View source for Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

{{short description|1865 murder in Washington, D.C., US}}
{{good article}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
| partof = the [[conclusion of the American Civil War]]
| image = Lincoln assassination slide c1900 - Restoration.jpg
| caption = [[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.
| target = {{Plainlist|
* [[Abraham Lincoln]] (succeeded)
* [[Andrew Johnson]] (failed)
* [[William H. Seward]] (injured, yet failed)
}}
| type = {{Flatlist|
* Political assassination
* shooting
* stabbing
}}
| date = {{start date and age|1865|04|14}}
| time = 10:15 pm
| timezone = 
| weapons = {{Flatlist|
* [[Philadelphia Deringer]] pistol
* dagger
}}
| fatalities = {{plainlist|
* Abraham Lincoln (died April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m.)
* John Wilkes Booth (perpetrator, killed on April 26, 1865)
}}
| injuries = {{Plainlist|
* [[Henry Rathbone]]
* Joseph "Peanuts" Burroughs{{efn |name=Peanut| Burroughs was also known as "John Peanut", "Peanut John", John Bohran, and other aliases.<ref name="Evidence"/>}}
* [[William H. Seward]]
* [[Frederick W. Seward|Frederick Seward]]
* [[Augustus Henry Seward|Augustus Seward]]
* [[Frances Adeline "Fanny" Seward|Fanny Seward]]
* [[George F. Robinson]]
* Emerick Hansell}}
| perps = John Wilkes Booth and co-conspirators
| motive = Revenge for the (then-recently) defeated [[Confederate States]]
}}

{{Abraham Lincoln series}}
{{Andrew Johnson series}}

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,<ref name="Abel">{{cite book|last1=Abel|first1=E. Lawrence|title=A Finger in Lincoln's Brain: What Modern Science Reveals about Lincoln, His Assassination, and Its Aftermath|date=2015|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=63|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ax0UBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA63|quote=Forensic evidence clearly indicates Booth could not have fired at point-blank range{{nbsp}}... 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{{nbsp}}... 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]."|isbn=9781440831195}}</ref> Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22&nbsp;a.m. in the [[Petersen House]] opposite the theater.<ref name="Heritage">{{cite journal |author=Fraser |first=Richard A. R. |date=February–March 1995 |title=How Did Lincoln Die? |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/how-did-lincoln-die?page=show |journal=American Heritage |volume=46 |issue=1}}</ref> He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/april-14/|title=Today in History - April 14|website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref> His [[State funeral of Abraham Lincoln|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 States of America|Confederate]] cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the [[United States federal government|federal government]]. Conspirators [[Lewis Powell (conspirator)|Lewis Powell]] and [[David Herold]] were assigned to kill [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[William H. Seward]], and [[George Atzerodt]] was tasked with killing [[Vice President of the United States|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==
===Abandoned plan to kidnap Lincoln===
[[File:John Wilkes Booth-portrait.jpg|thumb|upright=.75|''[[Carte de visite]]'' of the actor John Wilkes Booth, {{circa}} 1865]]
John Wilkes Booth, born in [[Maryland]] into [[Booth family|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.<ref name=brewer>{{cite book |first1=Warren |last1=Getler |first2=Bob |last2=Brewer |title=Shadow of the Sentinel |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7432-1968-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/shadowofsentinel00getl }}</ref>{{rp|67}}

In May 1863, the [[Confederate States Congress]] passed a law prohibiting the exchange of black soldiers, following a previous decree by [[President of the Confederate States of America|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 Infantry Regiment|54th Massachusetts]] were not exchanged following their assault on [[Second Battle of Fort Wagner|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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Myth: Grant Stopped the Prisoner Exchange |url=https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/grant-and-the-prisoner-exchange.htm |publisher=[[National Park Service]] - Andersonville National Historic Site |access-date=March 19, 2024 |date=November 27, 2017}}</ref>

Booth conceived a plan to [[kidnapping|kidnap]] Lincoln in order to [[blackmail]] the Union into resuming prisoner exchanges,{{r|kauffman|pp=130–34}} and he recruited [[Samuel Arnold (conspirator)|Samuel Arnold]], [[George Atzerodt]], [[David Herold]], [[Michael O'Laughlen]], [[Lewis Powell (conspirator)|Lewis Powell]] (also known as "Lewis Paine"), and [[John Surratt]] to help him. Surratt's mother, [[Mary Surratt]], left her tavern in [[Clinton, Maryland|Surrattsville, Maryland]], and moved to a house in Washington, D.C., where Booth became a frequent visitor.
[[File:Mary Surratt house - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|upright=.75|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.{{r|steers|page=419}}<ref>{{cite web|title=5 facts you may not know about Lincoln's assassination|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/media/abraham-lincoln-assassination-5-facts-you-may-not-know/2/|work=CBS News|date=April 14, 2015 |access-date=March 1, 2017|quote=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.}}</ref><ref name = "Bogar">{{cite book|last1=Bogar|first1=Thomas A.|title=American Presidents Attend the Theatre: The Playgoing Experiences of Each Chief Executive|date=2006|publisher=McFarland|pages=100, 375–76|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLfwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA100|isbn=9780786442324}}</ref> 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]].<ref name=hay>{{cite book|last1=Hay|first1=John|editor1-last=Burlingame|editor1-first=Michael|editor2-last=Ettlinger|editor2-first=John R. Turner|title=Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay|date=1999|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BnOVqu-11QIC&pg=PA325|isbn=9780809322626}}</ref>{{rp|325–26}} Booth attended Lincoln's [[Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln|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!"{{r|kauffman|pp=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.<!--parking these refs here for a little while https://whitney.echomaryland.net/2/5/13/ http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln72.html http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/washington/the-war-effort/war-effort-campbell-general-hospital/ https://books.google.com/books?id=mUzP2ziQte4C&pg=PA111#v=onepage&q=Campbell%20Hospital%20Soldiers%20Home (One of 3 dozen military hospitals. Campbell was aka Campbell Military Hospital/Campbell General Hospital/Campbell Hospital)--> Lincoln did not go to the play, however, instead attending a ceremony at the [[National Hotel (Washington, D.C.)|National Hotel]].{{r|kauffman|p=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.{{r|kauffman|pp=185–86, 439n17}}{{r|swanson|p=25}}

