| Assassination of Abraham Lincoln | |
|---|---|
| Part of theconclusion of the American Civil War | |
 John Wilkes Booth shootingAbraham Lincoln inFord's Theatre. Drawing from glass-slide depiction, c. 1865–75. | |
| Location | Ford's Theatre,Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Date | April 14, 1865; 160 years ago (1865-04-14) 10:15 pm |
| Target | |
| Weapons |
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| Deaths | Abraham Lincoln |
| Injured |
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| Perpetrators | John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators |
| Motive | Revenge for the defeat of theConfederate States |
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|---|---|---|
Personal 16th President of the United States
Tenure Speeches and works   | ||
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16th Vice President of the United States 17th President of the United States Vice presidential and presidential campaigns  | ||
On April 14, 1865,Abraham Lincoln, the 16thpresident of the United States, was shot atFord's Theatre inWashington, D.C., one month into his second term and towardsthe conclusion of theAmerican Civil War. Lincoln was watching the playOur American Cousin with his wifeMary Todd, MajorHenry Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancéClara Harris whenJohn Wilkes Booth, an actor andConfederate sympathizer, shot him in the head. Lincoln was taken to thePetersen House across the street, where he died the following morning.
WithUnion victory imminent, Booth and his conspirators, includingLewis Powell,David Herold, andGeorge Atzerodt, originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln to aid the Confederacy. After that plan failed to materialize, they decided toassassinate him,Secretary of StateWilliam H. Seward, andVice PresidentAndrew Johnson. Booth hoped that eliminating the three most important officials of thefederal government would revive the Confederate cause. Powell and Herold were assigned to kill Seward, while Atzerodt was assigned to kill Johnson. Booth succeeded in killing Lincoln, but Powell only managed to wound Seward, while Atzerodt became drunk and never targeted Johnson.
Booth fled into Maryland after shooting Lincoln and rendezvoused with Herold. Lincoln'sSecretary of War,Edwin Stanton, directed the largestmanhunt in US history at the time, involving thousands of troops. After a 12-day search, on April 26, Booth and Herold were located at a tobacco farm inKing George County, Virginia; Booth was fatally shot by SergeantBoston Corbett after refusing to surrender. The other conspirators were captured by the end of April 1865, except forJohn Surratt, whom the US captured inEgypt in November 1866. Powell, Herold, Atzerodt, andMary Surratt were hanged in July 1865, while John Surratt was released after a mistrial in 1867 and never retried.
Johnson washastily sworn in as the 17th president on April 15 and served for the remainder of Lincoln's second term.Lincoln's state funeral was held on April 19, after which afuneral train transported his remains through seven states for burial in Illinois. He was the thirdUS president to die in office, and the first by assassination. The assassination drew international condemnation and left a profound impact on the US. It made Lincoln a nationalmartyr and led to a lengthy period of mourning as the US entered theReconstruction era.
John Wilkes Booth, born inMaryland intoa 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-ConfederateKnights of the Golden Circle inBaltimore, Maryland.[1]: 67
In May 1863, theConfederate States Congress passed a law prohibiting the exchange of black soldiers, following a previous decree byPresidentJefferson Davis in December 1862 that neither black soldiers nor their white officers would be exchanged. This became a reality in mid-July 1863 after some soldiers of the54th Massachusetts were not exchanged following their assault onFort Wagner. On July 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued General Order 252 to stop prisoner exchanges with the South until all Northern soldiers would be exchanged without regard for their skin color. Stopping the prisoner exchanges is often wrongly attributed to General Grant, even though he was commanding an army in the west in mid-1863 and became overall commander in early 1864.[2]
Booth conceived a plan tokidnap Lincoln in order toblackmail the Union into resuming prisoner exchanges,[3]: 130–34 and he recruitedSamuel Arnold,George Atzerodt,David Herold,Michael O'Laughlen,Lewis Powell (also known as "Lewis Paine"), andJohn Surratt to help him. Surratt's mother,Mary Surratt, left her tavern inSurrattsville, Maryland, and moved to a house in Washington, D.C., where Booth became a frequent visitor.
