Abraham Lincoln Assassination

I am not a professional historian or writer. I taught American history for 28 years and was particularly interested in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. For 24 years my students did a mock trial simulating the real one that followed the assassination in 1865. If you have any questions, or simply would like to discuss the case, please e-mail me.

This website is intended for use by students, teachers, schools, and anyone with an interest in introductory information on Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

ESPECIALLY FOR STUDENTS A One Page Summary of the Lincoln Assassination	LINCOLN'S ASSASSIN The Life and Plot of John Wilkes Booth
CONSPIRACY THEORIES Was Booth Solely Responsible for the Assassination? Or Was He Simply a Tool in a Much Larger Conspiracy?	THE MILITARY COMMISSION The 1865 Conspiracy Trial (including a link to the actual trial testimony)
EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY Private John Millington's Eyewitness Account of the Chase and Capture of John Wilkes Booth	PICTURES Photographs Related to the Assassination (including the hanging of the convicted conspirators)

"Assassination is not an American practice or habit, and one so vicious and so desperate cannot be engrafted into our political system. This conviction of mine has steadily gained strength since the Civil War began. Every day's experience confirms it. The President, during the heated season, occupies a country house near the Soldiers' Home, two or three miles from the city. He goes to and...from that place on horseback, night and morning, unguarded. I go there unattended at all hours, by daylight and moonlight, by starlight and without any light."

Secretary of State, William Seward, July 15, 1862

"I long ago made up my mind that if anybody wants to kill me, he will do it. If I wore a shirt of mail and kept myself surrounded by a bodyguard, it would be all the same. There are a thousand ways of getting at a man if it is desirable that he should be killed. Besides, in this case, it seems to me, the man who would come after me would be just as objectionable to my enemies -- if I have any."

Abraham Lincoln to journalist Noah Brooks in 1863

GARRETT'S TOBACCO BARN John Wilkes Booth's Final Hours and the Positive Identification of his Body	APRIL 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth's Movements on the Day of the Assassination
MARCH 4, 1865 Did John Wilkes Booth and Other Conspirators Attend Lincoln's Second Inauguration?	BOOTH'S DIARY The Text of John Wilkes Booth's Diary
JOHN SURRATT The Text of his 1870 Lecture on the Conspiracy	APRIL 15, 1865 Abraham Lincoln's Autopsy

"The last day he lived was the happiest of his life."

**Mary Todd Lincoln to Rev. Noyes W. Miner. Source: The Later Life and Religious Sentiments of Abraham Lincoln, a lecture by Rev. J.A. Reed. (Text in July 1873 edition of Scribner's Monthly)**

GOOD FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln's Last Day	BEFORE THE TRAGEDY Abraham Lincoln's Pre-Assassination Dream
ROBERT LINCOLN AND EDWIN BOOTH A Booth Saves a Lincoln	THE LINCOLN SPECIAL The Route of Abraham Lincoln's Funeral Train (including a map)
WHAT IF THE LINCOLNS HAD ATTENDED THE PLAY AT GROVER'S THEATRE? Would the president still have been assassinated?

"I knowed they'd kill him. I ben awaiting fur it."

Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, Abraham's stepmother, upon being told the news of the assassination

GRAVE THIEVES The 1876 Attempt to Steal Mr. Lincoln's Body	THE LINCOLN TOMB Mr. Lincoln's Casket Opened and the Remains Viewed by 23 People in 1901
BOSTON CORBETT The Bizarre Soldier Who Killed John Wilkes Booth	JOHN F. PARKER The Guard Who Abandoned His Post
AFTER THE ASSASSINATION The Strange and Eerie Events in the Years Following the Assassination (including a photograph of Mr. Lincoln in death)

WHY DID BOOTH WANT WILLIAM SEWARD ASSASSINATED?

If Andrew Johnson had also been assassinated as Booth planned, Senate President Pro Tempore Lafayette S. Foster of Connecticut would have become acting president pending an election of a new president. The process of electing a new president could only be set in motion by the secretary of state; thus Booth felt Seward's assassination would throw the Union government into "electoral chaos." A Presidential Succession law passed on March 1, 1792, was still in effect in 1865. It provided that the president pro tempore of the Senate was third in line to the presidency and the Speaker of the House was fourth. This law didn't make any succession provisions beyond the Speaker. For much more information on this theory please see the article entitled "Why Seward?" by Michael Maione and James O. Hall in the Spring 1998 edition of the Lincoln Herald.

MARY TODD LINCOLN'S ULTIMATE AGONY Nightmare at Ford's Theatre	FORD'S THEATRE INVITATION The Fifteen People Who Turned Down the Lincolns' Ford's Theatre Invitation
EXAMINING THE ASSASSIN'S REMAINS John Wilkes Booth's Autopsy
THE SHOT THROUGH LINCOLN'S HAT Lincoln Escapes Death in 1864

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE PEOPLE TRIED BY THE MILITARY COMMISSION IN 1865 AND JOHN SURRATT

		Samuel Arnold (sentenced to life)
		George Atzerodt (sentenced to hang)
		David Herold (sentenced to hang)
		Dr. Samuel Mudd (sentenced to life)
		Michael O'Laughlen (sentenced to life)
		Lewis Powell (sentenced to hang)
		Edman Spangler (sentenced to 6 years)
		John Surratt (escaped to Canada)
		Mary Surratt (sentenced to hang)

The Surratt House Museum has a list of recommended Lincoln assassination books.

CLICK HERE to go to the bibliography for the Abraham Lincoln's Assassination website.

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