A gunshot that shook the world. A showdown with a group of assassins. And a legacy best remembered
by another American icon. Keep watching for the dramatic details of the death of Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln began his second term as President of the United States on March 4th, 1865. On April 15th,
just weeks later, he was shot dead. The night before, he had been in attendance
at a play performed at Ford's Theatre. While the president was enjoying the proceedings,
actor John Wilkes Booth crept into the president's box and fired a shot at Lincoln from behind.
After a tussle with Major Henry R. Rathbone, Booth leapt to the stage and escaped.
"Sic semper tyrannis!"
The mortally wounded Lincoln was transported to Peterson House,
directly across from the theater. He died at 7:22 a.m. the next day.
10,000 officers and detectives joined the hunt for Booth, a star actor whose
support for the Confederacy had led him to hatch a plot to murder the president,
Secretary of State William Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson. His co-conspirators,
Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt, were supposed to attack simultaneously with him.
"Atzerodt was rather a villainous looking character, but he wasn't a desperado.
He was in for the kidnapping but not for the murder."
Atzerodt backed out, but Powell attacked Seward in the Old Clubhouse, six blocks away.
Seward survived the ensuing knife attack only because he happened to be wearing a thick
dental brace after a carriage crash. Powell was arrested and hanged on July 7th, 1865,
after being brought to trial along with other members of the conspiracy.
Meanwhile, the War Department offered a $50,000 reward for the capture of Booth,
and $25,000 each for accomplices David C. Harold and John H. Surratt. Booth and
Herold's luck ran out after 12 days as fugitives, when members of the 16th New
York Cavalry trapped the pair in a Virginia tobacco barn, threatening to burn it down.
Herold surrendered, but Lincoln's killer seemed intent on fighting. A detective
who witnessed the events later reported that a colleague had set fire to a corner of the barn,
and a doomed Booth started to approach the door before being shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett. The
assembled men dragged Booth out and laid him on the ground. Unrepentant, he supposedly declared:
"Tell mother I die for my country."
Lincoln's funeral took place on April 19th, 1865. It was a public affair with 600 attendees,
centered around the East Room of the White House.
Lincoln's death had been an unprecedented event in world history. He was the first U.S. president
to be assassinated, and, inevitably, the news sent shockwaves around the globe. In response,
the Department of State of 1866 released a document unlike anything ever seen before.
This release consisted of expressions of condolence from all around the world.
Some 1146 documents were included, featuring press articles, official letters and more,
from nations from Austria to Venezuela. One missive from Denmark, for example, read:
"His Majesty, the King, as well as the whole people of Denmark, sincerely and earnestly
sympathize with the people of the United States in their affliction and their mourning over the
loss of a ruler whose great qualities and many virtues were fully appreciated by my countrymen."
For millions today, Lincoln is best remembered for his dramatic and shocking assassination. However,
it would be a great injustice to one of the nation's most acclaimed presidents to remember him
only for that. Lincoln had a huge role to play in shaping the past, present and future of the United
States. A staunch defender of the Declaration of Independence and everything it stood for,
he strove to further the cause of democracy while acknowledging its limitations.
Lincoln certainly had his detractors, of course, and he had his failings,
too. However, perhaps the greatest example of his legacy came from another American icon,
Martin Luther King Jr. In August 1968, King said:
"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today,
signed the Emancipation Proclamation [...] his momentous decree came as a great beacon light."
This was the legendary "I Have A Dream" speech. Perhaps the most important
aspect of Lincoln's death was that the president's work became an eternal part of that very dream.
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