The Story of the Lincoln Assassination

On the evening of April 14,1865 the 16th and one of the most revered President of the United States became the victim of a murderous attack which ultimately led to his death the following day.

The attacker and the subsequent murderer was John Wikes Booth, who had ironically once performed in the same theater for the President in 1863 where he killed him two years later.Despite of his tremendous success he enjoyed as an actor Booth would always be remembered as the man who assassinated Lincoln.He was a fierce supporter and sympathizer of the Confederate during the Civil War.However, as the war reached it’s final stages, Booth  conspired to kidnap Lincoln and hide him in Richmond until all Confederate prisoners were released.On the day of the planned kidnapping in March, Lincoln never arrived at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators laid in wait, failing their plan to abduct him and take him to the Confederate capital.

The war effectively ended on April 9th, 1865, with the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to the Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and Richmond as a result fell to the Union forces.Growing desperate in need of avenge, Booths came up with another much severe and criminal plan.

On April 14th, Lincoln along with his wife Marry Todd, had gone to attend Laura Keene’s comedy performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington.He occupied a seat in a private box above the stage with his wife and young army officer named Henry Rathbone and Rathbone’s fiancé, Clara Harris, the daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris.Going according to his diabolical and sinister plan, At 10:15, Booth slipped into the box and fired his .44-caliber single-shot derringer pistol  and shot Lincoln at the back of his head.He then went to stab Rathbone in the shoulder, and leapt onto the stage and shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus ever to tyrants!”—the Virginia state motto).

Paralyzed and struggling to breathe, Lincoln’s body was carried to a boardinghouse across the street.When the surgeon general arrived at the house, he concluded that Lincoln could not be saved and would probably die during the night and was  pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865, at the age of 56.

What had followed was tens of thousands of Americans grieving at the sudden death of the President as news spread across the country and one of the largest 12-day manhunts in history-with 10,000 federal troops, police and detectives tracking down the assassin.

After fleeing the capital, Booth and his accomplice David Herald had headed towards the Southern Maryland.On April 26, Union soldiers who were hot on the trail of Booth caught him at the Virginia barn where he was hiding out with Herald and set fire to it, hoping to flush the fugitives out. Herold surrendered but Booth remained inside.It is still unknown whether Booth shot himself as the blaze intensified, a sergeant shot Booth in the neck,alleging that he had done so because he was attempting to shoot the soldier.However, due to the gunshot wound, Booth died shortly after.

Four of Booth’s co-conspirators were also convicted for their part in the assassination and executed by hanging on July 7, 1865