Booth and Lincoln were not personally acquainted, but Lincoln had seen Booth at Ford's Theatre in 1863.[4]: 419 [5][6] After the assassination, actor Frank Mordaunt wrote that Lincoln, who apparently harbored no suspicions about Booth, admired the actor and had repeatedly but unsuccessfully invited him to visit theWhite House.[7]: 325–26 Booth attended Lincoln'ssecond 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!"[3]: 174, 437n41
On March 17, Booth and the other conspirators planned to abduct Lincoln as he returned from a play atCampbell General Hospital in northwest Washington. Lincoln did not go to the play, however, instead attending a ceremony at theNational Hotel.[3]: 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.[3]: 185–86, 439n17 [8]: 25
Meanwhile, the Confederacy was collapsing. On April 3,Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, fell to theUnion army. On April 9,GeneralRobert E. Lee and hisArmy of Northern Virginiasurrendered toGeneralUlysses S. Grant and hisArmy of the Potomac after theBattle 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; he soon decided to assassinate Lincoln.[9]: 728
In mid-August, 1864, Lincoln was heading to his cottage at theSoldiers' Home in Washington D.C., about 3 miles northeast of theWhite House.[10][11] Lincoln was riding alone on his horse, Old Abe, to the home at about 11 p.m., deep in thought.[12][13][14] Between1862 and1864, Lincoln was known to spend the summer months at theSoldiers' Home with his family, starting between mid-June and early July of each year to escape the heat, and staying until early November.[15][16]
On that night, John W. Nichols, a sentry of the property, was on duty, and was stationed at the gate of the home.[13][14][17] When Lincoln arrived at the foot of the hill of the path to theSoldiers' Home, Nichols suddenly heard a rifle shot in the distance, and shortly after, Lincoln appeared at the gate on his horse, missing hisstovepipe hat.[12][13][14][17]
After Lincoln dismounted his horse, he stated, "He (Old Abe) came pretty near getting away with me, didn't he? He got the bit in his teeth before I could draw the rein."[13] Nichols replied by asking where the president's hat was, and Lincoln replied by stating that someone fired asniper rifle at him at the foot of the hill.[10] Afterwards, his horse had become frightened, and took off at "breakneck speed," jerking his hat off of his head.[10][13]
Nichols soon allowed Lincoln into hiscottage, and calmed Lincoln's horse, who was still frightened.[11][17] Nichols then sought another corporal at the home, before both men went to investigate the road Lincoln had taken.[17] At the intersection of the path to theSoldiers' Home and a main road, the men found Lincoln's hat.[13][14][17] Upon inspection, Nichols and the corporal found that the hat had a bullet-hole through itscrown.[13][14][16][17][18] However, Lincoln himself sustained no injuries.[15] Nichols remarked that the bullet had been fired upward, and it was evident that the person who fired the rifle had "secreted himself close to by the roadside."[13]
The following day, Nichols returned Lincoln his hat, and called special attention to the bullet-hole in the hat'scrown.[13][14] After seeing the bullet hole, Lincoln replied by stating that he was probably fired at by an incompetenthunter, and it was not the shooter's intention to fire at him.[11][12][13][14] However, Lincoln requested that the matter be kept quiet, which Nichols followed, although he felt confident that the shooter intended to kill Lincoln.[12][13][14][17]
According toWard Hill Lamon, who was Lincoln's personal bodyguard, Lincoln had the following to say about the event:
Last night, about 11 o’clock, I went out to the Soldiers' Home alone, riding Old Abe, as you call him, and when I arrived at the foot of the hill on the road leading to the entrance of the Home grounds ... by the report of a rifle, and seemingly the gunner was not fifty yards from where my contemplations ended and my accelerated transit began ... with one reckless bound he unceremoniously separated me from my eight-dollar plug-hat.... At a break-neck speed we soon arrived in a haven of safety ... in the face of this testimony in favor of your theory of danger to me, personally, I can’t bring myself to believe that any one has shot or will deliberately shoot at me with the purpose of killing me.... I have about concluded that the shot was the result of accident. It may be that some one on his return from a day’s hunt.... This whole thing seems farcical. No good can result at this time from giving it publicity.[19]
— Ward Hill Lamon,Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865, Chapter 27: Plots and Assassination, pp. 267-268.
