Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

1865 murder in Washington, D.C., US

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Part of the conclusion of the American Civil War

John Wilkes Booth assassinating Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theatre. Drawing from glass-slide depiction c. 1865–75.

Location| Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Date| April 14, 1865; 160 years ago (1865-04-14)
10:15 pm
Target|

* Abraham Lincoln (succeeded)
* Andrew Johnson (failed)
* William H. Seward (injured, yet failed)

Attack type

* Political assassination
* shooting
* stabbing

Weapons|

* Philadelphia Deringer pistol
* dagger

Deaths|

* Abraham Lincoln (died April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m.)
* John Wilkes Booth (perpetrator, killed on April 26, 1865)

Injured|

* Henry Rathbone
* William Withers Jr.
* Joseph "Peanuts" Burroughs[a]
* William H. Seward
* Frederick Seward
* Augustus Seward
* Fanny Seward
* George F. Robinson
* Emerick Hansell

Perpetrators| John Wilkes Booth and co-conspirators
Motive| Revenge for the (then-recently) defeated Confederate States
|  |

This article is part of
a series about

Abraham Lincoln

|

* * *

Personal

* Early life and career
* Family
* Health
* Religious views
* Sexuality
* Patent
* Artifacts and relics
* Photographs
* Black Hawk War

* * *

Political

* Spot Resolutions
* Political career, 1849–1861
* Baltimore Plot
* Douglas debates
* Views on slavery

* * *

16th President of the United States

* Presidency
* Transition
* Inaugurations
* first
* second

* * *

Tenure

* American Civil War
* The Union
* Proclamation 80
* Emancipation Proclamation
* Ten percent plan
* 13th Amendment
* Reconstruction

* * *

Presidential campaigns

* 1860
* election
* convention
* 1864
* election
* convention

* * *

Speeches and works

* Inaugural speeches
* first
* second
* State of the Union
* 1861
* 1862
* 1863
* 1864
* Lyceum
* Peoria
* Lost Speech
* House Divided
* Cooper Union
* Farewell address
* Gettysburg

* Poetry
* "The Suicide's Soliloquy"
* Bixby letter
* McCullough letter

* * *

Assassination

* Baltimore Plot
* State funeral
* Tomb
* Catafalque
* Flags
* Hearse
* Lincoln–Kennedy coincidences

* * *

Legacy

* Historical reputation
* Memorials
* Depictions
* Lincoln's Birthday
* Ghost

* Bibliography

* Topical guide

* * *

* v
* t
* e

|  |

This article is part of
a series about

Andrew Johnson

|

* * *

Personal

* Early life
* Slavery
* Mordecai House
* Kirkwood House

* * *

15th Governor of Tennessee

* Governorship
* Elections
* 1853
* 1855

* * *

16th Vice President of the United States

* Vice presidency
* Drunk inaugural address
* Abraham Lincoln assassination

* * *

17th President of the United States

* Presidency
* Inauguration
* Foreign policy
* Cabinet appointment
* Judicial appointment
* Conclusion of Civil War
* Reconstruction
* Reconstruction Acts
* Civil Rights Act of 1866
* Swing Around the Circle
* Impeachment
* First inquiry
* Second inquiry
* Trial
* Managers investigation
* Efforts
* Timeline
* Articles of impeachment

* * *

Vice presidential and presidential campaigns

* 1864
* convention
* "Treason must be made odious"
* election
* 1868
* convention

* * *

Legacy

* Alcoholism debate
* Bibliography
* Historic site
* National cemetery
* Museum and library

* * *

* v
* t
* e

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play,[2] Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22 a.m. in the Petersen House opposite the theater.[3] He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated.[4] His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning.

Near the end of the American Civil War, Lincoln's assassination was part of a larger political conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the federal government. Conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson.

Beyond Lincoln's death, the plot failed: Seward was only wounded, and Johnson's would-be attacker became drunk instead of killing the vice president. After a dramatic initial escape, Booth was killed at the end of a 12-day chase. Powell, Herold, Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt were later hanged for their roles in the conspiracy.

## Background

[edit]

### Abandoned plan to kidnap Lincoln

[edit]

Carte de visite of the actor John Wilkes Booth, c. 1865

John Wilkes Booth, born in Maryland into a family of prominent stage actors, had by the time of the assassination become a famous actor and national celebrity in his own right. He was also an outspoken Confederate sympathizer; in late 1860 he was initiated in the pro-Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle in Baltimore, Maryland.[5]: 67

In May 1863, the Confederate States Congress passed a law prohibiting the exchange of black soldiers, following a previous decree by President Jefferson Davis in December 1862 that neither black soldiers nor their white officers would be exchanged. This became a reality in mid-July 1863 after some soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts were not exchanged following their assault on Fort Wagner. On July 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued General Order 252 to stop prisoner exchanges with the South until all Northern soldiers would be exchanged without regard for their skin color. Stopping the prisoner exchanges is often wrongly attributed to General Grant, even though he was commanding an army in the west in mid-1863 and became overall commander in early 1864.[6]

Booth conceived a plan to kidnap Lincoln in order to blackmail the Union into resuming prisoner exchanges,[7]: 130–34  and he recruited Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O'Laughlen, Lewis Powell (also known as "Lewis Paine"), and John Surratt to help him. Surratt's mother, Mary Surratt, left her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, and moved to a house in Washington, D.C., where Booth became a frequent visitor.

The Surratt boarding house, where the conspirators planned

Booth and Lincoln were not personally acquainted, but Lincoln had seen Booth at Ford's Theatre in 1863.[8]: 419 [9][10] After the assassination, actor Frank Mordaunt wrote that Lincoln, who apparently harbored no suspicions about Booth, admired the actor and had repeatedly but unsuccessfully invited him to visit the White House.[11]: 325–26  Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865, writing in his diary afterwards: "What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration day!"[7]: 174, 437n41

On March 17, Booth and the other conspirators planned to abduct Lincoln as he returned from a play at Campbell General Hospital in northwest Washington. Lincoln did not go to the play, however, instead attending a ceremony at the National Hotel.[7]: 185  Booth was living at the National Hotel at the time and, had he not gone to the hospital for the abortive kidnap attempt, might have been able to attack Lincoln at the hotel.[7]: 185–86, 439n17 [12]: 25

Meanwhile, the Confederacy was collapsing. On April 3, Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, fell to the Union Army. On April 9, General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Potomac after the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other Confederate officials had fled. Nevertheless, Booth continued to believe in the Confederate cause and sought a way to salvage it; he soon decided to assassinate Lincoln.[13]: 728

### Motive

[edit]

Further information: John Wilkes Booth § Theories of Booth's motivation

There are various theories about Booth's motivations. In a letter to his mother, he wrote of his desire to avenge the South.[14] Doris Kearns Goodwin has endorsed the idea that another factor was Booth's rivalry with his well-known older brother, actor Edwin Booth, who was a loyal Unionist.[15] David S. Reynolds believes that, though disagreeing with his cause, Booth greatly admired the daring of abolitionist John Brown;[16] Booth's sister Asia Booth Clarke quoted him as saying, "John Brown was a man inspired, the grandest character of the century!"[16][17]

On April 11, Booth attended Lincoln's last speech, in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for emancipated slaves;[18] Booth said, "That means nigger citizenship. ... That is the last speech he will ever give."[19] Enraged, Booth urged Powell to shoot Lincoln on the spot. Whether Booth made this request because he was not armed or considered Powell a better shot than himself (Powell, unlike Booth, had served in the Confederate Army and thus had military experience) is unknown. In any event, Powell refused for fear of the crowd, and Booth was either unable or unwilling to personally attempt to kill the president. However, Booth said to David Herold, "By God, I'll put him through."[20][8]: 91

### Lincoln's premonitions

[edit]

According to Ward Hill Lamon, three days before his death, Lincoln related a dream in which he wandered the White House searching for the source of mournful sounds:

> I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. "Who is dead in the White House?" I demanded of one of the soldiers, "The President," was his answer; "he was killed by an assassin."[21]

However, Lincoln later told Lamon that "In this dream it was not me, but some other fellow, that was killed. It seems that this ghostly assassin tried his hand on someone else."[22][23] Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell wrote that dreams of assassination would not be unexpected, considering the Baltimore Plot and an additional assassination attempt in which a hole was shot through Lincoln's hat.[22]

For months, Lincoln had looked pale and haggard, but on the morning of the assassination he told people how happy he was. First Lady Mary Lincoln felt such talk could bring bad luck.[24]: 346  Lincoln told his cabinet that he had dreamed of being on a "singular and indescribable vessel that was moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore", and that he had had the same dream before "nearly every great and important event of the War" such as the Union victories at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg.[25]

## Preparations

[edit]

Advertisement for Our American Cousin (Washington Evening Star, April 14, 1865)

On April 14, Booth's morning started at midnight. He wrote his mother that all was well but that he was "in haste". In his diary, he wrote that "Our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done".[13]: 728 [24]: 346

While visiting Ford's Theatre around noon to pick up his mail, Booth learned that Lincoln and Grant were to visit the theater that evening for a performance of Our American Cousin. This provided him with an especially good opportunity to attack Lincoln since, having performed there several times, he knew the theater's layout and was familiar to its staff.[12]: 12 [8]: 108–09  Booth went to Mary Surratt's boarding house in Washington, D.C., and asked her to deliver a package to her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland. He also asked her to tell her tenant Louis J. Weichmann to ready the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the tavern.[12]: 19

Ford's Theatre

The conspirators met for the final time at 8:45 pm. Booth assigned Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward at his home, Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood Hotel, and Herold to guide Powell (who was unfamiliar with Washington) to the Seward house and then to a rendezvous with Booth in Maryland.

