Assassination

= = = = The Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln By: Natalia Claro' =toc=

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John Wilkes Booth
 John Wilkes Booth was born into a large family of actors on May 10th, 1838. Booth's father, Junuis Brutus Booth was a Shakespearean actor and his brother, Edwin, was more famous than he. John lived on Old Soldiers Home, only a couple miles from the White House. While he had strong Confederate beliefs, his mother made him promise not to enlist in the Civil War. While reports of Confederate forces losing traveled home, Booth was being scorned as a coward. Not only did others lose respect for him, but he grew to hate himself for not being an active contributor to Confederate success. Booth utilized his position as an actor to travel back and forth from the North and South to supply the Confederates with quinine medicine to treat malaria. Booth secretly became engaged to Lucy Hale, the daughter of a U.S. senator John P. Hale, in 1865, without her knowing of his hate for the Union. The family tension between Edwin and John increased from their ambition with their careers, to their contrasting views of the Civil War. Edwin was the opposite of John, a strong Union supporter. In 1863, John was arrested for a treasonous comment toward the government. His punishment for saying, "I wish the President and the whole damned government would go to hell," was to pay a generous fine and recite oath of Allegiance.

=The Kidnapping Plot =  The kidnapping plot was led by John Wilkes Booth as an effort to move the Union governments towards chaos and return Confederate prisoners home. It was in retaliation towards Grant stopping the prisoner of war trade. This meant prisoners were no longer being released. The plan was to hold Abraham Lincoln hostage in exchange for the Confederate prisoners. The Confederate government was losing the war, therefore it required as many soldiers as possible in order to be recognized as a government. Booth went to the Confederate government with his idea of kidnapping Lincoln. Although it was deliberated due to the desperation of the Confederacy, it was eventually vetoed. Booth decided to follow through with his plans, even without the support of the Confederacy. He selected Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlen, both Confederate sympathizers, as his accomplices. The three met at Maggie Branson's house in Baltimore, as well as The Park House in Boston to organize the attack. In 1864 Lincoln was re-elected. Booth was now assured that he must follow through with his plan and added David Herold, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell and a rebel agent John Surratt into his scheme. The larger group met regularly at Mary Surratts boarding house (pictured to the right). Edwin disapproved of his plan and they became estranged. In 1865, Booth and his conspirators set the date to kidnap Lincoln. However, Abraham Lincoln did not show up at the play //Still Waters Run Deep, // where Booth and his accomplices were set to kidnap him //. // This is because Lincoln's wife and the wife of the couple that was to accompany them did not get along.

=The Assassination Plot=

 Robert E. Lee, a Confederate General, surrendered at Appottomax Court House on April 12th 1865. When John Booth heard the news, he became desperate and exclaimed "Venice Preserv'd." The latin expression referenced his new plot to assassination Abraham Lincoln. The president had received eighty death threats that week alone. Three days prior to his assassination he had a nightmare of his own death. In his dream, the cause of death was a bullet to the head, as was his actual assassination. The president and other important Union governmental figures were to attend the comedy, //Our American Cousin // . Due to Booth's acting career, he had extensive knowledge of the Ford's theater house in which the play was being held. Booth tactic was to kill the president and next two successors as a way to dismantle the Union government, avenge the South and offer a last hope to the Confederacy. Booth assigned himself to shoot Lincoln, Powell to kill Steward, and a reluctant Atzerodt to kill Johnson. The plan was to met at seven and attack at ten. Booth organized an escape rout to Virginia and an escape horse with James W. Pumphrey with the help of David Harold.

= = = The Attack =

 On April 14th, 1865, John Parker reported for duty as the bodyguard assigned to protect Abraham <span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"> Lincoln's box at Ford's theater. However, a group of Parker's friends convinced him to go to a bar with them just as the play began. Once Parker had left the box unattended, Booth entered and jammed the door locked behind him. Hide behind the drapery and pointed the a gun at Lincoln's head from the back. Booth waited for an especially humorous part of the play in order to use the crowd's laughter to muffle the gunshot. The gunshot entered through Lincoln's left ear and embedded itself behind his right eye. Once the shot was fired, Major Rathbone tried to persue Booth, yet Booth stabbed him before he could make much progress. Booth leapt from the box to the stage, fracturing part of his ankle in the process. Booth cried, "Sic semper tyrannis!" translated from latin as "Thus always to tyrants," and fled from the stage to his getaway horse. Meanwhile, army surgeon Charles Leale broke through the barricaded box door and he, as well as Charlies Taft and Albert King began to tend to Lincoln's head injury. Lincoln was laid down on the street temporary as the doctors checked for his pulse. There was none. The doctors transported him across the street to Henry Staffords house, in order to let him pass away more comfortably. On April 15th, 1865, at 7:22 in the morning, Abraham Lincoln ceased to breath.

=<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Chase and Trial = <span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Booth and Herold hid in a nearby pine thicket from April 16th to April 21st while Union troops searched for them. Thomas Jones supplied them with food and newspapers. Booth was discouraged when he read the "reviews" of his performance and realized even the Confederate papers were upset by the assassination. Booth and Herold then escaped to Grant's Barn and were discovered there by Union forces. Evading the order not to shoot, the Union soldiers burnt the barn down with Booth and Herold still trapped inside. Those who acted as accomplices were tried in military tribunal. Military tribunal is a type of military court used to try the enemies during times of war. The trials lasted seven weeks with three hundred and sixty six witnesses testifying. All the defendants found guilty. Louis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt were all hung at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7, 1865. Mary Surratt was the first woman hung by the United States Government.

=<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lincoln's Legacy =

<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Abraham Lincoln changed the history of the United States by abolishing slavery, salvaging the Union, and unknowingly sacrificing his life for the greater good. Many people went as far as to compare his death to that of Jesus Christ's. Lincoln's humor made him more of a person than an icon to his country. He was pardoned by the country for his many unconstitutional acts because of the terrible circumstances which surrounded him. Lincoln aged dramatically in his short time as president due to the stress of leading such a controversial period. In January 1st 1863, the Civil War approached it's third year and Lincoln put the Emancipation Proclamation into effect. The Proclamation stated that all the slaves in the Rebel states are declared free. Although the proclamation did not apply to those under control of the Union or boarder states and the Confederacy ignored the new law, it demonstrated to America that the cause of the Civil War was to end slavery. As Abraham Lincoln stated in his famous Gettysburg Address speach in November 8th,1863, he believed that "...this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom."

=<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bibliography =

<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"> civilwarstudies.org, " <span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15.6px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">John Wilkes Booth Escape Route with Ed Bearss, <span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15.6px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">" <span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">http://civilwarstudies.org/tours.shtm, Unknown web. date, Web. May 7th 2010

<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"> "John Wilkes Booth." 2010. Biography.com. 6 May 2010, 11:12 <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">[] <span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">.

<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"> Library of Congress, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alrintr.html, "Assassination Of President Abraham Lincoln Introduction," May 14th 1865, Web. May 7th 2010

<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"> Martin Kelly, "Abraham Lincoln Assassination Conspiracies," About.com, Unknown web. date, Web. May 7th 2010,

<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"> Martin Kelly, "Abraham Lincoln - 16th President of the United States" About.com, Unknown web. date, Web. May 7th 2010,

<span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> pbs.org, "American Experience, The Presidents, Abraham Lincoln," [], <span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"> Unknown web. date, Web. May 7th 2010