Abraham Lincoln assassination

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The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, one of the last major events in the American Civil War, took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was shot while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre with his wife and two guests. Lincoln died the following day, April 15, 1865, in the home of William Petersen.

Lincoln's assassin, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, had also ordered a fellow conspirator, Lewis Powell, to kill William H. Seward (then Secretary of State). Booth hoped to create chaos and overthrow the Federal government by assassinating Lincoln, Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Although Booth succeeded in killing Lincoln, the larger plot failed. Seward was attacked, but recovered from his wounds, and Johnson's would-be assassin, George Atzerodt, fled Washington, D.C. upon losing his nerve.

Contents 1 Original kidnapping plot 2 From kidnapping to assassination 3 Booth shoots President Lincoln 4 Powell attacks Secretary Seward 5 Atzerodt fails to attack Andrew Johnson 6 Death of President Lincoln 7 Booth and Herold flee 8 Conspirators' trial 8.1 Mudd's culpability 9 Aftermath 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links

[edit] Original kidnapping plot

Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general of all the Union's armies, suspended the exchange of prisoners-of-war in March of 1864.^[1] This decision cut off a badly needed source of reinforcement for the outnumbered, manpower-starved South. John Wilkes Booth's initial plot was to kidnap Lincoln and take him south, to hold him hostage and force his government to resume its earlier policy of exchanging prisoners.^[2] Booth had organized a circle of conspirators to help him in attempting this. He recruited Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O'Laughlen, Lewis Powell a.k.a. "Lewis Paine" and John Surratt. Dr. Samuel Mudd also set Booth's broken leg and was imprisoned for life as a conspirator following the incident, but was likely not involved in the plot. (see below). In time, Surratt's mother, Mary, left her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, and moved to a house in Washington, where Booth became a frequent visitor. Prosecutors would later point out that this move coincided with Booth's need to have a base of operations in the city.

Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865, as the invited guest of his secret fiancée Lucy Hale, the daughter of John P. Hale, soon to be United States Ambassador to Spain. Booth remarked afterwards, "What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration day!"^[3] On March 17, 1865, Booth told his conspirators that Lincoln would be attending a play, Still Waters Run Deep, at Campbell Military Hospital. He assembled his team in a restaurant at the edge of town, evidently intending that they should soon join him on a stretch of road nearby and ambush the president on his way back from the hospital. But after going out to check on Lincoln, Booth returned with the news that Lincoln had not gone there after all. Instead, the president was at the National Hotel attending a ceremony in which the officers of the 142nd Indiana were presenting their governor with a captured Confederate Battle Flag. Ironically, Booth lived at the National.^[4][5]

On April 11, 1865, Booth attended a speech outside the White House in which Lincoln gave support for the idea of voting rights for black people. Furious at the prospect, Booth changed to a plan for assassination: "That is the last speech he will ever give."^[6]

[edit] From kidnapping to assassination

The Confederacy began to fall apart shortly after Booth's kidnapping plan failed. On April 3, Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, fell to the Union army. On April 9, the Army of Northern Virginia, the first army of the Confederacy, surrendered to the Army of the Potomac at Appomatox Court House. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the rest of his government were in full flight. Although many Southerners had given up hope, Booth continued to believe in his cause, writing in his diary that "Our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done."^[7] On April 14th, sometime around noon while visiting Ford's to pick up his mail, Booth heard that the President and General Grant would be attending that night. It was a golden opportunity. Booth knew the theater well, having played there several times, the last time in March 1865.^[8][9] Booth surmised that if he and his conspirators could simultaneously kill the President, Grant, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward, he could throw the Union government into chaos for enough time that the Confederacy could mount a resurgence.

That afternoon Booth went to Maryland boarding house and asked her to deliver a package to her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland. He also asked her to tell her innkeeper there to make ready the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the tavern.^[10] This exchange would lead directly to Mary Surratt's execution three months later. At 7 o'clock that night Booth met with his fellow conspirators. Booth assigned Powell to kill Seward, Atzerodt to kill Johnson, and David E. Herold to guide Powell to the Seward house and then lead him out of the city to rendezvous with Booth in Maryland. Booth himself would shoot Lincoln with his single-shot derringer and stab Grant with his knife. They were all to strike simultaneously, shortly after 10 o'clock.^[11] Atzerodt wanted nothing to do with it, saying he had signed up for a kidnapping, not a killing. Booth told him he was too far in to back out.^[12]