Booth was the only well-known member of the conspiracy. Access to the theater's upper floor containing the Presidential Box was restricted, and Booth was the only plotter who could have realistically expected to be admitted there without difficulty. Furthermore, it would have been reasonable (but ultimately incorrect) for the plotters to have assumed that the entrance of the box would be guarded. Had it been, Booth would have been the only plotter with a plausible chance of gaining access to the President, or at least to gain entry to the box without being searched for weapons first. Booth planned to shoot Lincoln at point-blank range with his single-shot Philadelphia Deringer pistol and then stab Grant at the theater. They were all to strike simultaneously shortly after ten o'clock.[8]: 112  Atzerodt tried to withdraw from the plot, which to this point had involved only kidnapping, not murder, but Booth pressured him to continue.[7]: 212

## Assassination

[edit]

### Lincoln arrives at the theater

[edit]

Lincoln's box

President Lincoln sat in this chair when shot (photo by Mathew B. Brady).

Despite what Booth had heard earlier in the day, Grant and his wife, Julia Grant, had declined to accompany the Lincolns, as Mary Lincoln and Julia Grant were not on good terms.[26]: 45 [b] Others in succession also declined the Lincolns' invitation, until finally Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (daughter of U.S. Senator Ira Harris of New York) accepted.[12]: 32  At one point, Mary developed a headache and was inclined to stay home, but Lincoln told her he must attend because newspapers had announced that he would.[28] William H. Crook, one of Lincoln's bodyguards, advised him not to go, but Lincoln said he had promised his wife.[29] Lincoln told Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, "I suppose it's time to go though I would rather stay" before assisting Mary into the carriage.

The presidential party arrived late and settled into their box, made from two adjoining boxes with a dividing partition removed. The play was interrupted, and the orchestra played "Hail to the Chief" as the full house of about 1,700 rose in applause.[30] Lincoln sat in a rocking chair that had been selected for him from among the Ford family's personal furnishings.[31][32]

The cast modified a line of the play in honor of Lincoln: when the heroine asked for a seat protected from the draft, the reply – scripted as, "Well, you're not the only one that wants to escape the draft" – was delivered instead as, "The draft has already been stopped by order of the President!"[33] A member of the audience observed that Mary Lincoln often called her husband's attention to aspects of the action onstage, and "seemed to take great pleasure in witnessing his enjoyment".[34]

At one point, Mary whispered to Lincoln, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" Lincoln replied, "She won't think anything about it".[12]: 39  In following years, these words were traditionally considered Lincoln's last, though N.W. Miner, a family friend, claimed in 1882 that Mary Lincoln told him that Lincoln's last words expressed a wish to visit Jerusalem.[35]

### Booth shoots Lincoln

[edit]

Re-enactment of Lincoln's assassination, as portrayed in D. W. Griffith's silent-film The Birth of a Nation (1915).

Lincoln's usual protections were not in place that night at Ford's. Crook was on a second shift at the White House,[36] and Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln's personal bodyguard, was away in Richmond on assignment from Lincoln. John Frederick Parker was assigned to guard the Presidential Box.[37] At intermission he went to a nearby tavern along with Lincoln's valet, Charles Forbes, and Coachman Francis Burke. Booth had several drinks while waiting for his planned time. It is unclear whether Parker returned to the theater, but he was certainly not at his post when Booth entered the box.[38] In any event, there is no certainty that entry would have been denied to a celebrity such as Booth. Booth had prepared a brace to bar the door after entering the box, indicating that he expected a guard. After spending time at the tavern, Booth entered Ford's Theatre one last time at about 10:10 pm, this time through the theater's front entrance. He passed through the dress circle and went to the door that led to the Presidential Box after showing Charles Forbes his calling card. Navy Surgeon George Brainerd Todd saw Booth arrive:[39]

> About 10:25 pm, a man came in and walked slowly along the side on which the "Pres" box was and I heard a man say, "There's Booth" and I turned my head to look at him. He was still walking very slow and was near the box door when he stopped, took a card from his pocket, wrote something on it, and gave it to the usher who took it to the box. In a minute the door was opened and he walked in.

Once inside the hallway, Booth barricaded the door by wedging a stick between it and the wall. From here, a second door led to Lincoln's box. Evidence shows that, earlier in the day, Booth had bored a peephole in this second door.[40][41]: 173  Booth knew the play Our American Cousin, and waited to time his shot at about 10:15 pm, with the laughter at one of the lines of the play, delivered by actor Harry Hawk: "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!" Lincoln was laughing at this line[42]: 96  when Booth opened the door, stepped forward, and shot him from behind with his pistol.[2]

The bullet entered Lincoln's skull behind his left ear, passed through his brain, and came to rest near the front of the skull after fracturing both orbital plates.[c][45] Lincoln slumped over in his chair and then fell backward.[47][48] Rathbone turned to see Booth standing in gunsmoke less than four feet behind Lincoln; Booth shouted a word that Rathbone thought sounded like "Freedom!"[49]

### Booth escapes

[edit]

The murder weapon is Booth's Philadelphia Deringer.

Booth's dagger

Rathbone jumped from his seat and struggled with Booth, who dropped the pistol and drew a dagger with which he stabbed Rathbone in the left forearm. Rathbone again grabbed at Booth as he prepared to jump from the box to the stage, a twelve-foot drop;[50] Booth's riding spur became entangled on the Treasury flag decorating the box, and he landed awkwardly on his left foot. As he began crossing the stage, many in the audience thought he was part of the play.

Booth held his bloody knife over his head and yelled something to the audience. While it is traditionally held that Booth shouted the Virginia state motto, Sic semper tyrannis! ("Thus always to tyrants") either from the box or the stage, witness accounts conflict.[13]: 739  Most recalled hearing Sic semper tyrannis! but others – including Booth himself – said he yelled only Sic semper![51][52] Some did not recall Booth saying anything in Latin. There is similar uncertainty about what Booth shouted next, in English: either "The South is avenged!",[12]: 48  "Revenge for the South!", or "The South shall be free!" Two witnesses remembered Booth's words as: "I have done it!"

Immediately after Booth landed on the stage, Major Joseph B. Stewart climbed over the orchestra pit and footlights and pursued Booth across the stage.[50] The screams of Mary Lincoln and Clara Harris, and Rathbone's cries of, "Stop that man!"[12]: 49  prompted others to join the chase as pandemonium broke out.

Booth exited the theater through a side door, and on the way stabbing orchestra leader William Withers Jr.[53][54] As he leapt into the saddle of his getaway horse Booth pushed away Joseph Burroughs,[a] who had been holding the horse, striking Burroughs with the handle of his knife.[55][56][57][1]

### Death of Lincoln

[edit]

Hermann Faber sketch from life of bystanders present at Lincoln's deathbed

Charles Leale, a young Union Army surgeon, pushed through the crowd to the door of the Presidential Box, but could not open it until Rathbone, inside, noticed and removed the wooden brace with which Booth had jammed the door shut.[8]: 120

Leale found Lincoln seated with his head leaning to his right[44] as Mary held him and sobbed. "His eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous."[58][59] Thinking Lincoln had been stabbed, Leale shifted him to the floor. Meanwhile, another physician, Charles Sabin Taft, was lifted into the box from the stage.

After Leale and bystander William Kent cut away Lincoln's collar while unbuttoning his coat and shirt and found no stab wound, Leale located the gunshot wound behind the left ear. He found the bullet too deep to be removed but dislodged a blood clot, after which Lincoln's breathing improved;[8]: 121–22  he learned that regularly removing new clots maintained Lincoln's breathing. After giving Lincoln artificial respiration, Leale allowed actress Laura Keene to cradle the President's head in her lap. He pronounced the wound mortal.[12]: 78

Leale, Taft, and another doctor, Albert King, decided that Lincoln must be moved to the nearest house on Tenth Street because a carriage ride to the White House was too dangerous. Carefully, seven men picked up Lincoln and slowly carried him out of the theater, which was packed with an angry mob. After considering Peter Taltavull's Star Saloon next door, they concluded that they would take Lincoln to one of the houses across the way. It was raining as soldiers carried Lincoln into the street,[60] where a man urged them toward the house of tailor William Petersen.[61] In Petersen's first-floor bedroom, the exceptionally tall Lincoln was laid diagonally on a small bed.[8]: 123–24

After clearing everyone out of the room, including Mrs. Lincoln, the doctors cut away Lincoln's clothes but discovered no other wounds. Finding that Lincoln was cold, they applied hot water bottles and mustard plasters while covering him with blankets. Later, more physicians arrived: Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes, Charles Henry Crane, and Robert K. Stone (Lincoln's personal physician). [d]

Skull fragments and probe used

All agreed Lincoln could not survive. Barnes probed the wound, locating the bullet and some bone fragments. Throughout the night, as the hemorrhage continued, they removed blood clots to relieve pressure on the brain,[64] and Leale held the comatose president's hand with a firm grip, "to let him know that he was in touch with humanity and had a friend".[8]: 14 [65]

"The following minutes, taken by Dr. Abbott,[e] show the condition of the President throughout the night" (Evening Star, Washington D.C., April 15, 1865);[66] Medical illustration of the trajectory of the bullet (1953)

Lincoln's older son Robert Todd Lincoln arrived at about 11 pm, but twelve-year-old Tad Lincoln, who was watching a play of Aladdin at Grover's Theater when he learned of his father's assassination, was kept away. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton arrived. Stanton insisted that the sobbing Mrs. Lincoln leave the sick room, then for the rest of the night he essentially ran the United States government from the house, including directing the hunt for Booth and the other conspirators.[8]: 127–28  Guards kept the public away, but numerous officials and physicians were admitted to pay their respects.[64]