Meanwhile, the Confederacy was collapsing. On April 3, [[Richmond, Virginia]], the Confederate capital, fell to the [[Union Army]]. On April 9, [[General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States|General]] [[Robert E. Lee]] and his [[Army of Northern Virginia]] [[Battle of Appomattox Court House#Surrender|surrendered]] to [[Commanding General of the United States Army|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.{{r|goodwin|p=728}}
{{clear left}}

===Motive===
{{Further|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.<ref name=kauffman252>{{cite book|last1=Kauffman|first1=John W.|title=American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies|year=2007|publisher=[[Random House]]|page=252|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=86RH6NNCl0QC&pg=252|quote="...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.|isbn=9780307430618}}</ref> [[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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goodwin|first1=Doris Kearns|title=My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy (Foreword)|year= 2010|publisher=Simon & Schuster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vBSQUOMDMLEC&pg=PR11|isbn=9781416586166}}</ref> [[David S. Reynolds]] believes that, though disagreeing with his cause, Booth greatly admired the daring of [[abolitionism|abolitionist]] [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]];<ref name="Reynolds">{{cite magazine|last1=Reynolds|first1=David S.|author-link=David S. Reynolds|title=John Wilkes Booth and the Higher Law|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/john-wilkes-booth-and-the-higher-law/385461/|magazine=[[The Atlantic]]|date=April 12, 2015}}</ref> Booth's sister [[Asia Booth Clarke]] quoted him as saying, "John Brown was a man inspired, the grandest character of the century!"{{r|Reynolds}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clarke|first1=Asia Booth|title=The Unlocked Book: A Memoir of John Wilkes Booth by his Sister|date=1938|publisher=Faber & Faber|page=124}}</ref>

On April 11, Booth attended Lincoln's last speech, in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for emancipated slaves;<ref>{{cite web |title=Last Public Address |url=http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/last.htm |date=April 11, 1865 |access-date=September 15, 2008 |work=Speeches and Writings |publisher=Abraham Lincoln Online |archive-date=June 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606044904/http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/last.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Booth said, "That means <!--DO NOT ALTER THIS EXACT QUOTE-->[[nigger]]<!--DO NOT ALTER THIS EXACT QUOTE--> citizenship.{{nbsp}}... That is the last speech he will ever give."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Masur, Louis P. |author-link=Louis Masur|title=Lincoln's Last Speech: Wartime Reconstruction and the Crisis of Reunion |isbn=978-0-19-021840-9 |editor-last=McPherson |editor-first=James |pages=xiii–xiv |oclc=900633130|year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite book|last=Donald | first=David Herbert | author-link=David Herbert Donald|title=Lincoln |url=https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi |url-access=registration | location=New York | publisher=Touchstone | year=1995 | page=[https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi/page/588 588]}}</ref>{{r|steers|page=91}}

===Lincoln's premonitions===
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:

{{blockquote|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."<ref>pp.&nbsp;116–17 of ''Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847–1865'' by Ward Hill Lamon (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1999).</ref>}}

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."<ref name= "Skeptical Inquirer">{{cite journal |last1=Nickell |first1=Joe |title=Premonition! Foreseeing What Cannot Be Seen |journal=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |volume=43 |issue=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sandburg |first1=Carl |title=Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years |publisher=Harcourt |isbn=0-15-602752-6 |page=698|year= 2002 }}</ref> 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.<ref name= "Skeptical Inquirer" />

For months, Lincoln had looked pale and haggard, but on the morning of the assassination he told people how happy he was. [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Mary Todd Lincoln|Mary Lincoln]] felt such talk could bring bad luck.{{r|kunhardtlincoln|p=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 [[Battle of Antietam|Antietam]], [[Battle of Stones River|Murfreesboro]], [[Battle of Gettysburg|Gettysburg]], and [[Siege of Vicksburg|Vicksburg]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/assassination/ |access-date=December 14, 2012 |publisher=PBS}}</ref>

==Preparations==
[[File:American Cousin Evening Star Apr 14 1865.png|thumb|Advertisement for ''Our American Cousin'' (Washington ''[[The Washington Star|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".{{r|goodwin|p=728}}{{r|kunhardtlincoln|p=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.{{r|swanson|p=12}}{{r|steers|pp=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.{{r|swanson|p=19}}

[[File:Fords Theatre.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Ford's Theatre]]
The conspirators met for the final time at 8:45{{nbsp}}pm. Booth assigned Powell to kill [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[William H. Seward]] at his home, Atzerodt to kill [[Vice President of the United States|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.{{r|steers|p=112}} Atzerodt tried to withdraw from the plot, which to this point had involved only kidnapping, not murder, but Booth pressured him to continue.{{r|kauffman|p=212}}

{{Clear}}

==Assassination==
===Lincoln arrives at the theater===
[[File:LincolnPresidentialBox.jpg|thumb|Lincoln's box]]
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.{{r|vowell|p=45}}{{efn|
There is evidence to suggest that either Booth or fellow conspirator Michael O'Laughlen, who resembled Booth, followed the Grants to [[Washington Union Station|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.<ref>McFeely (2002), ''Grant: A Biography'', pp. 224–25</ref>}} Others in succession also declined the Lincolns' invitation, until finally [[Major (United States)|Major]] [[Henry Rathbone]] and his fiancée [[Clara Harris]] (daughter of [[United States Senator|U.S. Senator]] [[Ira Harris]] of [[New York State|New York]]) accepted.{{r|swanson|p=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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Donald | first=David Herbert | title=Lincoln |url=https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi |url-access=registration | location=New York | publisher=Touchstone | year=1995 | page=[https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi/page/593 593]}}</ref><!--THESE TWO ACCOUNTS CONFLICT, SO MAYBE SOMEONE ABOVE MY PAYGRADE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT'S GOING ON--> [[William H. Crook]], one of Lincoln's bodyguards, advised him not to go, but Lincoln said he had promised his wife.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Assassination of Lincoln: History and Myth|first=Lloyd|last=Lewis|pages=56, 297|isbn=978-0-8032-7949-0|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6HB7q8M9TIC&pg=PA297}}</ref> Lincoln told [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/foth/faqs.htm |title=Frequently Asked Questions – Ford's Theatre National Historic Site |publisher=Nps.gov |date=February 12, 1932 |access-date=September 28, 2012}}</ref> Lincoln sat in a rocking chair that had been selected for him from among the Ford family's personal furnishings.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sneller|first1=Rhoda|last2=Sneller, PhD|first2=Lowell|title=Lincoln Assassination Rocking Chair|url=http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/education/arocker.htm|access-date=August 26, 2017|quote=Theatre employee Joe Simms concurred{{nbsp}}... 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{{nbsp}}...'  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.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Curating & Preserving The Lincoln Rocker|url=https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/inside/lincoln-rocker/|publisher=[[The Henry Ford|The Henry Ford Museum]]|access-date=August 26, 2017}}</ref>
[[File:Ford%27s_Theatre,_chair_in_which_President_Lincoln_was_sitting_when_shot_-_NARA_-_526238.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.75|President Lincoln sat in this chair when shot (photo by [[Mathew B. Brady]]).]]