[edit] Booth shoots President Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln and wife Mary Todd Lincoln were going to attend Laura Keene's performance in Our American Cousin.^[8] The Lincolns were under much stress, put on them by both the war and the death of their son in 1862. Also, President Lincoln had been made nervous due to dreams which concerned his own death. Contrary to the information Booth read in the newspaper, General and Mrs. Grant had declined the invitation to see the play with the Lincolns.^[13] Several other people were invited to join them, until finally Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (daughter of Senator Ira Harris) accepted the invitation.^[14]

The President and First Lady arrived at Ford's Theatre after the play began, Lincoln had been delayed at the White House by Missouri Senator John B. Henderson who successfully appealed for a pardon for George S.E. Vaughn who had thrice been convicted of espionage for the Confederates and was sentenced to die. It was Lincoln's last official act as President.^[15] The couple was led to the presidential box, where Lincoln was seated in a rocking chair on the left-hand side. The show was briefly paused to acknowledge the presence of the President and First Lady, who were applauded by the audience.

At about 9:00 p.m. on April 14, 1865, Booth arrived at the back door of Ford's Theatre, where he handed the reins of his horse over to a stagehand named Edman Spangler. Spangler was busy, so he asked Joseph Burroughs, known as "Peanuts," for the snacks he once sold in the theater, to hold the horse. As an actor at Ford's Theatre, Booth was well known there and he knew his way around. He entered a narrow hallway between Lincoln's box and the theatre's balcony, and barricaded the door.^[16] At that point, Mrs. Lincoln whispered to her husband, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" The president replied, "She won't think anything about it."^[17] Those were the last words ever spoken by Abraham Lincoln. It was now a little after 10 p.m.

Booth knew the play, and waited for the right moment, one where actor Harry Hawk would be onstage alone, where there would be laughter to muffle the sound of a gunshot. When Hawk said, "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal—you sockdologizing old man-trap...", Booth shot the president in the back of the head.^[18] Lincoln slumped over in his rocking chair, unconscious. Rathbone jumped from his seat and tried to prevent Booth from escaping, but Booth stabbed the Major violently in the arm with a knife. Rathbone quickly recovered and tried to grab Booth as he was preparing to jump from the sill of the box. Booth again stabbed at Rathbone, and then attempted to vault over the rail and down to the stage. His riding spur caught on the Treasury flag decorating the box, and instead of gracefully leaping to the stage, Booth came down full-face to the audience, landing awkwardly on his left foot, breaking his left fibula just above the ankle. He raised himself up and, holding a knife over his head, yelled, "Sic semper tyrannis,"^[19] the Virginia state motto, meaning "Thus always to tyrants." Other accounts state that he also uttered "The South is avenged!"^[20] He then ran across the stage, and went out the door onto the horse he had waiting outside. Some of the men in the audience chased after him, but failed to catch him. Booth struck "Peanuts" Burroughs in the forehead with the handle of his knife, leaped onto the horse, kicked Burroughs in the face, and rode away. He galloped hard for the Navy Yard Bridge and his meet up with Herold and Powell.

[edit] Powell attacks Secretary Seward

Booth assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. At this time, Seward was bedridden due to a carriage accident. On April 5th, Seward was thrown from his carriage, suffering a concussion, a jaw broken in two places, and a broken right arm. He was wearing a metal neck brace to support his jaw.^[21] He was at his home in Lafayette Park in Washington, not too far from the White House.

Herold guided Powell to Seward's residence on Booth's orders. Powell was carrying an 1858 Whitney revolver which was a large, heavy and popular gun during the Civil War. Additionally, he carried a huge silver-mounted bowie knife.

Powell knocked at the front door of the house a little after 10:00 p.m.; William Bell, Seward's butler, answered the door. Powell told Bell that he had medicine for Seward from Dr. Verdi, and that he was to personally deliver and show Seward how to take the medicine. Having gained admittance, Powell made his way up the stairs to Seward's third floor bedroom.^[22][23][24] At the top of the staircase, he was approached by Seward's son and Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward. Powell told Frederick the same story that he had told Bell at the front door. Seward was suspicious of the intruder, and told Powell that his father was asleep.

