Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination A+E Networks Introduction On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War. Google Abraham Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth , was a Maryland native born in 1838 who remained in the North during the Civil War despite his Confederate sympathies. As the conflict entered its final stages, he and several associates hatched a plot to kidnap the president and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, Lincoln failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces. In April, with Confederate armies near collapse across the South, Booth came up with a desperate plan to save the Confederacy. Did You Know?

The search for John Wilkes Booth was one of the largest manhunts in history, with 10,000 federal troops, detectives and police tracking down the assassin. Learning that Lincoln was to attend Laura Keene’s acclaimed performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington , D.C., on April 14, Booth—himself a well-known actor at the time—masterminded the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. By murdering the president and two of his possible successors, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to throw the U.S. government into disarray. Lincoln occupied a private box above the stage with his wife Mary, a young army officer named Henry Rathbone and Rathbone’s fiancé, Clara Harris, the daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris. The Lincolns arrived late for the comedy, but the president was reportedly in a fine mood and laughed heartily during the production. History Channel Online Course – Lincoln Assassination At 10:15, Booth slipped into the box and fired his .44-caliber single-shot derringer into the back of Lincoln’s head.

After stabbing Rathbone, who immediately rushed at him, in the shoulder, Booth leapt onto the stage and shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus ever to tyrants!”–the Virginia state motto). At first, the crowd interpreted the unfolding drama as part of the production, but a scream from the first lady told them otherwise. Although Booth broke his leg in the fall, he managed to leave the theater and escape from Washington on horseback. A 23-year-old doctor named Charles Leale was in the audience and hastened to the presidential box immediately upon hearing the shot and Mary Lincoln’s scream. He found the president slumped in his chair, paralyzed and struggling to breathe. Several soldiers carried Lincoln to a house across the street and placed him on a bed. When the surgeon general arrived at the house, he concluded that Lincoln could not be saved and would die during the night. Vice President Andrew Johnson, members of Lincoln’s cabinet and several of the president’s closest friends stood vigil by Lincoln’s bedside until he was officially pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. The first lady lay on a bed in an adjoining room with her eldest son Robert at her side, overwhelmed with shock and grief.

The president’s body was placed in a temporary coffin, draped with a flag and escorted by armed cavalry to the White House , where surgeons conducted a thorough autopsy. Edward Curtis, an Army surgeon in attendance, later described the scene, recounting that a bullet clattered into a waiting basin during the doctors’ removal of Lincoln’s brain. He wrote that the team stopped to stare at the offending weapon, “the cause of such mighty changes in the world’s history as we may perhaps never realize.” During the autopsy, Mary Lincoln sent the surgeons a note requesting that they clip a lock of Lincoln’s hair for her. News of the president’s death traveled quickly, and by the end of the day flags across the country flew at half-mast, businesses were closed and people who had recently rejoiced at the end of the Civil War now reeled from Lincoln’s shocking assassination. The president’s corpse was taken to the White House, and on April 18 it was carried to the Capitol rotunda to lay in state on a catafalque. On April 21, Lincoln’s body was boarded onto a train that conveyed it to Springfield, Illinois , where he had lived before becoming president.

Tens of thousands of Americans lined the railroad route and paid their respects to their fallen leader during the train’s solemn progression through the North. Lincoln and his son, Willie, who died in the White House of typhoid fever in 1862, were interred on May 4, 1865, at Oak Ridge Cemetery, near Springfield. As the nation mourned, Union soldiers were hot on the trail of John Wilkes Booth, who many in the audience had immediately recognized. After fleeing the capital, he and an accomplice, David Herold, made their way across the Anacostia River and headed toward southern Maryland. The pair stopped at the home of Samuel Mudd, a doctor who treated Booth’s leg. (Mudd’s actions earned him a life sentence that was later commuted). They then sought refuge from Thomas A. Jones, a Confederate agent, before securing a boat to row across the Potomac to Virginia. On April 26, Union troops surrounded the Virginia farmhouse where Booth and Herold were hiding out and set fire to it, hoping to flush the fugitives out. Herold surrendered but Booth remained inside.

As the blaze intensified, a sergeant shot Booth in the neck, allegedly because the assassin had raised his gun as if to shoot. Carried out of the building alive, he lingered for three hours before gazing at his hands and uttering his last words: “Useless, useless.” Four of Booth’s co-conspirators were convicted for their part in the assassination and executed by hanging on July 7, 1865. They included David Herold and Mary Surratt , the first woman put to death by the federal government, whose boarding house had served as a meeting place for the would-be kidnappers. Tags Abraham Lincoln Assassination - Facts and Timeline Abraham Lincoln Assassination POTUS Portraits Abraham Lincoln Assassination John Wilkes Booth initially plotted to kidnap President Lincoln early in 1864, in order to trade for ransom and the release of confederate prisoners of war. As a consequence of unfolding events Booth switched gears and a new desperate plan to cripple the union and help the confederacy emerged. On April 14, 1865 the kidnapping plot emerged as a killing rampage attempt of several high officials in the Federal Government.

Booth assigned the assassination of President Lincoln for he alone to relish, deligating the others to his co conspirators. Lewis Powell was directed to kill Secretary of State Seward. Powell entered Secretary Seward's home at about 10:20 P.M. and Savagely attacked him with a knife. Seward miraculously survived the assassination attempt and remained Secretary of State for the Johnson Presidency. George Atzerodt's target was Vice President Andrew Johnson , but Atzerodt failed miserably in his assassination attempt, as a result Johnson was never in any real danger. General Ulysses S. Grant was also selected by Booth for assassination for his part in the Civil War . Fortunately Ulysses Grant and wife Julia Dent Grant changed their initial plans and declined to join the President at Ford's Theater that fateful evening. Despite Booth's attempts to alter the course of history on behalf of the Confederate South by murdering President Lincoln, Vice President Johnson and General Grant would become the next two Presidents of the United States. John Wilkes Booth Assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, while he enjoyed a play with First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln , at the Fords Theater.

Booth also entered the Presidential box at about 10:20 in the evening and undetected crept up behind the President and shot him in the back of the head at point blank range, with a derringer pistol He then Jumped over the balcony to the stage below, breaking his leg when he landed. Limping on a broken leg, Booth managed to escape through a back door and rendezvous with Herold. They immediatley headed for Dr. Samuel Mudds farm. Dr. Mudd attended to Booth's broken left leg and allowed the two men to stay the night. They left Mudds farm the next morning and after several days of running and hiding, found their final refuge in Richard Garret's barn. An intensive military man hunt ensued for twelve days. Booth was finally tracked down, cornered and surrounded by the U.S. Military, Herold surrendered. Booth stayed to fight and met with his fatal demise. Nine assassination Conspirators were subsequently arrested and Eight convicted.

