King, Benjamin. A Bullet for Lincoln, Pelican Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0-88289-927-9
  • Lattimer, John. Kennedy and Lincoln, Medical & Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. 1980. ISBN 978-0-15-152281-1 [includes description and pictures of Seward's jaw splint, not a neck brace]
  • Steers Jr., Edward, and Holzer, Harold, eds. The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft. Louisiana State University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8071-3396-5
  • , , .
  • Bagehot, Walter, ed. (April 29, 1865). "The assassination of Mr Lincoln". The Economist. Vol. XXIII, no. 1, 131.
  • The Lincoln Memorial: A Record of the Life, Assassination, and Obsequies of the Martyred President, New York: Bunce & Huntington, 1865. This is a collection of essays, accounts, sermons, newspaper reports, poems, and more, with no editor or authors named, except Richard Henry Stoddard, whose poem "Abraham Lincoln—An Horatian Ode" is included at pages 273-278.

External links

  • Abraham Lincoln's Physician's Observation and Postmortem Reports: Original Documentation[permanent dead link] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
  • First Responder Dr. Charles Leale Eyewitness Report of Assassination[permanent dead link] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
  • Lincoln Papers: Lincoln Assassination: Introduction
  • Ford's Theatre National Historic Site
  • Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
  •  – slideshow by Life magazine
  • Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Research Site
  • The official transcript of the trial (as recorded by Benn Pitman and several assistants – originally published in 1865 by the United States Army Military Commission)
  • Hanging the Lincoln Conspirators – detailed analysis and review of historic 1865 photograph

assassination, abraham, lincoln, april, 1865, abraham, lincoln, 16th, president, united, states, assassinated, well, known, stage, actor, john, wilkes, booth, while, attending, play, american, cousin, ford, theatre, washington, shot, head, watched, play, linco. On April 14 1865 Abraham Lincoln the 16th president of the United States was assassinated by well known stage actor John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford s Theatre in Washington D C Shot in the head as he watched the play 2 Lincoln died the following day at 7 22 am in the Petersen House opposite the theater 3 He was the first president to be assassinated 4 His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning Assassination of Abraham LincolnPart of the Conclusion of the American Civil WarJohn Wilkes Booth assassinating Abraham Lincoln in Ford s TheatreLocationFord s Theatre Washington D C U S DateApril 14 1865 158 years ago 1865 04 14 10 15 pmTargetAbraham Lincoln succeeded Andrew Johnson failed William H Seward failed Attack typePolitical assassination shooting stabbingWeaponsPhiladelphia Deringer pistol daggerDeathsAbraham Lincoln died April 15 1865 at 7 22 am from his injuries InjuredJohn Wilkes Booth perpetrator Henry Rathbone Joseph Peanuts Burroughs a William H Seward Frederick Seward Augustus Seward Fanny Seward George F Robinson Emerick HansellPerpetratorsJohn Wilkes Booth and co conspiratorsMotiveRevenge for the Confederate StatesNear the end of the American Civil War Lincoln s assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the federal government Conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H Seward and George Atzerodt was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson Beyond Lincoln s death the plot failed Seward was only wounded and Johnson s would be attacker became drunk instead of killing the vice president After a dramatic initial escape Booth was killed at the end of a 12 day chase Powell Herold Atzerodt and Mary Surratt were later hanged for their roles in the conspiracy Contents 1 Background 1 1 Abandoned plan to kidnap Lincoln 1 2 Motive 1 3 Lincoln s premonitions 2 Preparations 3 Assassination of Lincoln 3 1 Lincoln arrives at the theater 3 2 Booth shoots Lincoln 3 3 Booth escapes 3 4 Death of Lincoln 4 Powell attacks Seward 5 Atzerodt fails to attack Johnson 6 Reactions 7 Flight and capture of the conspirators 7 1 Booth and Herold 7 2 Others 8 Conspirators trial and execution 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External linksBackgroundAbandoned plan to kidnap Lincoln The last known high quality image of Lincoln taken on the balcony at the White House March 6 1865 John Wilkes Booth The Surratt house Booth was present as Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address a month before the assassination John Wilkes Booth born in Maryland into a family of prominent stage actors had by the time of the assassination become a famous actor and national celebrity in his own right He was also an outspoken Confederate sympathizer in late 1860 he was initiated in the pro Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle in Baltimore Maryland 5 67 In March 1864 Ulysses S Grant commander of the Union armies suspended the exchange of prisoners of war with the Confederate Army 6 to increase pressure on the manpower starved South Booth conceived a plan to kidnap Lincoln in order to blackmail the Union into resuming prisoner exchanges 7 130 34 and recruited Samuel Arnold George Atzerodt David Herold Michael O Laughlen Lewis Powell also known as Lewis Paine and John Surratt to help him Surratt s mother Mary Surratt left her tavern in Surrattsville Maryland and moved to a house in Washington D C where Booth became a frequent visitor While Booth and Lincoln were not personally acquainted Lincoln had seen Booth at Ford s Theatre in 1863 8 419 9 10 After the assassination actor Frank Mordaunt wrote that Lincoln who apparently harbored no suspicions about Booth admired the actor and had repeatedly invited him without success to visit the White House 11 325 26 Booth attended Lincoln s second inauguration on March 4 1865 writing in his diary afterwards What an excellent chance I had if I wished to kill the President on Inauguration day 7 174 437n41 On March 17 Booth and the other conspirators planned to abduct Lincoln as he returned from a play at Campbell General Hospital in northwest Washington But Lincoln did not go to the play instead attending a ceremony at the National Hotel 7 185 Booth was living at the National Hotel at the time and had he not gone to the hospital for the abortive kidnap attempt might have been able to attack Lincoln at the hotel 7 185 86 439n17 12 25 Meanwhile the Confederacy was collapsing On April 3 Richmond Virginia the Confederate capital fell to the Union Army On April 9 General Robert E Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General Ulysses S Grant and his Army of the Potomac after the Battle of Appomattox Court House Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other Confederate officials had fled Nevertheless Booth continued to believe in the Confederate cause and sought a way to salvage it 13 728 Motive Further information John Wilkes Booth Theories of Booth s motivation There are various theories