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N0KFQ > TODAY 14.04.13 20:39l 56 Lines 2603 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Apr 14
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Sent: 130414/1708Z 38606@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.54
...
Apr 14, 1865:
President Lincoln is shot
Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shoots President
Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
Five days earlier, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had
surrendered his army to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox
Court House, Virginia. The war was nearly over, although there
were still Confederate forces yet to surrender. The president had
recently visited the captured Rebel capital of Richmond,
Virginia, and now Lincoln sought a relaxing evening by attending
a production of Our American Cousin starring Laura Keene. Ford's
Theater, seven blocks from the White House, was crammed with
people trying to catch a glimpse of Grant, who was rumored to be
in attendance. In fact, the general and his wife had cancelled
abruptly for an out-of-town trip.
Lincoln occupied a booth above the stage with his wife; Henry
Rathbone, a young army officer; and his fiancée, Clara Harris,
daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris. The Lincolns arrived
late for the comedy, but the president was in a fine mood and
laughed heartily during the production. At 10:15, Booth slipped
into the box and fired his .44-caliber single-shot derringer into
the back of Lincoln's head. Rathbone rushed Booth, who stabbed
the soldier in the shoulder. Booth then leapt from the
president's box to the stage below, breaking his leg as he
landed. He shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis!" ("Thus ever to
tyrants!"--the Virginia state motto) and ran from the stage.
There was a pause, as the crowd initially thought the unfolding
drama was part of the production, but a scream from Mrs. Lincoln
told them otherwise. The stricken president was carried from the
box to a house across the street, where he died the following
morning.
Booth was one of the most famous actors of his day, and Lincoln
had seen him perform. He was a Maryland native with southern
sympathies who hoped to aid the Confederacy by taking out the
Union's political leadership in one night. With Confederate
president Jefferson Davis still free and General Joseph
Johnston's army still alive in the Carolinas, Booth thought the
Confederate cause was not yet lost. He sent George Atzerodt to
kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Lewis Paine to assassinate
Secretary of State William Seward. Atzerodt could not muster the
courage to carry out his assignment, but Paine burst into
Seward's home and stabbed him as lay sick in bed. Although
seriously wounded, Seward eventually recovered.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@hotmail.com
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