DATE Atzerodt, Powell, Mary Surrat, and Herold were hanged in front of the Old Arsenal Building Abraham Lincoln Assassination Conspirators JOHN WILKES BOOTH (1838-1865) Proclaimed assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. Booth was a famous theater actor who enamored all who met him. He performed in Ford's theater and new the building well. He continued to perform at Ford's theater unit mid March 1865. He left the stage in order to concentrate on crafting his plot against President Lincoln. MARY SURRATT (1823-1865) Mary owned and operated the Surratt Boardinghouse where Booth and his co-conspirators were said to have boarded and visited often. Mary Surratt was the first woman ever executed by the United States. Mary Surratt's son, John Harrison Surratt (1844-1916) an original Booth co-conspirator in the Lincoln kidnapping plot. The prosecution could not refute eye witness testimony placing Surratt in New York at the time the assassination took place. He was released after a hung jury.

Young Surratt later spoke about being involved in the kidnapping plot but emphatically denied knowing about the Lincoln assassination GEORGE ATZERODT (1835-1865) Arrested as a co-conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln on April 20. In his confession Atzerodt implicated Mary Surratt and Dr. Mudd. He was found guilty before a military tribunal and sentenced to death by hanging. LEWIS POWELL (1844-1865) Powell was a major Booth co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Powell's part in the plot to murder top government leaders was to murder Secretary of State Seward. David Herald waited outside Sewards's home while Powell confronted the occupants. Family members sustained injuries from the brawl. Powell managed to reach Seward and he stabbed him several times. Powell then fled the scene to find Herald nowhere in sight. Powell was captured at the Surratt Boardinghouse and later sentenced and hung for his crimes. DAVID LEE HEROLD (1842-1865) Herold fled the Secretary of State Seward's home to meet up with Booth.

On April 26, 1865 Herald was cornered in a barn by soldiers along with Booth. After a standoff herald decided to surrender. He maintained his innocence throughout interrogation and trial. However, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. DR. SAMUEL MUDD (1833-1883) Mudd treated the broken left leg of Booth on April 15, 1865. Mudd could not convince the authorities he did not know or recognize Booth and was sentenced to life in prison. After serving just three and a half years, Mudd was pardoned by President Johnson in 1869. SAMUEL ARNOLD (1834-1906) Childhood friend of Booth. Arnold confessed to the being involved in the original conspiracy to kidnap President Lincoln but maintained his innocence to the assassination. Arnold was sentenced to life in prison. In March of 1869 Arnold was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson. MICHAEL O'LAUGHLEN (1840-1867) A boyhood neighbor of Booth, Spangler was an original co-conspiritor in the plot to abduct Lincoln.

He turned himself into authorities on April 17, 1865. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. EDMAN SPANGLER (1825-1875) Spangler was working at Fords's theater the night Lincoln was shot. He was arrested on April 17, 1865 as a Booth Conspirator and sentenced to six years in prison. In 1869 President Andrew Johnson pardoned Spangler and he was released Read about other Presidential Assassinations... Andrew Johnson | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Andrew Johnson With the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson became the 17th President of the United States (1865-1869), an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states' rights views. With the Assassination of Lincoln, the Presidency fell upon an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states' rights views. Although an honest and honorable man, Andrew Johnson was one of the most unfortunate of Presidents. Arrayed against him were the Radical Republicans in Congress, brilliantly led and ruthless in their tactics. Johnson was no match for them.

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808, Johnson grew up in poverty. He was apprenticed to a tailor as a boy, but ran away. He opened a tailor shop in Greeneville, Tennessee, married Eliza McCardle, and participated in debates at the local academy. Entering politics, he became an adept stump speaker, championing the common man and vilifying the plantation aristocracy. As a Member of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 1840's and '50's, he advocated a homestead bill to provide a free farm for the poor man. During the secession crisis, Johnson remained in the Senate even when Tennessee seceded, which made him a hero in the North and a traitor in the eyes of most Southerners. In 1862 President Lincoln appointed him Military Governor of Tennessee, and Johnson used the state as a laboratory for reconstruction. In 1864 the Republicans, contending that their National Union Party was for all loyal men, nominated Johnson, a Southerner and a Democrat, for Vice President. After Lincoln's death, President Johnson proceeded to reconstruct the former Confederate States while Congress was not in session in 1865.

He pardoned all who would take an oath of allegiance, but required leaders and men of wealth to obtain special Presidential pardons. By the time Congress met in December 1865, most southern states were reconstructed, slavery was being abolished, but "black codes" to regulate the freedmen were beginning to appear. Radical Republicans in Congress moved vigorously to change Johnson's program. They gained the support of northerners who were dismayed to see Southerners keeping many prewar leaders and imposing many prewar restrictions upon Negroes. The Radicals' first step was to refuse to seat any Senator or Representative from the old Confederacy. Next they passed measures dealing with the former slaves. Johnson vetoed the legislation. The Radicals mustered enough votes in Congress to pass legislation over his veto--the first time that Congress had overridden a President on an important bill. They passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which established Negroes as American citizens and forbade discrimination against them.

A few months later Congress submitted to the states the Fourteenth Amendment, which specified that no state should "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." All the former Confederate States except Tennessee refused to ratify the amendment; further, there were two bloody race riots in the South. Speaking in the Middle West, Johnson faced hostile audiences. The Radical Republicans won an overwhelming victory in Congressional elections that fall. In March 1867, the Radicals effected their own plan of Reconstruction, again placing southern states under military rule. They passed laws placing restrictions upon the President. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him. He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote. In 1875, Tennessee returned Johnson to the Senate. He died a few months later. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.