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{{snd}}scripted as, "Well, you're not the only one that wants to escape the [[conscription|draft]]"{{snd}}was delivered instead as, "The draft has already been stopped by order of the President!"<ref>{{cite book|last=Donald | first=David Herbert | title=Lincoln |url=https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi |url-access=registration | location=New York | publisher=Touchstone | year=1995 | page=[https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi/page/595 595]}}</ref> 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".<ref>''The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy.'' p. 88</ref>

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".{{r|swanson|p=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]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Miner|first1=Noyes W.|title=Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln|url=http://alplm-cdi.com/chroniclingillinois/items/show/15090|website=Chronicling Illinois|publisher=Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum|access-date=August 27, 2017|date=July 10, 1882|quote=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|archive-date=November 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106104401/http://alplm-cdi.com/chroniclingillinois/items/show/15090|url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{Clear}}

===Booth shoots Lincoln===
[[File:TheBirthOfANation Lincoln Assassination 1915.gif|thumb|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,<ref>{{cite web |title=Employees and Staff: William Henry Crook (1839-1915) |url=http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/residents-visitors/employees-and-staff/employees-staff-william-henry-crook-1839-1915/ |website=Mr. Lincoln's White House |access-date=April 29, 2024}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/residents-visitors/employees-and-staff/employees-staff-john-parker/ |title=entry on John Parker at Mr. Lincoln's White House website |publisher=Mrlincolnswhitehouse.org |access-date=May 28, 2011 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324123020/https://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/residents-visitors/employees-and-staff/employees-staff-john-parker/ }}</ref> 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.<ref>[http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln61.html John F. Parker: The Guard Who Abandoned His Post] at the Abraham Lincoln's Assassination website</ref> 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:<ref name="Dr Todd">{{cite web |author=Todd |first=George Brainerd |date=April 14, 1865 |title=Dr. George Brainerd Todd Letter |url=http://www.bjpeters.com/bj/documents/FordsTheaterLetter.htm |access-date=August 7, 2012 |publisher=Sauerbraten, Tea Time & Scones (B.J. Peters)}}</ref>

{{blockquote|About 10:25&nbsp;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.}}

[[File:Gun used to assassinate Abraham Lincoln on display at Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C.jpg|thumb|The murder weapon is Booth's [[Philadelphia Deringer]].]]
Once inside the hallway, Booth [[barricade]]d 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.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Taylor|first1=Dave|title=Thoughts From Major Rathbone|url=https://boothiebarn.com/2012/06/10/thoughts-from-major-rathbone/|website=BoothieBarn|access-date=December 16, 2017|date=June 10, 2012}}</ref><ref name=bishop />{{rp|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 [[wikt:sockdologizing|sockdologizing]] old man-trap!" Lincoln was laughing at this line<ref name=goodrich>{{cite book |title=The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy |last=Goodrich |first=Thomas |publisher=Indiana University Press |date=2006 |isbn=9780253218896}}</ref>{{rp|96}}
when Booth opened the door, stepped forward, and shot him from behind with his pistol.{{r|Abel}}

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 part of frontal bone|orbital plates]].{{efn|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.<ref name="Abel4">{{cite book|last1=Abel|first1=E. Lawrence|title=A Finger in Lincoln's Brain: What Modern Science Reveals about Lincoln, His Assassination, and Its Aftermath|date=2015|publisher=ABC-CLIO|at= Chapter 4}}</ref> The bullet most probably passed mainly through the left side of the brain, causing massive damage including the skull fractures, [[hemorrhage|hemorrhaging]], and secondary severe [[edema]] of the brain. While Dr. Leale's notes mention Lincoln's bulging right eye,<ref name="Notes"/> the autopsy only specifically states the damage to the left side of the brain.<ref name="Mackowiak"/><ref>{{cite web|last1=Staff|title=The autopsy of President Abraham Lincoln|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/galleries/cases/lincoln.html|publisher=[[United States National Library of Medicine]]|access-date=August 30, 2017}}</ref>}}<ref name="Mackowiak">{{cite web|last1=Mackowiak|first1=Phillip|title=Would Lincoln Have Survived If He Was Shot Today?|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/would-lincoln-have-survived-if-he-was-shot-today/281680/|publisher=[[The Atlantic (magazine)|The Atlantic]]|date=November 29, 2013}}</ref> Lincoln slumped over in his chair and then fell backward.<ref>{{cite web|title=NPS Historical Handbook: Ford's Theatre|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/hh/3b/hh3e.htm|website=nps.gov|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=August 26, 2017|date=2002|quote=The President slumped forward in his chair, and then backward, never to regain consciousness.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Kaplan|first1=Debbie Abrams|title=President Lincoln's slaying 150 years ago recalled at Ford's Theatre|url=http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-d-lincoln-fords-theatre-20150412-story.html|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=April 10, 2015}}</ref> Rathbone turned to see Booth standing in gunsmoke less than four feet behind Lincoln; Booth shouted a word that Rathbone thought sounded like "Freedom!"<ref>{{cite web|title=President Lincoln is Shot, 1865|url=http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/lincolnshot.htm|website=EyeWitnesstoHistory|publisher=Ibis Communications|access-date=August 27, 2017|quote=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!'}}</ref>

