Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

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“	And they said there were five, and they said there were ten. Some say there was never more than just one man, who would smile to see Mr. Lincoln dead, in the name of God and Dixie in the name of God and Dixieland.	„
	~ Tony Rice, "John Wilkes Booth"

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a plot by John Wilkes Booth and three co-conspirators assigned to simultaneously eliminating the top three people in the administration, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to sever the continuity of the United States government as revenge for the capitulation of the Confederate States of America at the end of the American Civil War.

Booth's co-conspirators were Lewis Powell and David Herold, who were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt who was tasked to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. By simultaneously eliminating the top three people in the administration, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to sever the continuity of the United States government.

Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. He died early the next morning. Beyond his death, the rest of the conspirators' plot failed; Powell only managed to wound Seward, while Atzerodt, Johnson's would-be assassin, lost his nerve and fled. The funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln was a period of national mourning.

Members of the plot

• Samuel Arnold (kidnapping plot)

• George Atzerodt (assassination plot)

• John Wilkes Booth (President Lincoln's assassin)

• David Herold (assassination plot)

• Michael O'Laughlen (kidnapping plot)

• Lewis Powell (assassination plot)

• Edmund Spangler (kidnapping plot)

• John Surratt (kidnapping plot)

• Mary Surratt (assassination plot)

Murder of Lincoln

President Lincoln awoke the morning of April 14^th, in a pleasant mood. Robert E. Lee had surrendered nine days before to Ulysses Grant, and now the President was awaiting word from North Carolina on the surrender of Joseph E. Johnston. The morning papers carried the announcement that the President and his wife would be attending the comedy, Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theater that evening with General Grant and his wife.

At 11 o'clock that morning, Lincoln held a meeting with Grant and the Cabinet about the future plans of Reconstruction. Meanwhile, John Wilkes Booth was at Ford’s Theater to pick up his mail when he learned that the Lincolns would attend Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater instead of Aladdin at Grover’s Theater. Thought out the entire afternoon, he told his conspirators about his change of plan. Following the conference, Grant gave his regrets that he and his wife could no longer attend the play that evening. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton pleaded with the President not to go out at night, fearful that some rebel might try to shoot him in the street. At dinner, the President told his wife the news about the Grants. Disappointed, the Lincolns nonetheless decided to maintain their announced plans and asked Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancee, Clara Harris, to join them. After his last meeting, Lincoln told members of Congress that “I suppose it’s time to go, though I would rather stay” before leaving the White House with Mrs Lincoln to pick up Major Rathbone and Clara Harris.

Arriving after the play had started, the two couples go up the stairs and into their seats. The box door was closed, but not locked. It was 8:45 pm at the Herdon House when Booth and his henchmen were in a meeting about their finalized plan to save the South. Lewis Powell was assigned to kill Secretary of State William Seward at his mansion and David Herold to accompany Powell out of Washington to the Navy Yard Bridge. A German immigrant, George Atzerodt, was assigned by Booth to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood Hotel. The only change in the plan is that Booth will kill Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. All the attacks were planned to happen at about fifteen minutes past ten pm. Back at Ford’s Theater, as the play progressed, police guard John Parker left his post in the hallway leading to the box and went to a saloon next door for a drink with Lincoln's valet, Charles Forbes and coachman, Francis Burke. It is the same bar where John Wilkes Booth waited his time. During the third act, he re-entered Ford’s Theater through the front door at 10:10 pm. Showing his calling card to Forbes, Booth slowly made his way to the box where Mr and Mrs Lincoln were holding their hands. Once inside the box, he waited until Actor Harry Hawk said what Booth thought would be the funniest line of the comedy play.

It was the last seconds of 10:14 P.M. when Booth entered the state box, with a derringer in his right hand.

When Harry Hawk said his now infamous line, Lincoln was laughing at this line when he was shot by Booth. Katherine M. Evans, a young actress in the play, who was offstage when Lincoln was shot but rushed onstage after Booth's exit stated "I looked and saw President Lincoln unconscious, his head dropping on his breast, his eyes closed, but with a smile still on his face".

