Everything about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
- Alejandra Cabrera
- Apr 30, 2021
- 2 min read
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. On the evening of April 14, 1865, he was attacked by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth when he was at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and Lincoln died the next morning. The attack occurred only days afterConfederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War. Lincoln’s death plunged much of the country into despair, and the search for Booth and his accomplices was the largest manhunt in American history to that date.
Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre & Planning the Attack
The Lincolns arrived late for the comedy, but the president was reportedly in a fine mood and laughed heartily during the production. Lincoln occupied a private box above the stage with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, a young army officer named Henry Rathbone and Rathbone’s fiancé, Clara Harris, the daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris.
At 10:15 pm, Booth slipped into the presidential box and fired his .44-caliber single-shot derringer pistol into the back of Lincoln’s head. He then dropped the pistol and waved a dagger. After stabbing Rathbone, who immediately rushed at him, in the shoulder, Booth leapt onto the stage and shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus ever to tyrants!”—the Virginia state motto).
Although Booth broke his leg in the fall, he managed to leave the theater and escape from Washington on horseback.
A doctor in the audience, Dr. Charles Leale, immediately went upstairs to the box. The bullet had entered through Lincoln's left ear and lodged behind his right eye. He was paralyzed and barely breathing. He was carried across Tenth Street, to a boarding-house opposite the theater, but the doctors' best efforts failed. Nine hours later, at 7:22 a.m. on April 15th, Lincoln died.
A Nation mourns & John Wilkes Booth Flees
News of the president’s death traveled quickly, and by the end of the day flags across the country flew at half-mast, businesses were closed and people who had recently rejoiced at the end of the Civil War now reeled from Lincoln’s shocking assassination. On April 18, Lincoln’s body was carried to the Capitol rotunda to lay in state on a catafalque. Three days later, his remains were boarded onto a train that conveyed him to Springfield, Illinois, where he had lived before becoming president.
After fleeing the capital, Booth and an accomplice, David Herold, made their way across the Anacostia River and headed toward southern Maryland. On April 26, Union troops surrounded the Virginia barn where Booth and Herold were hiding out and set fire to it, hoping to flush the fugitives out. Herold surrendered but Booth remained inside. As the blaze intensified, a sergeant shot Booth in the neck, allegedly because the assassin had raised his gun as if to shoot.
Sources:
Comments