about Booth s motivations In a letter to his mother he wrote of his desire to avenge the South 14 Doris Kearns Goodwin has endorsed the idea that another factor was Booth s rivalry with his well known older brother actor Edwin Booth who was a loyal Unionist 15 David S Reynolds believes that despite disagreeing with his cause Booth greatly admired the abolitionist John Brown 16 Booth s sister Asia Booth Clarke quoted him as saying John Brown was a man inspired the grandest character of the century 16 17 On April 11 Booth attended Lincoln s last speech in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for emancipated slaves 18 Booth said That means nigger citizenship That is the last speech he will ever give 19 Enraged Booth urged Powell to shoot Lincoln on the spot Whether Booth made this request because he was not armed or considered Powell a better shot than himself Powell unlike Booth had served in the Confederate Army and thus had military experience is unknown In any event Powell refused for fear of the crowd and Booth was either unable or unwilling to personally attempt to kill the president However Booth said to David Herold By God I ll put him through 20 8 91 Lincoln s premonitions According to Ward Hill Lamon three days before his death Lincoln related a dream in which he wandered the White House searching for the source of mournful sounds 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 21 However Lincoln went on to tell Lamon that In this dream it was not me but some other fellow that was killed It seems that this ghostly assassin tried his hand on someone else 22 23 Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell writes that dreams of assassination would not be unexpected in the first place considering the Baltimore Plot and an additional assassination attempt in which a hole was shot through Lincoln s hat 22 For months Lincoln had looked pale and haggard but on the morning of the assassination he told people how happy he was First Lady Mary Lincoln felt such talk could bring bad luck 24 346 Lincoln told his cabinet that he had dreamed of being on a singular and indescribable vessel that was moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore and that he had had the same dream before nearly every great and important event of the War such as the Union victories at Antietam Murfreesboro Gettysburg and Vicksburg 25 Preparations Advertisement for Our American Cousin Washington Evening Star April 14 1865 On April 14 Booth s morning started at midnight He wrote his mother that all was well but that he was in haste In his diary he wrote that Our cause being almost lost something decisive and great must be done 13 728 24 346 While visiting Ford s Theatre around noon to pick up his mail Booth learned that Lincoln and Grant were to visit the theater that evening for a performance of Our American Cousin This provided him with an especially good opportunity to attack Lincoln since having performed there several times he knew the theater s layout and was familiar to its staff 12 12 8 108 09 Booth went to Mary Surratt s boarding house in Washington D C and asked her to deliver a package to her tavern in Surrattsville Maryland He also asked her to tell her tenant Louis J Weichmann to ready the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the tavern 12 19 Ford s Theatre The conspirators met for the final time at 8 45 pm Booth assigned Powell to kill Secretary of State William H Seward at his home Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood Hotel and Herold to guide Powell who was unfamiliar with Washington to the Seward house and then to a rendezvous with Booth in Maryland Booth was the only well known member of the conspiracy Access to the theater s upper floor containing the Presidential Box was restricted and Booth was the only plotter who could have realistically expected to be admitted there without difficulty Furthermore it would have been reasonable but ultimately incorrect for the plotters to have assumed that the entrance of the box would itself be guarded Had it been Booth would have been the only plotter with a plausible chance of gaining access to the President or at least to gain entry to the box without being searched for weapons first Booth planned to shoot Lincoln at point blank range with his single shot Philadelphia Deringer pistol and then stab Grant at the theater They were all to strike simultaneously shortly after ten o clock 8 112 Atzerodt tried to withdraw from the plot which to this point had involved only kidnapping not murder but Booth pressured him to continue 7 212 Assassination of Lincoln Lincoln s box Lincoln arrives at the theater Despite what Booth had heard earlier in the day Grant and his wife Julia Grant had declined to accompany the Lincolns as Mary Lincoln and Julia Grant were not on good terms 26 45 b Others in succession also declined the Lincolns invitation until finally Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancee Clara Harris daughter of U S Senator Ira Harris of New York accepted 12 32 At one point Mary developed a headache and was inclined to stay home but Lincoln told her he must attend because newspapers had announced that he would 28 Lincoln s footman William H Crook advised him not to go but Lincoln said he had promised his wife 29 Lincoln told Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax I suppose it s time to go though I would rather stay before assisting Mary into the carriage The presidential party arrived late and settled into their box two adjoining boxes with a dividing partition removed The play was interrupted and the orchestra played Hail to the Chief as the full house of some 1 700 rose in applause 30 Lincoln sat in a rocking chair that had been selected for him from among the Ford family s personal furnishings 31 32 Booth s Philadelphia Deringer The cast modified a line of the play in honor of Lincoln when the heroine asked for a seat protected from the draft the reply scripted as Well you re not the only one that wants to escape the draft was delivered instead as The draft has already been stopped by order of the President 33 A member of the audience observed that Mary Lincoln often called her husband s attention to aspects of the action onstage and seemed to take great pleasure in witnessing his enjoyment 34 At one point Mary whispered to Lincoln who was holding her hand What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so Lincoln replied She won t think anything about it 12 39 In following years these words were traditionally considered Lincoln s last though N W Miner a family friend claimed in 1882 that Mary Lincoln told him that Lincoln s last words expressed a wish to visit Jerusalem 35 Booth shoots Lincoln This Currier amp Ives print 1865 implies Rathbone was already rising as Booth fired in fact Rathbone was unaware of Booth until he heard the shot With Crook off duty and Ward Hill Lamon away policeman John Frederick Parker was assigned to guard the Presidential Box 36 At intermission he went to a nearby tavern along with Lincoln s valet Charles Forbes and Coachman Francis Burke It was