Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The Civil War 1861 - 1865
Begun	April 12, 1861
Ended	April 9, 1865
Casualties	970,000
Total dead	620,000

The Lincoln Assassination took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, just as the American Civil War was coming to a close. President Abraham Lincoln was at a play in Ford's Theater, Washington D.C., when he was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth.

Prelude

Abraham Lincoln was the subject of death threats almost from the day he was elected president in November of 1860. This made his trip to Washington and his innauguration all the more harrowing, at least to his bodyguards; at one point he switched trains in Baltimore and arrived at the Capitol in disguise. In the summer of 1862 an unknown assailant managed to fire a bullet at him, putting a hole in his stovepipe hat as he was riding in a carriage for the Old Soldiers Home just north of Washington (TL 26, pg. 10).

As the Civil War was drawing to a close, there were many in the South who sought the means to end the war on their terms. Advertisements ran in Southern papers calling for the killing of the president, with the payment of large rewards to the men who made it happen. One such add was placed in an Alabama newspaper by George Washington Gayle, who promised his fellow Southerners that if funds were raised to a total of one million dollars, he would personaly see to it that Lincoln's end was violent (TL 26, pg. 11). Both Lincoln's personal bodyguard, the barrel-chested Ward Hill Lamon, and the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, were fearful for the president, having heard rumors and more against Lincoln's life. Ocassionaly he would laugh off such rumors, and sometimes he would quietly acquiece to heeding their advice. But during the years of war, he was often heading out to the War Department, usually walking alone (TL 26, pg. 11).

On the evening of April 11, 1865, Lincoln was entertaining Lamon and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, who pressed him about the strange dreams he had been having. Lamon related what he said later:

"About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, 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 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.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since."

The Booths

The king of the American stage during the middle part of the 19th Century was Junius Brutus Booth, a British-born actor who mesmerized the crowd with his thrilling and powerful renditions of Shakespeare, as well as leading a scandalizing personal life. He abandoned his wife in favor of a flower girl, Mary Ann Holmes, from one of the English theaters, came to the United States in 1821, and resumed his acting career to great success, settling in the area of Baltimore, Maryland. Although he was totaly devoted to Mary Ann, he would not marry her until 1851; by then they had produced ten children.

The four sons of Booth would try their hands on the stage. Junius Brutus Jr. would enjoy good success on the stage before becoming a theater manager. Joseph's success there was limited, and he would turn to the medical profession. Edwin Booth would surpass even his father in brilliance as an actor, giving performances in such plays as Macbeth and King Lear to such a high degree that critics would label him the finest American actor of the 19th Century.

But it was John Wilkes Booth who would place a stamp of theatrical glory on himself, no matter the cost. He was dashing on the stage, dazzling the audience with his impulsiveness and firey acting. He traveled with a wardrobe valued at $15,000, and made sure his travels to the cities he performed in were also accompanied by a visit to the local photographer, where cartes de visite were made, so that he could hand them out to his many female admirers (TL 26, pp. 34, 60).

Popular Culture

The question 'Aside from that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?' is often used semi-humorously when asking about an event that was marred by some accident or mishap.

References

• Time-Life Books The Civil War, vol. 1 (Brother Against Brother), Time Inc, New York (1983
• Time-Life Books, The Civl War, vol. 26 (The Assassination), Time, Inc. New York (1987).
• Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York (1954)
• Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Simon and Schuster, New York (2005)
• Hanchett, William. The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies, University of Illinois (1983)
• Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln, Jonathan Cafe (Random House), London (1995)