The Assassination of Lincoln

Dec 18

4 min read

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Assassination of Lincoln reading passage for Civil War unit

The Assassination of Lincoln

April 14, 1865

John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, hated Abraham Lincoln. Along with several others, he came up with a plan to kidnap Lincoln and take him to Richmond. On March 20, 1865, everything was in order, but Lincoln changed his plans, and the kidnapping failed. When Lee surrendered, Booth’s hopes of a Confederate victory vanished. He decided, instead, to destroy the Union.

On April 14, 1865, Booth met with his co-conspirators at Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse in Washington, DC. Together, they came up with a plan to kill President Lincoln, Vice President Johnson, and Secretary of State Seward on the same night. Without a leader, the Union would fall into chaos.

Lewis Powell, a twenty-year-old Confederate soldier who had been wounded at Gettysburg, was tasked with killing Secretary of State Seward. He arrived at Seward's house claiming he had a prescription for the Secretary of State. Seward had been in a carriage accident not long before and was in bed recovering. Once inside the house, Powell pushed his way toward Seward’s bedroom. One of Seward’s sons confronted Powell, and Powell shot him. The gun misfired, but Powell used the gun to beat Seward’s son into a coma. Powell then stabbed Seward’s bodyguard and entered Seward’s room. He was able to stab Seward several times before the bodyguard and another of Seward’s sons pulled him off. Powell scrambled outside the house. Another co-conspirator, David Herold was supposed to be outside waiting for him, but he had been scared away by the screams from the house. Powell ran into the Washington, DC, night unsure where to go.

Meanwhile, George Atzerodt, a German carriage painter, sat in the bar of Kirkwood House, the hotel

where Johnson was staying. Atzerodt was tasked with killing the vice president. It should have been an easy job as Johnson was unguarded, but Atzerodt left the bar and wandered around the city for most of the night. In the morning, he pawned his gun and traveled to his cousin’s house in Maryland.

John Wilkes Booth saved Lincoln as his own target. At 10:15 p.m., while the president watched Our

American Cousin at Ford’s Theater, Booth snuck into Lincoln’s private box and shot him in the head with a . 44-caliber single-shot pistol. When Henry Rathbone, a young army officer watching the play with Lincoln, rose to capture Booth, he slashed his arm from elbow to shoulder. Rathbone tried to grab Booth as he jumped to the stage, causing Booth to break his leg. On the stage, Booth screamed, “Sic semper tyrannis,” which means, “thus ever to tyrants,” and is the state motto of Virginia, before running out of the theater.

President Lincoln was brought to a boardinghouse across the street from the theater. He died at 7:22 a.m. the next morning. On April 18, his body was brought to the Capitol rotunda where it lay in state for three days. Later, he and his son, Willie, who had died of typhoid fever in February of 1862, were buried together at Oak Ridge Cemetery near Springfield, Illinois.

None of the conspirators escaped authorities. George Atzerodt’s room at Kirkwood House was searched and revealed a gun, knife, and John Booth’s bankbook. He was apprehended on April 20, confessed, and informed on the rest of the conspirators. Lewis Powell was arrested not long after he returned to Mary Surratt's boardinghouse.

Booth met up with David Herold in Maryland. The two evaded federal agents for twelve days before they were cornered in the barn of a Virginia farmhouse. Federal troops set fire to the barn, and Herold surrendered. Booth stayed in the barn. When one of the soldiers saw Booth raise his gun, he shot him. Booth was carried out of the barn and died three hours later. After a trial, the rest of the conspirators, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt were hanged on July 7, 1865.

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