1865 : Lincoln is shot
On this day in 1865, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate
sympathizer, fatally shoots President Abraham Lincoln at a play at
Ford's Theater 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.
Booth, a Maryland native born in 1838, 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 a performance of "Our American
Cousin" at Ford's Theater on April 14, Booth 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 conspirators hoped
to throw the U.S. government into 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 theater 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 leapt to the stage and shouted "Sic semper
tyrannis! [Thus always to tyrants]--the South is avenged!" Although
Booth broke his leg jumping from Lincoln's box, he managed to escape
Washington on horseback.
The president, mortally wounded, was carried to a lodging house
opposite Ford's Theater. About 7:22 a.m. the next morning, Lincoln,
age 56, died--the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Booth,
pursued by the army and other secret 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 people eventually charged with the conspiracy, four
were hanged and four were jailed.
Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, was buried on May 4, 1865, in
Springfield, Illinois.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1865 : Lincoln is shot
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52439
1912 : RMS Titanic hits iceberg
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4918
1918 : U.S. fliers in first dogfight over western front
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4919
1986 : U.S. bombs Libya
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4920
1988 : Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4921
#########################################
On this day in 1865, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate
sympathizer, fatally shoots President Abraham Lincoln at a play at
Ford's Theater 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.
Booth, a Maryland native born in 1838, 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 a performance of "Our American
Cousin" at Ford's Theater on April 14, Booth 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 conspirators hoped
to throw the U.S. government into 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 theater 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 leapt to the stage and shouted "Sic semper
tyrannis! [Thus always to tyrants]--the South is avenged!" Although
Booth broke his leg jumping from Lincoln's box, he managed to escape
Washington on horseback.
The president, mortally wounded, was carried to a lodging house
opposite Ford's Theater. About 7:22 a.m. the next morning, Lincoln,
age 56, died--the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Booth,
pursued by the army and other secret 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 people eventually charged with the conspiracy, four
were hanged and four were jailed.
Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, was buried on May 4, 1865, in
Springfield, Illinois.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1865 : Lincoln is shot
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52439
1912 : RMS Titanic hits iceberg
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4918
1918 : U.S. fliers in first dogfight over western front
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4919
1986 : U.S. bombs Libya
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4920
1988 : Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4921
#########################################
No comments:
Post a Comment