Lincoln’s Assassination

Sixteenth President of the United States Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head and killed by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 while he attended the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The shooting took place on April 14, Good Friday of that year, but Lincoln did not die from the gunshot until the next day, Saturday, April 15. Lincoln was the first U.S. President to be assassinated.

Booth and six other conspirators originally planned to kidnap Lincoln on March 17 and hold him hostage to blackmail the North into resuming prisoner exchanges between the North and the South. The kidnap plot failed because Lincoln did not attend a play at Campbell Military Hospital, instead attending a ceremony at the National Hotel. Booth was living at the hotel at the time and might have been able to attack Lincoln at the hotel had he not gone to the hospital for the abortive kidnap attempt.

The assassination plot included plans to kill not only the President but also Secretary of State William Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Other than Lincoln’s death, the overall plot failed: Secretary Seward was only wounded by his attacker and Vice President Johnson’s would-be attacker lost his nerve. Booth was killed to end a 12-day manhunt, and four of the other conspirators were hanged for their roles in that plot.

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