===Booth escapes===
[[File:Knife and Sheath- Horn-handled dagger used by John Wilkes Booth to stab Major Henry Rathbone after shooting Abraham Lincoln.) Artifact in the museum collection, National Park Service, Ford's Theatre LCCN2010630693.tif|thumb|right|upright=.75|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;<ref name="ReferenceA">''Lincoln Assassination'', History Channel</ref> Booth's [[spur|riding spur]] became entangled on the [[Lincoln assassination flags|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.{{r|goodwin|p=739}} Most recalled hearing ''Sic semper tyrannis!'' but others{{snd}}including Booth himself{{snd}}said he yelled only ''Sic semper!''<ref>{{cite web|last1=Booth|first1=John Wilkes|title=John Wilkes Booth's Diary|url=http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln52.html|publisher=Roger J. Norton|access-date=December 16, 2017|date=April 1865}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser/1865/04/15/P1 | work=The New York Times | title=TimesMachine April 15, 1865 }}</ref> 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!",{{r|swanson|p=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.{{r|ReferenceA}} The screams of Mary Lincoln and Clara Harris, and Rathbone's cries of, "Stop that man!"{{r|swanson|p=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.<ref>{{cite web|last=Bleyer |first=Bill |title=1906 Letter Tells What Five in Family Saw at Theatre April 14, 1865 |url=http://www.civilwarnews.com/archive/articles/2012/june/fordstheatre-061201.htm |work=Civil War News |publisher=Historical Publications Inc (Kathryn Jorgensen) |access-date=May 2, 2014 |date=June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502214633/http://www.civilwarnews.com/archive/articles/2012/june/fordstheatre-061201.htm |archive-date=May 2, 2014 }}</ref><ref name = "One Hundred">{{cite book|title=We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts (quoting Katherine M. Evans interview from April 1915 ''New York Tribune'')|date=1995|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|pages=148–49|editor-first=Timothy S.|editor-last=Good}}</ref>
As he leapt into the saddle of his getaway horse Booth pushed away Joseph Burroughs,{{efn |name=Peanut}} who had been holding the horse, striking Burroughs with the handle of his knife.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lincoln's Last Day |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/3b/hh3d.htm |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=May 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111209115459/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/3b/hh3d.htm |archive-date=December 9, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Lincoln's Last Day – Assassination and Death |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/3b/hh3e.htm |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=May 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502214217/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/3b/hh3e.htm |archive-date=May 2, 2014 }}</ref><ref name = "One Hundred John Miles">{{cite book|title=We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts (quoting John Miles from Lincoln Conspiracy Trial transcripts)|date=1995|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|page=81|editor-first=Timothy S.|editor-last=Good}}</ref><ref name="Evidence">{{cite book|editor1-last=Edwards|editor1-first=William C.|editor2-last=Steers|editor2-first=Edward|title=John Bohran (Joseph Burroughs) – The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence|date=2010|publisher=University of Illinois Press|pages=140–41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GvYpUeuPPrAC&pg=PA141|quote=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.|isbn=9780252091070}}</ref>

===Death of Lincoln===
[[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.{{r|steers|p=120}}

Leale found Lincoln seated with his head leaning to his right<ref name="Notes">{{cite web |last1=Leale |first1=Charles A. |date=April 15, 1865 |title=Report of Dr. Charles A. Leale on Assassination, April 15, 1865 (Page 5) |url=http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/images/newdocuments/LealeReport5.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204064937/http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/images/newdocuments/LealeReport5.jpg |archive-date=February 4, 2017 |access-date=August 27, 2017 |website=papersofabrahamlincoln.org |publisher=The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library |quote=Mr. Lincoln was seated in a high backed arm chair with his head leaning towards his right side supported by Mrs. Lincoln}}</ref> as Mary held him and sobbed.  "His eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly [[coma]]tose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly [[stertor]]ous."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Leale |first1=Charles A. |date=April 15, 1865 |title=Report of Dr. Charles A. Leale on Assassination, April 15, 1865 (Page 6) |url=http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/images/newdocuments/LealeReport6.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150826002447/http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/images/newdocuments/LealeReport6.jpg |archive-date=August 26, 2015 |access-date=August 26, 2017 |website=papersofabrahamlincoln.org |publisher=The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.yahoo.com/report-first-doctor-reach-shot-lincoln-found-175353998.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606173005/https://news.yahoo.com/report-first-doctor-reach-shot-lincoln-found-175353998.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 6, 2012|title=Report of first doctor to reach shot Lincoln found|first=John|last=O'Connor|agency=Associated Press|date=June 5, 2012|access-date=May 8, 2023}}</ref> 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;{{r|steers|pp=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.{{r|swanson|p=78}}

[[File:Deathbed of Lincoln (OHA 217), National Museum of Health and Medicine. (5297867189).jpg|thumb|Hermann Faber sketch from life of bystanders present at Lincoln's deathbed]]
Leale, Taft, and another doctor, [[Albert Freeman Africanus King|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,<ref name=Illinois2014>{{cite news | last = Blower | first = Janis | title = Geordie carried the dying U.S. president | newspaper = South Shields Gazette | location = England | publisher = shieldsgazette.com | date = March 14, 2013 | url = http://www.shieldsgazette.com/cookson-country/geordie-carried-the-dying-u-s-president-1-5499900 | access-date = October 26, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141113093100/http://www.shieldsgazette.com/cookson-country/geordie-carried-the-dying-u-s-president-1-5499900 | archive-date = November 13, 2014 | url-status = dead }}</ref> where a man urged them toward the [[Petersen House|house of tailor William Petersen]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln7.html |title=Henry Safford |publisher=rogerjnorton.com |access-date=May 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601201201/http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln7.html| archive-date=June 1, 2011}}</ref> In Petersen's first-floor bedroom, the exceptionally tall Lincoln was laid diagonally on a small bed.{{r|steers|pp=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 of the United States Army|Surgeon General]] [[Joseph K. Barnes]], [[Charles Henry Crane]], and [[Robert K. Stone]] (Lincoln's personal physician). {{efn|Sometime before 2am that Saturday morning, Mary Lincoln sent for [[Elizabeth Keckley]], to come see her. [[Anderson Ruffin Abbott| Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott]] escorted Keckley through the streets of Washington DC. Mistakenly, they first went to the White House, and then Abbott got Keckely safely to Petersen House. He left Petersen House before Lincoln died and was not present at Lincoln's deathbed.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rahman |first1=Arman |title=How part of Lincoln's wardrobe found its way to Wisconsin |url=https://fox47.com/news/local/how-part-of-lincolns-wardrobe-found-its-way-to-wisconsin |access-date=May 27, 2025 |work=[[WMSN-TV]] |date=Feb 20, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Slaney |first1=Catherine |title=Family secrets: crossing the colour line |date=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6tmYrpSSFEC&pg=PA205 |publisher=Natural Heritage Books |location=Toronto |isbn=9781554881611 |pages=205–206}}</ref>}}

