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While Booth and Lincoln were not personally acquainted, Lincoln had
seen Booth at Ford's Theatre in 1863.[8]: 419 [9][10] After the
assassination, actor Frank Mordaunt wrote that Lincoln, who
apparently harbored no suspicions about Booth, admired the actor
and had repeatedly invited him (without success) to visit the White
House.[11]: 325–26 Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on The Surratt house
March 4, 1865, writing in his diary afterwards: "What an excellent
chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration
day!"[7]: 174, 437n41
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Motive
There are various theories about Booth's motivations. In a letter to his mother, he wrote of his
desire to avenge the South.[14] Doris Kearns Goodwin has endorsed the idea that another factor
was Booth's rivalry with his well-known older brother, actor Edwin Booth, who was a loyal
Unionist.[15] David S. Reynolds believes that, despite disagreeing with his cause, Booth greatly
admired the abolitionist John Brown;[16] Booth's sister Asia Booth Clarke quoted him as saying:
"John Brown was a man inspired, the grandest character of the century!"[16][17] On April 11, Booth
attended Lincoln's last speech, in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for emancipated slaves;[18]
Booth said, "That means nigger citizenship. ... That is the last speech he will ever give."[19]
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."
[20][8]: 91
Lincoln's premonitions
According to Ward 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 the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening
surprise. Before me was a catafalque, 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
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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."[21]
However, Lincoln went on to tell 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."[22][23]
Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell writes that dreams of assassination would not be unexpected
in the first place, considering the Baltimore Plot and an additional assassination attempt in which a
hole was shot through Lincoln's hat.[22]
For months Lincoln had looked pale and haggard, but on the morning of the assassination he told
people how happy he was. First Lady Mary Lincoln felt such talk could bring bad luck.[24]: 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 at
Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg and Vicksburg.[25]
Preparations
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, something decisive
and great must be done".[13]: 728 [24]: 346
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incorrect) for the plotters to have assumed that the entrance of the box would itself be guarded.
Had it been, Booth would have been the only plotter with a plausible chance of gaining access to
the President, or at least to gain entry to the box without being searched for weapons first. Booth
planned to shoot Lincoln at point-blank range with his single-shot Philadelphia Deringer pistol and
then stab Grant at the theater. They were all to strike simultaneously shortly after ten o'clock.[8]: 112
Atzerodt tried to withdraw from the plot, which to this point had involved only kidnapping, not
murder, but Booth pressured him to continue.[7]: 212
Assassination of Lincoln
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.[26]: 45 [b]
Others in succession also declined the Lincolns' invitation, until
finally Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris
(daughter of U.S. Senator Ira Harris of New York)
accepted.[12]: 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.[28]
Lincoln's box Lincoln's footman, William H. Crook, advised him not to go,
but Lincoln said he had promised his wife.[29] Lincoln told
Speaker of the House Schuyler 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 (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 some 1,700 rose in applause.[30] Lincoln sat in a rocking chair that had been selected
for him from among the Ford family's personal furnishings.[31][32]
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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, Booth barricaded the door by wedging a stick between it and the wall.