Initially, Lincoln's features were calm and his breathing slow and steady. Later, one of his eyes became swollen and the right side of his face discolored.[67] Maunsell Bradhurst Field wrote in a letter to The New York Times that Lincoln then started "breathing regularly, but with effort, and did not seem to be struggling or suffering."[68][69]

Lincoln's deathbed after his body was removed[f]

As he neared death, Lincoln's appearance became "perfectly natural"[68] (except for the discoloration around his eyes).[71] Shortly before 7 am Mary was allowed to return to Lincoln's side,[72] and, as Dixon reported, "she again seated herself by the President, kissing him and calling him every endearing name."[73]

Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15.[3] Mary Lincoln was not present.[74][75] In his last moments, Lincoln's face became calm and his breathing quieter.[76] Field wrote there was "no apparent suffering, no convulsive action, no rattling of the throat ... [only] a mere cessation of breathing".[68][69] According to Lincoln's secretary John Hay, at the moment of Lincoln's death, "a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features".[77] The assembly knelt for a prayer, after which Stanton said either, "Now he belongs to the ages" or, "Now he belongs to the angels."[8]: 134 [78][79]

On Lincoln's death, Vice President Johnson became the 17th president of the United States. The presidential oath of office was administered to Johnson by Chief Justice Salmon Chase sometime between 10 and 11 am.[80]

## Powell attacks Seward

[edit]

William and Fanny Seward in 1861

Booth had assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. On the night of the assassination, Seward was at his home on Lafayette Square, confined to bed and recovering from injuries sustained on April 5 from being thrown from his carriage. Herold guided Powell to Seward's house. Powell carried an 1858 Whitney revolver (a large, heavy, and popular gun during the Civil War) and a Bowie knife.

William Bell, Seward's maître d', answered the door when Powell knocked at 10:10 pm, as Booth made his way to the Presidential Box at Ford's Theater. Powell told Bell that he had medicine from Seward's physician and that his instructions were to personally show Seward how to take it. Overcoming Bell's skepticism, Powell made his way up the stairs to Seward's third-floor bedroom.[12]: 54 [13]: 736 [81] At the top of the staircase he was stopped by Seward's son, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward, to whom he repeated the medicine story; Frederick, suspicious, said his father was asleep.

Hearing voices, Seward's daughter Fanny emerged from Seward's room and said, "Fred, Father is awake now" – thus revealing to Powell where Seward was. Powell turned as if to start downstairs but suddenly turned again and drew his revolver. He aimed at Frederick's forehead and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired, so he bludgeoned Frederick unconscious with it. Bell, yelling "Murder! Murder!", ran outside for help.

Artist's depiction of Lewis Powell attacking Seward's son Frederick after attempting to shoot him

Fanny opened the door again, and Powell shoved past her to Seward's bed. He stabbed at Seward's face and neck, slicing open his cheek.[12]: 58  However, the splint (often mistakenly described as a neck brace) that doctors had fitted to Seward's broken jaw prevented the blade from penetrating his jugular vein.[13]: 737  Seward eventually recovered, though with serious scars on his face.

Seward's son Augustus and Sergeant George F. Robinson, a soldier assigned to Seward, were alerted by Fanny's screams and received stab wounds in struggling with Powell. As Augustus went for a pistol, Powell ran downstairs toward the door,[82]: 275  where he encountered Emerick Hansell, a State Department messenger.[83][84] Powell stabbed Hansell in the back, then ran outside exclaiming, "I'm mad! I'm mad!" Screams from the house had frightened Herold, who ran off, leaving Powell to find his own way in an unfamiliar city.[12]: 59

## Atzerodt fails to attack Johnson

[edit]

Booth had assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was staying at the Kirkwood House in Washington. Atzerodt was to go to Johnson's room at 10:15 pm and shoot him.[13]: 735  On April 14, Atzerodt rented the room directly above Johnson's; the next day, he arrived there at the appointed time and, carrying a gun and knife, went to the bar downstairs, where he asked the bartender about Johnson's character and behavior. He eventually became drunk and wandered off through the streets, tossing his knife away at some point. He made his way to the Pennsylvania House Hotel by 2 am, where he obtained a room and went to sleep.[8]: 166–67 [82]: 335

Earlier in the day, Booth had stopped by the Kirkwood House and left a note for Johnson: "Don't wish to disturb you. Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth."[81] One theory is that Booth was trying to find out whether Johnson was expected at the Kirkwood that night;[8]: 111  another holds that Booth, concerned that Atzerodt would fail to kill Johnson, intended the note to implicate Johnson in the conspiracy.[85]

Conspiracy to kill the Vice President

* George Atzerodt

* Andrew Johnson

* "Don't wish to disturb you Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth"

## Reactions

[edit]

Further information: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's funeral train

Lincoln was mourned in both the North and South,[82]: 350  and indeed around the world.[86] Numerous foreign governments issued proclamations and declared periods of mourning on April 15.[87][88] Lincoln was praised in sermons on Easter Sunday, which fell on the day after his death.[82]: 357

On April 18, mourners lined up seven deep for a mile to view Lincoln in his walnut casket in the White House's black-draped East Room. Special trains brought thousands from other cities, some of whom slept on the Capitol's lawn.[89]: 120–23  Hundreds of thousands watched the funeral procession on April 19,[12]: 213  and millions more lined the 1,700-mile (2,700 km) route of the train which took Lincoln's remains through New York to Springfield, Illinois, often passing trackside tributes in the form of bands, bonfires, and hymn-singing.[90]: 31–58 [42]: 231–38

Poet Walt Whitman composed "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", "O Captain! My Captain!", and two other poems, to eulogize Lincoln.[91][92]

Ulysses S. Grant called Lincoln "incontestably the greatest man I ever knew".[13]: 747  Robert E. Lee expressed sadness.[93] Southern-born Elizabeth Blair said that "Those of Southern born sympathies know now they have lost a friend willing and more powerful to protect and serve them than they can now ever hope to find again."[13]: 744  African-American orator Frederick Douglass called the assassination an "unspeakable calamity".[93]

British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell called Lincoln's death a "sad calamity".[88] China's chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, Prince Gong, described himself as "inexpressibly shocked and startled".[87] Ecuadorian president Gabriel García Moreno said, "Never should I have thought that the noble country of Washington would be humiliated by such a black and horrible crime; nor should I ever have thought that Mr. Lincoln would come to such a horrible end, after having served his country with such wisdom and glory under such critical circumstances."[87][88] The government of Liberia issued a proclamation calling Lincoln "not only the ruler of his own people, but a father to millions of a race stricken and oppressed". The government of Haiti condemned the assassination as a "horrid crime".[88]

Temperance movement activist and academic T. D. Bancroft was present at Lincoln's assassination. He later lectured widely on Lincoln's death, and wrote on the subject.[94]

## Flight and capture of the conspirators

[edit]

Booth's escape route

### Booth and Herold

[edit]

Reward broadside with photographs of John H. Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, and David E. Herold

Within half an hour of fleeing Ford's Theatre, Booth crossed the Navy Yard Bridge into Maryland.[12]: 67–68  A Union Army sentry named Silas Cobb questioned him about his late-night travel; Booth said that he was going home to the nearby town of Charles. Although it was forbidden for civilians to cross the bridge after 9 pm, the sentry let him through.[95] Herold made it across the same bridge less than one hour later[12]: 81–82  and rendezvoused with Booth.[12]: 87  After retrieving weapons and supplies previously stored at Surattsville, Herold and Booth rode to the home of Samuel A. Mudd, a local doctor, who splinted the leg[12]: 131, 153  Booth had broken in his escape and later made a pair of crutches for Booth.[12]: 131, 153

After one day at Mudd's house, Booth and Herold hired a local man to guide them to Samuel Cox's house.[12]: 163  Cox, in turn, took them to Thomas Jones, a Confederate sympathizer who hid Booth and Herold in Zekiah Swamp for five days until they could cross the Potomac River.[12]: 224  On the afternoon of April 24, they arrived at the farm of Richard H. Garrett, a tobacco farmer, in King George County, Virginia. Booth told Garrett he was a wounded Confederate soldier.

An April 15 letter to Navy Surgeon George Brainerd Todd from his brother tells of the rumors in Washington about Booth:

> Today all the city is in mourning nearly every house being in black and I have not seen a smile, no business, and many a strong man I have seen in tears – Some reports say Booth is a prisoner, others that he has made his escape – but from orders received here, I believe he is taken, and during the night will be put on a Monitor for safe keeping – as a mob once raised now would know no end.[39]

The hunt for the conspirators quickly became the largest in U.S. history, involving thousands of federal troops and countless civilians. Edwin M. Stanton personally directed the operation,[96] authorizing rewards of US$50,000 (equivalent to $1,027,065 in 2024) for Booth and $25,000 each for Herold and John Surratt.[97]

Booth and Herold were sleeping at Garrett's farm on April 26 when soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry arrived, surrounded the barn, and threatened to set fire to it. Herold surrendered, but Booth cried out, "I will not be taken alive!"[12]: 326  The soldiers set fire to the barn[12]: 331  and Booth scrambled for the back door with a rifle and pistol.

Booth died in the Garrett farmhouse on April 26.