Learn more about Andrew Johnson 's spouse, Eliza McCardle Johnson . The Civil War » Blog Archive » Abraham Lincoln’s Two Vice Presidents Abraham Lincoln’s Two Vice Presidents Posted by: admin in Civil War People Abraham Lincoln was had an astute political mind. This was amply demonstrated when during the course of the American Civil War, he chose to select a new Vice President for his second term. For Abraham Lincoln ‘s first term, he chose as Vice President Hannibal Hamlin. Hamlin was chosen for political reasons both because he could deliver votes from the nascent Republican party in the Northeast and his ardent stance against slavery. As an interesting side note, Lincoln and Hamlin did not meet until after the election. (Things were a bit different back then than they are nowadays.) Due to his poor choices in terms of selecting war generals – specifically Joseph Hooker’s appointment as commander of the Army of the Potomac – and the evolving political scene, Lincoln felt a need to broaden his base of political support for the second term. For Lincoln’s second term run, he chose Andrew Johnson, a Southerner and a Democrat as his running mate.

This combination brought about a win for Lincoln but it was short lived as his life was tragically cut short by his assassination. Johnson went on to become President after that tragic event. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd by Edward Steers During his initial interview with investigating detectives on April 18, 1865, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd claimed, ‘I never saw either of the parties before, nor can I conceive who sent them to my house.1 With these words Dr. Mudd told the first in a series of lies about his involvement with John Wilkes Booth and Booth’s conspiracy to capture President Abraham Lincoln, a conspiracy that would ultimately lead to Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theatre. Mudd would change his statement one day later while en route to Bryantown, in Charles County, Maryland, under a military escort for further questioning. Apparently having had second thoughts about his first statement, in which he denied ever seeing Booth, Mudd now admitted, I have seen J. Wilkes Booth. I was introduced to him by Mr. J.C. Thompson, a son-in-law of Dr.

William Queen, in November or December last.2 Mudd went on to more fully describe that meeting, telling of Booth’s alleged interest in acquiring land in Charles County and his desire to purchase a horse. In a handwritten statement, Mudd wrote, The next evening he [Booth] rode to my house and staid [sic] with me that night, and the next morning he purchased a rather old horse. He continued, I have never seen Booth since that time to my knowledge until last Saturday night.3 In those two statements, Mudd continued his pattern of lying. He knew the statements were false and was attempting to conceal other information that would prove even more incriminating. Mudd had not only seen Booth before, but he had met with Booth on at least three occasions prior to the assassin’s appearance on his doorstep. As to who was responsible for Booth and David Herold’s visit to Mudd’s house in the early morning hours of April 15, it was Mudd himself. History has been much kinder to Mudd than the events in the assassination should warrant.

The facts that have emerged about his involvement with Booth belie the popular image of Mudd as a gentle country doctor who unexpectedly became entangled in a tragic murder through no fault of his own. The current perception of an innocent Dr. Mudd is largely due to the tireless efforts of Dr. Richard Dyer Mudd, who has struggled for seventy years to clear his grandfather’s name and officially expunge the findings of the military tribunal that convicted him. His efforts have come close to fruition in the past decade. In 1991 the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records (ABCMR), a civilian review board, agreed to permit a hearing on Mudd’s conviction. The procedure limited the testimony to only those witnesses favorable to Mudd’s case. The board did not consider innocence or guilt but only whether the military commission that tried Mudd had legal jurisdiction to do so. In deciding against the military commission 126 years after it ruled, the ABCMR recommended that the secretary of the Army set aside the guilty verdict and expunge the record in Dr. Mudd’s case.

The assistant secretary of the Army, acting for the secretary, twice refused the recommendation of the board, stating in part, It is not the role of the ABCMR to attempt to settle historical disputes.4 That ruling resulted in Maryland Representative Steny Hoyer’s introducing a bill into the U.S. Congress directing the secretary of the Army to set aside the conviction of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd…for aiding, abetting, and assisting the conspirators who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.5 One of the cosponsors of the bill was Representative Thomas Ewing of Illinois, who represents part of Lincoln’s original congressional district.6 As an added measure, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of Richard D. Mudd in December 1997 in the Federal Court for the District of Columbia seeking to force the secretary of the Army to accept the recommendation of the ABCMR.7 Persistent efforts to rewrite history, however, have obscured certain facts supporting the conclusions of the military commission that first found Dr. Mudd guilty.

When Booth came to Mudd’s house in the early morning of April 15, 1865, seeking medical aid, it was the fourth time that the two men had met, and none of the four meetings had been accidental. In his three previous meetings with Booth, Mudd had played a pivotal role in Booth’s scheme to assemble an action team8 to capture President Lincoln and carry him to Richmond as a prisoner of the Confederacy. Booth not only was an overnight guest at Mudd’s house during one of the three meetings but also had sent provisions to Mudd’s house for use during the planned kidnapping of the president.9 Mudd’s statement that Booth spent the night at his house after their introduction in November 1864 and that he purchased a horse the next morning is not true. Those events did not occur in November as Mudd claimed, but in December. The reason Mudd would lie about such occurrences was self-preservation. He hoped to keep secret the number of times he had associated with Booth. During Mudd’s trial, evidence was introduced by the prosecution showing that Mudd and Booth had indeed met prior to April 15, 1865.

Louis Weichmann, the government’s key witness, told of an earlier meeting involving Mudd and Booth in Washington, D.C., at which Weichmann was present. Weichmann testified that while he and John Surratt, Jr., were walking along Seventh Street toward Pennsylvania Avenue, they met Booth and Mudd coming from the opposite direction.10 After introductions, the four men retired to Booth’s room at the National Hotel, a short distance away. Weichmann testified that during the meeting Mudd and Booth stepped into the hall and engaged in a subdued conversation that Weichmann could hear but could not discern the actual words. The two men were subsequently joined by Surratt before all three men returned to the room where Weichmann was sitting. Booth, Surratt, and Mudd sat around a table in the center of the room while Booth drew something on the back of an envelope–Weichmann said he thought it resembled a map. Whatever was discussed among the three men, one thing is certain: As a result of Mudd’s introduction of Surratt to Booth, Surratt agreed to join Booth in his plot to capture Lincoln. Although Mudd’s defense attorney, Maj. Gen.

Thomas Ewing, denied that the meeting had taken place, Mudd himself acknowledged that the meeting had taken place in an affidavit he prepared in August 1865 while in prison at Fort Jefferson, in the Florida Keys. It was in his affidavit that Mudd inadvertently let slip that yet another meeting involving Booth and himself had occurred in mid-December, immediately before the meeting in Washington. After his conviction Mudd and co-conspirators Michael O’Laughlen, Samuel Arnold, and Edman Spangler were transported to Fort Jefferson, where the men were scheduled to serve out their prison sentences. During the trip they were placed under a military guard commanded by Captain George W. Dutton. Captain Dutton later claimed that during the journey Mudd had confessed that he knew Booth when he came to his house with Herold on the morning after the assassination of the President. The captain said that Mudd also confessed that he was with Booth at the National Hotel on the day referred to by Weichmann in his testimony; and that he came to Washington on that occasion to meet Booth by appointment who wished to be introduced to John Surratt.11 Neither of those admissions were revelations to the government, which suspected the first and had proved the second.