[[File:Lincoln skull fragments and probe.jpg|thumb|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,<ref name=donald>{{cite book|last=Donald | first=David Herbert | title=Lincoln |url=https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi |url-access=registration | location=New York | publisher=Touchstone | year=1995 | page=[https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi/page/594 594]}}</ref> 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".{{r|steers|page=14}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leale |first1=Charles A. |title=Lincoln's Last Hours |date=1909 |publisher=Compliments of the Estate of Charles A. Leale |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qddCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA12 |access-date=April 21, 2024 |quote=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.}}</ref>

[[File:The_Death_of_the_President_Evening_Star_Washington_DC_1865-04-15_page_2.jpg|thumb|"The following minutes, taken by Dr. Abbott,{{efn|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.<ref name="Evening Star Death"/>}} show the condition of the President throughout the night" (''[[The Washington Star|Evening Star]]'', Washington D.C., April 15, 1865);<ref name="Evening Star Death">{{Cite news |date=April 15, 1865 |title=The Death of the President |pages=2 |work=Evening Star |location=Washington, D.C. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-star-the-death-of-the-president/127605380/ |url-access= |access-date=May 27, 2025 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>]]
[[File:DK_Winter_collection_(3101896423).jpg|thumb|left|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. [[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]] [[Gideon Welles]] and [[United States Secretary of War|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.{{r|steers|pp=127–28}} Guards kept the public away, but numerous officials and physicians were admitted to pay their respects.{{r|donald}}

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.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Death of President Lincoln, 1865|url=http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/lincoln.htm|website=EyeWitness to History|publisher=Ibis Communications, Inc.|access-date=August 26, 2017|quote=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.}}</ref> [[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."<ref name="Lincoln's Body: A Cultural History">{{cite book|last1=Fox|first1=Richard|title=Lincoln's Body: A Cultural History|date=2015|publisher=W.&nbsp;W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0393247244}}</ref><ref name = "OUR GREAT LOSS">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1865/04/17/news/our-great-loss-assassination-president-lincolndetails-fearful-crimeclosing.html|title=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.|date=April 17, 1865|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=April 12, 2016}}</ref> [[File:Abraham Lincoln Deathbed.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.0|Lincoln's deathbed after his body was removed{{efn|Julius Ulke, who was a boarder at the [[Petersen House]], took this photograph shortly after Lincoln's body was removed.<ref>{{cite web|title=Robert King Stone – Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, 1865|url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=13|website=Eyewitness – American Originals from the National Archives|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|access-date=September 8, 2017}}</ref>}}]] As he neared death, Lincoln's appearance became "perfectly natural"<ref name="Lincoln's Body: A Cultural History"/> (except for the discoloration around his eyes).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Canavan|first1=Kathryn|title=Lincoln's Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America's Greatest President|date=2015|publisher=[[University of Kentucky Press]]|page=145|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cat3CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT145|isbn=9780813166094}}</ref> Shortly before 7{{nbsp}}am Mary was allowed to return to Lincoln's side,<ref>{{cite web|title=The Death of President Lincoln, 1865|url=http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/lincoln.htm|website=EyeWitness to History|publisher=Ibis Communications, Inc.|access-date=August 26, 2017}}</ref> and, as Dixon reported, "she again seated herself by the President, kissing him and calling him every endearing name."<ref>{{cite book|last=Donald | first=David Herbert | title=Lincoln |url=https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi |url-access=registration | location=New York | publisher=Touchstone | year=1995 | page=[https://archive.org/details/lincoln00davi/page/599 599]}}</ref>
Lincoln died at 7:22&nbsp;am on April 15.{{R|Heritage}} Mary Lincoln was not present.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bain|first1=Robert T.|title=Lincoln's Last Battleground: A Tragic Night Recalled|date=2005|publisher=AuthorHouse|page=6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D4uhpzL9TT0C&pg=PA6|isbn=9781467029919}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Emerson|first1=Jason|title=Mary Lincoln's Insanity Case: A Documentary History|date=2012|publisher=University of Illinois Press|page=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pqvzAgCDHF4C&pg=PA3|isbn=9780252037078}}</ref> In his last moments, Lincoln's face became calm and his breathing quieter.<ref>{{cite book |author=Tarbell, Ida Minerva |title=The Life of Abraham Lincoln |volume=4 |page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TDhpaY4aHYC&pg=RA1-PA34|year=1920 |via=Digital Scanning |orig-date=1st pub. 1895|publisher=S.S. McClure Company, [[Doubleday & McClure Company]]|isbn=9781582181257 }}</ref> Field wrote there was "no apparent suffering, no convulsive action, no rattling of the throat ... [only] a mere cessation of breathing".<ref name="Lincoln's Body: A Cultural History"/><ref name = "OUR GREAT LOSS"/> According to Lincoln's secretary [[John Hay]], at the moment of Lincoln's death, "a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features".<ref>{{cite book|last=Hay|first=John|title=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)|date=1915|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|url=https://archive.org/stream/lifeandlettersof007751mbp/lifeandlettersof007751mbp_djvu.txt}}</ref> The assembly knelt for a prayer, after which Stanton said either, "Now he belongs to the ages" or, "Now he belongs to the angels."{{r|steers|p=134}}<ref name=Townsend>{{cite book|author=Townsend, George Alfred|title=The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth|url=https://archive.org/details/lifecrimecapture4567town|location=New York|publisher=[[Dick and Fitzgerald]]|year=1865}}</ref><ref>Other versions of the quotation have been offered, including "He now belongs to the ages" and "He is a man for the ages." [[Adam Gopnik|Gopnik, Adam]], "Angels and Ages: Lincoln's language and its legacy," [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/05/28/angels-and-ages ''The New Yorker'', May 21, 2007.]</ref>

