President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC The assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, shouted: “Sic semper tyrannis! (Never so to tyrants!) The South is avenged, ”by leaping on the scene and fleeing on horseback. Lincoln died the next morning.
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Booth, who remained in the North during the war despite his Confederate sympathies, initially plotted to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, the President failed to show up where Booth and his six fellow conspirators were waiting. Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces. In April, with the Confederate armies on the verge of collapsing in the south, Booth hatched a desperate plan to save the Confederacy.
Learn that Lincoln was to attend Laura Keene’s acclaimed performance in Our American cousin at Ford’s Theater on April 14, Booth plotted the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. By assassinating the president and two of his possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to plunge the U.S. government into crippling disarray.
On the evening of April 14, conspirator Lewis T. Powell stormed into Secretary of State Seward’s home, seriously injuring him and three others, while George A. Atzerodt, assigned to Vice President Johnson, lost his blood -cold and ran away.
Meanwhile, just after 10 p.m., Booth entered Lincoln’s private theater dressing room unnoticed and shot the president with a single bullet in the back of the neck. Although Booth broke his left leg while jumping out of Lincoln’s box, he managed to escape Washington.
The fatally injured President was transported to a cheap shelter across from the Ford Theater. At around 7:22 a.m. the next morning, he died – the first US president to be assassinated.
READ MORE: 10 Things You May Not Know About Lincoln’s Assassination
Booth was a famous actor who was particularly loved in the South before the Civil War. During the war he stayed in the North and grew increasingly bitter when the public weren’t as in love with him as they were in Dixie. Along with his friends Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlin, and John Surratt, Booth conspired to kidnap Lincoln and deliver him to the South.
On March 17, along with George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Lewis Powell, the group gathered at a Washington bar to prepare for the president’s kidnapping three days later. However, when the president changed his plans, the plan was scuttled. Soon after, the South surrendered to the Union and the conspirators changed their plan. They decided to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward the same evening.
When April 14 arrived, Atzerodt withdrew from him to kill Johnson. Upset, Booth went to drink in a saloon near Ford’s Theater. At around 10 p.m., he entered the theater and made his way to the President’s lodge. Lincoln’s guard John Parker wasn’t there because he got bored with the room and left his post for a beer. Booth easily slipped in and shot the president in the back of the head. The President’s friend Major Rathbone attempted to grab Booth but was hit by Booth’s knife. Booth seriously injured his leg when he jumped onto the stage to escape, but he managed to boost outside towards his horse.
Meanwhile, Lewis Powell broke into William Seward’s home and stabbed the Secretary of State several times before fleeing. Booth went to Virginia with David Herold and stopped by Dr. Samuel Mudd, who placed braces on Booth’s legs. They hid in a barn on Richard Garrett’s farm as thousands of Union soldiers scoured the area looking for them. The other conspirators were captured, with the exception of John Surratt, who fled to Canada.
When the troops finally caught up with Booth and Herold on April 26, they gave them the opportunity to surrender before the barn was set on fire. Herold decided to surrender, but Booth remained in the barn as it caught fire. Booth was then shot and killed in the burning barn by Corporal Boston Corbett. On July 7, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell, David Herold and John Surratt’s mother, Mary, were hanged in Washington. Some believe that the execution of Mary Surratt was a miscarriage of justice. While there was evidence of Surratt’s involvement in the original kidnapping plot, it is clear that his actions were minor compared to those of the others who were executed.
Her son John was eventually found in Egypt and brought to justice, but he managed, with the help of smart lawyers, to secure an acquittal.
READ MORE: How Presidential Assassinations Changed US Politics