After this event, it was required that Lincoln should always have a bodyguard, and he would never ride on his horse alone again.[11][13][15][18] The gunman's identity remains unknown, but some have theorized that it was none other thanJohn Wilkes Booth, who was a "crack shot."[18][20]
There are various theories about Booth's motivations. In a letter to his mother, he wrote of his desire to avenge the South.[21]Doris Kearns Goodwin has endorsed the idea that another factor was Booth's rivalry with his well-known older brother, actorEdwin Booth, who was a loyal Unionist.[22]David S. Reynolds believes that, though disagreeing with his cause, Booth greatly admired the daring ofabolitionistJohn Brown;[23] Booth's sisterAsia Booth Clarke quoted him as saying, "John Brown was a man inspired, the grandest character of the century!"[23][24]
On April 11, Booth attended Lincoln's last speech, in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for emancipated slaves;[25] Booth said, "That meansnigger citizenship. ... That is the last speech he will ever give."[26] 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."[27][4]: 91
According toWard 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 theEast Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was acatafalque, 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."[28]
However, Lincoln later told 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."[29][30] Paranormal investigatorJoe Nickell wrote that dreams of assassination would not be unexpected, considering theBaltimore Plot and an additional assassination attempt in which a hole was shot through Lincoln's hat.[29]
For months, Lincoln had looked pale and haggard, but on the morning of the assassination he told people how happy he was.First LadyMary Lincoln felt such talk could bring bad luck.[31]: 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 atAntietam,Murfreesboro,Gettysburg, andVicksburg.[32]
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, somethingdecisive and great must be done".[9]: 728 [31]: 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 ofOur 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.[8]: 12 [4]: 108–09 Booth went to Mary Surratt'sboarding 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 tenantLouis J. Weichmann to ready the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the tavern.[8]: 19
The conspirators met for the final time at 8:45 pm. Booth assigned Powell to killSecretary of StateWilliam H. Seward at his home, Atzerodt to killVice PresidentAndrew 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 be guarded. Had it been, Booth would have been the only plotter with a plausible chance of gaining access to Lincoln, or at least to gain entry to the box without being searched for weapons first. Booth planned to shoot Lincoln atpoint-blank range with his single-shotPhiladelphia Deringerpistol and then stab Grant at the theater. They were all to strike simultaneously shortly after ten o'clock.[4]: 112 Atzerodt tried to withdraw from the plot, which to this point had involved only kidnapping, not murder, but Booth pressured him to continue.[3]: 212
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.[33]: 45 [b] Others in succession also declined the Lincolns' invitation, until finallyMajorHenry Rathbone and his fiancéeClara Harris (daughter ofU.S. SenatorIra Harris ofNew York) accepted.[8]: 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.[35]William H. Crook, one of Lincoln's bodyguards, advised him not to go, but Lincoln said he had promised his wife.[36] Lincoln toldSpeaker of the HouseSchuyler 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, made from 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 about 1,700 rose in applause.[37] Lincoln sat in a rocking chair that had been selected for him from among the Ford family's personal furnishings.[38][39]
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 thedraft" – was delivered instead as, "The draft has already been stopped by order of the President!"[40] 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".[41]
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".[8]: 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 visitJerusalem.[42]
Lincoln's usual protections were not in place that night at Ford's. Crook was on a second shift at the White House,[43] and Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln's personal bodyguard, was away in Richmond on assignment from Lincoln.John Frederick Parker was assigned to guard the Presidential Box.[44] Atintermission he went to a nearby tavern along with Lincoln's valet, Charles Forbes, and Coachman Francis Burke. Booth had several drinks while waiting for his planned time. It is unclear whether Parker returned to the theater, but he was certainly not at his post when Booth entered the box.[45] 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:[46]
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, Boothbarricaded the door by wedging a stick between it and the wall. From here, a second door led to Lincoln's box. Evidence shows that, earlier in the day, Booth had bored apeephole in this second door.[47][48]: 173 Booth knew the playOur American Cousin, and waited to time his shot at about 10:15 pm, with the laughter at one of the lines of the play, delivered by actorHarry Hawk: "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; yousockdologizing old man-trap!" Lincoln was laughing at this line[49]: 96 when Booth opened the door, stepped forward, and shot him from behind with his pistol.[50]
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 bothorbital plates.[c][53] Lincoln slumped over in his chair and then fell backward.[55][56] Rathbone turned to see Booth standing in gunsmoke less than four feet behind Lincoln; Booth shouted a word that Rathbone thought sounded like "Freedom!"[57]
Rathbone jumped from his seat and struggled with Booth, who dropped the pistol and drew a dagger 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;[58] Booth'sriding spur became entangled on theTreasury 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 theVirginia state motto,Sic semper tyrannis! ("Thus always to tyrants") either from the box or the stage, witness accounts conflict.[9]: 739 Most recalled hearingSic semper tyrannis! but others – including Booth himself – said he yelled onlySic semper![59][60] 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!",[8]: 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, Joseph B. Stewart climbed over theorchestra pit and footlights and pursued Booth across the stage.[58] The screams of Mary Lincoln and Clara Harris, and Rathbone's cries of, "Stop that man!"[8]: 49 prompted others to join the chase as pandemonium broke out.