The trial was over. Mudd had been convicted and was now serving a life sentence in the isolation of Fort Jefferson. The government had lost interest in Mudd, but Mudd had not lost interest in trying to gain his release through the federal judicial system. Word of Dutton’s statement reached Mudd in prison, and Mudd knew that he had to respond to Dutton’s charges if he was ever to regain his freedom. On August 28, 1865, Mudd prepared an affidavit in which he denied telling Dutton that he knew it was Booth who arrived at his house on April 15, only hours after Lincoln was shot. His denial was important; for if Mudd had allowed Dutton’s accusation to stand it would have meant that the doctor had indeed knowingly aided and abetted the murderer of President Lincoln. But while denying any knowledge of Booth, Mudd inadvertently admitted for the first time to the meeting at the National Hotel with Booth, Surratt, and Weichmann on December 23, 1864, thus confirming the government’s charge made during the trial.

In his affidavit protesting Dutton’s first allegation–about knowing Booth before the assassination–Mudd unwittingly let slip another damaging piece of information. In describing the Washington meeting referred to by Dutton, Mudd wrote: We [Mudd and Booth] started down one street, and then up another, and had not gone far when we met Surratt and Wiechmann. Introductions took place and we turned back in the direction of the hotel….After arriving in the room, I took the first opportunity presented to apologize to Surratt for having introduced him to Booth–a man I knew so little concerning. This conversation took place in the passage in front of the room [hallway] and was not over three minutes in duration….Surratt and myself returned and resumed our former seats (after taking drinks ordered) around a center table, which stood midway the room and distant seven or eight feet from Booth and Wiechmann; Booth remarked that he had been down to the country a few days before, and said that he had not yet recovered from the fatigue.

Afterward he said he had been down in Charles County, and had made me an offer to purchase of my land, which I confirmed by an affirmative answer; and he further remarked that on his way up [to Washington] he lost his way and rode several miles off the track.12 In his revealing statement, Mudd confirmed a second visit to Charles County by Booth just prior to the December 23 meeting at the National Hotel–a trip that, by Mudd’s own admission, included a visit to his property. This was the important other meeting. Independent evidence that Booth visited Charles County in December can be found in the trial testimony of John C. Thompson. Thompson was the man who had originally introduced Booth to Mudd in November 1864 at St. Mary’s Church, as Mudd had already acknowledged in his statement given prior to his arrest. Thompson was the son-in-law of Dr. William Queen, a prominent Confederate operative who Booth also visited during his November trip to Charles County. During questioning by one of Mudd’s attorneys, Thompson was asked if he had seen Booth again after the meeting where he had introduced Booth to Mudd in November.

Thompson answered: I think some time, if my memory serves me, in December, he came down a second time to Dr. Queen’s house….I think it was about the middle of December following after his first visit there.13 It is clear from both Mudd’s own statement in his affidavit of August 28, 1865, and Thompson’s testimony during the trial that Booth visited the Bryantown area in Charles County a second time, in mid-December 1864. And it is in his own affidavit that Mudd admits to meeting with Booth during this second visit. While Mudd claimed that Booth stayed overnight at his house and purchased a horse from his neighbor, George Gardiner, during the November meeting, several pieces of evidence show that those incidents occurred during Booth’s December visit, not in November. The first piece of evidence is found in a letter Booth wrote to J. Dominick Burch, who lived in Bryantown and worked at the Bryantown Tavern.

Written from Washington, D.C., the letter is dated Monday, November 14, 1864, the day Mudd claims he accompanied Booth to Gardiner’s farm, where Booth supposedly purchased a one-eyed horse.14 The letter clearly places Booth in Washington on November 14, and makes it clear that Booth traveled by stagecoach and not by horse. In his letter, Booth refers to an object he left on the stage last Friday (November 11). Booth implies from his description that the object was a gun, which he took from my carpetbag. Its [sic] not worth more than $15, but I will give him $20 rather than lose it, as it has saved my life two or three times.15 The second piece of evidence refuting Mudd’s statement concerning the November purchase of a horse is a memorandum prepared for use at the military trial by George Washington Bunker. Bunker was a clerk at the National Hotel, where Booth stayed when in Washington.

Bunker prepared an abstract of the hotel ledger for the trial prosecutors in the form of a memorandum, in which he listed Booth’s comings and goings from the hotel during late 1864 and 1865.16 Bunker noted that Booth had checked out of the National Hotel on Friday, November 11, 1864, and had returned on Monday, November 14. In December, Bunker’s memorandum shows that Booth checked out of the National Hotel on Saturday, the 17th, and did not check back in until Thursday, the 22nd, the day before he met in his hotel room with Mudd, Surratt, and Weichmann. It was during that period, December 17-22, that Booth returned to Charles County and met with Mudd.17 And it was at that time that Booth stayed the night at the Mudd home and purchased the horse from Mudd’s neighbor, George Gardiner. Booth also was seen in the Bryantown area in mid-December by a third person, who was called as a government witness during the trial. John F.

Hardy, who lived midway between Bryantown and the Mudd farm, testified to seeing Booth at St. Mary’s Church near Bryantown on two separate occasions, the first in November, the second about a month after but before Christmas. Hardy went on to testify: On Monday evening, I rode to Bryantown to see if I could get my horse shod; and I met Mr. Booth…a little above Bryantown riding by himself. He was riding a horse in the road leading straight to Horse Head, or he could not come to this point, to Washington, on the same road.18 This testimony places Booth in Bryantown on Monday eveningduring his second visit in December. Evidence that Booth purchased the one-eyed horse from George Gardiner during this second visit is gleaned from testimony of Thomas Gardiner. He testified that Booth bought a horse from his uncle on a Monday just as Mudd had claimed, and continued, Booth requested my Uncle to send the horse to Bryantown the next morning [Tuesday]; and I took the horse myself the next morning to Bryantown.