On Lincoln's death, Vice President Johnson became the 17th president of the United States. The [[Oath of office of the president of the United States|presidential oath of office]] was administered to Johnson by [[Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court|Chief Justice]] [[Salmon Chase]] sometime between 10 and 11{{nbsp}}am.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Trefousse|first1=Hans L.|title=Andrew Johnson: A Biography|date=1989|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|page=194}}</ref>

==Powell attacks Seward==
[[File:William Seward and Daughter Fanny.png|right|upright=1|thumb|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 (Washington, D.C.)|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 H. Bell (fl. 1860s)|William Bell]], Seward's [[Maître d'hôtel|maître d']], answered the door when Powell knocked at 10:10{{nbsp}}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.{{r|swanson|p=54}}{{r|goodwin|p=736}}<ref name="TownsendLifeBooth">{{Cite book |first=George Alfred |last=Townsend |title=The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth |publisher=New Library Press.Net |isbn=9780795007262 |author-link=George Alfred Townsend}}</ref> At the top of the staircase he was stopped by Seward's son, [[United States Assistant Secretary of State|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 Seward|Fanny]] emerged from Seward's room and said, "Fred, Father is awake now"{{snd}}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.

[[File:Frederick Seward's Encounter with the Assassin.jpg|thumb|Artist's depiction of [[Lewis Powell (conspirator)|Lewis Powell]] attacking Seward's son [[Frederick W. Seward|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.{{r|swanson|p=58}} However, the [[splint (medicine)|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.{{r|goodwin|p=737}} Seward eventually recovered, though with serious scars on his face.

Seward's son [[Augustus Henry Seward|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,{{r|sandburg|p=275}} where he encountered Emerick Hansell, a [[United States Department of State|State Department]] messenger.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Swain|first1=Claudia|title=Even More Little Known Victims of the Lincoln Assassination Plot|url=https://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2013/03/28/even-more-little-known-victims-lincoln-assassination-plot|publisher=WETA|access-date=December 16, 2017|date=March 28, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Taylor|first1=Dave|title=Emerick Hansell: The Forgotten Casualty|url=https://boothiebarn.com/2015/09/04/emerick-hansell-the-forgotten-casualty/|website=BoothieBarn|access-date=December 16, 2017|date=September 4, 2015}}</ref> 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.{{r|swanson|p=59}}

==Atzerodt fails to attack Johnson==
Booth had assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was staying at the [[Kirkwood House (Washington, D.C.)|Kirkwood House]] in Washington. Atzerodt was to go to Johnson's room at 10:15&nbsp;pm and shoot him.{{r|goodwin|p=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&nbsp;am, where he obtained a room and went to sleep.{{r|steers|pp=166–67}}{{r|sandburg|p=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."{{R|TownsendLifeBooth}} One theory is that Booth was trying to find out whether Johnson was expected at the Kirkwood that night;{{r|steers|p=111}} another holds that Booth, concerned that Atzerodt would fail to kill Johnson, intended the note to implicate Johnson in the conspiracy.<ref>U.S. Senate: Art & History Home. "[https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Andrew_Johnson.htm Andrew Johnson, 16th Vice President (1865)]", United States Senate. Retrieved February 17, 2006.</ref>
{{gallery | title =Conspiracy to kill the Vice President | mode = packed | George Atzerodt2.jpg  | [[George Atzerodt]] | Andrew Johnson by Vannerson, 1859.jpg | [[Andrew Johnson]] | File:Don't_wish_to_bother_you_Are_you_at_home%3F_J_Wilkes_Booth.jpg | alt3=John Wilkes Booth's Calling Card, written in pencil April 14, 1865. (National Archives Identifier 7873510) | "Don't wish to disturb you Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth"}}
{{clear left}}

==Reactions==
{{Further|Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln}}
[[File:LincolnTrain.jpeg|thumb|upright=1|Lincoln's funeral train]]
Lincoln was mourned in both the North and South,{{r|sandburg|p=350}}
and indeed around the world.<ref name="Atlantic">{{cite web|last=Ford|first=Matt|title=How the World Mourned Lincoln|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/how-the-world-mourned-lincoln/390465/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=April 14, 2015}}</ref> Numerous foreign governments issued proclamations and declared periods of mourning on April 15.{{R|NPR}}<ref name="Historian">{{cite web|last=Marrs|first=Aaron|title=International Reaction to Lincoln's Death|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus-history/research/international-reaction-to-lincoln|publisher=[[U.S. Department of State]], [[Office of the Historian]]|date=December 12, 2011|access-date=May 6, 2016}}</ref> Lincoln was praised in sermons on [[Easter Sunday]], which fell on the day after his death.{{r|sandburg|p=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 [[United States Capitol|Capitol]]'s lawn.{{r|kunhardttwenty|pp=120–23}} Hundreds of thousands watched the funeral procession on April 19,{{r|swanson|p=213}} and millions more lined the {{convert|1700|mi|km|adj=on}} route of the train which took Lincoln's remains through New York to [[Springfield, Illinois|Springfield]], [[Illinois]], often passing trackside tributes in the form of bands, bonfires, and hymn-singing.<ref name="trostel">{{cite book|last1=Trostel|first1=Scott D.|title=The Lincoln funeral train: the final journey and national funeral for Abraham Lincoln|date=2002|publisher=Cam-Tech Pub.|location=Fletcher, Ohio|isbn=978-0925436214}}</ref>{{rp|31–58}}{{r|goodrich|pp=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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Staff |date=November 4, 1865 |title=The Walt Whitman Archive – Published Works: O Captain! My Captain! |url=http://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/poems/per.00076 |access-date=January 22, 2017 |website=www.whitmanarchive.org |publisher=[[University of Nebraska–Lincoln#Digital Research|Center for Digital Research (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Peck | first=Garrett | title=Walt Whitman in Washington, D.C.: The Civil War and America's Great Poet | year=2015 | publisher=The History Press | location=Charleston, SC | isbn=978-1-62619-973-6 | pages=118–23}}</ref>

Ulysses S. Grant called Lincoln "incontestably the greatest man I ever knew".{{r|goodwin|p=747}} Robert E. Lee expressed sadness.<ref name=kunhardtsmithsonian>Kunhardt III, Philip B., "Lincoln's Contested Legacy," ''Smithsonian'', pp. 34–35.</ref> Southern-born [[Elizabeth Blair Lee|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."{{r|goodwin|p=744}} African-American orator [[Frederick Douglass]] called the assassination an "unspeakable calamity".<ref name=kunhardtsmithsonian />

