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Assassination of Abraham Lincoln


On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the
Assassination of Abraham
United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor
John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play Our American Lincoln
Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head Part of the Conclusion of the
as he watched the play,[2] Lincoln died the following day at American Civil War
7:22 am in the Petersen House opposite the theater.[3] He was
the first U.S. president to be assassinated,[4] with his funeral
and burial marking an extended period of national mourning.

Occurring near the end of the American Civil War, Lincoln's


assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by
Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three
most important officials of the United States government.
Conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold were assigned to
kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt
was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson.
Beyond Lincoln's death, the plot failed: Seward was only John Wilkes Booth assassinating
wounded, and Johnson's would-be attacker became drunk Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theatre
instead of killing the Vice President. After a dramatic initial
Location Ford's Theatre,
escape, Booth was killed at the climax of a twelve-day chase.
Powell, Herold, Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt were later hanged Washington, D.C.,
for their roles in the conspiracy. U.S.
Date April 14, 1865
10:15 pm

Contents Target Abraham Lincoln


(succeeded)
Background
Abandoned plan to kidnap Lincoln Andrew Johnson
Motive (failed)
Lincoln's premonitions William H. Seward
Preparations (failed)

Assassination of Lincoln Attack type Political


Lincoln arrives at the theater assassination ·
Booth shoots Lincoln shooting · stabbing
Booth escapes Weapons Philadelphia Deringer
Death of Lincoln pistol · dagger
Powell attacks Seward Deaths Abraham Lincoln
Atzerodt fails to attack Johnson (died April 15, 1865,
Reactions at 7:22 am from his
Flight and capture of the conspirators injuries)

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Booth and Herold Injured John Wilkes Booth


Others (perpetrator)

Conspirators' trial and execution Henry Rathbone

See also Joseph "Peanuts"


Burroughs[a]
Notes
William H. Seward
References
Frederick Seward
Further reading
Augustus Seward
External links
Fanny Seward
George F. Robinson
Background Emerick Hansell
Perpetrators John Wilkes Booth
Abandoned plan to kidnap Lincoln and co-conspirators
Motive Revenge for the
John Wilkes Booth, born in Confederate States
Maryland into a 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-
Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle in
Baltimore, Maryland.[5]: 67 
The last known high-
In March 1864, Ulysses S. Grant,
quality image of Lincoln,
commander of the Union armies, suspended
taken on the balcony at
the White House, March
the exchange of prisoners of war with the
6, 1865 Confederate Army[6] to increase pressure on
the manpower-starved South. Booth
conceived a plan to kidnap Lincoln in order John Wilkes Booth
to blackmail the Union into resuming prisoner exchanges,[7]: 130–34 
and recruited Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael
O'Laughlen, Lewis Powell (also known as "Lewis Paine"), and John
Surratt to help him. Surratt's mother, Mary Surratt, left her tavern in
Surrattsville, Maryland, and moved to a house in Washington, D.C.,
where Booth became a frequent visitor.

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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On March 17, Booth and the other conspirators


planned to abduct Lincoln as he returned from a play
at Campbell General Hospital in northwest
Washington. But Lincoln did not go to the play,
instead attending a ceremony at the National
Hotel.[7]: 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.[7]: 185–86, 439n17 [12]: 25 

Meanwhile, the Confederacy was collapsing. On April


3, Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, fell to
the Union Army. On April 9, General Robert E. Lee
Booth was present as Lincoln delivered his
and his Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to
second inaugural address a month before the
General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the
assassination.
Potomac after the Battle 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.[13]: 728 

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 

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 of Our American Cousin. This
provided him with an especially good opportunity to attack
Advertisement for Our American Lincoln since, having performed there several times, he knew
Cousin (Washington Evening Star,
the theater's layout and was familiar to its staff.[12]: 12 [8]: 108–09 
April 14, 1865)
Booth went to Mary Surratt's boarding 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 tenant
Louis J. Weichmann to ready the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the
tavern.[12]: 19 

The conspirators met for the final time at 8:45 pm. Booth


assigned Powell to kill Secretary of State William H.
Seward at his home, Atzerodt to kill Vice President
Andrew 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 Ford's Theatre
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

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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

Lincoln arrives at the theater

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]

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 the draft"   – was delivered instead as, "The draft has
already been stopped by order of the President!"[33] 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."[34] Booth's Philadelphia Deringer

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".[12]: 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 visit Jerusalem.[35]

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Booth shoots Lincoln

With Crook off duty and Ward Hill Lamon away,


policeman John Frederick Parker was assigned to
guard the Presidential Box.[36] At intermission he
went to a nearby tavern along with Lincoln's valet,
Charles Forbes, and Coachman Francis Burke. It was
also the same tavern Booth was waiting by having
several drinks to prepare his time. It is unclear
whether Parker returned to the theater, but he was
certainly not at his post when Booth entered the
box.[37] In any event, there is no certainty that entry
would have been denied to a celebrity such as Booth.
This Currier & Ives print (1865) implies Booth had prepared a brace to bar the door after
Rathbone was already rising as Booth fired; in entering the box, indicating that he expected a guard.
fact, Rathbone was unaware of Booth until he After spending time at the tavern, Booth entered
heard the shot. 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:[38]