Sergeant Boston Corbett crept up behind the barn and shot Booth in "the back of the head about an inch below the spot where his [Booth's] shot had entered the head of Mr. Lincoln",[98] severing his spinal cord.[12]: 335  Booth was carried out onto the steps of the barn. A soldier poured water into his mouth, which he spat out, unable to swallow. Booth told the soldier, "Tell my mother I die for my country." Unable to move his limbs, he asked a soldier to lift his hands before his face and whispered his last words as he gazed at them: "Useless ... useless." He died on the porch of the Garrett farm three hours later.[12]: 336–40 [81] Corbett was initially arrested for disobeying orders from Stanton that Booth be taken alive if possible, but was later released and was largely considered a hero by the media and the public.[42]: 228

### Others

[edit]

Without Herold to guide him, Powell did not find his way back to the Surratt house until April 17. He told detectives waiting there that he was a ditch-digger hired by Mary Surratt, but she denied knowing him. Both were arrested.[8]: 174–79  George Atzerodt hid at his cousin's farm in Germantown, Maryland, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Washington, where he was arrested April 20.[8]: 169

The remaining conspirators were arrested by month's end – except for John Surratt, who fled to Quebec where Roman Catholic priests hid him. In September, he boarded a ship to Liverpool, England, staying in the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross there. From there, he moved furtively through Europe until joining the Pontifical Zouaves in the Papal States. A friend from his school days recognized him there in early 1866 and alerted the U.S. government. Surratt was arrested by the Papal authorities but managed to escape under suspicious circumstances. He was finally captured by an agent of the United States in Egypt in November 1866.[99]

## Conspirators' trial and execution

[edit]

Portraits of the conspirators except Mudd are in Benn Pitman's The assassination of President Lincoln and the trial of the conspirators.

Scores of people were arrested, including many tangential associates of the conspirators and anyone having had even the slightest contact with Booth or Herold during their flight. These included Louis J. Weichmann, a boarder in Mrs. Surratt's house; Booth's brother Junius (in Cincinnati at the time of the assassination); theater owner John T. Ford; James Pumphrey, from whom Booth hired his horse; John M. Lloyd, the innkeeper who rented Mrs. Surratt's Maryland tavern and gave Booth and Herold weapons and supplies the night of April 14; and Samuel Cox and Thomas A. Jones, who helped Booth and Herold cross the Potomac.[89]: 186–88  All were eventually released except:[89]: 188

* Samuel Arnold
* George Atzerodt
* David Herold
* Samuel Mudd
* Michael O'Laughlen
* Lewis Powell
* Edmund Spangler (a theater stagehand who had given Booth's horse to Burroughs to hold)
* Mary Surratt

The accused were tried by a military tribunal ordered by Johnson, who had succeeded to the presidency on Lincoln's death:

* Maj. Gen. David Hunter (presiding)
* Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace
* Brig. Gen. Robert Sanford Foster
* Brev. Maj. Gen. Thomas Maley Harris
* Brig. Gen. Albion P. Howe
* Brig. Gen. August Kautz
* Col. James A. Ekin
* Col. Charles H. Tompkins
* Lt. Col. David Ramsay Clendenin

Trial of the conspirators at the Old Penitentiary (Andrew McCullum, Harper's Weekly)

The prosecution was led by U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, assisted by Congressman John A. Bingham and Major Henry Lawrence Burnett.[100] Lew Wallace was the only lawyer on the tribunal.[citation needed]

The use of a military tribunal provoked criticism from former Attorney General Edward Bates and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, who believed that a civil court should have presided, but Attorney General James Speed pointed to the military nature of the conspiracy and the facts that the defendants acted as enemy combatants and that martial law was in force at the time in the District of Columbia. (In 1866, in Ex parte Milligan, the United States Supreme Court banned the use of military tribunals in places where civil courts were operational.)[8]: 213–14  Only a simple majority of the tribunal members was required for a guilty verdict, and a two-thirds for a death sentence. There was no route for appeal other than to President Johnson.[8]: 222–23

Execution of Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt on July 7, 1865, at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.

The seven-week trial included the testimony of 366 witnesses. All of the defendants were found guilty on June 30. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by hanging; Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison.[101] Edmund Spangler was sentenced to six years. After sentencing Mary Surratt to hang, five members of the tribunal signed a letter recommending clemency, but Johnson did not stop the execution; he later claimed he never saw the letter.[8]: 227

Mary Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7.[12]: 362, 365  Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the United States government.[102] O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were pardoned in February 1869 by Johnson.[12]: 367  Spangler, who died in 1875, always insisted his sole connection to the plot was that Booth asked him to hold his horse.[citation needed]

John Surratt stood trial in a civil court in Washington in 1867. Four residents of Elmira, New York,[12]: 27 [103]: 112–15  claimed they had seen him there between April 13 and 15; fifteen others testified they either saw him or someone who resembled him, in Washington (or traveling to or from Washington) on the day of the assassination. The jury could not reach a verdict, and John Surratt was released.[8]: 178 [104]: 227

## See also

[edit]

* Phineas Densmore Gurley
* George A. Parkhurst
* List of assassinated American politicians
* List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots
* Joseph Hazelton, who claimed as an adult to be an eyewitness at 12 years old
* Samuel J. Seymour, who claimed at age 95 on a 1956 TV game show to be a child eyewitness
* List of Abraham Lincoln artifacts and relics

