Lincoln’s Second Inaugural March 4, 1865
• Reopened after fire in
August of 1863, Ford’s
Theater had a capacity of
1700 people.
• Lincoln had been in the
audience for 8 plays there
including one starring John
Wilkes Booth called “The
Marble Heart.”
The manager of the theater invited Lincoln to occupy the
“State box” that night, and suggested he bring Grant, thus
ensuring a sellout on what traditionally is a poor night for
show business-Good Friday.
Playbill for “Our American Cousin” for April 14, 1865.
• John Wilkes Booth at 26 was a highly
successful actor and was considered
the handsomest man on the American
stage.
• Booth was a ladies man and he made
little effort to conceal his ardent
sympathies for the South.
 Booth meets with Lewis Powell and
plots the killing of Secretary of State
William Seward.
 Booth’s gang met several times at
the boardinghouse operated by
widow, Mary Surratt, in Washington.
 Her son, John, was a Confederate
courier who plotted with Booth to
kidnap Lincoln.
 John Surratt had fled to Canada
before the assassination.
 Booth drops off field glasses for
Mary Surratt to deliver with
shooting irons.
"kept the nest that hatched the egg".
•
Booth visits the Kirkwood
House to discuss plans to
kill Vice President
Andrew Johnson with his
accomplice George
Atzerodt.
•
Atzerodt is out and Booth
leaves a mysterious letter
for Johnson.
•
The note said, “I don’t
wish to disturb you. Are
you at home? J. Wilkes
Booth.”
• Booth kept a one-eyed
horse at this stable on
7th Street in Washington.
• That afternoon, he
instructed the owner of
the stable, John C.
Howard, to place the
horse and one other in a
shed behind Ford’s
Theater.
 Booth gives fellow actor John
Mathews a letter for the
National Intelligencer
newspaper which implicates
Booth, Atzerodt, Powell, and
Herold. To be delivered the
next day.
• Booth goes to Ford’s Theater.
Practices his escape route,
drills a small hole in the door
in the back of the Presidential
Box.
"Crook, do you know I
believe there are men who
want to take my life? And I
have no doubt they will do
it.....I know no one could do
it and escape alive. But if it
is to be done, it is
impossible to prevent it.“
Abraham Lincoln to bodyguard,
William H. Crook, on April 14, 1865
This photograph of Abraham Lincoln was made
by Alexander Gardner on April 10, 1865 just
four days before the assassination.
7:00 PM
• Booth put on black calf-length
boots, new spurs, a black frock
coat, black pants, and a black
slouch hat.
• He picked up his diary, a
compass, a small derringer,
and a long hunting knife.
• Booth loaded the .44 caliber
derringer with a lead ball. It
was a single shot pistol.
8:00 PM
• Booth holds one final meeting
and emphasizes the 10:15 PM
time. Lincoln leaves for the
theater.
9:00 P.M.
•
Booth arrived at Ford's Theatre in the
vicinity of 9:30.
•
He called Ned Spangler to hold his
horse in the alley in back of Ford's.
Spangler was busy changing sets for
the play and asked another employee, a
lad named John C. Burroughs, (John
Peanut) to take care of the mare.
•
Booth went to Star Saloon next to the
theater and requested a bottle of
whiskey and some water.
•
Another customer said to Booth, "You'll
never be the actor your father was."
Booth replied, "When I leave the stage, I
will be the most famous man in
America.”
• The three persons shown in the Library of Congress photographs were all
in the box with Lincoln when he was shot.
• Far left is Mrs. Mary Lincoln. In the middle is Miss Clara Harris, 20
fiancée of the man to the far right, Major Henry Rathbone, 28, of the
Army.
• Rathbone tried to seize Booth after he had shot the President and
received a deep knife wound across the arm.
•
The proprietors of Ford’s
Theater took special pains
to decorate the Presidential
box on the afternoon of
April 14.
•
The box was flanked by two
American flags and another
large one was draped over
the front with an engraving
of George Washington.
•
Normally the Presidential
box was two boxes but the
partition between them was
removed for special
occasions.
•
This library of Congress
photograph was taken
shortly after the
assassination.
John Parker, the president’s
bodyguard, left the theater for a drink
at the Star Saloon.
When he was shot, Lincoln was sitting in this
upholstered walnut rocker brought down from
the apartment of Harry Ford, theater treasurer.
.44 caliber, single-shot, muzzle
loading derringer Booth used to
shoot Lincoln.
This is the hunting knife used by Booth to stab
Major Henry Rathbone. The knife has a 7 1/8inch blade. The blade is one inch wide.
An artist for Harper’s Weekly depicted the shooting for
the April 29 edition. Booth was wearing a slouch hat.
He dropped the derringer pistol when Major Rathbone
arose to grapple with him. The pistol was found on
the floor of the box later.
•Frederick Seward tried to
stop Lewis Powell from
entering the sickroom of his
father, Secretary of State
William G. Seward.
•Powell tried to shoot young
Seward but the revolver
failed. He then struck him
over the head fracturing his
skull!
•Seward’s young daughter,
Fanny, was in his sickroom
when Lewis Powell burst in
and attacked him. For the
rest of her life, Fanny was to
be emotionally unbalanced as
a result of this episode.
Fanny & Seward
Lewis Powell
• George
Atzerodt
(bottom right)
was assigned
to kill Vice
President
Andrew
Johnson
(above right)
who lived in
the Kirkwood
Hotel, but the
German’s
nerve failed
him.
Artist and cartoonist Frank Leslie drew
this version of Booth’s escape behind
the theater as Joseph Stewart tried to
stop him.
Dr. Samuel Mudd dressed the
limb of the injured assassin.
Boot with JWilkes; “was a
stranger to him.”
•
The tobacco barn
was set on fire.
•
David Herold
surrenders.
•
Sergeant Boston
Corbett fires a
shot at Booth
through a hole in
the wall.
•
The bullet strikes
Booth in the
throat.
•
His last words
were: “Useless,
useless.”
Booth Shot Lincoln by the Johnsburg 3
John Wilkes Booth came to Washington, An actor great was he,
He played at Ford's Theater, And Lincoln went to see.
It was in early April, Not many years ago,
The people in this fair city All gathered at the show.
The war it is all over, The people happy now,
Abraham Lincoln rose, Arose to make his bow;
The people cheer him wildly, rising to their feet,
And Lincoln waving of his hand, He calmly takes his seat.
While he sees the play go on, His thoughts are running deep,
His darling wife, close by his side, Has fallen fast asleep.
From the box there hangs a flag, It's not the Stars and Bars,
It’s the good flag of the Union with its gleaming stripes and stars.
John Wilkes Booth moves down the aisle, He had measured once
before,
He passes Lincoln's bodyguard A-nodding at the door.
A dagger in his right hand, A pistol in his left,
He shoots poor Lincoln in the head, And he sends his soul to rest.
His wife awakes from slumber, screaming in her rage,
Booth jumps over the railing And lands upon the stage.
He'll rue the day, rue the hour, God him life shall give,
When Booth stood in that center stage, Crying, "Tyrants shall not live!"
The people all excited cried everyone, "A hand!"
All the people near, "For God's sake, save that man!"
Then Booth jumped off in boots and spurs Across the backstage floor,
He mounts that trusty clay bank mare, All saddled at the door.
John Wilkes Booth, in his last play, All dressed in broadcloth deep,
He gallops down the alleyway, hear those horses feet.
Poor Lincoln then was heard to say, breathing his last breath:
"Of all the actors in this town, I loved that Booth the best."