If Booth had purchased the horse on Monday and took delivery on Tuesday, it is clear that the purchase could not have happened in November, since Booth’s letter to Burch and Bunker’s memo both place him in Washington on Monday, November 14. Booth simply could not have been in two places at the same time. Mudd probably lied about Booth’s overnight stay at his house in November and about purchasing a horse the next day to cover up his second Charles County meeting with Booth. Clues to the doctor’s reasons for meeting with Booth a second time can be found in an 1892 article written for the Cincinnati Enquirer by George Alfred Townsend.19 In 1885, Townsend, a journalist who had written extensively on the Lincoln assassination and those involved, interviewed a man named Thomas Harbin. Harbin had served during the war as a Confederate secret service agent involved in covert operations in Charles County, Maryland, including the Bryantown area, and in King George County, Virginia. Harbin was well-acquainted with Mudd.

He had once lived a few miles south of the Mudd farm and had served as postmaster at Bryantown before the war.20 He was well-connected throughout the area and knew virtually all the Confederate operatives working between Washington and Richmond. According to Harbin’s statement, he went to Bryantown in December 1864 at Mudd’s request and met with him and his friend at the Bryantown Tavern on Sunday, December 18. Harbin told of being introduced to Booth by Mudd, and although Harbin described Booth as acting rather theatrical, he consented to assist Booth in his plan to capture Lincoln. Summarizing what happened during that meeting, Townsend wrote, Harbin was a cool man who had seen many liars and rogues go to and fro in that illegal border and he set down Booth as a crazy fellow, but at the same time said that he would give his cooperation.21 Whatever Harbin may have thought of Booth, he agreed to join in the conspiracy. The enlistment of Harbin in Booth’s scheme was vitally important–as important as the enlistment of Surratt. Both were Confederate agents, highly competent, trusted and well-connected throughout the Confederate underground route between Washington and Richmond.

Both men knew the intricacies of safe routes and safe houses located throughout southern Maryland.22 Harbin also helped by joining with Surratt to recruit George A. Atzerodt in Booth’s conspiracy.23 This showed that Harbin’s involvement in the plot was not superficial but serious. His help would later prove invaluable when Booth and Herold made their escape south from Washington, D.C., after crossing the Potomac River into Virginia.24 Booth had Mudd to thank for the enlistment of Harbin and Surratt into his team. Mudd’s claim of knowing Booth only incidentally was already compromised by Weichmann’s testimony. Had the authorities found out about the other meeting that took place in Bryantown in December of 1864 with Harbin, Mudd’s case would surely have been lost. Harbin was well-known to the Federal authorities as a Confederate agent, and his association with Mudd would have completely undermined Mudd’s cover of feigned innocence.

Faced with the knowledge that the authorities knew of Booth’s being in the Bryantown area and meeting with him in November 1864, Mudd compressed the two meetings into a single meeting in his testimony, hoping that the authorities would never guess that separate meetings had actually taken place. It worked. The other meeting involving Harbin completely escaped the investigators’ attention, although diligent detective work would have uncovered it from the testimony of Thompson and Hardy.25 In statements given prior to his arrest, Mudd lied about virtually every piece of information the authorities were seeking in their effort to capture Booth. Lieutenant Alexander Lovett, the first interrogator, and Colonel Henry H. Wells, the second interrogator, both complained of the doctor’s evasiveness and apparent untruthfulness during their questioning of him.26 This behavior led Wells to place Mudd under arrest and send him to Washington under guard. Mudd’s attempt to convince the military authorities that he had only met with Booth on one occasion belies all of the facts in his case. Mudd withheld even from his own attorneys information about the meeting at the National Hotel, where he had introduced Booth to Surratt, and the December meeting in Bryantown with Harbin.

Ignorant of both meetings, Maj. Gen. Thomas Ewing, one of Mudd’s two defense attorneys, weakened his credibility with the military commission by arguing that Weichmann had lied about the hotel meeting in late December and that Mudd had only met Booth before the assassination but once on Sunday, and once the day following, in November last.27 The commission believed differently. Mudd’s acquaintance with Booth was anything but incidental. His role in bringing Booth, Surratt, and Harbin together was pivotal. The fact that Dr. Queen chose to pass Booth on to Mudd during the November visit and that Harbin came across the river to meet with Booth at Mudd’s invitation suggests that Mudd was an important figure. And there is even more to the Mudd story that tightens the noose of incrimination around the doctor’s neck. According to Eaton G. Horner, the detective who arrested Booth conspirator Samuel Arnold at Fort Monroe on Monday, April 17, Arnold had said that Booth carried a letter of introduction when he visited Mudd in November 1864.

On cross-examination by Mudd’s attorney, Horner was asked if Arnold had meant to say that Booth had a letter of introduction to Mr. Queen or Dr. Mudd? Horner was explicit in his answer: I understood him [Arnold] to say and Dr. Mudd.28 The implication that Booth carried a letter of introduction to Mudd is obvious.29 Of special significance in this testimony is the fact that Mudd was implicated as a correspondent with Booth by Arnold on April 17, the day before the military authorities first visited Mudd (Tuesday, April 18). There is no way Arnold could have heard about Mudd as a result of the military investigation. Clearly he must have heard of Mudd and the letter of introduction from Booth himself. George Atzerodt, the man Booth assigned to murder Vice President Andrew Johnson, implicated Mudd more directly in Booth’s plot when he confessed to Marshal McPhail of Baltimore, I am certain Mudd knew all about it, as Booth sent (as he told me) liquors & provisions for the trip with the President to Richmond, about two weeks before the murder to Dr. Mudd’s.30 Dr.

Richard Stuart, another Confederate operative who lived south of the Potomac River in King George, Virginia, received Booth and Herold after Harbin saw them safely to Stuart’s house. Following his arrest, Stuart gave a statement to the authorities in which he said of Booth and Herold, They said Dr. Mudd had recommended them to me.31 And in 1893, Thomas A. Jones published a book describing his role in first hiding the two fugitives in a pine thicket after they had left Mudd’s house and then sending them over the Potomac River to Harbin in Virginia. Booth and Herold had been turned over to Jones by Samuel Cox, Sr., another Confederate agent in Charles County. Subsequently, Samuel Cox, Jr., who was present the night Booth and Herold arrived at his step-father’s home, made several notations in his personal copy of Jones’ book.