Booth exited the theater through a side door, and on the way stabbed orchestra leader William Withers Jr.[61][62]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.[64][65][66][63]
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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.[4]: 120
Leale found Lincoln seated with his head leaning to his right[52] as Mary held him and sobbed. "His eyes were closed and he was in a profoundlycomatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedinglystertorous."[67][68] 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 ablood clot, after which Lincoln's breathing improved;[4]: 121–22 he learned that regularly removing new clots maintained Lincoln's breathing. After giving Lincolnartificial respiration, Leale allowed actressLaura Keene to cradle the President's head in her lap. He pronounced the wound mortal.[8]: 78
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. Seven men carefully picked up Lincoln and slowly carried him out of the theater, which was packed with an angry mob. After consideringPeter 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,[69] where a man urged them toward thehouse of tailor William Petersen.[70] In Petersen's first-floor bedroom, the exceptionally tall Lincoln was laid diagonally on a small bed.[4]: 123–24
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 him with blankets. Later, more physicians arrived:Surgeon GeneralJoseph K. Barnes,Charles Henry Crane, andRobert K. Stone (Lincoln's personal physician).[d]
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,[73] 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".[4]: 14 [74]
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Lincoln's older sonRobert Todd Lincoln arrived at about 11 pm, but twelve-year-oldTad Lincoln, who was watching a play ofAladdin at Grover's Theater when he learned of his father's assassination, was kept away.Secretary of the NavyGideon Welles andSecretary of WarEdwin 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.[4]: 127–28 Guards kept the public away, but numerous officials and physicians were admitted to pay their respects.[73]
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.[76]Maunsell Bradhurst Field wrote in a letter toThe New York Times that Lincoln then started "breathing regularly, but with effort, and did not seem to be struggling or suffering."[77][78]
As he neared death, Lincoln's appearance became "perfectly natural"[77] (except for the discoloration around his eyes).[80] Shortly before 7 am Mary was allowed to return to Lincoln's side,[81] and, as Dixon reported, "she again seated herself by the President, kissing him and calling him every endearing name."[82]
Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15.[83]Mary Lincoln was not present.[84][85] In his last moments, Lincoln's face became calm and his breathing quieter.[86] Field wrote there was "no apparent suffering, no convulsive action, no rattling of the throat ... [only] a mere cessation of breathing".[77][78] According to Lincoln's secretaryJohn Hay, at the moment of Lincoln's death, "a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features".[87] The assembly knelt for a prayer, after which Stanton said either, "Now he belongs to the ages" or, "Now he belongs to the angels."[4]: 134 [88][89]
On Lincoln's death, Vice President Johnson became the 17th president of the United States. Thepresidential oath of office was administered to Johnson byChief JusticeSalmon Chase sometime between 10 and 11 am.[90]
Booth had assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. On the night of the assassination, Seward was at his home onLafayette 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 Whitneyrevolver (a large, heavy, and popular gun during the Civil War) and aBowie knife.