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b Burroughs was also known as "John Peanut", "Peanut John", John Bohran, and other aliases.[1]
2. ^ There is evidence to suggest that either Booth or fellow conspirator Michael O'Laughlen, who resembled Booth, followed the Grants to Union Station late that afternoon and discovered that they would not be at the theater. The Grants later received an anonymous letter from someone who claimed to have boarded their train intending to attack them but was thwarted because the Grants' private car was locked and guarded.[27]
3. ^ Though the steel ball Booth used as a bullet was of a .41 caliber, the deringer type was a small, easily concealable gun known to be inaccurate and usually just used in close quarters.[43] The bullet most probably passed mainly through the left side of the brain, causing massive damage including the skull fractures, hemorrhaging, and secondary severe edema of the brain. While Dr. Leale's notes mention Lincoln's bulging right eye,[44] the autopsy only specifically states the damage to the left side of the brain.[45][46]
4. ^ Sometime before 2am that Saturday morning, Mary Lincoln sent for Elizabeth Keckley, to come see her.  Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott escorted Keckley through the streets of Washington DC. Mistakenly, they first went to the White House, and then Abbott got Keckley safely to Petersen House. He left Petersen House before Lincoln died and was not present at Lincoln's deathbed.[62][63]
5. ^ This Dr. Abbott is Ezra Walker Abbott, who is listed by The Evening Star as one of the 6 doctors present at Lincoln's deathbed, the rest being R.K. Stone, C.D. Gatch, Neil, Hall, and Lieberman.[66]
6. ^ Julius Ulke, who was a boarder at the Petersen House, took this photograph shortly after Lincoln's body was removed.[70]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Edwards, William C.; Steers, Edward, eds. (2010). John Bohran (Joseph Burroughs) – The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence. University of Illinois Press. pp. 140–41\. ISBN 9780252091070. "He came up to the horse and put one foot in the stirrup and struck me with the butt of his dagger and knocked me down."
2. ^ a b Abel, E. Lawrence (2015). A Finger in Lincoln's Brain: What Modern Science Reveals about Lincoln, His Assassination, and Its Aftermath. ABC-CLIO. p. 63\. ISBN 9781440831195. "Forensic evidence clearly indicates Booth could not have fired at point-blank range ... At a distance of three or more feet, the gunshot did not leave any stippling or any other residues on the surface of Lincoln's head ... Dr. Robert Stone, the Lincoln's' family physician, was explicit: "The hair or scalp (on Lincoln's head) was not in the least burn[t].""
3. ^ a b Fraser, Richard A. R. (February–March 1995). "How Did Lincoln Die?". American Heritage. 46 (1).
4. ^ "Today in History - April 14". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.
5. ^ Getler, Warren; Brewer, Bob (2003). Shadow of the Sentinel. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-1968-6.
6. ^ "Myth: Grant Stopped the Prisoner Exchange". National Park Service \- Andersonville National Historic Site. November 27, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
7. ^ a b c d e Kauffman, Michael W. (2004). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50785-4.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Steers, Edward. Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. University Press of Kentucky, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8131-9151-5
9. ^ "5 facts you may not know about Lincoln's assassination". CBS News. April 14, 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2017. "Just a few days before delivering the Gettysburg Address in 1863, Lincoln went to the theater to see a play called "The Marble Heart" — a translated French production in which Booth played the villain."
10. ^ Bogar, Thomas A. (2006). American Presidents Attend the Theatre: The Playgoing Experiences of Each Chief Executive. McFarland. pp. 100, 375–76\. ISBN 9780786442324.
11. ^ Hay, John (1999). Burlingame, Michael; Ettlinger, John R. Turner (eds.). Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809322626.
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Swanson, James. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. Harper Collins, 2006. ISBN 978-0-06-051849-3
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2005. ISBN 978-0-684-82490-1
14. ^ Kauffman, John W. (2007). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. Random House. p. 252\. ISBN 9780307430618. ""...that I have not a single selfish motive to spur me on to this, nothing save the sacred duty, I feel I owe the cause I love, the cause of the South."
15. ^ Goodwin, Doris Kearns (2010). My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy (Foreword). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781416586166.
16. ^ a b Reynolds, David S. (April 12, 2015). "John Wilkes Booth and the Higher Law". The Atlantic.
17. ^ Clarke, Asia Booth (1938). The Unlocked Book: A Memoir of John Wilkes Booth by his Sister. Faber & Faber. p. 124.
18. ^ "Last Public Address". Speeches and Writings. Abraham Lincoln Online. April 11, 1865. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
19. ^ Masur, Louis P. (2015). McPherson, James (ed.). Lincoln's Last Speech: Wartime Reconstruction and the Crisis of Reunion. Oxford University Press. pp. xiii–xiv. ISBN 978-0-19-021840-9. OCLC 900633130.
20. ^ Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 588.
21. ^ pp. 116–17 of Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847–1865 by Ward Hill Lamon (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1999).
22. ^ a b Nickell, Joe. "Premonition! Foreseeing What Cannot Be Seen". Skeptical Inquirer. 43 (4).
23. ^ Sandburg, Carl (2002). Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years. Harcourt. p. 698\. ISBN 0-15-602752-6.
24. ^ a b Kunhardt Jr., Phillip B., Kunhardt III, Phillip, and Kunhardt, Peter W. Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography. Gramercy Books, New York, 1992. ISBN 0-517-20715-X
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26. ^ Vowell, Sarah. Assassination Vacation. Simon and Schuster, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-6003-1
27. ^ McFeely (2002), Grant: A Biography, pp. 224–25
28. ^ Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 593.
29. ^ Lewis, Lloyd (1994). The Assassination of Lincoln: History and Myth. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 56, 297. ISBN 978-0-8032-7949-0.
30. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions – Ford's Theatre National Historic Site". Nps.gov. February 12, 1932. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
31. ^ Sneller, Rhoda; Sneller, PhD, Lowell. "Lincoln Assassination Rocking Chair". Retrieved August 26, 2017. "Theatre employee Joe Simms concurred ... saying, 'I saw Mr. Harry Ford and another gentleman fixing up the box. Mr. Ford told me to go to his bed-room and get a rocking chair, and bring it down and put it in the President's box ...' James L. Maddox, another theatre worker, remembered Simms carrying the rocker into the building on his head. 'I had not seen that chair in the box this season; the last time I saw it before that afternoon was in the winter of 1863, when it was used by the President on his first visit to the theater.'"
32. ^ "Curating & Preserving The Lincoln Rocker". The Henry Ford Museum. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
33. ^ Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 595.
34. ^ The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. p. 88
35. ^ Miner, Noyes W. (July 10, 1882). "Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln". Chronicling Illinois. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2017. "He said we will visit the Holy Land, and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Saviour. He was saying there was no city on earth he so much desired to see as Jerusalem"
36. ^ "Employees and Staff: William Henry Crook (1839-1915)". Mr. Lincoln's White House. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
37. ^ "entry on John Parker at Mr. Lincoln's White House website". Mrlincolnswhitehouse.org. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
38. ^ John F. Parker: The Guard Who Abandoned His Post at the Abraham Lincoln's Assassination website
39. ^ a b Todd, George Brainerd (April 14, 1865). "Dr. George Brainerd Todd Letter". Sauerbraten, Tea Time & Scones (B.J. Peters). Retrieved August 7, 2012.
40. ^ Taylor, Dave (June 10, 2012). "Thoughts From Major Rathbone". BoothieBarn. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
41. ^ Bishop, Jim. The Day Lincoln Was Shot. Harper, New York, 1955. OCLC 2018636
42. ^ a b c Goodrich, Thomas (2006). The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253218896.
43. ^ Abel, E. Lawrence (2015). A Finger in Lincoln's Brain: What Modern Science Reveals about Lincoln, His Assassination, and Its Aftermath. ABC-CLIO. Chapter 4.
44. ^ a b Leale, Charles A. (April 15, 1865). "Report of Dr. Charles A. Leale on Assassination, April 15, 1865 (Page 5)". papersofabrahamlincoln.org. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2017. "Mr. Lincoln was seated in a high backed arm chair with his head leaning towards his right side supported by Mrs. Lincoln"
45. ^ a b Mackowiak, Phillip (November 29, 2013). "Would Lincoln Have Survived If He Was Shot Today?". The Atlantic.
46. ^ Staff. "The autopsy of President Abraham Lincoln". United States National Library of Medicine. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
47. ^ "NPS Historical Handbook: Ford's Theatre". nps.gov. National Park Service. 2002. Retrieved August 26, 2017. "The President slumped forward in his chair, and then backward, never to regain consciousness."
48. ^ Kaplan, Debbie Abrams (April 10, 2015). "President Lincoln's slaying 150 years ago recalled at Ford's Theatre". Los Angeles Times.
49. ^ "President Lincoln is Shot, 1865". EyeWitnesstoHistory. Ibis Communications. Retrieved August 27, 2017. "while I was intently observing the proceedings upon the stage, with my back toward the door, I heard the discharge of a pistol behind me, and, looking round, saw through the smoke a man between the door and the President. The distance from the door to where the President sat was about four feet. At the same time I heard the man shout some word, which I thought was 'Freedom!'"
50. ^ a b Lincoln Assassination, History Channel
51. ^ Booth, John Wilkes (April 1865). "John Wilkes Booth's Diary". Roger J. Norton. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
52. ^ "TimesMachine April 15, 1865". The New York Times.
53. ^ Bleyer, Bill (June 2012). "1906 Letter Tells What Five in Family Saw at Theatre April 14, 1865". Civil War News. Historical Publications Inc (Kathryn Jorgensen). Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
54. ^ Good, Timothy S., ed. (1995). We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts (quoting Katherine M. Evans interview from April 1915 New York Tribune). University Press of Mississippi. pp. 148–49.
55. ^ "Lincoln's Last Day". National Park Service. Archived from the original on December 9, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
56. ^ "Lincoln's Last Day – Assassination and Death". National Park Service. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
57. ^ Good, Timothy S., ed. (1995). We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts (quoting John Miles from Lincoln Conspiracy Trial transcripts). University Press of Mississippi. p. 81.
58. ^ Leale, Charles A. (April 15, 1865). "Report of Dr. Charles A. Leale on Assassination, April 15, 1865 (Page 6)". papersofabrahamlincoln.org. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Archived from the original on August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
59. ^ O'Connor, John (June 5, 2012). "Report of first doctor to reach shot Lincoln found". Associated Press. Archived from the original on June 6, 2012. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
60. ^ Blower, Janis (March 14, 2013). "Geordie carried the dying U.S. president". South Shields Gazette. England: shieldsgazette.com. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
61. ^ "Henry Safford". rogerjnorton.com. Archived from the original on June 1, 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
62. ^ Rahman, Arman (February 20, 2024). "How part of Lincoln's wardrobe found its way to Wisconsin". WMSN-TV. Retrieved May 27, 2025.
63. ^ Slaney, Catherine (2003). Family secrets: crossing the colour line. Toronto: Natural Heritage Books. pp. 205–206\. ISBN 9781554881611.
64. ^ a b Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 594.
65. ^ Leale, Charles A. (1909). Lincoln's Last Hours. Compliments of the Estate of Charles A. Leale. p. 12. Retrieved April 21, 2024. "Knowledge that frequently just before departure recognition and reason return to those who have been unconscious caused me for several hours to hold his right hand firmly within my grasp to let him in his blindness know, if possible, that he was in touch with humanity and had a friend."
66. ^ a b "The Death of the President". Evening Star. Washington, D.C. April 15, 1865. p. 2. Retrieved May 27, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
67. ^ "The Death of President Lincoln, 1865". EyeWitness to History. Ibis Communications, Inc. Retrieved August 26, 2017. "His slow, full respiration lifted the clothes with each breath that he took. His features were calm and striking. I had never seen them appear to better advantage than for the first hour, perhaps, that I was there. After that his right eye began to swell and that part of his face became discolored."
68. ^ a b c Fox, Richard (2015). Lincoln's Body: A Cultural History. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393247244.
69. ^ a b "OUR GREAT LOSS; The Assassination of President Lincoln. DETAILS OF THE FEARFUL CRIME. Closing Moments and Death of the President. Probable Recovery of Secretary Seward. Rumors of the Arrest of the Assassins. The Funeral of President Lincoln to Take Place Next Wednesday. Expressions of Deep Sorrow Through-out the Land. OFFICIAL DISPATCHES. THE ASSASSINATION. Further Details of the Murder Narrow Recape of Secretary Stanton Measures Taken is Prevent the Escape of the Assassin of the President. LAST MOMENTS OF THE PRESIDENT. Interesting Letter from Maunsell B. Field Esq. THE GREAT CALAMITY". The New York Times. April 17, 1865. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
70. ^ "Robert King Stone – Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, 1865". Eyewitness – American Originals from the National Archives. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
71. ^ Canavan, Kathryn (2015). Lincoln's Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America's Greatest President. University of Kentucky Press. p. 145\. ISBN 9780813166094.
72. ^ "The Death of President Lincoln, 1865". EyeWitness to History. Ibis Communications, Inc. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
73. ^ Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Touchstone. p. 599.
74. ^ Bain, Robert T. (2005). Lincoln's Last Battleground: A Tragic Night Recalled. AuthorHouse. p. 6\. ISBN 9781467029919.
75. ^ Emerson, Jason (2012). Mary Lincoln's Insanity Case: A Documentary History. University of Illinois Press. p. 3\. ISBN 9780252037078.
76. ^ Tarbell, Ida Minerva (1920) [1st pub. 1895]. The Life of Abraham Lincoln. Vol. 4\. S.S. McClure Company, Doubleday & McClure Company. p. 40\. ISBN 9781582181257 – via Digital Scanning. `{{cite book}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
77. ^ Hay, John (1915). The Life and Letters of John Hay Volume 1 (quote's original source is Hay's diary which is quoted in "Abraham Lincoln: A History", Volume 10, p. 292 by John G. Nicolay and John Hay). Houghton Mifflin Company.
78. ^ Townsend, George Alfred (1865). The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth. New York: Dick and Fitzgerald.
79. ^ Other versions of the quotation have been offered, including "He now belongs to the ages" and "He is a man for the ages." Gopnik, Adam, "Angels and Ages: Lincoln's language and its legacy," The New Yorker, May 21, 2007.
80. ^ Trefousse, Hans L. (1989). Andrew Johnson: A Biography. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 194.
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82. ^ a b c d Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The War Years IV. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1936. OCLC 46381986
83. ^ Swain, Claudia (March 28, 2013). "Even More Little Known Victims of the Lincoln Assassination Plot". WETA. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
84. ^ Taylor, Dave (September 4, 2015). "Emerick Hansell: The Forgotten Casualty". BoothieBarn. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
85. ^ U.S. Senate: Art & History Home. "Andrew Johnson, 16th Vice President (1865)", United States Senate. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
86. ^ Ford, Matt (April 14, 2015). "How the World Mourned Lincoln". The Atlantic.
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91. ^ Staff (November 4, 1865). "The Walt Whitman Archive – Published Works: O Captain! My Captain!". www.whitmanarchive.org. Center for Digital Research (University of Nebraska-Lincoln). Retrieved January 22, 2017.
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93. ^ a b Kunhardt III, Philip B., "Lincoln's Contested Legacy," Smithsonian, pp. 34–35.
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95. ^ O'Reilly, Bill; Dugard, Martin (2011). Killing Lincoln. Henry Holt & Company, LLC. p. 215.
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99. ^ Harris, Thomas M., Brig. Gen.. Rome's [i.e. the Vatican's] Responsibility for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Petersburg, Ohio: Pilgrim Brethren Press, 1897. Without ISBN
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## Further reading