also the same tavern Booth was waiting by having several drinks to prepare his time It is unclear whether Parker returned to the theater but he was certainly not at his post when Booth entered the box 37 In any event there is no certainty that entry would have been denied to a celebrity such as Booth Booth had prepared a brace to bar the door after entering the box indicating that he expected a guard After spending time at the tavern Booth entered Ford s Theatre one last time at about 10 10 pm this time through the theater s front entrance He passed through the dress circle and went to the door that led to the Presidential Box after showing Charles Forbes his calling card Navy Surgeon George Brainerd Todd saw Booth arrive 38 About 10 25 pm a man came in and walked slowly along the side on which the Pres box was and I heard a man say There s Booth and I turned my head to look at him He was still walking very slow and was near the box door when he stopped took a card from his pocket wrote something on it and gave it to the usher who took it to the box In a minute the door was opened and he walked in Once inside the hallway Booth barricaded the door by wedging a stick between it and the wall From here a second door led to Lincoln s box There is evidence that earlier in the day Booth had bored a peephole in this second door 39 40 173 Washington Metropolitan Police De part ment blotter for April 14 lower quarter of page At this hour the mel an choly intel li gence of the assas si na tion of Mr Lincoln was brought to this office the assassin is a man named J Wilks sic Booth Booth knew the play Our American Cousin by heart and waited to time his shot at about 10 15 pm with the laughter at one of the hilarious lines of the play delivered by actor Harry Hawk Well I guess I know enough to turn you inside out old gal you sockdologizing old man trap Lincoln was laughing at this line 41 96 when Booth opened the door stepped forward and shot Lincoln from behind with his pistol 2 The bullet entered Lincoln s skull behind his left ear passed through his brain and came to rest near the front of the skull after fracturing both orbital plates c 44 Lincoln slumped over in his chair and then fell backward 46 47 Rathbone turned to see Booth standing in gunsmoke less than four feet behind Lincoln Booth shouted a word that Rathbone thought sounded like Freedom 48 Booth escapes Booth s dagger Rathbone jumped from his seat and struggled with Booth who dropped the pistol and drew a knife with which he stabbed Rathbone in the left forearm Rathbone again grabbed at Booth as he prepared to jump from the box to the stage a twelve foot drop 49 Booth s riding spur became entangled on the Treasury flag decorating the box and he landed awkwardly on his left foot As he began crossing the stage many in the audience thought he was part of the play Booth held his bloody knife over his head and yelled something to the audience While it is traditionally held that Booth shouted the Virginia state motto Sic semper tyrannis Thus always to tyrants either from the box or the stage witness accounts conflict 13 739 Most recalled hearing Sic semper tyrannis but others including Booth himself said he yelled only Sic semper 50 51 Some did not recall Booth saying anything in Latin There is similar uncertainty about what Booth shouted next in English either The South is avenged 12 48 Revenge for the South or The South shall be free Two witnesses remembered Booth s words as I have done it Immediately after Booth landed on the stage Major Joseph B Stewart climbed over the orchestra pit and footlights and pursued Booth across the stage 49 The screams of Mary Lincoln and Clara Harris and Rathbone s cries of Stop that man 12 49 prompted others to join the chase as pandemonium broke out Booth exited the theater through a side door en route stabbing orchestra leader William Withers Jr 52 53 As he leapt into the saddle of his getaway horse Booth pushed away Joseph Burroughs a who had been holding the horse striking Burroughs with the handle of his knife 54 55 56 1 Death of Lincoln Surgeon Charles Leale Charles Leale a young Union Army surgeon pushed through the crowd to the door of the Presidential Box but could not open it until Rathbone inside noticed and removed the wooden brace with which Booth had jammed the door shut 8 120 Leale found Lincoln seated with his head leaning to his right 43 as Mary held him and sobbed His eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous 57 58 Thinking Lincoln had been stabbed Leale shifted him to the floor Meanwhile another physician Charles Sabin Taft was lifted into the box from the stage After Leale and bystander William Kent cut away Lincoln s collar while unbuttoning his coat and shirt and found no stab wound Leale located the gunshot wound behind the left ear He found the bullet too deep to be removed but dislodged a blood clot after which Lincoln s breathing improved 8 121 22 he learned that regularly removing new clots maintained Lincoln s breathing After giving Lincoln artificial respiration Leale allowed actress Laura Keene to cradle the President s head in her lap He pronounced the wound mortal 12 78 Skull fragments and probe used Leale Taft and another doctor Albert King decided that Lincoln must be moved to the nearest house on Tenth Street because a carriage ride to the White House was too dangerous Carefully seven men picked up Lincoln and slowly carried him out of the theater where it was packed with an angry mob After considering Peter Taltavull s Star Saloon next door they concluded that they would take Lincoln to one of the houses across the way It was raining as soldiers carried Lincoln into the street 59 where a man urged them toward the house of tailor William Petersen 60 In Petersen s first floor bedroom the exceptionally tall Lincoln was laid diagonally on a small bed 8 123 24 Lincoln s deathbed d After clearing everyone out of the room including Mrs Lincoln the doctors cut away Lincoln s clothes but discovered no other wounds finding that Lincoln was cold they applied hot water bottles and mustard plasters while covering his cold body with blankets Later more physicians arrived Surgeon General Joseph K Barnes Charles Henry Crane Anderson Ruffin Abbott and Robert K Stone Lincoln s personal physician All agreed Lincoln could not survive Barnes probed the wound locating the bullet and some bone fragments Throughout the night as the hemorrhage continued they removed blood clots to relieve pressure on the brain 62 and Leale held the comatose president s hand with a firm grip to let him know that he was in touch with humanity and had a friend 8 14 63 The Last Hours of Abraham Lincoln Alonzo Chappel 1868 e Lincoln s older son Robert Todd Lincoln arrived at about 11 pm but twelve year old Tad Lincoln who was watching a play of Aladdin at Grover s Theater when he learned of his father s assassination was kept away Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of War Edwin M Stanton arrived Stanton insisted that the sobbing Mrs Lincoln leave the sick room then for the rest of the night he essentially ran the United States