His notations about Mudd included one about Mudd’s role as a mail drop for the Confederate underground.32 He also wrote that Mudd had admitted to him in 1877 that he knew from the beginning that it was Booth who came to his door seeking aid in the early morning of April 15, 1865.33 This is the same claim that Captain Dutton had made in July 1865. These allegations cast a dark shadow over Mudd’s claim of innocence. The story of the other meeting adds substantially to Mudd’s role as an accomplice of Booth. It opens up a whole new perspective on claims by Mudd’s defenders that he was an innocent victim of a vengeful government as it rushed to judgment. Dr. Mudd died of pneumonia in 1883 at the age of forty-nine. George Alfred Townsend once again wrote a column about the mysterious doctor from Maryland. Among several people from Charles County he interviewed was Frederick Stone, who served as Mudd’s defense attorney along with Thomas Ewing. Stone told Townsend shortly after Dr. Mudd’s death: The court very nearly hanged Dr. Mudd. His prevarication’s were painful.

He had given his whole case away by not trusting even his counsel or neighbors or kinfolk. It was a terrible thing to extricate him from the toils he had woven about himself. He had denied knowing Booth when he knew him well. He was undoubtedly accessory to the abduction plot, though he may have supposed it would never come to anything. He denied knowing Booth when he came to his house when that was preposterous. He had been even intimate with Booth.34 Nothing could be more damaging to Mudd’s claim of innocence than his own attorney’s condemnation. Those advocating Mudd’s innocence must explain his pattern of lying. An innocent man does not fear the truth. He neither misrepresents it nor withholds it. Dr. Mudd did both. Despite his own efforts and the efforts of his defenders to rewrite history, his name is still mud. 1 Mudd gave two statements as a result of his interrogation by authorities. Both statements are in the National Archives Records Administration (NARA), M-599, reel 5, frames 0212-0239. The statements may also be found in Laurie Verge, ed., From War Department Files.

Statements Made By The Alleged Lincoln Conspirators Under Examination 1865 (Clinton: Surratt Society, 1980), 29-38 (hereinafter cited as Statements). 2 Statements, 30. 3 Statements, 31. 4 John Paul Jones, ed., Dr. Mudd and the Lincoln Assassination. The Case Reopened (Conshohocken: Combined Books, 1995), 254. 5 U.S. Congress, House, Committee on National Security, Subcommittee on Military Personnel, H. R. 1885, 105th Cong., 1st sess., May 7, 1997. 6 Representative Ewing, is related to Maj. Gen. Thomas Ewing one of Dr. Samuel Mudd’s two defense attorneys. 7 Richard D. Mudd v. Togo West, case number 1:97CVO2946 (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, December 9, 1997). 8 The description of Booth’s group of conspirators as an action team was first used by James O. Hall in Come Retribution.

See William A. Tidwell, James O. Hall and David Winfred Gaddy, Come Retribution (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1988), 328 (hereinafter cited as Retribution). 9 The statement by George A. Atzerodt made to Provost Marshal James McPhail, on May 1, 1865, was discovered in 1977 by Joan L. Chaconas among the personal papers of William E. Doster, defense counsel for Atzerodt. These papers were in the possession of a descendant of William Doster. Complete text of the statement is published in Surratt Courier, October 13, 1988, 2-3 (hereinafter cited as Lost Confession). 10 Mudd was taking Booth to meet Surratt at Mary Surratt’s boarding house when they encountered Surratt and Weichmann coming from the house down Seventh Street toward Pennsylvania Avenue. 11 Affidavit of George W. Dutton in Benn Pitmann, The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators, ed.

Philip Van Doren Stern (1865; reprint, New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1954), 421 (hereinafter cited as Pitmann). 12 Affidavit of Samuel A. Mudd in Nettie Mudd, The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (1906; reprint, LaPlata: Dick Wildes Printing, 1983), 42-48. 13 Perley Poore, ed., The Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of the President, and the Attempt to Overthrow the Government by the Assassination of its Principal Officers, vol. 2 (1865; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1972), 271-272 (hereinafter cited as Poore). 14 Booth rode the horse back to Washington and gave him to Louis Powell (a.k.a., Payne). Powell used the horse the night of the assassination. The horse was recovered by the military in Washington the night of April 14-15 and taken to twenty-second Army Headquarters.

15 John Rhodenhamel and Louise Taper, Right or Wrong, God Judge Me (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 123. 16 Poore, vol. 1, 29-32. 17 James O. Hall, in Come Retribution, concluded that Booth had left for Bryantown on December 20, and not the 17th. Hall based his conclusion on a check cashed by Booth at Jay Cooke’s Washington bank on December 20. The check was actually written on December 16, 1864, and cleared the bank on December 20. The trial testimony of John F. Hardy places Booth in Charles County on Sunday, December 18 and Monday, December 19, as does the testimony of Thomas Gardiner. See Gardiner’s testimony in Poore, vol. 1, 361- 365, and Poore, vol. 3, 431-437. Hall has reconstructed the Booth visit as occurring from Saturday, December 17 through Thursday, December 22. James O. Hall, personal communication with author.

18 Poore, vol. 3, 435-436. 19 Interview of Thomas Harbin by George Alfred Townsend, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 18, 1892 (hereinafter cited as Harbin Interview). 20 Harbin served as Postmaster at Bryantown in 1856-1857. He lived a short distance to the southwest of the small village. 21 Harbin Interview. 22 The Surratt Tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland (present-day Clinton, Maryland) was identified by name as a Confederate safe house in Confederate documents. See David W. Gaddy, The Surratt Tavern – A Confederate ‘Safe House’? in In Pursuit of…Continuing Research in the Field of the Lincoln Assassination (Clinton: Surratt Society, 1990), 129. 23 Statements, 67. According to a confession published in the Baltimore American newspaper on January 19, 1869, Atzerodt stated that Harbin and Surratt came for him in the winter of 1864-1865.

An article published in the American and Commercial Advertiser (Baltimore) on July 10, 1865, three days after the hanging told of an interview with Atzerodt in which Atzerodt admitted that John H. Surratt and …a man named Harlow… visited Atzerodt in Port Tobacco and convinced him to join in Booth’s conspiracy. Atzerodt’s German accent led to Harbin being transcribed as Harlow, Holborn, or Harborn on different occasions. 24 On reaching the Virginia shore on Sunday, April 23, Booth and Herold made their way to the home of Elizabeth Quesenberry, a member of the Confederate underground. Quesenberry sent word to Harbin to come at once and take charge of the two fugitives. Harbin arrived and soon passed Booth and Herold to William Bryant, one of Harbin’s agents. Harbin instructed Bryant to take the two men to their next destination, the home of Dr. Richard Stuart, known as Cleydale, located in King George County, Virginia. 25 By the time the military authorities were rounding up suspects, Harbin had disappeared.

