Who shot Abraham Lincoln?
ABRAHAM Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated in United States history.
Lincoln was a transcendental figure in American history and under his leadership the Union won the Civil War, freeing the slaves and permanently altering the trajectory of the United States.
Who shot Abraham Lincoln?
Confederate General in Chief Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General and future President Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, effectively ending battlefield strife.
But despite the end of military engagements, bloodshed in the name of the Confederacy was far from over.
Former Rebel soldiers and disciples of the Lost Cause, a belief that the Confederate States were justified in seceding from the Union, sought revenge for the death of the Confederacy.
Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington DC on April 14, 1865.
His assassination was the only successful leg in a conspiracy that also intended on capturing or killing Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward.
Lincoln’s presidential box was unattended by security detail at the time of his assassination, but the Smithsonian notes that Booth, being a well-known actor whose work Lincoln was familiar with, could have easily charmed his way past security using his celebrity.
Booth used the cover of uproarious laughter to shield the sound of the gunshot that entered the president's skull from behind his left ear.
Booth then jumped from the box onto the stage, confusing the audience.
History has largely accepted that Booth yelled “sic semper tyrannis!”, a Latin phrase meaning “thus always to tyrants” but the exact verbiage is up for debate.
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Did John Wilkes Booth escape?
Booth injured himself when he leapt onto the stage but navigated the playhouse and escaped on horseback.
While Booth was fleeing the area, the gravely injured Lincoln was taken to a nearby house, where a photo of the dying president was likely to have been taken.
Meanwhile, Booth’s co-conspirators arrived at the home of William Seward, who was recovering from a carriage accident.
Lewis Powell, a 21-year-old Confederate soldier, stabbed Seward and mercilessly attacked his family members and staff.
Seward miraculously survived the attack and Powell fled on horseback.
Vice President Andrew Johnson, who would succeed Lincoln as president, was the final target of the conspiracy but the assassin tasked with killing him drank himself into doubt and he went unharmed.
Booth traveled to Maryland faster than the news of the president’s shooting could spread.
Once the gravity of the situation was realized, Secretary of War Edward Stanton authorized the manhunt that would eventually track down Booth on a tobacco farm in Virginia.
After a standoff, during which one of Booth’s co-conspirators surrendered, Booth was shot and killed by Boston Corbett.
What were the consequences of Lincoln’s assassination?
Lincoln’s death paralyzed the nation and his plans for the Reconstruction of the American South were not fulfilled by his successor.
Andrew Johnson would go on to be accepted as one of the worst presidents in American history.
He held disdain for the recently freed Black Americans and did not have the vision Lincoln possessed to racially, economically and psychologically repair the South.
Johnson was the first president to be impeached by the House of Representatives and came within one vote from being removed from office for the disgraceful firing of Edward Stanton.
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He finished Lincoln’s term and was not nominated for election in 1868.
The installation of the Jim Crow South and modern day contention surrounding Confederate iconography may have been avoided had Lincoln been alive to oversee the South’s readmission to the Union.
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