After hearing voices in the hall, Seward's daughter Fanny opened the door to Seward's room and said, "Fred, father is awake now," and then returned to the room which allowed Powell to now know where Seward was located. Powell started down the stairs when suddenly he jolted around again and drew his revolver, placing it upon Frederick's forehead. He pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. Panicking, Powell smashed the gun over Frederick's head continuously until Frederick collapsed. Fanny, wondering what all the noise was, looked out the door again. She saw her brother bloody and unconscious on the floor and Powell running towards her. Powell ran to Seward's bed and stabbed him repeatedly in the face and neck. He missed the first time he swung his knife down, but the third blow sliced open Seward's cheek.^[25] Seward's neck brace was the only thing that prevented the blade from penetrating his jugular.^[26] Sergeant Robinson and Seward's son Augustus tried to drive Powell away. Augustus had been asleep in his room, but was awakened by Fanny's screams of terror. Outside, Herold also heard Fanny's screaming. He became frightened and ran away, abandoning Powell.^[27]

Secretary Seward had rolled off the bed and onto the floor by the force of the blows where he could not be reached by Powell. Powell fought off Robinson, Augustus, and Fanny, stabbing them as well. When Augustus went for his pistol, Powell ran downstairs and headed to the front door.^[28] Just then, a messenger named Emerick Hansell arrived with a telegram for Seward. Powell stabbed Hansell in the back, causing him to fall to the floor. Before running outside, Powell exclaimed, "I'm mad! I'm mad!" and untied his horse from the tree where Herold left it and rode away alone.

Fanny Seward cried "Oh my God, father's dead!" Sergeant Robinson lifted the Secretary off the floor and back onto the bed. Secretary Seward spat the blood out of his mouth and said "I am not dead; send for a doctor, send for the police. Close the house."^[29] Seward's wounds were ugly, but Powell's wild stabs in the dark room did not hit anything vital. The Secretary survived the attacks.

[edit] Atzerodt fails to attack Andrew Johnson

Booth assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson who was staying at the Kirkwood Hotel in Washington. Atzerodt was to go to the Vice President's room at 10:15 p.m. and shoot him.^[30] On April 14, 1865, Atzerodt rented room 126 at the Kirkwood directly above the room where Johnson was staying. He arrived at the Kirkwood at the appointed time and went to the bar downstairs. He was carrying a gun and a knife. Atzerodt asked the bartender, Michael Henry, about the Vice President's character and behavior. After spending some time at the hotel saloon, Atzerodt got drunk and wandered away down the streets of Washington. Nervous, he tossed his knife away in the street. He made his way to the Pennsylvania House Hotel by 2 a.m., where he checked into a room and went to sleep.^[31][32]

Earlier that day, Booth stopped by the Kirkwood Hotel and left a note for Johnson that read "I don't wish to disturb you. Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth."^[22] This message has been interpreted in many different ways throughout the years.^[33] One theory is that Booth, afraid that Atzerodt would not be successful in killing Johnson, or worried that Atzerodt would not have the courage to carry out the assassination, tried to use the message to implicate Johnson in the conspiracy.^[34]

[edit] Death of President Lincoln

Mary Lincoln's screams and Rathbone's cries of "Stop that man!"^[21] caused the audience to understand that this was not part of the show, and pandemonium broke out in Ford's Theatre. Charles Leale, a young Army surgeon on liberty for the night and attending the play, made his way through the crowd to the door at the rear of the Presidential box. It would not open. Finally Rathbone saw a notch carved in the door and a wooden brace jammed there to hold the door shut. Booth had carved the notch there earlier in the day and noiselessly put the brace up against the door after entering the box to kill Lincoln. Rathbone shouted to Leale, who stepped back from the door, allowing Rathbone to remove the brace and open the door.^[35]

Leale entered the box to find Rathbone bleeding profusely from a deep gash that ran the length of his upper arm. Nonetheless, he passed Rathbone by and stepped forward to find Lincoln slumped forward in his chair, held up by Mary. Lincoln had no pulse and Leale believed him to be dead. Leale lowered the President to the floor. A second doctor in the audience, Charles Taft, was lifted bodily from the stage over the railing and into the box. Taft and Leale cut off Lincoln's collar and opened his shirt, and Leale, feeling around by hand, discovered the bullet hole in the back of the head by the left ear. Leale removed a clot of blood in the wound and Lincoln's breathing improved.^[36] Still, Leale knew it made no difference: "His wound is mortal. It is impossible for him to recover."^[37]

Leale, Taft, and another doctor from the audience named Albert King quickly consulted and decided that while the President must be moved, a bumpy carriage ride across town to the White House was out of the question. After briefly considering Tartavul's Saloon next door, they chose to carry Lincoln across the street and find a house. The three doctors and some soldiers who had been in the audience carried the President out the front entrance of Ford's. Across the street, a man was holding a light and calling "Bring him in here, bring him in here." The man was Henry Safford, a boarder at William Petersen's boarding house opposite Ford's. The men carried Lincoln into the house and into the first-floor bedroom, where they laid him diagonally on the bed because he was too tall to lie straight.^[38]

