The Fatal Blow to the Confederacy
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The death of a president has a profound impact on a nation. The assassination of
Abraham Lincoln was no exception. Although intended to save a collapsed Confederacy,
the actions taken by John Wilkes Booth resulted in the opposite. The elaborate plot to kill
the president and his cabinet fueled animosity and mistrust for the Southern states
securing its fate as a defeated nation. The outcome of the Civil War would stand despite
the desperate attempt by an extreme southern trying to hang on to hope. The
assassination of Abraham Lincoln proved to be the ultimate disaster for the South.
The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865. Overjoyed by the Union victory, no one
expected that the man who reunited the United States would not live to see that nation
rebuilt. On the evening of April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln attended the play, “Our
American Cousin”, with his wife (“Abraham Lincoln papers”). John Wilkes Booth also
attended the play that night. A member of a nationally known family of actors, Booth was
well known to the theatre staff and not questioned (Graham et al. 282). During the play
Booth crept into the presidential box and shot President Lincoln in the back of the head
shortly after 10:00 PM. Paralyzed and barely breathing, Lincoln was carried across the
street to a boarding house where he would die nine hours later, at 7:22 AM on April 15,
1865 (“Abraham Lincoln papers”).
Although he was able to flee the theatre, Booth was tracked down and killed on
April 26, 1865 while hiding in a barn. It would soon be revealed that Booth was not just a
southern fanatic acting on impulse, but the attack on Lincoln was just a piece of his
elaborate plan to save the Confederacy. “Booth hoped that by eliminating the Union’s top
commanders in one evening that General Robert E. Lee would be able to reassemble his
troops and take Washington” (Badertscher). Booth had gathered a group of co-
conspirators and planned to kill not only Lincoln, but also Vice President Andrew
Johnson and Secretary William Seward. The entire plan was not fulfilled; the attack on
Johnson never occurred and Seward survived his injuries. As the details of the conspiracy
unraveled the other conspirators were soon arrested, found guilty and sentenced to death
by hanging (Badertscher).
Though loyal to the Confederate cause, the attempts of John Wilkes Booth to save
the Confederate States of America came up short. The conspiracy developed by Booth to
keep hope alive in General Lee and the Confederate army in fact hurt the South more
than gave them a second chance. The Union was cautious that the plan was devised by
the Confederate government under the order of President Jefferson Davis. This suspicion
led to the danger of more tension between than states and added fire to an already
mistrusting bond. The South lost the war and the assassination of President Lincoln did
not give hope to the Confederacy but only extinguished any chance they may have had
left.
Works Cited
"Abraham Lincoln Papers." Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Library of
Congress. 16 Dec. 2005 <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alrintr.html>.
Badertscher, Eric. "Ford's Theatre." Let's Take a Look at The District of Columbia 2004
MasterFILE Premier. EbscoHOST. Pennfield Middle School. 16 Dec 2005
<http://web22.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+C02594B6%2DC010%2D4
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%5B0+%2D+st%5B0+%2Dford%27s++theatre+db%5B0+%2Df5h+op%5B0+
%2D+mdb%5B0+%2Dimh+2503&cf=1&fn=11&rn=17&>.
Graham, Martin F., Richard A. Sauers, Ph.D, and George Skoch. The Blue and the Gray:
The Conflict Between North and the South. Lincolnwood: Publications
International Ltd., 1996.