This day in history: President Lincoln shot
April 14th, 1865: General Lee had surrendered a few days earlier and while there were still pockets of fighting across the nation the Civil War was all but over. President Lincoln decided to engage in one of his great passions; attending the theater. As President Lincoln prepared for the night out with his wife, he reportedly said something to the effect of (I can’t remember the exact words, I apologize) “now maybe we can finally be happy.” That chance was never to come.
John Wilkes Booth managed to sneak up to the president and fire a single shot into the back of his head. Leaping from the presidential box and landing hard on the stage–breaking his leg–he shouted “Sic semper tyrannis” before escaping and leading federal authorities on a 12 day manhunt which culminated in his own death.
John Wilkes Booth’s original plan was not assassination, but rather to capture the president so that the south could use him as a bargaining chip to end the war, but with the surrender of Robert E Lee the plan was changed to include the assassination of three top government officials; Lincoln, Johnson, and Seward; hoping that this would throw the federal government into disarray and rally the south to continue fighting.
George Atzerodt was supposed to assassinate the vice president, but lost his nerve and went out drinking instead, while Seward suffered a vicious knife attack by Lewis Powell, but somehow managed to survive–although he never did fully recover.
The strong-willed president managed to cling to life until shortly before 7:30 AM on April 15th. Upon his death and after a prayer was said, Edwin Stanton declared “now he belongs to the ages.”
America's Watchtower 
Hmm, never knew it was part of a grander multi-assassination plan, very interesting. I guess I need to bone up on my history. =(
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I didn’t know this either until a couple of years ago, blogging made me realize that I din’t know enough about history and while I still have a long way to go, I have begun to learn as much about our past as I can. The Civil War is one of my favorite subjects, it is fascinating.
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And that made all of the difference. We were stuck with Jackson’s reconstruction. One can only specultate how different things would have been.
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Yes, being a Democrat he held vastly differing positions on reconstruction than Lincoln did and I wonder how different the transition would have been if Lincoln was not assassinated.
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It is clear that Lincoln’s assassination made the reconstruction a far harsher process than it would have been. This post and comments made me think about how different a nation we would be if Booth had not taken his shot.
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It is an interesting question, and I think that Lincoln’s assassination really complicated the matter.
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The morning after signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln woke up with a hell of a hangover and said, “I freed WHO?”
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Thanks for sharing this piece of our history Steve. It’s always a good thing to talk about the things that made America the nation we are…good or bad.
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Every event in the past has shaped this nation in one form or another and it is important to remember what made us who we are today.
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You may download a huge collection of this day in history database.
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