A vigil began at the Petersen House. Robert Lincoln arrived. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and United States Secretary of War Edwin Stanton came. While Mary Lincoln wept in the front parlor, Stanton set up shop in the rear parlor, effectively running the United States government for several hours, sending and receiving telegrams, taking reports from witnesses, and issuing orders for the pursuit of Booth.^[39] Nothing could be done for the President. At 7:22 a.m. on April 15th, Lincoln died. The crowd around the bed knelt for a prayer, and when they were finished, Stanton said "Now he belongs to the ages."^[40]

[edit] Booth and Herold flee

Booth jumped on his horse outside of Ford's and galloped away. Within half an hour he was over the Navy Yard Bridge and out of the city, riding into Maryland.^[41] Herold made it across the same bridge less than an hour later.^[42] Booth reunited with Herold after the assassination,^[43] but he was injured. After retrieving weapons and supplies previously stored at Surattsville, Herold and Booth went to Samuel A. Mudd, a local doctor and acquaintance of Booth, who determined that Booth's leg was broken, and put it in a splint. Later Mudd made a pair of crutches for the assassin.^[44]

After spending a day at Mudd's house, Booth and Herold hired a local man to guide them to Samuel Cox's house.^[45] Cox in turn led them to Thomas Jones, who hid Booth and Herold in a swamp near his house for five days until they could cross the Potomac River.^[46] They remained on the run until April 26, when Union soldiers tracked them down. They had been locked in a barn belonging to Richard Garrett and while Herold surrendered himself, Booth refused to come out.^[47] The soldiers then set fire to the barn.^[48] After that, a soldier named Boston Corbett crept up behind the barn, and shot Booth in the neck, paralyzing him.^[49] Booth was dragged out on to the steps of the barn. A soldier dribbled water onto his mouth. He then told the soldier "Tell my mother I died for my country." Writhing in agony, he asked a soldier to lift his hands and whispered "Useless...Useless." Booth died on the porch of the Garrett farm, two hours after Corbett shot him.^[22][50]

[edit] Conspirators' trial

Powell, unfamiliar with Washington and without David Herold's services as a guide, wandered the streets for three days before finding his way back to the Surratt house on April 17th. He found the detectives already there. Powell claimed to be a ditch-digger hired by Mary Surratt, but she denied knowing him. They were both arrested.^[51] Atzerodt hid out in a farm in Georgetown but was tracked down and arrested on April 20.^[52] The rest of the conspirators were arrested before the end of the month, except for John Surratt, who made his way to Europe and Africa before he was finally apprehended in November 1866. Surratt was later tried for Lincoln's murder, but an eyewitness placed him in Elmira, New York^[53] on the day of the assassination and the jury could not reach a verdict. Surratt was released and lived the rest of his life, until 1916, a free man.^[54]

Eight of Booth's co-conspirators were tried by a military tribunal after his death. The fact that they were tried by a military tribunal provoked criticism from both Edward Bates and Gideon Welles, who believed that a civil court should have presided. Attorney General James Speed, on the other hand, justified the use of a military tribunal on grounds that included the military nature of the conspiracy and the existence of martial law in the District of Columbia. (In 1866, in the Ex parte Milligan decision, the United States Supreme Court banned the use of military tribunals in places where civil courts were operational.)^[55] The odds were further stacked against the defendants by rules that required only a simple majority of the officer jury for a guilty verdict and a two-thirds majority for a death sentence. Nor could the defendants appeal to anyone other than President Johnson.^[56]

The trial lasted for about seven weeks, with 366 witnesses testifying. The verdict was given on June 30 and all of the defendants were found guilty. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by hanging and Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison. Mudd escaped execution by a single vote, the tribunal having voted 5-4 to hang him (six votes required for hanging). Edmund Spangler, who had done nothing more than hold Booth's horse, was sentenced to imprisonment for six years. Oddly, after sentencing Mary Surratt to hang, five of the jurors signed a letter recommending clemency, but Johnson refused to stop the execution. (Johnson later claimed he never saw the letter).^[57]

Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7, 1865.^[58] Mary Surratt was the first woman to be hanged by the U.S. government.^[59] O'Laughlen died in prison of yellow fever in 1867. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were pardoned in February 1869 by President Johnson.^[60]