Major Rathbone jumped to his feet and grabbed John Wilkes Booth, who dropped his pistol. They wrestled for a moment, but Booth pulled out the knife and stabbed Rathbone near his left shoulder before pushing him against the wall. Booth then turned to jump from the balcony. Rathbone sat up and grabbed onto Booth's coat, causing him to dangle over the balcony. Booth fell down to the stage, allegedly breaking his leg. He yelled the Virginia state motto, "Sic semper tyrannis!" ("Thus always to tyrants" in Latin.) However, there are different “earwitness” accounts of what he said. While most witnesses recalled hearing Booth shout “Sic semper tyrannis!”, others — including Booth himself — claimed that he only yelled “Sic semper!” Some didn’t recall hearing Booth shout anything in Latin. Some witnesses state that he also yelled "The South's is avenged!" Others thought they heard him say "Revenge for the South!" or "The South shall be free!" Other few people claimed Booth yelled "I have done it!" Nevertheless, he escaped across the stage just when Rathbone shouted "Stop that man!" and exited out the side door. On his way, he bumped into William Withers, Jr., the orchestra leader, and Booth stabbed at Withers with the knife. Upon leaving the building, Booth approached the horse he had waiting outside a half hour early. Booth struck Joseph "Peanuts" (also called "Peanut Johnny") Burroughs, who was holding Booth's horse in the forehead with the handle of his knife, leaped onto the horse, apparently also kicking Burroughs in the chest with his good leg and rode away out of the city and into the Maryland countryside.

Chaos broke out at the theater. Several people enter the box, including an army surgeon, Charles Leale. He declared Lincoln's wound as mortal after attending him of his condition and head wound. Fearing that Lincoln wouldn’t survive a carriage ride to the White House, the decision was made to move the president to the nearest location on Tenth Street. So when three doctors and four soldiers slowly carry him out of the theater, they were considered to bring him to the same bar next door where Booth had just spend. After being denied by the bartender, they were summoned by a young border at the Petersen House. His name was Henry Safford. Doing as he told, the doctors and soldiers carefully brought Lincoln into the house. There, at about 10:45 pm, they lay him sideways on a bed because of his large height. Once Dr Leale ordered everyone out (except the doctors), he and the doctors undress Lincoln, so they could re-examine him for other additional wounds and apply a mustard plaster and blankets to make him comfortable. Surrounded by his cabinet members and friends (except Secretary Seward, who was nearly attacked at his house by Lewis Powell), they knew that there was no hope that Lincoln could survive and all they could do is wait for Lincoln to take his last breath. He remained in a coma for eight hours before dying early the next morning at 7:22 am on April 15, 1865. Henry Rathbone recovered from his wounds but his mental state deteriorated in the years following Lincoln's death as he anguished over his perceived inability to thwart the assassination attempt. His mental decline culminated in his murdering his wife, Clara Harris (who was also in the box with Lincoln) on December 23, 1883, fatally shooting her then stabbing her several times. After he killed Clara, Rathbone attempted to kill himself. When the police arrived, the bleeding Rathbone claimed there were people hiding behind the pictures on the wall. The couple's children, who were also almost killed by their father, were taken to live with their uncle, William Harris, in the United States. Rathbone spent the rest of his life in the asylum until his death in 1911. It was as if John Wilkes Booth continued to kill way beyond that fateful evening. 

Failed Attempts on Seward and Johnson

While Booth waited for his moment to shoot Lincoln at Ford's Theater by making his way to the box, Lewis Powell, had forced his way to the home of State Secretary William Seward, who was recovering from a carriage accident nine days early with his jaw broken. Seward's black waiter, William Bell, answered the door when Powell knocked at 10:10 P.M, who was covering up his excuse by pretending to be a messenger.

After forcing his way up to the second floor to meet Frederick Seward, who told him that he can't see his injured father, Powell knocked Frederick in the skull, leaving him unconscious. After shoving Seward's daughter Fanny, he managed to stab Seward at his face Though he was badly disfigured for life, the metal brace he wore saved his life, making Powell enraged by yelling, "I'm Mad! I'm Mad!"

This caused George Robinson and Seward's son Augustus to wrestle with Powell while David Herold left the home and escape the city without him.

After Powell beat both the sergeant and the son, he managed to escape the house by stabbing a messenger and mounted his horse out of Washington D.C. He would later be forced to hide in a cemetery before being arrested at Mary Surratt's boarding house on April 17.

