This day in History: John Wilkes Booth Assassinated Lincoln

This day in history: John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.

President Lincoln attended the theater often and especially liked the tragic dramas of William Shakespeare. On one such occasion, November 9, 1863, Lincoln saw Booth playing Raphael in Charles Selby’s “The Marble Heart” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. At one point during the performance, Booth was said to have shaken his finger in Lincoln’s direction in the presidential box as he delivered a line of dialogue.

On the morning of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Booth learned that the President and Mrs. Lincoln would be attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre. He immediately set about making plans for the assassination, which included a getaway horse waiting outside, and an escape route. Booth informed Powell, Herold and Atzerodt of his intention to kill Lincoln. He assigned Powell to assassinate Secretary of State Seward and Atzerodt to assassinate Vice-President Johnson. Herold would assist in their escape into Virginia.Wanted poster for Booth, Surratt, and HeroldBy targeting the President and his two immediate successors to the office, Booth seems to have intended to decapitate the Union government and throw it into a state of panic and confusion. Booth also planned to assassinate the Union commanding general, Ulysses S. Grant; however, Grant’s wife had promised to visit family and so they were heading to New Jersey. Booth had hoped that the assassinations would create sufficient chaos within the Union that the Confederate government could reorganize and continue the war.

As a famous and popular actor, Booth was a friend of the owner of Ford’s Theatre, John T. Ford, and had free access to all parts of the theater. Boring a spyhole into the presidential box earlier that day, the assassin could see if his intended victim had made it to the play. That evening, at around 10 p.m., as the play progressed, John Wilkes Booth slipped into Lincoln’s box and shot him in the back of the head with a .44 caliber Deringer. Booth’s escape was almost thwarted by Major Henry Rathbone, who was present in the Presidential box with Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln.Booth then jumped from the President’s box and fell to the stage, injuring his leg when it snagged a U.S. Treasury Guard flag used for decoration. Witnesses said he shouted “Sic semper tyrannis” (Latin for “Thus always to tyrants”, the Virginia state motto) from the stage, while others said he added, “The South is avenged.”  Source & Read more…