From here, a second door led to Lincoln's box. There is evidence that, earlier in the day, Booth had
bored a peephole in this second door.[39][40]: 173
Booth knew the play Our American Cousin by heart and waited to time his shot at about 10:15 pm,
with the laughter at one of the hilarious lines of the play, delivered by actor Harry Hawk: "Well, I
guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!". Lincoln
was laughing at this line[41]: 96 when Booth opened the door, stepped forward, and shot Lincoln
from behind with his pistol.[2]
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 both orbital plates.[c][44] Lincoln slumped over in his
chair and then fell backward.[46][47] Rathbone turned to see Booth standing in gunsmoke less than
four feet behind Lincoln; Booth shouted a word that Rathbone thought sounded like
"Freedom!"[48]
Booth escapes
Rathbone jumped from his seat and struggled with Booth, who dropped the pistol and drew a knife
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Booth exited the theater through a side door, en route stabbing orchestra leader William Withers,
Jr.[52][53] 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.[54][55][56][1]
Death of Lincoln
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.[8]: 120
Leale found Lincoln seated with his head leaning to his right[43] as Mary held him and sobbed:
"His eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was
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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 a blood clot, after which Lincoln's breathing
improved;[8]: 121–22 he learned that regularly removing new clots
maintained Lincoln's breathing. After giving Lincoln artificial respiration,
Leale allowed actress Laura Keene to cradle the President's head in her
Surgeon Charles Leale
lap. He pronounced the wound mortal.[12]: 78
Lincoln's older son Robert Todd Lincoln arrived at about 11 pm, but twelve-year-old Tad Lincoln,
who was watching a play of Aladdin at Grover's Theater when he learned of his father's
assassination, was kept away. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of War Edwin 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.[8]: 127–28 Guards kept the public away, but
numerous officials and physicians were admitted to pay their respects.[62]
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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 The Last Hours of Abraham Lincoln (Alonzo
face Chappel, 1868)[e]
A minute-by-minute timeline of Lincoln's
discolored.[64]
worsening medical condition throughout
Maunsell
the day of April 15, 1865.
Bradhurst Field wrote in a letter to The New York Times
that Lincoln then started "breathing regularly, but with
effort, and did not seem to be struggling or suffering."[65][66] As he neared death, Lincoln's
appearance became "perfectly natural"[65] (except for the discoloration around his eyes).[67]
Shortly before 7 am Mary was allowed to return to Lincoln's side,[68] and, as Dixon reported, "she
again seated herself by the President, kissing him and calling him every endearing name."[69]
Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15.[3] Mary Lincoln was not present.[70][71] In his last moments,
Lincoln's face became calm and his breathing quieter.[72] Field wrote there was "no apparent
suffering, no convulsive action, no rattling of the throat ... [only] a mere cessation of breathing".
[65][66] According to Lincoln's secretary John Hay, at the moment of Lincoln's death, "a look of
unspeakable peace came upon his worn features".[73] The assembly knelt for a prayer, after which
Stanton said either, "Now he belongs to the ages" or, "Now he belongs to the angels."[8]: 134 [74]
On Lincoln's death, Vice President Johnson became the 17th President of the United States. The
presidential oath of office was administered to Johnson by Chief Justice Salmon Chase sometime
between 10 and 11 am.[75]
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Frederick W. Seward, to whom he repeated the medicine story; Frederick, suspicious, said his
father was asleep.
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.[12]: 58 However, the splint (often mistakenly
described as a neck brace) that doctors had fitted to Seward's
broken jaw prevented the blade from penetrating his jugular
vein.[13]: 737 Seward eventually recovered, though with serious
scars on his face.
William and Fanny Seward in 1861
Seward's son Augustus and Sergeant George 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,[77]: 275 where he encountered Emerick Hansell, a State Department
messenger.[78][79] 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.[12]: 59
Earlier in the day, Booth had stopped by the Kirkwood House and left a note for Johnson: "I don't
wish to disturb you. Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth."[76] One theory holds that Booth was trying
to find out whether Johnson was expected at the Kirkwood that night;[8]: 111 another holds that
Booth, concerned that Atzerodt would fail to kill Johnson, intended the note to implicate Johnson
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in the conspiracy.[80]
Reactions
Lincoln was mourned in both the North and South,[77]: 350 and
indeed around the world.[81] Numerous foreign governments
issued proclamations and declared periods of mourning on
April 15.[82][83] Lincoln was praised in sermons on Easter
Sunday, which fell on the day after his death.[77]: 357
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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 a Monitor for safe keeping – as
a mob once raised now would know no end.[38]
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,[90]
authorizing rewards of $50,000 (equivalent to $900,000 in 2021) for Booth and $25,000 each for
Herold and John Surratt.[91]
Booth and Herold were sleeping at Garrett's farm on April 26 when soldiers from the 16th New
York Cavalry arrived and surrounded the barn, then threatened to set fire to it. Herold
surrendered, but Booth cried out, "I will not be taken alive!"[12]: 326 The soldiers set fire to the
barn[12]: 331 and Booth scrambled for the back door with a rifle and pistol.