He was last seen at Ashland, Virginia, on April 28, 1865, where he secured parole as a member of Company B, First Maryland Cavalry, which appears to have been a cover for his underground activities. There is no record that Harbin was ever a member of this unit. Parole in hand, Harbin disappeared for five years only to reappear in 1870 as clerk of the National Hotel in Washington, D.C., where he worked until his death in 1885. See Retribution, 341-342. 26 See testimony of Alexander Lovett in Poore, vol. 1, 268, and testimony of Henry H. Wells in Poore, vol. 1, 286. 27 Pitmann, 326. 28 See testimony of Eaton G. Horner in Poore, vol. 1, 430 and 435. 29 The letters of introduction to Dr. Queen and Dr. Mudd were written by Patrick C. Martin. Martin was a Baltimore liquor dealer who had established a Confederate Secret Service base in Montreal in the summer of 1862.

Here he arranged for blockade running and was a party to the plan to free Confederate prisoners at Johnson’s Island. Booth had gone to Montreal in October 1864, where he arranged with Martin to have his theatrical wardrobe shipped to a Southern port. He also secured letters of introduction from Martin to Mudd and Queen. 30 For Atzerod’s statement, see Lost Confession, 2-3. 31 Statement of Richard Stuart, NARA., M-599, reel 6, frames 0205-0211 (dated May 6, 1865). 32 The claim that Mudd received and distributed mail for the Confederate underground is supported by a statement found in the Provost Marshal’s file dated August 31, 1863. Charges filed in 1863 by two former Mudd family slaves state in part, as some cavalry were making a search in the vicinity, Samuel Mud’s [sic] wife ran into the kitchen and threw a bundle of Rebel mail into the fire….

NARA, Record Group 109, M416, Union Provost Marshal’s File of Papers Relating to Two or More Civilians, File 6083. 33 Photocopy of Samuel Cox, Jr., notations obtained from the files of James O. Hall. Samuel Cox, Jr.’s, claim regarding Mudd may also be found in Osborn H. Oldroyd, Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Washington, D.C.: privately printed, 1901), 265-269. The original copy of Cox, Jr.’s copy of Jones’ book now resides in the Maryland Historical Society. 34 Statement by Frederick Stone quoted in Hal Higdon, The Union vs. Dr. Mudd (Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1964), 208. > This article was written by Edward Steers, Jr. and originally appeared in the Summer 1998 issue of Columbiad. For more great articles, subscribe to American History magazine today!

Lincoln Assassination Articles ‘Saving Lincoln’ – Movie Review The independent film 'Saving Lincoln' is a small, shining gem, a movie with heart and brains about Abraham Lincoln and his friend and bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon. President Abraham Lincoln at his first attempt for a political office. when he sought the office of speaker. in his first attempt to go to Congress. when he sought appointment to the U.S. Land Office in his running for the U.S. Senate. when his friends tried to get him nominated for Vice President. He liked wrestling. When he moved to New Salem, IL, a man named Jack Armstrong challenged him to a wrestling match. Spectators gathered an bet on the match. Lincoln won the match. Abraham Lincoln worked as a lawyer before he became president. While he was serving as a representation former president John Quincy Adams had a stroke at his desk in the House of Representatives. He died two days later. Lincoln was a pallbearer at Adams funeral. He was very strong. He once lifted an entire keg of whiskey off the ground drank from it and then spit out the whiskey. (He didn't drink.) President Lincoln was the tallest president -- 6 ft. 4 in., weighing about 180 pounds.

( I just recently found a reference that Lyndon Johnson was also 6' 4" tall.) He enjoyed eating fruit salad and cheese with crackers. Lincoln hated being called Abe. He preferred to go by his last name, Lincoln. Some people called him Mr. President. His wife even called him Mr. Lincoln. President Lincoln had two Vice Presidents Hannibal Hamlin (1861-1865) and Andrew Johnson (1865). Abraham Lincoln patented his floating dry dock on May 22, 1849, patent #6469. He was the only U.S. President to receive a patent. The Lincoln-Douglas debates centered upon a Senate seat from Illinois. Lincoln won national prominence, but Douglas got the job. He would sometimes store his notes in his stove pipe hat. Abraham Lincoln grew a beard because a little girl wrote him a letter telling him that he would look more handsome with a beard. He was the first U.S. President to have a beard. Mud Slinging- In the campaign of 1860 his opponents said Abe was homely and an ignoramus.

Called two-faced by a rival, Lincoln responded, "If I had another face, do you think I'd wear this one?" On his trip to Washington he got to hear Henry Clay give several speeches. He had admired Clay and had read all of his speeches. On June 20, 1863 Lincoln signed the bill to make West Virginia a state. The state was formed of western Virginia counties that didn't want to be part of the Confederacy. His son Tad owned a pair of goats. The goats were named Nanny and Nanko. He also made a pet of a turkey that was sent to the Lincoln's for Thanksgiving dinner. He named the turkey Jack. Tad begged for Jack's life and Lincoln gave the turkey a presidential pardon. Lincoln also established Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Poster from Lincoln's 1864 presidential campaign in New York. Library of Congress. ( Click for larger image. ) Abraham Lincoln lead the US in the US Civil War, from 1861-1865.

During the Civil War President Lincoln became the first world leader to use the telegraph ("t'mail" as he called it, to stay in touch with his generals in the field.) He was also the first president to receive a transcontinental telegram. Lincoln appeared at a Senate subcommittee hearing to give assurances that his wife was not a Confederate spy. There were thirty-six states in the union when Lincoln was president. Lincoln was ashamed that he let himself be drawn into preparing for a dual. He didn't fight in the dual. The second child, at the age of 12, became the only child of a president to died in the White House. Lincoln's most famous speech was the Gettysburg Address. It was given to commemorate the cemetery at Gettysburg after the battle there. The speech was only 720 words long. Here are some interesting facts about the address: He was not the main speaker a man named Everett gave the main and longer address. Lincoln was informally invited since he was President. Lincoln's secretary made the travel plans. Lincoln changed them to go a day earlier. If he had not made the change because of the number of people traveling the Gettysburg.