William Bell, Seward'smaître d', answered the door when Powell knocked at 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.[8]: 54 [9]: 736 [91] At the top of the staircase he was stopped by Seward's son,Assistant Secretary of StateFrederick W. Seward, to whom he repeated the medicine story; Frederick, suspicious, said his father was asleep.
Hearing voices, Seward's daughterFanny 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.[8]: 58 However, thesplint (often mistakenly described as aneck brace) that doctors had fitted to Seward's broken jaw prevented the blade from penetrating hisjugular vein.[9]: 737 Seward eventually recovered, though with serious scars on his face.
Seward's sonAugustus and SergeantGeorge 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,[92]: 275 where he encountered Emerick Hansell, aState Department messenger.[93][94] 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.[8]: 59
Booth had assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was staying at theKirkwood House in Washington. Atzerodt was to go to Johnson's room at 10:15 pm and shoot him.[9]: 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.[4]: 166–67 [92]: 335
Earlier in the day, Booth had stopped by the Kirkwood House and left a note for Johnson: "Don't wish to disturb you. Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth."[91] One theory is that Booth was trying to find out whether Johnson was expected at the Kirkwood that night;[4]: 111 another holds that Booth, concerned that Atzerodt would fail to kill Johnson, intended the note to implicate Johnson in the conspiracy.[95]
Lincoln was mourned in both the North and South,[92]: 350 and indeed around the world.[96] Numerous foreign governments issued proclamations and declared periods of mourning on April 15.[97][98] Lincoln was praised in sermons onEaster Sunday, which fell on the day after his death.[92]: 357
On April 18, mourners lined up seven deep for a mile to view Lincoln in his walnut casket in the White House's black-drapedEast Room. Special trains brought thousands from other cities, some of whom slept on theCapitol's lawn.[99]: 120–23 Hundreds of thousands watched the funeral procession on April 19,[8]: 213 and millions more lined the 1,700-mile (2,700 km) route of the train which took Lincoln's remains through New York toSpringfield,Illinois, often passing trackside tributes in the form of bands, bonfires, and hymn-singing.[100]: 31–58 [49]: 231–38
PoetWalt Whitman composed "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", "O Captain! My Captain!", and two other poems, to eulogize Lincoln.[101][102]
Ulysses S. Grant called Lincoln "incontestably the greatest man I ever knew".[9]: 747 Robert E. Lee expressed sadness.[103] Southern-bornElizabeth 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."[9]: 744 African-American oratorFrederick Douglass called the assassination an "unspeakable calamity".[103]
BritishForeign SecretaryLord Russell called Lincoln's death a "sad calamity".[98]China's chief secretary of state for foreign affairs,Prince Gong, described himself as "inexpressibly shocked and startled".[97]Ecuadorian presidentGabriel 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 such critical circumstances."[97][98] The government ofLiberia issued a proclamation calling Lincoln "not only the ruler of his own people, but a father to millions of a race stricken and oppressed". The government ofHaiti condemned the assassination as a "horrid crime".[98]
Temperance movement activist and academicT. D. Bancroft was present at Lincoln's assassination. He later lectured widely on Lincoln's death, and wrote on the subject.[104]
Within half an hour of fleeing Ford's Theatre, Booth crossed the Navy Yard Bridge into Maryland.[8]: 67–68 A Union armysentry named Silas Cobb 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.[105] Herold made it across the same bridge less than one hour later[8]: 81–82 and rendezvoused with Booth.[8]: 87 After retrieving weapons and supplies previously stored at Surattsville, Herold and Booth rode to the home ofSamuel A. Mudd, a local doctor, who splinted the leg[8]: 131, 153 Booth had broken in his escape and later made a pair of crutches for Booth.[8]: 131, 153
Some time after Booth shot Lincoln, he broke his leftfibula. According to his diary, this occurred when he jumped from the presidential box while fleeingFord's Theater. The reliability of this diary is questionable, as Booth intended it more as a manifesto to be published, and he embellished other facts in it. One example is, "I struck boldly and not as the papers say[...]I shouted sic semper before I fired."[106] which is proven untrue by every eyewitness account of the assassination independently agreeing that Booth shouted after he fired.[107] Furthermore, Booth and Herold told Mudd that Booth broke his leg falling from his horse afterward.[106]
After one day at Mudd's house, Booth and Herold hired a local man to guide them toSamuel Cox's house.[8]: 163 Cox, in turn, took them to Thomas Jones, a Confederate sympathizer who hid Booth and Herold inZekiah Swamp for five days until they could cross thePotomac River.[8]: 224 On the afternoon of April 24, they arrived at the farm of Richard H. Garrett, a tobacco farmer, inKing George County, Virginia. Booth told Garrett he was a wounded Confederate soldier.