Sergeant Boston 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",[92] severing his
spinal cord.[12]: 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
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Others
The remaining conspirators were arrested by month's end – except for John Surratt, who fled to
Quebec where Roman Catholic priests hid him. In September, he boarded a ship to Liverpool,
England, staying in the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross there. From there, he moved furtively
through Europe until joining the Pontifical Zouaves in the Papal 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 in Egypt in November 1866.[93]
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▪ Samuel Arnold
▪ George Atzerodt
▪ David Herold
▪ Samuel Mudd
▪ Michael O'Laughlen
▪ Lewis Powell
▪ Edmund Spangler (a theater stagehand
who had given Booth's horse to Burroughs
to hold)
▪ Mary Surratt Trial of the conspirators, June 5, 1865
The prosecution was led by U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, assisted by
Congressman John A. Bingham and Major Henry Lawrence Burnett.[94]
The use of a military tribunal provoked criticism from Edward Bates and Gideon Welles, who
believed that a civil court should have presided, but Attorney General James Speed pointed to the
military nature of the conspiracy and the facts that the defendants acted as enemy combatants and
that martial law was in force at the time in the District of Columbia. (In 1866, in Ex parte Milligan,
the United States Supreme Court banned the use of military tribunals in places where civil courts
were operational.)[8]: 213–14 Only a simple majority of the jury 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.[8]: 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 by hanging; Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life
in prison.[95] Edmund Spangler was sentenced to six years. After sentencing Mary Surratt to hang,
five jurors signed a letter recommending clemency, but Johnson refused to stop the execution; he
later claimed he never saw the letter.[8]: 227
Mary Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July
7.[12]: 362, 365 Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the United States government.[96]
O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were pardoned in February 1869
by Johnson.[12]: 367 Spangler, who died in 1875, always insisted his sole connection to the plot was
that Booth asked him to hold his horse.
John Surratt stood trial in Washington in 1867. Four residents of Elmira, New
York,[12]: 27 [97]: 125, 132,136–37 [98]: 112–15 claimed they had seen him there between April 13 and 15;
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See also
▪ Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln
▪ Second-term curse
▪ Baltimore Plot
▪ Phineas Densmore Gurley
Execution of Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David
Herold, and George Atzerodt on July 7, 1865, at ▪ George A. Parkhurst
Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. ▪ "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
▪ List of assassinated American politicians
▪ List of United States presidential assassination
attempts and plots
▪ List of incidents of political violence in
Washington, D.C.
▪ Joseph Hazelton, 12-year-old eyewitness
▪ Samuel J. Seymour, 5-year-old eyewitness who in
1956 told his story as a television game-show
contestant
▪ List of Abraham Lincoln artifacts and relics
Notes
a. Burroughs was also known as "John Peanut", "Peanut John", John Bohran, and other
aliases.[1]
b. There is evidence to suggest that either Booth or fellow conspirator Michael O'Laughlen – who
resembled Booth – followed the Grants to Union Station late that afternoon and discovered that
they would not be at the theater. The Grants later received an anonymous letter from someone
who claimed to have boarded their train intending to attack them but was thwarted because the
Grants' private car was locked and guarded.[27]
c. Though the steel ball Booth used as a bullet was of a .41 caliber, the deringer type was a small,
easily concealable gun known to be inaccurate and usually just used in close quarters.[42] The
bullet most probably passed mainly through the left side of the brain, causing massive damage
including the skull fractures, hemorrhaging, and secondary severe edema of the brain. While
Dr. Leale's notes mention Lincoln's bulging right eye,[43] the autopsy only specifically states the
damage to the left side of the brain.[44][45]
d. Julius Ulke, who was a boarder at the Petersen House, took this photograph shortly after
Lincoln's body was removed.[61]
e. Designed by John B. Bachelder, this painting depicts the various people who visited Lincoln's
room at different times throughout the night as he lay dying; they were not all present
simultaneously.