(Several state governors did not make it do to the crowds on the road. It is a myth that he wrote the address on the back of an envelope while traveling by train to Gettysburg. Students (including myself) were taught this myth in schools. Most of his speech was written in Washington, DC before he left on his trip. He did make revisions up to the morning of his address. In the program that day he was listed six on the program. The listing was Dedicatory remarks by the President of the United States. The Gettysburg Cemetery was one of the "new style" cemeteries. It was in a open park setting. Previously cemeteries had ben in or near towns or cities. His son, Eddie was buried in this rural style cemetery in Springfield called Oak Ridge When Lincoln died his wife said she would bury him in another state if he was buried in Oak Ridge. President Lincoln was shot at twice before John Wilkes Booth killed him. Both times were while he was on his way to the Soldier's Home and Lincoln joked about them and ordered that they not be publicized. Abraham Lincoln was the first President to be assassinated.

He was shot by John Wilkes Booth on Good Friday, April 14, 1865 at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. He as watching a play called "Our American Cousin." John Seward, his Secretary of State was also injured in the attack, but he survived. U. S. Grant was invited to go to the theater with Lincoln that night but declined the invitation. Grant felt if he was there he might have saved the presidents life. President Lincoln died on April 15, 1865 in Washington, D.C. He was 56 years and 62 days old. He is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Ill. His body traveled to fourteen cities to lie in state before he was interned. On November 7, 1876 thieves tried to steal Lincoln's body from his tomb. They wanted to get $200,000 to return the body, but they failed to get his body out of the casket. In 1909, Lincoln became the first president to have his face on a U.S. Coin (a penny).

Quotes from Abraham Lincoln: "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." Lincoln: source Detroit Free Press, May 14, 2012 -Mother's Day Lincoln on slavery state "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master." "If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again." President Lincoln1864 "A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me." Abraham Lincoln Prairie Years, 1829 " Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties." April 27, 1856. Kalamazoo, MI.

"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." When Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin he said, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!" “I cannot fly from my thoughts - My solicitude for this great country follows me where ever I go.” A. Lincoln Topics Lincoln Papers: Lincoln Assassination: Introduction The Martyr of liberty... [n. p., n. d.] (Library of Congress, Stern Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division.) On the evening of April 14, 1865, while attending a special performance of the comedy, "Our American Cousin," President Abraham Lincoln was shot. Accompanying him at Ford's Theater that night were his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, a twenty-eight year-old officer named Major Henry R. Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancee, Clara Harris. After the play was in progress, a figure with a drawn derringer pistol stepped into the presidential box, aimed, and fired. The president slumped forward.

The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, dropped the pistol and waved a dagger. Rathbone lunged at him, and though slashed in the arm, forced the killer to the railing. Booth leapt from the balcony and caught the spur of his left boot on a flag draped over the rail, and shattered a bone in his leg on landing. Though injured, he rushed out the back door, and disappeared into the night on horseback. A doctor in the audience immediately went upstairs to the box. The bullet had entered through Lincoln's left ear and lodged behind his right eye. He was paralyzed and barely breathing. He was carried across Tenth Street, to a boarding-house opposite the theater, but the doctors' best efforts failed. Nine hours later, at 7:22 AM on April 15th, Lincoln died. President Lincoln's funeral procession in New York City. From Harper's Weekly, May 13, 1865. (Library of Congress, Stern Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division. ) At almost the same moment Booth fired the fatal shot, his accomplice, Lewis Paine, attacked Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Henry Seward. Seward lay in bed, recovering from a carriage accident.

Paine entered the mansion, claiming to have a delivery of medicine from the Secretary's doctor. Seward's son, Frederick, was brutally beaten while trying to keep Paine from his father's door. Paine slashed the Secretary's throat twice, then fought his way past Seward's son Augustus, an attending hospital corps veteran, and a State Department messenger. Paine escaped into the night, believing his deed complete. However, a metal surgical collar saved Seward from certain death. The Secretary lived another seven years, during which he retained his seat with the Johnson administration, and purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. There were at least four conspirators in addition to Booth involved in the mayhem. Booth was shot and captured while hiding in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and died later the same day, April 26, 1865. Four co-conspirators, Paine, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Mary Surratt, were hanged at the gallows of the Old Penitentiary, on the site of present-day Fort McNair, on July 7, 1865.

President Lincoln dies - Apr 15, 1865 - HISTORY.com President Lincoln dies Publisher A+E Networks At 7:22 a.m., Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, dies from a bullet wound inflicted the night before by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer. The president’s death came only six days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox, effectively ending the American Civil War. Booth, who remained in the North during the war despite his Confederate sympathies, initially plotted to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces. In April, with Confederate armies near collapse across the South, Booth hatched a desperate plan to save the Confederacy. Learning that Lincoln was to attend Laura Keene’s acclaimed performance in Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater on April 14, Booth plotted the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H.

Seward. By murdering the president and two of his possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to throw the U.S. government into a paralyzing disarray. On the evening of April 14, conspirator Lewis T. Powell burst into Secretary of State Seward’s home, seriously wounding him and three others, while George A. Atzerodt, assigned to Vice President Johnson, lost his nerve and fled. Meanwhile, just after 10 p.m., Booth entered Lincoln’s private box unnoticed and shot the president with a single bullet in the back of his head. Slashing an army officer who rushed at him, Booth jumped to the stage and shouted “Sic semper tyrannis! [Thus always to tyrants]–the South is avenged!” Although Booth had broken his left leg jumping from Lincoln’s box, he succeeded in escaping Washington. The president, mortally wounded, was carried to a cheap lodging house opposite Ford’s Theater. An hour after dawn the next morning, Abraham Lincoln died, becoming the first president to be assassinated.

His body was taken to the White House, where it lay until April 18, at which point it was carried to the Capitol rotunda to lay in state on a catafalque. On April 21, Lincoln’s body was taken to the railroad station and boarded on a train that conveyed it to Springfield, Illinois, his home before becoming president. Tens of thousands of Americans lined the train’s railroad route and paid their respects to their fallen leader during the train’s solemn progression through the North. Lincoln was buried on May 4, 1865, at Oak Ridge Cemetery, near Springfield. Booth, pursued by the army and secret service forces, was finally cornered in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and died from a possibly self-inflicted bullet wound as the barn was burned to the ground. Of the eight other persons eventually charged with the conspiracy, four were hanged and four were jailed. Related Videos

Question: Who was Abraham Lincoln’s vice president when he was assassinated?
Answer: ANDREW JOHNSON