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 aMonitor for safe keeping – as a mob once raised now would know no end.[46]
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,[108] authorizing rewards ofUS$50,000 (equivalent to $1,027,065 in 2024) for Booth and $25,000 each for Herold and John Surratt.[109]
Booth and Herold were sleeping at Garrett's farm on April 26 when soldiers from the16th New York Cavalry arrived, surrounded the barn, and threatened to set fire to it. Herold surrendered, but Booth cried out, "I will not be taken alive!"[8]: 326 The soldiers set fire to the barn[8]: 331 and Booth scrambled for the back door with a rifle and pistol.
SergeantBoston 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",[110] severing his spinal cord.[8]: 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 three hours later.[8]: 336–40 [91] 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.[49]: 228
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.[4]: 174–79 George Atzerodt hid at his cousin's farm inGermantown, Maryland, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Washington, where he was arrested April 20.[4]: 169
The remaining conspirators were arrested by month's end – except forJohn Surratt, who fled toQuebec where Roman Catholic priests hid him. In September, he boarded a ship toLiverpool, England, staying in the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross there. From there, he moved furtively through Europe until joining thePontifical Zouaves in thePapal 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 inEgypt in November 1866.[111]
Scores of people 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 includedLouis J. Weichmann, a boarder in Mrs. Surratt's house; Booth's brotherJunius (in Cincinnati at the time of the assassination); theater ownerJohn 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.[99]: 186–88 All were eventually released except:[99]: 188
The accused were tried by amilitary tribunal ordered by Johnson, who had succeeded to the presidency on Lincoln's death:
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The prosecution was led by U.S. Army Judge Advocate GeneralJoseph Holt, assisted byCongressmanJohn A. Bingham andMajorHenry Lawrence Burnett.[112] Lew Wallace was the only lawyer on the tribunal.[citation needed]
The use of a military tribunal provoked criticism from formerAttorney GeneralEdward Bates andSecretary of the NavyGideon Welles, who believed that a civil court should have presided, but Attorney GeneralJames Speed pointed to the military nature of the conspiracy and the facts that the defendants acted as enemy combatants and thatmartial law was in force at the time in theDistrict of Columbia. (In 1866, inEx parte Milligan, theUnited States Supreme Court banned the use of military tribunals in places where civil courts were operational.)[4]: 213–14 Only a simple majority of the tribunal members 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.[4]: 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 byhanging; Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison.[113] Edmund Spangler was sentenced to six years. After sentencing Mary Surratt to hang, five members of the tribunal signed a letter recommending clemency, but Johnson did not stop the execution; he later claimed he never saw the letter.[4]: 227
Mary Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were hanged in theOld Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7.[8]: 362, 365 Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the United States government.[114] O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were pardoned in February 1869 by Johnson.[8]: 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 a civil court in Washington in 1867. Four residents ofElmira, New York,[8]: 27 [115]: 112–15 claimed they had seen him there between April 13 and 15; fifteen others testified 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.[4]: 178 [116]: 227
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.
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{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)"...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.
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.'
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
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]."
Mr. Lincoln was seated in a high backed arm chair with his head leaning towards his right side supported by Mrs. Lincoln
The President slumped forward in his chair, and then backward, never to regain consciousness.
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!'
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.
Knowledge that frequently just before departure recognition and reason return to those who have been unconscious caused me for several hours to hold his right hand firmly within my grasp to let him in his blindness know, if possible, that he was in touch with humanity and had a friend.
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.
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