The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the United States, who served the country through some very tough times during the Civil War. He also was the very first president to be assassinated. He was killed on April 14, 1865 and his death has been marked as one of the major events of American history as well as the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was attending the performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater with his wife and two guests. During the play, John Wilkes Booth, a Southern supporter and racist, shot and cold bloodily killed our nation's most respected president in a desperate attempt to gain the respect of a surrendered nation. (Steers 2002, p.56) After a long time of investigating, detectives had found out that Booth’s original plan was to kidnap the President and hold him hostage in order to continue the exchange of prisoners-of-war because Ulysses S. Grant had suspended this policy earlier that year. Even though that was the original plan, these plans changed from kidnapping to murder because Booth saw an alternative. This made Booth and his accomplices decide to kill the President and his group in an attempt to create confusion and overthrow the government. By doing this it would give the Confederacy a chance at revenge against the Union. When Booth found out that the President, as well as General Ulysses S. Grant, would be attending the theater on April 14, he decided that this was the time to make his move. Since Booth has formally been an actor at Ford’s Theater, he knew its layout well because he had performed there several times before. On the afternoon of April 14, Booth went to his boarding house, which was managed and ran by a girl named Mary Surratt, and asked her to deliver a package to her other inn in Surrattsville, Maryland. Booth told Mary to have the innkeeper at the tavern in Maryland prepare the guns and ammunition that he had previously stored at the inn. That night, Booth met with his accomplices, Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt, and they all went over the plan of killing Ulysses Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and William Seward, who were all part of the Union government. They planned to kill all of the men at the same time, with Booth taking the responsibility of shooting Lincoln with his gun and then stabbing Grant with a knife. On that night, while the play was in session, Booth was armed with a derringer pistol and a hunting knife, when he arrived at the theater. John Burroughs, who was a boy who worked at the theater, was asked to hold Booth’s horse while he went to a nearby saloon for a drink. After Booth was done in the saloon, he entered Ford's Theater and made his way to the State Box where President Lincoln was seated. John Parker, Lincoln's bodyguard from the Metropolitan Police Force, had left his position outside the State Box allowing Booth to enter. Inside was Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary Lincoln, two friends, Major Henry Rathbone, and his future wife, Clara Harris. Booth came up from behind Lincoln and shot him in the back of his head. Booth then fled from the scene, breaking his leg in the process and he still managed to escape on horseback, leaving the President slumped over in his chair. Several doctors were on the scene and they tried to revive Lincoln but they couldn’t help him. They moved the President to a nearby house, where he lived out his last moments without ever recovering from the bullet wound in his head. President Lincoln passed away the next morning on April 15, at around 7 in the morning. Following the assassination, Booth fled on horseback to southern Maryland, eventually making his way to a farm in rural northern Virginia 12 days later, where he was tracked down. Booth's companion surrendered, but Booth refused and was shot by a Union soldier after the barn in which he was hiding in was set on fire. Abraham Lincoln was the first President of the United States to be assassinated and his death caused a lot of mixed emotions throughout the country. “His assassination is looked upon not only as a significant event in the history of the United States, but also as completely changing the perspective of how the country, and the world, viewed, and would continue to view, Abraham Lincoln as a person and as a President”, (Hall, 1865).
Many Americans disapproved of Lincoln’s wartime policies and reconstruction plans before and after his death. “This is why it is important to take a look at this aspect of how death and the ensuing funeral arrangements completely changed the way the nation viewed the man and how Lincoln’s image was forever changed in the eyes of the Americans then and beyond”, (Schwartz 1991, p.343). Looking at all of his policies and accomplishments today, Lincoln’s assassination was actually a great hardship for many Americans, even though it brought him the respect and acknowledgement that he never received when he was alive. He was greatly criticized when he was alive, but America started to love, respect, and be grateful of him only after his death and the end of the Civil War, (Schwartz 1991, p.361).

Works Cited * Bigham, Darrel E. "The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence." Journal of American History 97.1 (2010): 186-187. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. * "Blood On The Moon: The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln." Virginia Quarterly Review 78.2 (2002): 56. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Mar. 2015. * Bredhoff, Stacey, and Lee Ann Potter. "Eyewitness Account Of Dr. Robert King Stone, President Lincoln's Family Physician." Social Education 71.2 (2007): 99-104. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Mar. 2015. * Browne, Ray B. "The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence By William C. Edwards And Edward Steers, Jr., Editors." Journal Of American Culture 32.3 (2009): 287. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. * Hall, Gordon. 1865. President Lincoln's Death: Its Voice to the People. Northampton, Mass.: Trumbull & Gere. * Schwartz, Barry. "Mourning And The Making Of A Sacred Symbol: Durkheim And The Lincoln Assassination." Social Forces 70.2 (1991): 343-364. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Mar. 2015.