British [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord Russell]] called Lincoln's death a "sad calamity".{{R|Historian}} [[Qing dynasty|China]]'s chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, [[Prince Gong]], described himself as "inexpressibly shocked and startled".<ref name="NPR">{{cite web|last=Northam|first=Jackie|title=Documents Show Global Outpouring of Grief Over Lincoln's Assassination|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/04/15/399813809/documents-show-global-outpouring-of-grief-over-lincolns-assassination|publisher=[[NPR]]|date=April 15, 2015|access-date=May 6, 2016}}</ref> [[Ecuador]]ian 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."{{R|NPR}}{{R|Historian}} 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".{{R|Historian}}

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.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Obituaries: BANCROFT—Dr. T. D.|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|date=December 8, 1917|page=66}}</ref>

==Flight and capture of the conspirators==
[[File:Booth escape route.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Booth's escape route]]

===Booth and Herold===
[[File:John Wilkes Booth wanted poster new.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|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.{{r|swanson|pp=67–68}} A Union Army [[Picket (military)|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&nbsp;pm, the sentry let him through.<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Reilly |first1=Bill |author-link1=Bill O'Reilly (political commentator) |title=Killing Lincoln |title-link=Killing Lincoln |last2=Dugard |first2=Martin |author-link2=Martin Dugard (author) |publisher=Henry Holt & Company, LLC |year=2011 |page=[https://archive.org/details/killinglincolnsh00orei_0/page/215 215]}}</ref> Herold made it across the same bridge less than one hour later{{r|swanson|pp=81–82}} and rendezvoused with Booth.{{r|swanson|p=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{{r|swanson|pp=131, 153}} Booth had broken in his escape and later made a pair of crutches for Booth.{{r|swanson|pp=131, 153}}

After one day at Mudd's house, Booth and Herold hired a local man to guide them to [[Rich Hill (Bel Alton, Maryland)|Samuel Cox's house]].{{r|swanson|p=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]].{{r|swanson|p=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:

{{blockquote|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{{snd}}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 (warship)#American Civil War|Monitor]] for safe keeping – as a mob once raised now would know no end.{{R|Dr Todd}} }}

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,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Martelle|first1=Scott|title=The Madman and the Assassin: The Strange Life of Boston Corbett, the Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth|date=2015|publisher=Chicago Review Press|page=87}}</ref> authorizing rewards of {{US$|50,000|1865|fmt=eq|r=-5}} for Booth and $25,000 each for Herold and John Surratt.<ref>{{cite web |date=April 20, 1865 |title=$100,000 Reward! |url=http://www.civilwar.si.edu/lincoln_reward.html |access-date=October 3, 2017 |website=CivilWar@Smithsonian |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>

Booth and Herold were sleeping at Garrett's farm on April 26 when soldiers from the [[16th Regiment New York Volunteer Cavalry|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!"{{r|swanson|p=326}} The soldiers set fire to the barn{{r|swanson|p=331}} and Booth scrambled for the back door with a rifle and pistol.

[[File:Garrett Farm.gif|thumb|upright=1.1|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",<ref>{{cite web|title=The Death of John Wilkes Booth, 1865|url=http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/booth.htm|publisher=Eyewitness to History/Ibis Communications|access-date=August 16, 2012}} (Quoting Lieutenant Edward Doherty, the officer in charge of the soldiers who captured Booth)</ref> severing his spinal cord.{{r|swanson|p=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&nbsp;... useless." He died on the porch of the Garrett farm three hours later.{{r|swanson|pp=336–40}}{{R|TownsendLifeBooth}} 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.{{r|goodrich|p=228}}

===Others===
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.{{r|steers|pp=174–79}} George Atzerodt hid at his cousin's farm in [[Germantown, Maryland]], about {{convert|25|mi|km}} northwest of Washington, where he was arrested April 20.{{r|steers|p=169}}

The remaining conspirators were arrested by month's end{{snd}}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.{{R|harris}}
{{clear left}}

==Conspirators' trial and execution==
[[File:Trim and autotune Pitman, Benn, The assassination of President Lincoln and the trial of the conspirators.jpg|thumb|right|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 Brutus Booth Jr.|Junius]] (in Cincinnati at the time of the assassination); theater owner [[John T. Ford]]; [[James W. Pumphrey|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.{{r|kunhardttwenty|pp=186–88}}
All were eventually released except:{{r|kunhardttwenty|p=188}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* [[Samuel Arnold (Lincoln conspirator)|Samuel Arnold]]
* [[George Atzerodt]]
* [[David Herold]]
* [[Samuel Mudd]]
* [[Michael O'Laughlen]]
* [[Lewis Powell (assassin)|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:
{{columns-list|colwidth=19em|
* [[Major general (United States)|Maj. Gen.]] [[David Hunter]] (presiding)
* Maj. Gen. [[Lew Wallace]]
* [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brig. Gen.]] [[Robert Sanford Foster]]
* Brev. Maj. Gen. [[Thomas Maley Harris]]
* Brig. Gen. [[Albion P. Howe]]
* Brig. Gen. [[August Kautz]]
* [[Colonel (United States)|Col.]] [[James A. Ekin]]
* Col. [[Charles H. Tompkins]]
* [[Lieutenant Colonel (United States)|Lt. Col.]] [[David Ramsay Clendenin]]
}}

[[File:Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln_in_Harper%27s_Weekly_1865_(etchings_and_diagrams_by_various)_11.jpg|thumb|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 [[United States Congress|Congressman]] [[John A. Bingham]] and [[Major (United States)|Major]] [[Henry Lawrence Burnett]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Doug |last=Linder |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/lincolnaccount.html |title=The Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators |publisher=Law.umkc.edu |access-date=May 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620053806/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/lincolnaccount.html |archive-date=June 20, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Lew Wallace was the only lawyer on the tribunal.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

The use of a military tribunal provoked criticism from former [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Edward Bates]] and [[United States Secretary of the Navy|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.){{r|steers|pp=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.{{r|steers|pp=222–23}}