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References
1. Edwards, William C.; Steers, Edward, eds. (2010). John Bohran (Joseph Burroughs) – The
Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence (https://books.google.com/books?id=GvYpUeuPPrAC&pg
=PA141). University of Illinois Press. pp. 140–41. ISBN 9780252091070. "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."
2. Abel, E. Lawrence (2015). A Finger in Lincoln's Brain: What Modern Science Reveals about
Lincoln, His Assassination, and Its Aftermath (https://books.google.com/books?id=ax0UBgAAQ
BAJ&pg=PA63). ABC-CLIO. p. 63. ISBN 9781440831195. "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].""
3. Richard A. R. Fraser, MD (February–March 1995). "How Did Lincoln Die?" (http://www.america
nheritage.com/content/how-did-lincoln-die?page=show). American Heritage. 46 (1).
4. "Lincoln Shot at Ford's Theater" (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr14.html).
5. Getler, Warren; Brewer, Bob (2003). Shadow of the Sentinel (https://archive.org/details/shadow
ofsentinel00getl). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-1968-6.
6. "Prisoner exchange" (https://spartacus-educational.com/USACWexchange.htm). Spartacus-
Educational.com. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110605232902/http://www.spartacu
s.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWexchange.htm) from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved
February 27, 2019.
7. Kauffman, Michael W. (2004). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln
Conspiracies (https://books.google.com/books?id=86RH6NNCl0QC&pg=PA185). New York:
Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50785-4.
8. Steers, Edward. Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. University Press
of Kentucky, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8131-9151-5
9. "5 facts you may not know about Lincoln's assassination" (http://www.cbsnews.com/media/abra
ham-lincoln-assassination-5-facts-you-may-not-know/2/). CBS News. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
"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."
10. Bogar, Thomas A. (2006). American Presidents Attend the Theatre: The Playgoing
Experiences of Each Chief Executive (https://books.google.com/books?id=TLfwCQAAQBAJ&p
g=PA100). McFarland. pp. 100, 375–76. ISBN 9780786442324.
11. Hay, John (1999). Burlingame, Michael; Ettlinger, John R. Turner (eds.). Inside Lincoln's White
House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay (https://books.google.com/books?id=BnOVq
u-11QIC&pg=PA325). Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809322626.
12. Swanson, James. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. Harper Collins, 2006.
ISBN 978-0-06-051849-3
13. Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: the political genius of Abraham Lincoln. Simon and
Schuster, New York, 2005. ISBN 978-0-684-82490-1
14. Kauffman, John W. (2007). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies
(https://books.google.com/books?id=86RH6NNCl0QC&pg=252). Random House. p. 252.
ISBN 9780307430618. ""...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."
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15. Goodwin, Doris Kearns (2010). My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and
John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy (Foreword) (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=vBSQUOMDMLEC&pg=PR11). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781416586166.
16. Reynolds, David S. (April 12, 2015). "John Wilkes Booth and the Higher Law" (https://www.thea
tlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/john-wilkes-booth-and-the-higher-law/385461/). The
Atlantic.
17. Clarke, Asia Booth (1938). The Unlocked Book: A Memoir of John Wilkes Booth by his Sister.
Faber & Faber. p. 124.
18. "Last Public Address" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110606044904/http://showcase.netins.ne
t/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/last.htm). Speeches and Writings. Abraham Lincoln Online.
April 11, 1865. Archived from the original (http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speec
hes/last.htm) on June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
19. Masur, Louis P. (2015). McPherson, James (ed.). Lincoln's last speech : wartime reconstruction
and the crisis of reunion. pp. xiii–xiv. ISBN 978-0-19-021840-9. OCLC 900633130 (https://www.
worldcat.org/oclc/900633130).
20. Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln (https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi). New York:
Touchstone. p. 588 (https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi/page/588).