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* Bagehot, Walter, ed. (April 29, 1865). "The assassination of Mr Lincoln". The Economist. Vol. XXIII, no. 1, 131.
* Ellsworth, Scott (July 15, 2025). Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America. Dutton
* Hodes, Martha. Mourning Lincoln, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. ISBN 9780300195804
* Holzer, Harold (compiled and introduced by). President Lincoln Assassinated!!: The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning. Library of America/Penguin Random House Inc. 2014. ISBN 978-1-59853-373-6
* Holzer, Harold; Symonds, Craig L.; Williams, Frank J., eds., The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory, New York: Fordham University Press, 2010. ISBN 9780823232260 Review
* King, Benjamin. A Bullet for Lincoln, Pelican Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0-88289-927-9
* Lattimer, John. Kennedy and Lincoln, Medical & Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. 1980. ISBN 978-0-15-152281-1 [includes description and pictures of Seward's jaw splint, not a neck brace]
* Steers Jr., Edward, and Holzer, Harold, eds. The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft. Louisiana State University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8071-3396-5
* Steers Jr., Edward. Lincoln's Assassination. Southern Illinois University Press, 2025. Concise Lincoln Library. ISBN 978-0809339655
* Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., Lincoln Assassinated!, Lincoln Assassinated!, Part 2.
* The Lincoln Memorial: A Record of the Life, Assassination, and Obsequies of the Martyred President, New York: Bunce & Huntington, 1865. This is a collection of essays, accounts, sermons, newspaper reports, poems, and more, with no editor or authors named, except Richard Henry Stoddard, whose poem "Abraham Lincoln—An Horatian Ode" is included at pages 273–278.

## External links

[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

* Abraham Lincoln's Physician's Observation and Postmortem Reports: Original Documentation Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* First Responder Dr. Charles Leale Eyewitness Report of Assassination Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* Lincoln Papers: Lincoln Assassination: Introduction
* Ford's Theatre National Historic Site
* Abraham Lincoln's Assassination
* Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
* Lincoln Conspiracy Photograph Album at George Eastman museum
* The Men Who Killed Lincoln – slideshow by Life magazine
* Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Research Site
* The official transcript of the trial (as recorded by Benn Pitman and several assistants – originally published in 1865 by the United States Army Military Commission)
* Hanging the Lincoln Conspirators Archived July 12, 2019, at the Wayback Machine – detailed analysis and review of historic 1865 photograph

* v
* t
* e

Abraham Lincoln

* 16th President of the United States (1861–1865)
* U.S. Representative for IL–7 (1847–1849)

Presidency|

* Transition
* First inauguration
* Perpetual Union
* Lincoln Bible
* Second inauguration
* Civil War
* Proclamation 80
* Confiscation Acts
* War based income tax
* Seaports blockade
* RMS Trent Affair
* Habeas Corpus suspended
* Emancipation Proclamation
* West Virginia statehood
* Overland Campaign strategy
* Hampton Roads Conference
* Tour of Richmond
* Ten percent plan
* Reconstruction
* Foreign policy
* 13th Amendment abolishing slavery
* Dakota War of 1862
* Department of the Northwest
* Homestead Act of 1862
* National Banking Acts
* Thanksgiving Day
* Fanny McCullough letter
* Birchard Letter
* Bixby letter
* National Academy of Sciences
* Department of Agriculture
* Pardons
* State of the Union Address, 1863
* 1864
* Cabinet
* Judicial appointments

Speeches|

* Lyceum address (1838)
* Peoria speech (1854)
* "Lost Speech" (1856)
* House Divided speech (1858)
* Lincoln–Douglas debates (1858)
* Cooper Union Address (1860)
* Farewell Address (1861)
* First inaugural address (1861)
* Gettysburg Address (1863, event)
* Second inaugural address (1865)

Life
and views|

* Early life and career
* Black Hawk War
* Matson Trial
* Spot Resolutions
* Boat lifting patent
* Hurd v. Rock Island Bridge Co.
* Baltimore Plot
* Lincoln's beard
* Medical and mental health
* Poetry
* Political career, 1849–1861
* Religious views
* Sexuality
* Slavery

Homes
and places|

* Lincoln Birthplace
* Knob Creek Farm
* Lincoln Boyhood Memorial
* Lincoln State Park
* Little Pigeon Creek Community
* Lincoln Trail Homestead State Memorial
* Lincoln's New Salem
* Lincoln-Berry General Store
* Lincoln Home
* Cottage at the Soldier's Home
* Lincoln Bedroom
* Lincoln Sitting Room
* Lincoln Pioneer Village
* Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site

Elections|

* Republican National Convention, 1856
* 1860
* 1864
* National Union Party
* 1860 United States presidential election
* 1864
* 1860 campaign song

Assassination|

* Ford's Theater
* Our American Cousin
* opera
* John Wilkes Booth
* "Sic semper tyrannis"
* Petersen House
* State funeral
* Lincoln catafalque
* Lincoln Tomb
* "O Captain! My Captain!"
* "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"

Legacy and
memorials|

* Presidential Library and Museum
* Papers
* Lincoln/Net
* Artifacts and relics
* Bibliography
* Birthday
* Photographs of Lincoln
* Cultural depictions
* films
* Art
* Currency
* Illinois Centennial half dollar
* Lincoln penny
* Five-dollar bill
* Mount Rushmore Anniversary coins
* Postage stamps
* Abraham Lincoln Association
* Abraham Lincoln Institute
* Association of Lincoln Presenters
* USS Abraham Lincoln (1960,
* 1988)
* Here I Grew Up mosaic
* Lincoln Highway
* Lincoln, Nebraska
* Lincoln Park (Chicago)
* Lincoln Park (D.C.)
* Lincoln Prize
* Lincoln Heritage Trail
* Lincoln Trail State Memorial
* Mount Abraham
* Lincoln–Kennedy coincidences
* Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
* White House ghost

| Statues|

* Lincoln Memorial
* statue
* reflecting pool
* Mount Rushmore
* Abraham Lincoln: The Man
* Abraham Lincoln: The Head of State
* Lincoln the Lawyer
* Young Abe Lincoln
* Emancipation Memorial
* Brooklyn relief
* Cincinnati
* D.C. City Hall
* Hodgenville, Kentucky
* Indianapolis relief
* Laramie, Wyoming
* Lincoln, Nebraska
* Los Angeles
* Louisville, Kentucky
* Newark, New Jersey
* New York City
* Parliament Square, London
* Philadelphia
* Rochester
* U.S. Capitol bust
* U.S. Capitol statue
* Wabash, Indiana

|

Family|

* Family tree
* Mary Todd Lincoln (wife)
* Robert Todd Lincoln (son)
* Edward Baker Lincoln (son)
* William Wallace Lincoln (son)
* Thomas "Tad" Lincoln III (son)
* Mary Todd "Mamie" Lincoln (granddaughter)
* Jessie Harlan Lincoln (granddaughter)
* Thomas Lincoln (father)
* Nancy Hanks Lincoln (mother)
* Sarah Bush Lincoln (stepmother)
* Sarah Lincoln Grigsby (sister)
* Abraham Lincoln (grandfather)
* Mordecai Lincoln (uncle)
* Mary Lincoln Crume (aunt)
* John Hanks (cousin)
* Joseph Hanks (great-grandfather)
* Samuel Lincoln (17th-century ancestor)
* Mary Lincoln Beckwith (great-granddaughter)
* Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith (great-grandson)
* Old Bob (horse)
* Fido (dog)

* ← James Buchanan
* Andrew Johnson →

* Category
* Outline

* v
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* e

Assassinations of presidents of the United States

* Abraham Lincoln
* Booth
* James A. Garfield
* Guiteau
* William McKinley
* Czolgosz
* John F. Kennedy
* Oswald

* v
* t
* e

Assassination attempts on presidents of the United States

* Andrew Jackson
* Abraham Lincoln
* Theodore Roosevelt
* Franklin D. Roosevelt
* Harry S. Truman
* John F. Kennedy
* Richard Nixon
* Gerald Ford
* Sacramento
* San Francisco
* Jimmy Carter
* Ronald Reagan
* Bill Clinton
* George W. Bush
* Barack Obama
* Donald Trump
* Pennsylvania
* Florida

List of presidential assassination attempts and plots \- Successful attempts

* v
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* e

Conspiracy theories

List of conspiracy theories

Overview

| Core topics|

* Antiscience
* Cabals
* deep state
* éminence grise
* power behind the throne
* Civil / Criminal / Political conspiracies
* Conspiracy
* Crisis actors
* Deception
* Dystopia
* Espionage
* Global catastrophe scenarios
* Hidden message
* Pseudohistory
* Pseudoscience
* Secrecy
* Secret societies
* Urban legends and myths

|

Psychology|

* Attitude polarization
* Cognitive dissonance
* Communal reinforcement
* Confirmation bias
* Denialism
* Locus of control
* Manipulation
* Mass psychogenic illness
* moral panics
* Paranoia
* Psychological projection