[edit] Mudd's culpability

The degree of Dr. Mudd's culpability remained a controversy for over a century after his death. Some, including Mudd's grandson Richard Mudd, claimed that Mudd was innocent of any wrongdoing, that he had been imprisoned merely for treating a man who came to his house late at night with a fractured leg. Over a century after the assassination, Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan both wrote letters to Richard Mudd agreeing that his grandfather committed no crime. However others, including authors Edward Steers, Jr. and James Swanson, point out that Samuel Mudd visited with Booth three times in the months before the failed kidnapping attempt. The first time was November 1864 when Booth, looking for help in his kidnapping plot, was directed to Mudd by agents of the Confederate secret service. In December, Booth met with Mudd again and stayed the night at his farm. Later that December, Mudd went to Washington and introduced Booth to a Confederate agent he knew—John Surratt. Additionally, George Atzerodt testified that Booth sent supplies to Mudd's house in preparation for the kidnap plan. Mudd lied to the authorities who came to his house after the assassination, claiming that he did not recognize the man who showed up on his doorstep in need of treatment and gave false information about where Booth and Herold went.^[61][62] He also hid the monogramed boot that he had cut off of Booth's injured leg behind a panel in his attic. A thorough search of Mudd's house soon revealed this further damning evidence against him. One hypothesis is that Dr. Mudd was active in the kidnapping plot, likely as the person the conspirators would turn to for medical treatment in case Lincoln were injured, and that Booth thus remembered the doctor and went to his house to get help in the early hours of April 15.^[63][64]

[edit] Aftermath

Abraham Lincoln was the first American President to be assassinated. His assassination had a long-lasting impact upon the United States and he was mourned around the country. As a result of his assassination, there were attacks in many cities against those who expressed support for Booth.^[65] On the Easter Sunday after Lincoln's death, clergymen around the country praised him (Lincoln) in their sermons.^[66] Millions of people came to Lincoln's funeral procession in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 1865,^[67] and as his body was transported 1,700 miles (2,700 km) through New York to Springfield, Illinois. His body and funeral train were viewed by millions along the route.^[68]

After Lincoln's death, Ulysses S. Grant called him, "Incontestably the greatest man I ever knew."^[69] Southern-born Elizabeth 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."^[70] The Lincoln Memorial was opened in 1922.

Andrew Johnson was sworn in as President following Lincoln's death. Johnson became one of the least popular presidents in American history.^[71] He was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1868 but the Senate failed to convict him by one vote.^[72] William Seward recovered from his wounds and continued to serve as Secretary of State throughout Johnson's presidency. He later negotiated the Alaska Purchase, then known as Seward's Folly, by which the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867.^[73] The town of Seward, Alaska and Alaska's Seward Peninsula are named after him.

Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris married two years after the assassination. Rathbone later went mad and, in 1883, shot Clara and then stabbed her to death. He spent the rest of his life in an asylum for the criminally insane.^[74]

John Ford tried to reopen his theater a couple of months after the murder but a wave of outrage forced him to cancel. In 1866 the federal government purchased the building from Ford, tore out the insides, and turned it into an office building. In 1893 the inner structure collapsed, killing 22 clerks. It was later used as a warehouse, then it lay empty until it was restored to its 1865 appearance. Ford's Theatre reopened in 1968 both as a museum of the assassination and a working playhouse. The Presidential Box is never occupied.^[75] The Petersen House was purchased in 1896 as the "House Where Lincoln Died;" it was the first ever piece of property acquired by the federal government as a memorial. Today Ford's and the Petersen House are operated together as the Ford's Theatre National Historic Site.

[edit] See also

• List of assassinated American politicians
• List of United States Presidential assassination attempts

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Goodwin, Doris. Team of Rivals. Simon and Schuster, 2005.
• Kauffman, Michael. American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. Random House, 2004.
• Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The War Years IV. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1936.
• Steers, Edward: Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. 2001 University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813191513
• Swanson, James: Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. HarperCollins, 2006. ISBN 9780060518493
• Vowell, Sarah. Assassination Vacation. Simon and Schuster, 2005. ISBN 0743260031

[edit] External links

• Lincoln Papers: Lincoln Assassination: Introduction
• Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Theories
• Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• A History of John Wilkes Booth
• Original Documents Online: Lincoln Assassination Papers
• Ford's Theatre National Historic Site
• samuelmudd.com
• Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress

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