21. pp. 116–17 of Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847–1865 by Ward Hill Lamon (Lincoln,
University of Nebraska Press, 1999).
22. Nickell, Joe. "Premonition! Foreseeing What Cannot Be Seen". Skeptical Inquirer. 43 (4).
23. Sandburg, Carl (2002). Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years. Harcourt.
p. 698. ISBN 0-15-602752-6.
24. Kunhardt Jr., Phillip B., Kunhardt III, Phillip, and Kunhardt, Peter W. Lincoln: An Illustrated
Biography. Gramercy Books, New York, 1992. ISBN 0-517-20715-X
25. "American Experience | The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/am
ericanexperience/films/assassination/). PBS. Retrieved December 14, 2012.
26. Vowell, Sarah. Assassination Vacation. Simon and Schuster, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-6003-1
27. McFeely (2002), Grant: A Biography, pp. 224–25
28. Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln (https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi). New York:
Touchstone. p. 593 (https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi/page/593).
29. Lewis, Lloyd (1994). The Assassination of Lincoln: History and Myth (https://books.google.com/
books?id=F6HB7q8M9TIC&pg=PA297). University of Nebraska Press. p. 297.
ISBN 978-0-8032-7949-0.
30. "Frequently Asked Questions – Ford's Theatre National Historic Site" (http://www.nps.gov/foth/f
aqs.htm). Nps.gov. February 12, 1932. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
31. Sneller, Rhoda; Sneller, PhD, Lowell. "Lincoln Assassination Rocking Chair" (http://www.abraha
mlincolnonline.org/lincoln/education/arocker.htm). Retrieved August 26, 2017. "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.'"
32. "Curating & Preserving The Lincoln Rocker" (https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/inside/lincol
n-rocker/). The Henry Ford Museum. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
33. Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln (https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi). New York:
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Further reading
▪ Hodes, Martha. Mourning Lincoln, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.
ISBN 9780300195804
▪ Holzer, Harold (compiled and introduced by). President Lincoln Assassinated!!: The Firsthand
Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning. Library of America/Penguin Random House
Inc. 2014. ISBN 978-1-59853-373-6
▪ Holzer, Harold; Symonds, Craig L.; Williams, Frank J., eds., The Lincoln Assassination: Crime
and Punishment, Myth and Memory, New York: Fordham University Press, 2010.
ISBN 9780823232260 Review (https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/book-revie
ws-Aug2010-pdf-1.pdf)
▪ King, Benjamin. A Bullet for Lincoln, Pelican Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0-88289-927-9
▪ Lattimer, John. Kennedy and Lincoln, Medical & Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. 1980. ISBN 978-0-15-152281-1 [includes description
and pictures of Seward's jaw splint, not a neck brace]
▪ Steers Jr., Edward, and Holzer, Harold, eds. The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their
Confinement and Execution, as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft.
Louisiana State University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8071-3396-5
▪ Donald E. Wilkes, Jr. (https://web.archive.org/web/20070524121308/http://www.law.uga.edu/ac
ademics/profiles/wilkes.html), Lincoln Assassinated! (https://web.archive.org/web/20121215215
300/http://www.law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/other_6Lincoln1.html), Lincoln Assassinated!, Part 2
(https://web.archive.org/web/20120427013654/http://www.law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/other_7Li
ncoln2.html).
▪ Bagehot, Walter, ed. (April 29, 1865). "The assassination of Mr Lincoln" (https://www.economis
t.com/news/leaders/21648528-our-coverage-death-american-president-assassination-mr-lincol
n). The Economist. Vol. XXIII, no. 1, 131.
▪ The Lincoln Memorial: A Record of the Life, Assassination, and Obsequies of the Martyred
President, no author or editor named. New York: Bunce & Huntington, 1865.
External links
▪ Abraham Lincoln's Physician's Observation and Postmortem Reports: Original Documentation
(http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?doctor-of-abraham-lincoln-obervation-of-presidents-la
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