Astronomy and outer space

* 2012 phenomenon
* Nibiru cataclysm
* Ancient astronauts
* Apollo Moon landings
* Flat Earth
* Hollow Earth
* Hollow Moon
* Reptilians

| UFOs|

* Alien abduction
* Area 51
* Black Knight satellite
* Cryptoterrestrial / Extraterrestrial / Interdimensional hypothesis
* Dulce Base
* Estimate of the Situation (1948)
* Lake Michigan Triangle
* MJ-12
* Men in black
* Nazi UFOs
* Die Glocke
* Project Serpo

| Hoaxes|

* Dundy County (1884)
* Maury Island (1947)
* Roswell (1947)
* Twin Falls (1947)
* Aztec, New Mexico (1949)
* Southern England (1967)
* Ilkley Moor (1987)
* Gulf Breeze (1987–88)
* Alien autopsy (1995)
* Morristown (2009)

|

Deaths and disappearances

| Assassination /
suicide theories|

* Zachary Taylor (1850)
* Louis Le Prince (1890)
* Lord Kitchener (1916)
* Tom Thomson (1917)
* Władysław Sikorski (1943)
* Benito Mussolini (1945)
* Adolf Hitler (1945)
* Subhas Chandra Bose (1945)
* Johnny Stompanato (1958)
* Marilyn Monroe (1962)
* John F. Kennedy (1963)
* Lee Harvey Oswald (1963)
* Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966)
* Harold Holt (1967)
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)
* Robert F. Kennedy (1968)
* Salvador Allende (1973)
* Aldo Moro (1978)
* Renny Ottolina (1978)
* Pope John Paul I (1978)
* Airey Neave (1979)
* Olof Palme (1986)
* Zia-ul-Haq (1988)
* GEC-Marconi scientists (1980s–90s)
* Turgut Özal (1993)
* Vince Foster (1993)
* Kurt Cobain (1994)
* Yitzhak Rabin (1995)
* Diana, Princess of Wales (1997)
* Vatican murders (1998)
* Nepalese royal family (2001)
* Yasser Arafat (2004)
* Benazir Bhutto (2007)
* Osama bin Laden (2011)
* Hugo Chávez (2013)
* Seth Rich (2016)
* Alejandro Castro (2018)
* Jeffrey Epstein (2019)
* Chan Yin-lam (2019)
* Sushant Singh Rajput (2020)
* John McAfee (2021)

|

Accidents / disasters|

* Mary Celeste (1872)
* RMS Titanic (1912)
* Great Kantō earthquake (1923)
* Lynmouth Flood (1952)
* Dyatlov Pass (1959)
* Lost Cosmonauts (1950s–60s)
* JAT Flight 367 (1972)
* United Air Lines Flight 553 (1972)
* Itavia Flight 870 (1980)
* South African Airways Flight 295 (1987)
* Khamar-Daban (1993)
* MS Estonia (1994)
* TWA Flight 800 (1996)
* EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999)
* Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (2014)

Other cases|

* Joan of Arc (1431)
* Yemenite children (1948–54)
* Elvis Presley (1977)
* Jonestown (1978)

Body double hoax|

* Paul McCartney
* Avril Lavigne
* Vladimir Putin
* Melania Trump

Energy, environment

* Agenda 21

California drought manipulation

* Climate change denial
* false theories
* Free energy suppression
* HAARP
* Red mercury

False flag allegations

* USS Maine (1898)
* RMS Lusitania (1915)
* Reichstag fire (1933)
* Pearl Harbor (1941)
* USS Liberty (1967)
* Lufthansa Flight 615 (1972)
* Widerøe Flight 933 (1982)
* KAL Flight 007 (1983)
* Mozambican presidential jet (1986)
* Pan Am Flight 103 (1988)
* Oklahoma City bombing (1995)
* 9/11 attacks (2001)
* advance knowledge
* WTC collapse
* Madrid train bombing (2004)
* London bombings (2005)
* Smolensk air disaster (2010)
* Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (2014)
* Denial of the 7 October attacks (2023)

Gender and sexuality

* Alpha/beta males
* Anti-LGBTQ
* Anti-gender movement
* Chemicals
* Drag panic
* Gay agenda
* Gay Nazis myth
* HIV/AIDS stigma
* United States
* Homintern
* Lavender Scare
* Recruitment
* Grooming
* Litter box hoax
* Transvestigation
* Finger pinching
* Gamergate
* Ideology in incel communities
* Larries / Gaylors
* Satanic panic
* Soy and masculinity

Health

* 5G misinformation
* Anti-vaccination
* Autism
* MMR
* Thiomersal
* In chiropractic
* Misinformation
* Aspartame
* Big Pharma
* Chemtrails
* COVID-19
* Ivermectin
* Lab leak
* Vaccines
* Turbo cancer
* In Canada / Philippines / United States
* Ebola
* Electronic harassment
* Germ theory denialism
* GMOs
* HIV/AIDS denialism
* Origins theories
* Oral polio AIDS hypothesis
* Lepers' plot
* Medbeds
* SARS (2003)
* Water fluoridation
* Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning

Race, religion and/or ethnicity

* Bhagwa Love Trap
* CERN ritual hoax
* COVID-19 and xenophobia
* Freemasons
* French Revolution
* Gas chambers for Poles in Warsaw (1940s)
* German POWs post-WWII
* Priory of Sion
* Product labeling
* Halal
* Kosher
* Tartarian Empire
* War against Islam
* White genocide

| Antisemitic|

* Andinia Plan
* Blood libel
* Cohen Plan
* Doctors' plot
* During the Black Death
* Epsilon Team
* George Soros
* Holocaust denial
* Trivialization
* International Jewish conspiracy
* Committee of 300
* Cultural Bolshevism / Jewish Bolshevism
* Żydokomuna
* Judeo-Masonic plot
* The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
* World War II
* Z.O.G.
* Judeopolonia
* Killing of Jesus
* Kalergi Plan
* New World Order
* Rothschilds
* Stab-in-the-back myth

|

Christian / Anti-Christian|

* Anti-Catholic
* Jesuits
* Popish Plot
* Vatican
* Bible
* Giuseppe Siri

Islamophobic|

* Counter-jihad
* Bihar human sacrifice
* Eurabia
* Great Replacement
* Love jihad
* Proposed "Islamo-leftism" inquiry
* Trojan Horse scandal

Genocide denial /
Denial of mass killings|

* Armenian
* Assyrian
* Bangladesh
* Bosnian
* Cambodian
* The Holocaust
* Holodomor
* Nanjing
* Rwandan
* Serbs during WWII

Regional

| Asia|

* India
* Cow vigilante violence
* Pakistan
* Jinnahpur
* Philippines
* Tallano gold
* South Korea
* Finger-pinching
* Thailand
* Finland Plot

|

Americas
(outside the United States)|

* Argentina
* Andinia Plan
* Canada
* Avro Arrow cancellation
* Leuchter report
* Peru
* Casa Matusita
* Venezuela
* Daktari Ranch affair
* Golpe Azul

Middle East / North Africa|

* In the Arab world
* 10 agorot
* Cairo fire
* Kissinger Plan in Lebanon
* Israel-related animal theories
* Iran
* Western-backed Iranian Revolution
* Israel
* Pallywood

Russia|

* Alaska payment
* Dulles' Plan
* Golden billion
* Petrograd Military Organization
* Rasputin
* Ukraine bioweapons

Turkey|

* 2016 coup attempt
* Ergenekon
* Operation Sledgehammer
* Gezi Park protests
* Sèvres syndrome
* Üst akıl

Other European|

* Euromyth
* Georgia
* Global War Party
* Ireland
* German Plot
* Lithuania
* Statesmen
* Roman Republic
* First Catilinarian conspiracy
* Spain
* Mano Negra affair
* Sweden
* Lilla Saltsjöbadsavtalet
* UK
* Clockwork Orange plot
* Elm Guest House
* Harold Wilson
* Voting pencil

United States|

* Barack Obama
* Citizenship
* Religion
* Parentage
* "Obamagate" / Spygate
* Biden–Ukraine
* Black helicopters
* CIA and JFK
* CIA assistance to bin Laden
* Clinton body count
* Cultural Marxism
* Election denial movement
* FBI secret society
* FEMA camps
* Georgia Guidestones
* Jade Helm 15
* Montauk Project
* Philadelphia Experiment
* Pizzagate
* The Plan
* Project Azorian
* QAnon
* Pastel
* Incidents
* Saddam–al-Qaeda
* Sandy Hook (2012)
* Springfield pet-eating hoax
* Trump–Ukraine
* "Vast right-wing conspiracy"
* Vietnam War
* POW/MIA issue / Stab-in-the-back myth

| 2020 election|

* Italygate
* "Pence Card"
* Maricopa County ballot audit
* Stop the Steal

|

Other

* Dead Internet theory
* NESARA/GESARA
* New Coke
* Phantom time / New chronology
* Shadow government claims
* Bilderberg
* Illuminati
* synarchism
* Shakespearean authorship

| Pseudolaw|

* Admiralty law
* Freeman on the land movement
* Redemption movement
* Sovereign citizens
* Strawman theory
* Tax protesters

|

Satirical|

* Acre
* Bielefeld
* Birds Aren't Real
* Li's field
* Ted Cruz–Zodiac Killer meme