government from the house including directing the hunt for Booth and the other conspirators 8 127 28 Guards kept the public away but numerous officials and physicians were admitted to pay their respects 62 A minute by minute timeline of Lincoln s worsening medical condition throughout the day of April 15 1865 published by The New York Times Initially Lincoln s features were calm and his breathing slow and steady Later one of his eyes became swollen and the right side of his face discolored 64 Maunsell Bradhurst Field wrote in a letter to The New York Times that Lincoln then started breathing regularly but with effort and did not seem to be struggling or suffering 65 66 As he neared death Lincoln s appearance became perfectly natural 65 except for the discoloration around his eyes 67 Shortly before 7 am Mary was allowed to return to Lincoln s side 68 and as Dixon reported she again seated herself by the President kissing him and calling him every endearing name 69 Lincoln died at 7 22 am on April 15 3 Mary Lincoln was not present 70 71 In his last moments Lincoln s face became calm and his breathing quieter 72 Field wrote there was no apparent suffering no convulsive action no rattling of the throat only a mere cessation of breathing 65 66 According to Lincoln s secretary John Hay at the moment of Lincoln s death a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features 73 The assembly knelt for a prayer after which Stanton said either Now he belongs to the ages or Now he belongs to the angels 8 134 74 On Lincoln s death Vice President Johnson became the 17th President of the United States The presidential oath of office was administered to Johnson by Chief Justice Salmon Chase sometime between 10 and 11 am 75 Powell attacks Seward An artist s depiction of Lewis Powell attacking William Seward s son Frederick W Seward Booth had assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William H Seward On the night of the assassination Seward was at his home on Lafayette Square confined to bed and recovering from injuries sustained on April 5 from being thrown from his carriage Herold guided Powell to Seward s house Powell carried an 1858 Whitney revolver a large heavy and popular gun during the Civil War and a Bowie knife William Bell Seward s maitre d answered the door when Powell knocked 10 10 pm as Booth made his way to the Presidential Box at Ford s Theater Powell told Bell that he had medicine from Seward s physician and that his instructions were to personally show Seward how to take it Overcoming Bell s skepticism Powell made his way up the stairs to Seward s third floor bedroom 12 54 13 736 76 At the top of the staircase he was stopped by Seward s son Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W Seward to whom he repeated the medicine story Frederick suspicious said his father was asleep William and Fanny Seward in 1861 Hearing voices Seward s daughter Fanny emerged from Seward s room and said Fred Father is awake now thus revealing to Powell where Seward was Powell turned as if to start downstairs but suddenly turned again and drew his revolver He aimed at Frederick s forehead and pulled the trigger but the gun misfired so he bludgeoned Frederick unconscious with it Bell yelling Murder Murder ran outside for help Fanny opened the door again and Powell shoved past her to Seward s bed He stabbed at Seward s face and neck slicing open his cheek 12 58 However the splint often mistakenly described as a neck brace that doctors had fitted to Seward s broken jaw prevented the blade from penetrating his jugular vein 13 737 Seward eventually recovered though with serious scars on his face Seward s son Augustus and Sergeant George F Robinson a soldier assigned to Seward were alerted by Fanny s screams and received stab wounds in struggling with Powell As Augustus went for a pistol Powell ran downstairs toward the door 77 275 where he encountered Emerick Hansell a State Department messenger 78 79 Powell stabbed Hansell in the back then ran outside exclaiming I m mad I m mad Screams from the house had frightened Herold who ran off leaving Powell to find his own way in an unfamiliar city 12 59 Atzerodt fails to attack Johnson George Atzerodt Andrew Johnson Booth had assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson who was staying at the Kirkwood House in Washington Atzerodt was to go to Johnson s room at 10 15 pm and shoot him 13 735 On April 14 Atzerodt rented the room directly above Johnson s the next day he arrived there at the appointed time and carrying a gun and knife went to the bar downstairs where he asked the bartender about Johnson s character and behavior He eventually became drunk and wandered off through the streets tossing his knife away at some point He made his way to the Pennsylvania House Hotel by 2 am where he obtained a room and went to sleep 8 166 67 77 335 Earlier in the day Booth had stopped by the Kirkwood House and left a note for Johnson I don t wish to disturb you Are you at home J Wilkes Booth 76 One theory holds that Booth was trying to find out whether Johnson was expected at the Kirkwood that night 8 111 another holds that Booth concerned that Atzerodt would fail to kill Johnson intended the note to implicate Johnson in the conspiracy 80 ReactionsFurther information Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln Lincoln s funeral train Lincoln was mourned in both the North and South 77 350 and indeed around the world 81 Numerous foreign governments issued proclamations and declared periods of mourning on April 15 82 83 Lincoln was praised in sermons on Easter Sunday which fell on the day after his death 77 357 On April 18 mourners lined up seven abreast for a mile to view Lincoln in his walnut casket in the White House s black draped East Room Special trains brought thousands from other cities some of whom slept on the Capitol s lawn 84 120 23 Hundreds of thousands watched the funeral procession on April 19 12 213 and millions more lined the 1 700 mile 2 700 km route of the train which took Lincoln s remains through New York to Springfield Illinois often passing trackside tributes in the form of bands bonfires and hymn singing 85 31 58 41 231 38 The Apotheosis of Lincoln Lincoln ascending to heaven where George Washington embraces him and crowns him with laurels Unknown artist Poet Walt Whitman composed When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom d O Captain My Captain and two other poems to eulogize Lincoln 86 87 Ulysses S Grant called Lincoln incontestably the greatest man I ever knew 13 747 Robert E Lee expressed sadness 88 Southern born Elizabeth Blair said that Those of Southern born sympathies know now they have lost a friend willing and more powerful to protect and serve them than they can now ever hope to find again 13 744 African American orator Frederick Douglass called the assassination an unspeakable calamity 88 British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell called Lincoln s death a sad calamity 83 China s chief secretary of state for foreign affairs Prince Kung described himself as inexpressibly shocked and startled 82 