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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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;[49] Booth's
riding spur became entangled
on the Treasury flag decorating
the box, and he landed
Booth's dagger 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 the Virginia
state motto, Sic semper tyrannis! ("Thus always to
tyrants") either from the box or the stage, witness
accounts conflict.[13]: 739  Most recalled hearing Sic
semper tyrannis! but others   – including Booth
himself   – said he yelled only Sic semper![50][51]
(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!",[12]: 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,


Major Joseph B. Stewart climbed over the Washington Metropolitan Police Department blotter
orchestra pit and footlights and pursued Booth for April 14 (lower quarter of page): "At this hour the
across the stage.[49] The screams of Mary Lincoln melancholy intelligence of the assassination of Mr.
and Clara Harris, and Rathbone's cries of, "Stop Lincoln ... was brought to this office ... the assassin
that man!"[12]: 49  prompted others to join the is a man named J. Wilks [sic] Booth."
chase as pandemonium broke out.

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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intermittent and exceedingly stertorous."[57][58] 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 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 

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. Carefully, seven men picked up Lincoln and slowly
carried him out of the theater, where it was packed with an angry
mob. After considering Peter 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 Skull fragments and probe used.
street,[59] where a man urged them toward the house of tailor
William Petersen.[60] In Petersen's first-floor bedroom, the
exceptionally tall Lincoln was laid diagonally on a small bed.[8]: 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 his cold body with blankets.
Later, more physicians arrived: Surgeon General
Joseph K. Barnes, Charles Henry Crane, Anderson
Ruffin Abbott, and Robert K. Stone (Lincoln's
personal physician). 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,[62] and Leale held
Lincoln's deathbed[d]
the comatose president's hand with a firm grip, "to let
him know that he was in touch with humanity and
had a friend."[8]: 14 [63]

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]

Powell attacks Seward


Booth had assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State
William H. Seward. On the night of the assassination, Seward
was at his home on Lafayette 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 Whitney revolver (a large, heavy,
and popular gun during the Civil War) and a Bowie knife.

William Bell, Seward's maître d', answered the door when


Powell knocked 10:10   pm, as Booth made his way to the
Presidential Box at Ford's Theater. Powell told Bell that he had
An artist's depiction of Lewis Powell medicine from Seward's physician and that his instructions
attacking William Seward's son, were to personally show Seward how to take it. Overcoming
Frederick W. Seward Bell's skepticism, Powell made his way up the stairs to Seward's
third-floor bedroom.[12]: 54 [13]: 736 [76] At the top of the staircase
he was stopped by Seward's son, Assistant Secretary of State

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Frederick W. Seward, to whom he repeated the medicine story; Frederick, suspicious, said his
father was asleep.

Hearing voices, Seward's daughter Fanny 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.[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 

Atzerodt fails to attack Johnson


Booth had assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice
President Andrew Johnson, who was staying at the
Kirkwood House in Washington. Atzerodt was to go
to Johnson's room at 10:15 pm and shoot him.[13]: 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
George Atzerodt Andrew Johnson
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.[8]: 166–67 [77]: 335 

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 

On April 18, mourners lined up seven abreast for a mile to view


Lincoln in his walnut casket in the White House's black-draped
East Room. Special trains brought thousands from other cities,
Lincoln's funeral train
some of whom slept on the Capitol's lawn.[84]: 120–23  Hundreds
of thousands watched the funeral procession on April 19,[12]: 213 
and millions more lined the 1,700-mile (2,700 km) route of the
train which took Lincoln's remains through New York to Springfield, Illinois, often passing
trackside tributes in the form of bands, bonfires, and hymn-singing.[85]: 31–58 [41]: 231–38 

Poet Walt Whitman composed "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard


Bloom'd", "O Captain! My Captain!", and two other poems, to eulogize
Lincoln.[86][87]

Ulysses S. Grant called Lincoln "incontestably the greatest man I ever


knew."[13]: 747  Robert E. Lee expressed sadness.[88] 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."[13]: 744  African-American
orator Frederick Douglass called the assassination an "unspeakable
calamity".[88]
"The Apotheosis of
British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell called Lincoln's death a "sad Lincoln": Lincoln
calamity."[83] China's chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, Prince ascending to heaven,
Kung, described himself as "inexpressibly shocked and startled".[82] where George
Ecuadorian president Gabriel García Moreno said, "Never should I have Washington embraces
thought that the noble country of Washington would be humiliated by such him and crowns him
a black and horrible crime; nor should I ever have thought that Mr. with laurels. (Unknown
Lincoln would come to such a horrible end, after having served his country artist)
with such wisdom and glory under so critical circumstances."[82][83] The
government of Liberia issued a proclamation calling Lincoln "not only the
ruler of his own people, but a father to millions of a race stricken and oppressed."[83] The
government of Haiti condemned the assassination as a "horrid crime".[83]