See also

* Argument from ignorance
* Conspiracy Encyclopedia
* Conspiracy fiction
* Conspirituality
* Dogma
* pseudoskepticism
* Falsifiability
* Fringe science
* Historical negationism
* Online youth radicalization
* Paranormal
* Prejudice
* Hate speech
* Radicalization
* Science by press conference
* Superstition

* v
* t
* e

Reconstruction era

Participants|

Federal government

* Presidents
* Abraham Lincoln
* Andrew Johnson
* Ulysses S. Grant
* Rutherford B. Hayes

* Congress
* 38
* 39
* 40
* 41
* 42
* 43
* 44
* 45
* Radical Republicans
* Moderate Republicans
* Conservative Republicans
* African-American senators
* African-American representatives
* Reconstruction Amendments
* United States Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction
* United States House Select Committee on Reconstruction

* Federal judiciary
* Taney Court
* Chase Court
* Waite Court

* Federal bureaucracy
* Edwin Stanton
* Freedmen's Bureau
* Justice Department

|

State governments

* Southern United States
* Confederate States of America

Others|

* African Americans
* Free people of color
* Freedman
* Politicians
* Carpetbaggers
* Ku Klux Klan
* Scalawag
* Redeemers
* White League
* Red Shirts
* Democratic Party
* Bourbon Democrat
* Horatio Seymour
* Samuel J. Tilden
* Republican Party
* Stalwarts
* Charles Sumner
* Thaddeus Stevens
* Lyman Trumbull
* Benjamin Wade
* John Bingham
* James Mitchell Ashley
* Freedman's Savings Bank
* Women during the Reconstruction era

Elections|

Presidential

* 1864
* DNC
* National Union Convention
* Radical Democratic Party

* 1868
* DNC
* RNC

* 1872
* DNC
* RNC
* Liberal Republican Party
* Straight-Out Democratic Party
* Victoria Woodhull

* 1876
* DNC
* RNC
* Greenback Convention
* Prohibition Convention
* Electoral Commission
* Compromise of 1877

|

U.S. Senate|

* 1864–65
* 1866–67
* 1868–69
* 1870–71
* 1872–73
* 1874–75
* 1876–77

U.S. House|

* 1864–65
* 1866–67
* 1868–69
* 1870–71
* 1872–73
* 1874–75
* 1876–77

Gubernatorial|

* 1863
* Alabama
* California
* Connecticut
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Minnesota
* New Hampshire
* Ohio
* Pennsylvania
* Virginia
* Vermont
* Wisconsin
* West Virginia

* 1864
* Connecticut
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* Michigan
* Missouri
* New Hampshire
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1865
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Minnesota
* New Jersey
* Ohio
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1866
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* North Carolina
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Texas
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1867
* California
* Connecticut
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Ohio
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1868
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Kentucky (special)
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* New Jersey
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1869
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Ohio
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* Virginia
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1870
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* Oregon
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1871
* California
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* New Jersey
* Ohio
* Rhode Island
* Wisconsin

* 1872
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1873
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Ohio
* Texas
* Virginia
* Wisconsin

* 1874
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Kansas
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* New Jersey
* Nevada
* Oregon
* South Carolina
* Vermont

* 1875
* California
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Ohio
* Ohio
* Wisconsin

* 1876
* Alabama
* Colorado
* Connecticut April
* Connecticut November
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Kansas
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

U.S. elections|

* 1864
* 1866
* 1868
* 1870
* 1872
* 1874
* 1876

Key events|

| Prelude|

* American Indian Wars
* Slavery in the United States
* A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
* The Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women (1838)
* Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1839)
* Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
* National Women's Rights Convention (1850)
* American Civil War
* Confiscation Act of 1861
* Confiscation Act of 1862
* District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act (1862)
* Militia Act of 1862

|

1863|

* Emancipation Proclamation
* General Order No. 143
* Lincoln's presidential Reconstruction
* Ten percent plan
* National Bank Act
* Women's Loyal National League
* New York City draft riots
* 1863 State of the Union Address

1864|

* Wade–Davis Bill
* 1864 elections
* 1864 State of the Union Address

1865|

* 13th Amendment
* Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
* Address
* Black Codes
* Special Field Orders No. 15
* Freedmen's Bureau
* Freedmen's Bureau bills
* Confederates surrender at Appomattox
* Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
* Shaw University
* New Departure
* 1865 State of the Union Address
* Founding of the Ku Klux Klan

1866|

* Civil Rights Act of 1866
* Memphis massacre of 1866
* New Orleans Massacre of 1866
* Swing Around the Circle
* Southern Homestead Act of 1866
* Fort Smith Conference and Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866
* Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of Washington of 1866
* Tennessee readmitted to Union
* Petition for Universal Freedom
* National Labor Union
* Ex parte Garland
* Ex parte Milligan
* Slave Kidnapping Act of 1866

* 1866 elections

1867|

* Tenure of Office Act
* Command of Army Act
* Indian Peace Commission
* Knights of the White Camelia
* Pulaski riot
* Reconstruction Acts
* Reconstruction military districts
* Constitutional conventions of 1867
* Habeas Corpus Act of 1867
* Peonage Act of 1867
* First impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson
* 1867 State of the Union Address

1868|

* 14th Amendment
* Second impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson
* Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
* Timeline
* Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson
* Impeachment managers investigation
* Articles of impeachment
* Arkansas readmitted to Union
* Florida readmitted to Union
* North Carolina readmitted to Union
* South Carolina readmitted to Union
* Louisiana readmitted to Union
* Alabama readmitted to Union
* Opelousas massacre
* Fourth Reconstruction Act
* Georgia v. Stanton
* 1868 elections
* 1868 State of the Union Address

1869|

* National Woman Suffrage Association
* American Woman Suffrage Association
* Alabama Claims
* Proposed annexation of Santo Domingo
* Board of Indian Commissioners
* Public Credit Act of 1869
* Black Friday (1869)
* Ex parte McCardle
* First transcontinental railroad
* 1869 State of the Union Address

1870|

* 15th Amendment
* Enforcement Act of 1870
* Justice Department
* Naturalization Act of 1870
* Kirk–Holden war
* Shoffner Act
* 1870 elections
* 1870 State of the Union Address

1871|

* Ku Klux Klan hearings
* Second Enforcement Act
* Ku Klux Klan Act
* Alcorn State University
* Meridian race riot of 1871
* Treaty of Washington
* New York custom house ring
* Civil service commission
* United States expedition to Korea
* 1871 State of the Union Address

1872|

* General Mining Act of 1872
* Crédit Mobilier scandal
* Modoc War
* Star Route scandal
* Salary Grab Act
* Amnesty Act
* 1872 elections
* 1872 State of the Union Address

1873|

* Panic of 1873
* Colfax massacre
* Timber Culture Act
* Slaughter-House Cases
* Virginius Affair
* Coinage Act of 1873
* Long Depression
* Comstock laws
* 1873 State of the Union Address

1874|

* Brooks–Baxter War
* Battle of Liberty Place
* Coushatta massacre
* Red River War
* Timber Culture Act
* White League
* Election Massacre of 1874
* Vicksburg massacre
* Black Hills Gold Rush
* Sanborn incident
* Anti-Moiety Acts
* 1874 elections
* 1874 State of the Union Address

1875|

* United States v. Cruikshank
* Civil Rights Act of 1875
* Red Shirts
* Mississippi Plan
* Clifton Riot of 1875
* Yazoo City Riot of 1875
* Specie Payment Resumption Act
* Whiskey Ring
* Wheeler Compromise
* Delano affair
* Pratt & Boyd
* 1875 State of the Union Address

1876|

* Hamburg massacre
* South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876
* Ellenton massacre
* Great Sioux War of 1876
* Battle of the Little Bighorn
* United States v. Reese
* Trader post scandal
* Centennial Exposition
* Cattellism
* Safe burglary conspiracy
* 1876 elections
* 1876 State of the Union Address

1877|

* Electoral Commission
* Compromise of 1877
* Nez Perce War
* Desert Land Act
* Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Aftermath|

* Posse Comitatus Act (1878)
* Civil Rights Cases (1883)
* United States v. Harris (1883)
* Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
* Williams v. Mississippi (1898)
* Wilmington massacre
* Giles v. Harris (1903)
* Disenfranchisement

Aspects|

| Historiography|

* Bibliography of the Reconstruction era
* James Shepherd Pike
* The Prostrate State (1874)
* James Bryce
* The American Commonwealth (1888)
* Claude G. Bowers
* The Tragic Era (1929)
* Columbia University
* John Burgess
* Walter L. Fleming
* Dunning School
* William Archibald Dunning
* Charles A. Beard
* Howard K. Beale
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
* C. Vann Woodward
* Joel Williamson
* William R. Brock
* The American Crisis (1963)
* John Hope Franklin
* From Slavery to Freedom (1947)
* After Slavery (1965)
* Leon Litwack
* Been in the Storm So Long (1979)
* Eric Foner
* Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988)
* Kenneth M. Stampp
* Steven Hahn
* A Nation Under Our Feet (2003)
* The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)

|

Memory|

* Winslow Homer
* A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876)
* Thomas Dixon Jr.
* The Leopard's Spots (1902)
* The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905)
* D. W. Griffith
* The Birth of a Nation (1915)
* United Daughters of the Confederacy
* Gone with the Wind (1939)
* David W. Blight
* Race and Reunion (2001)

Legacy|

* Women's suffrage in the United States
* Labor history of the United States
* Gilded Age
* Jim Crow era
* Civil rights movement
* American frontier

Other topics|

* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Forty acres and a mule
* Habeas corpus
* History of the United States (1865–1917)
* Paramilitary
* Race (human categorization)
* Reconstruction Treaties
* Suffrage
* Technological and industrial history of the United States
* White supremacy
* Whitecapping

* Category

Portals:

* Biography
* Law

Authority control databases

National|

* United States
* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX

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