Ecuadorian president Gabriel Garcia Moreno said Never should I have thought that the noble country of Washington would be humiliated by such a black and horrible crime nor should I ever have thought that Mr Lincoln would come to such a horrible end after having served his country with such wisdom and glory under so critical circumstances 82 83 The government of Liberia issued a proclamation calling Lincoln not only the ruler of his own people but a father to millions of a race stricken and oppressed 83 The government of Haiti condemned the assassination as a horrid crime 83 Flight and capture of the conspirators Booth s escape route Booth and Herold Within half an hour of fleeing Ford s Theatre Booth crossed the Navy Yard Bridge into Maryland 12 67 68 A Union Army sentry questioned him about his late night travel Booth said that he was going home to the nearby town of Charles Although it was forbidden for civilians to cross the bridge after 9 pm the sentry let him through 89 Herold made it across the same bridge less than an hour later 12 81 82 and rendezvoused with Booth 12 87 After retrieving weapons and supplies previously stored at Surattsville Herold and Booth rode to the home of Samuel A Mudd a local doctor who splinted the leg 12 131 153 Booth had broken in his escape and later made a pair of crutches for Booth 12 131 153 After a day at Mudd s house Booth and Herold hired a local man to guide them to Samuel Cox s house 12 163 Cox in turn took them to Thomas Jones a Confederate sympathizer who hid Booth and Herold in Zekiah Swamp for five days until they could cross the Potomac River 12 224 On the afternoon of April 24 they arrived at the farm of Richard H Garrett a tobacco farmer in King George County Virginia Booth told Garrett he was a wounded Confederate soldier Reward broadside with photographs of John H Surratt John Wilkes Booth and David E Herold An April 15 letter to Navy Surgeon George Brainerd Todd from his brother tells of the rumors in Washington about Booth Today all the city is in mourning nearly every house being in black and I have not seen a smile no business and many a strong man I have seen in tears Some reports say Booth is a prisoner others that he has made his escape but from orders received here I believe he is taken and during the night will be put on a Monitor for safe keeping as a mob once raised now would know no end 38 The hunt for the conspirators quickly became the largest in U S history involving thousands of federal troops and countless civilians Edwin M Stanton personally directed the operation 90 authorizing rewards of 50 000 equivalent to 900 000 in 2021 for Booth and 25 000 each for Herold and John Surratt 91 Booth and Herold were sleeping at Garrett s farm on April 26 when soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry arrived and surrounded the barn then threatened to set fire to it Herold surrendered but Booth cried out I will not be taken alive 12 326 The soldiers set fire to the barn 12 331 and Booth scrambled for the back door with a rifle and pistol Sergeant Boston Corbett crept up behind the barn and shot Booth in the back of the head about an inch below the spot where his Booth s shot had entered the head of Mr Lincoln 92 severing his spinal cord 12 335 Booth was carried out onto the steps of the barn A soldier poured water into his mouth which he spat out unable to swallow Booth told the soldier Tell my mother I die for my country Unable to move his limbs he asked a soldier to lift his hands before his face and whispered his last words as he gazed at them Useless useless He died on the porch of the Garrett farm two hours later 12 336 40 76 Corbett was initially arrested for disobeying orders from Stanton that Booth be taken alive if possible but was later released and was largely considered a hero by the media and the public 41 228 Others The Garrett farmhouse where Booth died April 26 Without Herold to guide him Powell did not find his way back to the Surratt house until April 17 He told detectives waiting there that he was a ditch digger hired by Mary Surratt but she denied knowing him Both were arrested 8 174 79 George Atzerodt hid at his cousin s farm in Germantown Maryland about 25 miles 40 km northwest of Washington where he was arrested April 20 8 169 The remaining conspirators were arrested by month s end except for John Surratt who fled to Quebec where Roman Catholic priests hid him In September he boarded a ship to Liverpool England staying in the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross there From there he moved furtively through Europe until joining the Pontifical Zouaves in the Papal States A friend from his school days recognized him there in early 1866 and alerted the U S government Surratt was arrested by the Papal authorities but managed to escape under suspicious circumstances He was finally captured by an agent of the United States in Egypt in November 1866 93 Conspirators trial and execution Trial of the conspirators June 5 1865 Scores of persons were arrested including many tangential associates of the conspirators and anyone having had even the slightest contact with Booth or Herold during their flight These included Louis J Weichmann a boarder in Mrs Surratt s house Booth s brother Junius in Cincinnati at the time of the assassination theater owner John T Ford James Pumphrey from whom Booth hired his horse John M Lloyd the innkeeper who rented Mrs Surratt s Maryland tavern and gave Booth and Herold weapons and supplies the night of April 14 and Samuel Cox and Thomas A Jones who helped Booth and Herold cross the Potomac 84 186 88 All were eventually released except 84 188 Samuel Arnold George Atzerodt David Herold Samuel Mudd Michael O Laughlen Lewis Powell Edmund Spangler a theater stagehand who had given Booth s horse to Burroughs to hold Mary Surratt The accused were tried by a military tribunal ordered by Johnson who had succeeded to the presidency on Lincoln s death Maj Gen David Hunter presiding Maj Gen Lew Wallace Brig Gen Robert Sanford Foster Brev Maj Gen Thomas Maley Harris Brig Gen Albion P Howe Brig Gen August Kautz Col James A Ekin Col Charles H Tompkins Lt Col David Ramsay Clendenin The prosecution was led by U S Army Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt assisted by Congressman John A Bingham and Major Henry Lawrence Burnett 94 The use of a military tribunal provoked criticism from Edward Bates and Gideon Welles who believed that a civil court should have presided but Attorney General James Speed pointed to the military nature of the conspiracy and the facts that the defendants acted as enemy combatants and that martial law was in force at the time in the District of Columbia In 1866 in Ex parte Milligan the United States Supreme Court banned the use of military tribunals in places where civil courts were operational 8 213 14 Only a simple majority of the jury was required for a guilty verdict and a two thirds for a death sentence There was no route for appeal other than to President Johnson 8 222 23 Execution of Mary Surratt Lewis Powell David Herold and George Atzerodt on July 7 1865 at Fort McNair in