[[File:Execution Lincoln assassins.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Execution of [[Mary Surratt]], [[Lewis Powell (assassin)|Lewis Powell]], [[David Herold]], and [[George Atzerodt]] on July 7, 1865, at [[Fort Lesley J. McNair|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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Steers|first1=Edward|title=Lincoln's Assassination|date=2014|publisher=SIU Press|page=116|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSh9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA116|isbn=9780809333509}}</ref> 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.{{r|steers|p=227}}

Mary Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were hanged in the [[Fort Lesley J. McNair|Old Arsenal Penitentiary]] on July 7.{{r|swanson|pp=362, 365}} Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the United States government.<ref>Linder, D: "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/surrattm.html Biography of Mary Surratt, Lincoln Assassination Conspirator] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090224091138/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/surrattm.html |date=2009-02-24 }}", University of Missouri–Kansas City. Retrieved December 10, 2006.</ref> O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were pardoned in February 1869 by Johnson.{{r|swanson|p=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 |date=July 2022}}

John Surratt stood trial in a civil court in Washington in 1867. Four residents of [[Elmira, New York]],{{r|swanson|p=27}}{{r|jampoler|pp=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.{{r|steers|p=178}}{{r|larson|p=227}}

==See also==
{{columns-list|colwidth=21em|
* [[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==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=bishop>[[Jim Bishop|Bishop, Jim]]. ''The Day Lincoln Was Shot''. Harper, New York, 1955. {{OCLC|2018636}}</ref>
<ref name=jampoler>Andrew C. A. Jampoler. ''The Last Lincoln Conspirator: John Surratt's Flight from the Gallows''. Naval Institute Press, 2008. Pages 112–115. {{ISBN|978-1-59114-407-6}}</ref>
<ref name=goodwin>[[Doris Kearns Goodwin|Goodwin, Doris Kearns]]. ''Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln''. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-684-82490-1}}</ref>
<ref name=harris>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</ref>
<ref name=kauffman>{{cite book |last=Kauffman |first=Michael W. |title=American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies |year=2004 |publisher=Random House | location=New York | isbn=978-0-375-50785-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=86RH6NNCl0QC&pg=PA185}}</ref>
<ref name=kunhardttwenty>[[Dorothy Kunhardt|Kunhardt, Dorothy Meserve]], and Kunhardt Jr., Phillip B. ''Twenty Days''. Castle Books, 1965. {{ISBN|1-55521-975-6}}</ref>
<ref name=kunhardtlincoln>Kunhardt Jr., Phillip B., Kunhardt III, Phillip, and [[Peter Kunhardt|Kunhardt, Peter W.]] ''Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography''. Gramercy Books, New York, 1992. {{ISBN|0-517-20715-X}}</ref>
<ref name=larson>[[Kate Clifford Larson|Larson, Kate]]. ''The Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln''. Basic Books, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-465-03815-2}}</ref>
<ref name=sandburg>[[Carl Sandburg|Sandburg, Carl]]. ''Abraham Lincoln: The War Years IV''. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1936. {{OCLC|46381986}}</ref>
<ref name=steers>[[Edward Steers Jr.|Steers, Edward]]. ''Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln''. University Press of Kentucky, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-8131-9151-5}}</ref>
<ref name=swanson>Swanson, James. ''Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer''. Harper Collins, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-06-051849-3}}</ref>
<ref name=vowell>[[Sarah Vowell|Vowell, Sarah]]. ''Assassination Vacation''. Simon and Schuster, 2005. {{ISBN|0-7432-6003-1}}</ref>
}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite news| url= https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21648528-our-coverage-death-american-president-assassination-mr-lincoln | title= The assassination of Mr Lincoln | date= April 29, 1865 | newspaper= [[The Economist]]| volume= XXIII | issue=1,131| editor1-last =Bagehot | editor1-first= Walter | editor1-link= Walter Bagehot}}
* 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
* [[Martha Hodes|Hodes, Martha]]. ''Mourning Lincoln'', New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. {{ISBN|9780300195804}}
* [[Harold Holzer|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; [[Craig Symonds|Symonds, Craig]] L.; [[Frank J. Williams|Williams, Frank J.]], eds., ''The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory'', New York: Fordham University Press, 2010. {{ISBN|9780823232260}} [https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/book-reviews-Aug2010-pdf-1.pdf Review]
* [[Benjamin King (author)|King, Benjamin]]. ''A Bullet for Lincoln'', Pelican Publishing, 1993. {{ISBN|0-88289-927-9}}
* [[John Lattimer|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]
* [[Edward Steers Jr.|Steers Jr., Edward]], and [[Harold Holzer|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}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070524121308/http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profiles/wilkes.html Donald E. Wilkes, Jr.], [https://web.archive.org/web/20121215215300/http://www.law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/other_6Lincoln1.html Lincoln Assassinated!], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120427013654/http://www.law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/other_7Lincoln2.html 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==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Assassination of Abraham Lincoln}}
* [https://archive.today/20130628031658/http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?doctor-of-abraham-lincoln-obervation-of-presidents-last-hours-alive-and-postmortem Abraham Lincoln's Physician's Observation and Postmortem Reports: Original Documentation] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* [https://archive.today/20130628031637/http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?earliest-first-responder-report-doctor-leale-abraham-lincoln-fords-theatre-assassination First Responder Dr. Charles Leale Eyewitness Report of Assassination] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alrintr.html Lincoln Papers: Lincoln Assassination: Introduction]
* [https://www.nps.gov/foth/index.htm Ford's Theatre National Historic Site]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131025013438/http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln.html Abraham Lincoln's Assassination]
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/lincoln/ Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010304215855/http://www.geh.org/ne/str115/htmlsrc/lincoln_sum00001.html Lincoln Conspiracy Photograph Album at George Eastman museum]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100516112620/http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/41362/the-men-who-killed-lincoln The Men Who Killed Lincoln]&nbsp;– slideshow by ''[[Life magazine]]''
* [http://www.muddresearch.com Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Research Site]
* [https://archive.org/details/assassinationpr00herogoog 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)]
* [https://coololdphotos.com/hanging-the-lincoln-conspirators/  Hanging the Lincoln Conspirators] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712085348/https://coololdphotos.com/hanging-the-lincoln-conspirators/ |date=July 12, 2019 }} – detailed analysis and review of historic 1865 photograph

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{{US Presidential Assassinations}}
{{Conspiracy theories}}
{{Reconstruction Era}}
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