Flight and capture of the conspirators

Booth and Herold

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Within half an hour of fleeing Ford's Theatre,


Booth crossed the Navy Yard Bridge into
Maryland.[12]: 67–68  A Union Army sentry
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.[89] Herold
made it across the same bridge less than an
hour later[12]:81–82 and rendezvoused with
Booth.[12]: 87 After retrieving weapons and
supplies previously stored at Surattsville,
Herold and Booth rode to the home of Samuel
A. Mudd, a local doctor, who splinted the
leg[12]: 131, 153  Booth had broken in his escape
and later made a pair of crutches for
Booth.[12]: 131, 153 
Booth's escape route
After a day at Mudd's house, Booth and Herold
hired a local man to guide them to Samuel Cox's
house.[12]:  163  Cox, in turn, took them to Thomas Jones, a Confederate sympathizer who hid Booth
and Herold in Zekiah Swamp for five days until they could cross the Potomac River.[12]: 224  On the
afternoon of April 24, they arrived at the farm of Richard H. Garrett, a tobacco farmer, in King
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 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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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 two hours later.[12]: 336–40 [76] 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.[41]: 228 

Others

The Garrett farmhouse, where Booth died


April 26 Reward broadside with photographs
of John H. Surratt, John Wilkes
Booth, and David E. Herold
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.[8]:174–79 George Atzerodt hid at his cousin's farm in
Germantown, Maryland, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Washington, where he was arrested
April 20.[8]: 169 

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]

Conspirators' trial and execution


Scores of persons 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
included Louis J. Weichmann, a boarder in Mrs. Surratt's house; Booth's brother Junius (in
Cincinnati at the time of the assassination); theater owner John 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.[84]: 186–88  All were eventually
released except:[84]: 188 

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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 accused were tried by a military tribunal


ordered by Johnson, who had succeeded to the presidency on Lincoln's death:

▪ Maj. Gen. David Hunter (presiding) ▪ Brig. Gen. August Kautz


▪ Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace ▪ Col. James A. Ekin
▪ Brig. Gen. Robert Sanford Foster ▪ Col. Charles H. Tompkins
▪ Brev. Maj. Gen. Thomas Maley Harris ▪ Lt. Col. David Ramsay Clendenin
▪ Brig. Gen. Albion P. Howe

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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fifteen others said 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.[8]: 178 [97]: 132–33, 138 [99]: 227 

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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tps://web.archive.org/web/20170204064937/http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/images/ne
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EyeWitness to History. Ibis Communications, Inc. Retrieved August 26, 2017. "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."
65. Fox, Richard (2015). Lincoln's Body: A Cultural History. W. W. Norton & Company.
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66. "OUR GREAT LOSS; The Assassination of President Lincoln. DETAILS OF THE FEARFUL
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69. Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln (https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi). New York:
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Eyewitness to History/Ibis Communications. Retrieved August 16, 2012. (Quoting Lieutenant
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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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Assassination of Abraham Lincoln - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln

st-hours-alive-and-postmortem) Shapell Manuscript Foundation


▪ First Responder Dr. Charles Leale Eyewitness Report of Assassination (http://www.shapell.org/
manuscript.aspx?earliest-first-responder-report-doctor-leale-abraham-lincoln-fords-theatre-ass
assination) Shapell Manuscript Foundation
▪ Lincoln Papers: Lincoln Assassination: Introduction (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alrintr.
html)
▪ Ford's Theatre National Historic Site (http://www.nps.gov/foth/index.htm)
▪ Abraham Lincoln's Assassination (https://web.archive.org/web/20131025013438/http://rogerjno
rton.com/Lincoln.html)
▪ Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/rr/progr
am/bib/presidents/lincoln/)
▪ Lincoln Conspiracy Photograph Album at George Eastman museum (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20010304215855/http://www.geh.org/ne/str115/htmlsrc/lincoln_sum00001.html)
▪ The Men Who Killed Lincoln (https://web.archive.org/web/20100516112620/http://www.life.com/
image/first/in-gallery/41362/the-men-who-killed-lincoln) – slideshow by Life magazine
▪ Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Research Site (http://www.muddresearch.com)
▪ The official transcript of the trial (as recorded by Benn Pitman and several assistants –
originally published in 1865 by the United States Army Military Commission) (https://archive.org
/details/assassinationpr00herogoog)
▪ Hanging the Lincoln Conspirators (https://coololdphotos.com/hanging-the-lincoln-conspirators/)
– detailed analysis and review of historic 1865 photograph

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