Washington D C The seven week trial included the testimony of 366 witnesses All of the defendants were found guilty on June 30 Mary Surratt Lewis Powell David Herold and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by hanging Samuel Mudd Samuel Arnold and Michael O Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison 95 Edmund Spangler was sentenced to six years After sentencing Mary Surratt to hang five jurors signed a letter recommending clemency but Johnson refused to stop the execution he later claimed he never saw the letter 8 227 Mary Surratt Powell Herold and Atzerodt were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7 12 362 365 Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the United States government 96 O Laughlen died in prison in 1867 Mudd Arnold and Spangler were pardoned in February 1869 by Johnson 12 367 Spangler who died in 1875 always insisted his sole connection to the plot was that Booth asked him to hold his horse citation needed John Surratt stood trial in Washington in 1867 Four residents of Elmira New York 12 27 97 125 132 136 37 98 112 15 claimed they had seen him there between April 13 and 15 fifteen others said they either saw him or someone who resembled him in Washington or traveling to or from Washington on the day of the assassination The jury could not reach a verdict and John Surratt was released 8 178 97 132 33 138 99 227 See alsoFuneral and burial of Abraham Lincoln Second term curse Baltimore Plot Phineas Densmore Gurley George A Parkhurst When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom d List of assassinated American politicians List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots List of incidents of political violence in Washington D C Joseph Hazelton 12 year old eyewitness Samuel J Seymour 5 year old eyewitness who in 1956 told his story as a television game show contestant List of Abraham Lincoln artifacts and relicsNotes a b Burroughs was also known as John Peanut Peanut John John Bohran and other aliases 1 There is evidence to suggest that either Booth or fellow conspirator Michael O Laughlen who resembled Booth followed the Grants to Union Station late that afternoon and discovered that they would not be at the theater The Grants later received an anonymous letter from someone who claimed to have boarded their train intending to attack them but was thwarted because the Grants private car was locked and guarded 27 Though the steel ball Booth used as a bullet was of a 41 caliber the deringer type was a small easily concealable gun known to be inaccurate and usually just used in close quarters 42 The bullet most probably passed mainly through the left side of the brain causing massive damage including the skull fractures hemorrhaging and secondary severe edema of the brain While Dr Leale s notes mention Lincoln s bulging right eye 43 the autopsy only specifically states the damage to the left side of the brain 44 45 Julius Ulke who was a boarder at the Petersen House took this photograph shortly after Lincoln s body was removed 61 Designed by John B Bachelder this painting depicts the various people who visited Lincoln s room at different times throughout the night as he lay dying they were not all present simultaneously References a b Edwards William C Steers Edward eds 2010 John Bohran Joseph Burroughs The Lincoln Assassination The Evidence University of Illinois Press pp 140 41 ISBN 9780252091070 He came up to the horse and put one foot in the stirrup and struck me with the butt of his dagger and knocked me down a b Abel E Lawrence 2015 A Finger in Lincoln s Brain What Modern Science Reveals about Lincoln His Assassination and Its Aftermath ABC CLIO p 63 ISBN 9781440831195 Forensic evidence clearly indicates Booth could not have fired at point blank range At a distance of three or more feet the gunshot did not leave any stippling or any other residues on the surface of Lincoln s head Dr Robert Stone the Lincoln s family physician was explicit The hair or scalp on Lincoln s head was not in the least burn t a b Richard A R Fraser MD February March 1995 How Did Lincoln Die American Heritage 46 1 Lincoln Shot at Ford s Theater Getler Warren Brewer Bob 2003 Shadow of the Sentinel Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 0 7432 1968 6 Prisoner exchange Spartacus Educational com Archived from the original on June 5 2011 Retrieved February 27 2019 a b c d e Kauffman Michael W 2004 American Brutus John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies New York Random House ISBN 978 0 375 50785 4 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Steers Edward Blood on the Moon The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln University Press of Kentucky 2001 ISBN 978 0 8131 9151 5 5 facts you may not know about Lincoln s assassination CBS News Retrieved March 1 2017 Just a few days before delivering the Gettysburg Address in 1863 Lincoln went to the theater to see a play called The Marble Heart a translated French production in which Booth played the villain Bogar Thomas A 2006 American Presidents Attend the Theatre The Playgoing Experiences of Each Chief Executive McFarland pp 100 375 76 ISBN 9780786442324 Hay John 1999 Burlingame Michael Ettlinger John R Turner eds Inside Lincoln s White House The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay Southern Illinois University Press ISBN 9780809322626 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Swanson James Manhunt The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln s Killer Harper Collins 2006 ISBN 978 0 06 051849 3 a b c d e f g h Goodwin Doris Kearns Team of Rivals the political genius of Abraham Lincoln Simon and Schuster New York 2005 ISBN 978 0 684 82490 1 Kauffman John W 2007 American Brutus John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies Random House p 252 ISBN 9780307430618 that I have not a single selfish motive to spur me on to this nothing save the sacred duty I feel I owe the cause I love the cause of the South Goodwin Doris Kearns 2010 My Thoughts Be Bloody The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy Foreword Simon amp Schuster ISBN 9781416586166 a b Reynolds David S April 12 2015 John Wilkes Booth and the Higher Law The Atlantic Clarke Asia Booth 1938 The Unlocked Book A Memoir of John Wilkes Booth by his Sister Faber amp Faber p 124 Last Public Address Speeches and Writings Abraham Lincoln Online April 11 1865 Archived from the original on June 6 2011 Retrieved September 15 2008 Masur Louis P 2015 McPherson James ed Lincoln s last speech wartime reconstruction and the crisis of reunion pp xiii xiv ISBN 978 0 19 021840 9 OCLC 900633130 Donald David Herbert 1995 Lincoln New York Touchstone p 588 pp 116 17 of Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847 1865 by Ward Hill Lamon Lincoln University of Nebraska Press 1999 a b Nickell Joe Premonition Foreseeing What Cannot Be Seen Skeptical Inquirer 43 4 Sandburg Carl 2002 Abraham Lincoln The Prairie Years and the War Years Harcourt p 698 ISBN 0 15 602752 6 a b Kunhardt Jr Phillip B Kunhardt III Phillip and Kunhardt Peter W Lincoln An Illustrated