Meanwhile, George Adzerodt couldn't have the courage to shoot Vice President Andrew Johnson and ended up losing his nerve before wondering off the city to hide in his cousin's home, where he was arrested for the conspiracy. Andrew Johnson later became America's seventeenth president upon Lincoln's death.

Aftermath

Twelve days after the assassination, Booth was eventually cornered at a farm by Richard Garrett. While David Herold surrendered and got captured by the Union officers, Booth refused to surrender and remained inside the barn. After a short firefight, a rebellious sergeant named Boston Corbett crept up behind the barn and shot Booth, severing his spinal cord with the bullet wound being in "the back of the head about an inch below the spot where his [Booth's] shot had entered the head of Mr. Lincoln". Booth was carried out onto the steps of the barn. A soldier poured water into his mouth, which Booth immediately spatting out, unable to swallow. Booth told the soldier: "Tell my mother I die for my country." Within a few hours, Booth lay in agony. Unable to move his limbs, he asked a soldier to lift his hands before his face. His last words were "Useless, useless." when he asked for his hands to be raised to his face.26-year-old John Wilkes Booth died at 7:29 A.M. In the coming months, Booth's henchmen are tried for the conspiracy to kill President Abraham Lincoln. While two of Booth's childhood friends, Doctor Mudd (doctor who set Booth's leg on the morning before Lincoln's death), and Ned Spangler (stage handler of Ford's Theater) are sentenced to be transferred to the Dry Tortugas, Herold, Atzerodt, Powell, and Mary Surratt are sentenced to be executed on July 7, 1865, making Mary Surratt the first and only woman ever executed by the federal government.

Trivia

• Lincoln watched Booth perform in numerous plays, including one called the Marble Heart at Ford’s Theatre on November 9, 1863. Lincoln enjoyed Booth’s performance so much he sent a note backstage inviting him to the White House so they could meet. Booth refused the invation, later telling his friends “I would rather have the applause of a Negro to that of the president!” According to actor Frank Mourdant; "Lincoln was an admirer of the man who assassinated him. I know that, for he said to me one day that there was a young actor over in Ford’s Theater whom he desired to meet, but that the actor had on one pretext or another avoided any invitations to visit the White House. That actor was John Wilkes Booth."
• Approximately seven hours before shooting the president, Booth dropped by the Washington hotel which was Vice-President Andrew Johnson's residence. Upon learning from the desk clerk that neither Johnson nor his private secretary, William A. Browning, was in the hotel, Booth wrote the following note: "Don't wish to disturb you Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth." Browning testified before the military court that he found the note in his box later that afternoon. 
  
  Did Johnson and Booth know each other? In the 1997 publication "Right or Wrong, God Judge Me" The Writings of John Wilkes Booth edited by John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper it is stated on p. 146 that Booth had previously met Johnson in Nashville in February, 1864. At the time Booth was appearing in the newly opened Wood's Theatre. Also, author Hamilton Howard in Civil War Echoes (1907) made the claim that while Johnson was military governor of Tennessee, he and Booth kept a couple of sisters as mistresses and oftentimes were seen in each other's company.  Lincoln had essentially ignored Johnson after Johnson's embarrassing behavior on Inauguration Day. Mary Todd Lincoln felt Johnson was involved in her husband's assassination. On March 15, 1866, she wrote to her friend, Sally Orne: "...that, that miserable inebriate Johnson, had cognizance of my husband's death - Why, was that card of Booth's, found in his box, some acquaintance certainly existed - I have been deeply impressed, with the harrowing thought, that he, had an understanding with the conspirators & they knew their man... As sure, as you & I live, Johnson, had some hand, in all this..."Some members of Congress also thought Johnson was involved and a special Assassination Committee was established to investigate any evidence linking Johnson to Lincoln's death. Nothing suspicious was ever found by the committee; yet a belief by some Americans that Johnson was somehow involved with Booth continued for many years. 
• Some researchers have speculated that John Wilkes Booth had a double named James William Boyd died in Booth's place and that John Wilkes Booth committed suicide in 1903 in Enid, Oklahoma, under the alias "David E. George".
•  Booth originally planned on kidnapping the President and holding him for ransom. However, on April 11, 1865, two days after Lee's army surrendered to Grant, Booth attended a speech at the White House in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for blacks; he became so fed up, that it eventually led him to murder.