Biography Gramercy Books New York 1992 ISBN 0 517 20715 X American Experience The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln PBS Retrieved December 14 2012 Vowell Sarah Assassination Vacation Simon and Schuster 2005 ISBN 0 7432 6003 1 McFeely 2002 Grant A Biography pp 224 25 Donald David Herbert 1995 Lincoln New York Touchstone p 593 Lewis Lloyd 1994 The Assassination of Lincoln History and Myth University of Nebraska Press p 297 ISBN 978 0 8032 7949 0 Frequently Asked Questions Ford s Theatre National Historic Site Nps gov February 12 1932 Retrieved September 28 2012 Sneller Rhoda Sneller PhD Lowell Lincoln Assassination Rocking Chair Retrieved August 26 2017 Theatre employee Joe Simms concurred saying I saw Mr Harry Ford and another gentleman fixing up the box Mr Ford told me to go to his bed room and get a rocking chair and bring it down and put it in the President s box James L Maddox another theatre worker remembered Simms carrying the rocker into the building on his head I had not seen that chair in the box this season the last time I saw it before that afternoon was in the winter of 1863 when it was used by the President on his first visit to the theater Curating amp Preserving The Lincoln Rocker The Henry Ford Museum Retrieved August 26 2017 Donald David Herbert 1995 Lincoln New York Touchstone p 595 The Darkest Dawn Lincoln Booth and the Great American Tragedy p 88 Miner Noyes W July 10 1882 Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln Chronicling Illinois Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Archived from the original on November 6 2021 Retrieved August 27 2017 He said we will visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Saviour He was saying there was no city on earth he so much desired to see as Jerusalem entry on John Parker at Mr Lincoln s White House website Mrlincolnswhitehouse org Archived from the original on March 4 2016 Retrieved May 28 2011 John F Parker The Guard Who Abandoned His Post at the Abraham Lincoln s Assassination website a b Dr George Brainerd Todd April 14 1865 Dr George Brainerd Todd Letter Sauerbraten Tea Time amp Scones B J Peters Retrieved August 7 2012 Taylor Dave June 10 2012 Thoughts From Major Rathbone BoothieBarn Retrieved December 16 2017 Bishop Jim The Day Lincoln Was Shot Harper New York 1955 OCLC 2018636 a b c Goodrich Thomas 2006 The Darkest Dawn Lincoln Booth and the Great American Tragedy Indiana University Press ISBN 9780253218896 Abel E Lawrence 2015 A Finger in Lincoln s Brain What Modern Science Reveals about Lincoln His Assassination and Its Aftermath ABC CLIO Chapter 4 a b Leale Charles A Report of Dr Charles A Leale on Assassination April 15 1865 Page 5 papersofabrahamlincoln org The Papers of Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archived from the original on February 4 2017 Retrieved August 27 2017 Mr Lincoln was seated in a high backed arm chair with his head leaning towards his right side supported by Mrs Lincoln a b Mackowiak Phillip November 29 2013 Would Lincoln Have Survived If He Was Shot Today The Atlantic Staff The autopsy of President Abraham Lincoln United States National Library of Medicine Retrieved August 30 2017 NPS Historical Handbook Ford s Theatre nps gov National Park Service 2002 Retrieved August 26 2017 The President slumped forward in his chair and then backward never to regain consciousness Kaplan Debbie Abrams April 10 2015 President Lincoln s slaying 150 years ago recalled at Ford s Theatre Los Angeles Times President Lincoln is Shot 1865 EyeWitnesstoHistory Ibis Communications Retrieved August 27 2017 while I was intently observing the proceedings upon the stage with my back toward the door I heard the discharge of a pistol behind me and looking round saw through the smoke a man between the door and the President The distance from the door to where the President sat was about four feet At the same time I heard the man shout some word which I thought was Freedom a b Lincoln Assassination History Channel Booth John Wilkes April 1865 John Wilkes Booth s Diary Roger J Norton Retrieved December 16 2017 TimesMachine April 15 1865 The New York Times Bleyer Bill June 2012 1906 Letter Tells What Five in Family Saw at Theatre April 14 1865 Civil War News Historical Publications Inc Kathryn Jorgensen Archived from the original on May 2 2014 Retrieved May 2 2014 Good Timothy S ed 1995 We Saw Lincoln Shot One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts quoting Katherine M Evans interview from April 1915New York Tribune University Press of Mississippi pp 148 49 Lincoln s Last Day National Park Service Archived from the original on December 9 2011 Retrieved May 2 2014 Lincoln s Last Day Assassination and Death National Park Service Archived from the original on May 2 2014 Retrieved May 2 2014 Good Timothy S ed 1995 We Saw Lincoln Shot One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts quoting John Miles from Lincoln Conspiracy Trial transcripts University Press of Mississippi p 81 Leale Charles A Report of Dr Charles A Leale on Assassination April 15 1865 Page 6 papersofabrahamlincoln org The Papers of Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archived from the original on August 26 2015 Retrieved August 26 2017 O Connor John June 5 2012 Report of first doctor to reach shot Lincoln found Associated Press Retrieved August 26 2017 Blower Janis March 14 2013 Geordie carried the dying U S president South Shields Gazette England shieldsgazette com Archived from the original on November 13 2014 Retrieved October 26 2014 Henry Safford rogerjnorton com Archived from the original on June 1 2011 Retrieved May 28 2011 Robert King Stone Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln 1865 Eyewitness American Originals from the National Archives National Archives and Records Administration Retrieved September 8 2017 a b Donald David Herbert 1995 Lincoln New York Touchstone p 594 Jim Bishop Abe Lincoln s Last Friend Reb Acres December 27 1977 September 27 2009 Abe Lincoln s Last Friend Archived 2009 01 29 at the Wayback Machine The Death of President Lincoln 1865 EyeWitness to History Ibis Communications Inc Retrieved August 26 2017 His slow full respiration lifted the clothes with each breath that he took His features were calm and striking I had never seen them appear to better advantage than for the first hour perhaps that I was there After that his right eye began to swell and that part of his face became discolored a b c Fox Richard 2015 Lincoln s Body A Cultural History W W Norton amp Company ISBN 978 0393247244 a b OUR GREAT LOSS The Assassination of President Lincoln DETAILS OF THE FEARFUL CRIME Closing Moments and Death of the President Probable Recovery of Secretary Seward Rumors of the Arrest of the Assassins The Funeral of President Lincoln to Take Place Next Wednesday Expressions of Deep Sorrow Through out the Land OFFICIAL DISPATCHES THE ASSASSINATION Further Details of the Murder Narrow Recape of Secretary Stanton Measures Taken is Prevent the Escape of the Assassin of the President LAST MOMENTS OF THE PRESIDENT Interesting Letter from Maunsell B Field Esq THE GREAT CALAMITY The New York Times April 17 1865 ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved April 12 2016 Canavan Kathryn 2015 Lincoln s Final Hours Conspiracy Terror and the Assassination of America s Greatest President University of Kentucky Press p 145 ISBN 9780813166094 The Death of President Lincoln 1865 EyeWitness to History Ibis Communications Inc Retrieved August 26 2017 Donald David Herbert 1995 Lincoln New York Touchstone p 599 Bain Robert T 2005 Lincoln s Last Battleground A Tragic Night Recalled AuthorHouse p 6 ISBN 9781467029919 Emerson Jason 2012 Mary Lincoln s Insanity Case A Documentary History University of Illinois Press p 3 ISBN 9780252037078 Tarbell Ida Minerva 1920 The Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol 4 p 40 ISBN 9781582181257 Hay John 1915 The Life and Letters of John Hay Volume 1 quote s original source is Hay s diary which is quoted in Abraham Lincoln A History Volume 10 p 292 by John G Nicolay and John Hay Houghton Mifflin Company Townsend George Alfred 1865 The Life Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth New York Dick and Fitzgerald Trefousse Hans L 1989 Andrew Johnson A Biography W W Norton amp Company p 194 a b c Townsend George Alfred The Life Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth ISBN 9780795007262 a b c d Sandburg Carl Abraham Lincoln The War Years IV Harcourt Brace amp World 1936 OCLC 46381986 Swain Claudia March 28 2013 Even More Little Known Victims of the Lincoln Assassination Plot WETA Retrieved December 16 2017 Taylor Dave September 4 2015 Emerick Hansell The Forgotten Casualty BoothieBarn Retrieved December 16 2017 U S Senate Art amp History Home Andrew Johnson 16th Vice President 1865 United States Senate Retrieved February 17 2006 Ford Matt April 14 2015 How the World Mourned Lincoln The Atlantic a b c Northam Jackie April 15 2015 Documents Show Global Outpouring of Grief Over Lincoln s Assassination NPR Retrieved May 6 2016 a b c d e Marrs Aaron December 12 2011 International Reaction to Lincoln s Death U S Department of State Office of the Historian Retrieved May 6 2016 a b c Kunhardt Dorothy Meserve and Kunhardt Jr Phillip B Twenty Days Castle Books 1965 ISBN 1 55521 975 6 Trostel Scott D 2002 The Lincoln funeral train the final journey and national funeral for Abraham Lincoln Fletcher Ohio Cam Tech Pub ISBN 978 0925436214 Staff The Walt Whitman Archive Published Works O Captain My Captain www whitmanarchive org Center for Digital Research University of Nebraska Lincoln Retrieved January 22 2017 Peck Garrett 2015 Walt Whitman in Washington D C The Civil War and America s Great Poet Charleston SC The History Press pp 118 23 ISBN 978 1 62619 973 6 a b Kunhardt III Philip B Lincoln s Contested Legacy Smithsonian pp 34 35 O Reilly Bill 2011 Killing Lincoln Henry Holt amp Company LLC p 215 Martelle Scott 2015 The Madman and the Assassin The Strange Life of Boston Corbett the Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth Chicago Review Press p 87 100 000 Reward CivilWar Smithsonian Smithsonian Institution Retrieved October 3 2017 The Death of John Wilkes Booth 1865 Eyewitness to History Ibis Communications Retrieved August 16 2012 Quoting Lieutenant Edward Doherty the officer in charge of the soldiers who captured Booth Harris Thomas M Brig Gen Rome s i e the Vatican s Responsibility for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Petersburg Ohio Pilgrim Brethren Press 1897 Without ISBN Linder Doug The Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators Law umkc edu Archived from the original on June 20 2010 Retrieved May 28 2011 Steers Edward 2014 Lincoln s Assassination SIU Press p 116 ISBN 9780809333509 Linder D Biography of Mary Surratt Lincoln Assassination Conspirator Archived 2009 02 24 at the Wayback Machine University of Missouri Kansas City Retrieved December 10 2006 a b Serup Paul Who Killed Abraham Lincoln An investigation of North America s most famous ex priest s assertion that the Roman Catholic Church was behind the assassination of America s greatest President Salmova Press 2008 ISBN 978 0 9811685 0 0 Jampoler Andrew The Last Lincoln Conspirator John Surratt s Flight from the Gallows Naval Institute Press 2008 ISBN 978 1 59114 407 6 Larson Kate The Assassin s Accomplice Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln Basic Books 2008 ISBN 978 0 465 03815 2Further readingHodes Martha Mourning Lincoln New Haven Yale University Press 2015 ISBN 9780300195804 Holzer Harold compiled and introduced by President Lincoln Assassinated The Firsthand Story of the Murder Manhunt Trial and Mourning Library of America Penguin Random House Inc 2014 ISBN 978 1 59853 373 6 Holzer Harold Symonds Craig L Williams Frank J eds The Lincoln Assassination Crime and Punishment Myth and Memory New York Fordham University Press 2010 ISBN 9780823232260 Review King Benjamin A Bullet for Lincoln Pelican Publishing 1993 ISBN 0 88289 927 9 Lattimer John Kennedy and Lincoln Medical amp Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations Harcourt Brace Jovanovich New York 1980 ISBN 978 0 15 152281 1 includes description and pictures of Seward s jaw splint not a neck brace Steers Jr Edward and Holzer Harold eds The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators Their Confinement and Execution as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft Louisiana State University Press 2009 ISBN 978 0 8071 3396 5 Donald E Wilkes Jr Lincoln Assassinated Lincoln Assassinated Part 2 Bagehot Walter ed April 29 1865 The assassination of Mr Lincoln The Economist Vol XXIII no 1 131 The Lincoln Memorial A Record of the Life Assassination and Obsequies of the Martyred President New York Bunce amp Huntington 1865 This is a collection of essays accounts sermons newspaper reports poems and more with no editor or authors named except Richard Henry Stoddard whose poem Abraham Lincoln An Horatian Ode is included at pages 273 278 External links Wikiquote has quotations related to Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Wikimedia Commons has media related to Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln s Physician s Observation and Postmortem Reports Original Documentation permanent dead link Shapell Manuscript Foundation First Responder Dr Charles Leale Eyewitness Report of Assassination permanent dead link Shapell Manuscript Foundation Lincoln Papers Lincoln Assassination Introduction Ford s Theatre National Historic Site Abraham Lincoln s Assassination Abraham Lincoln A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress Lincoln Conspiracy Photograph Album at George Eastman museum The Men Who Killed Lincoln slideshow by Life magazine Dr Samuel A Mudd Research Site The official transcript of the trial as recorded by Benn Pitman and several assistants originally published in 1865 by the United States Army Military Commission Hanging the Lincoln Conspirators detailed analysis and review of historic 1865 photograph Portals Biography Law Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Assassination of Abraham Lincoln amp oldid 1149053261, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.