ASIDE: The Lincoln Assassination

John Wilkes Booth was in the crowd when Abraham Lincoln delivered one the most famous speeches in American history, his second inaugural. It was a golden opportunity to eliminate the great oppressor. He regretted not seizing it. When Richmond fell less than a month late, Booth was in New York. Crushed by the news, he returned to Washington and was subjected to celebrations and the news that General Lee had surrendered to General Grant’s army at Appomattox. It was too much to take and time to act. Perhaps if something could be done quickly, to throw the government into chaos, the Confederacy would have one more chance to inflict a devastating blow to the Capital.

Booth was from a family of well-known actors. Here he is pictured next to his
brothers Junius Brutus and Edwin (who amazingly once saved Robert Lincoln's life).

The renowned actor had been working on a plan to kidnap Lincoln for some time, perhaps six months, and had made contacts south of the Potomac River where he’d planned a sort of reverse Underground Railroad that would be used to ferry Lincoln to the deep South. By chance, on Good Friday, Booth learned that Lincoln and General Grant would be at Ford’s Theatre that night for a showing of Our American Cousin. He had only hours to devise a plan. Along with Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt Booth masterminded a plan whereby Booth would assassinate Lincoln and Grant at the theatre, Powell would assassinate Secretary of State William Seward with Herold acting as his guide to the city, and Atzerodt would assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson. It would all happen at 10:15 that evening. The famous actor knew Our American Cousin well. He knew that the play’s biggest laugh-line, “you sockdologizing old mantrap!” would occur right around 10:15 and that the laughter in the theatre would provide enough noise to mask the shot.

The afternoon of the April 14^th was a busy one for Booth. He met up with the innkeeper Mary Surratt and asked her to deliver a package with his spyglasses to her inn in Maryland for pickup that evening as well as guns and ammunition that he’d previously stored there. Mary also made sure there were a couple of bottles of whiskey ready for him. Booth then did preparation inside of the theater, including storing a plank of wood inside the box Lincoln and Grant would share. The wood would lock the door behind booth preventing anyone else from entering. Booth also went to the hotel where Vice President Johnson was staying and left his calling card with the note, “Don’t wish to disturb you. Are you home? J. Wilkes Booth.”

Late in the afternoon Booth observed Grant and his wife leaving town. It was a setback for Booth, but as far as he knew Lincoln still planned to attend. The night did not go as planned. Atzerodt got drunk and then got cold feet. At the Seward house, Powell talked his way inside and up to Seward’s room. Seward’s bodyguard, son, and daughter held off Powell and though there were substantial injuries, no one died. During the commotion Herold panicked and abandoned Powell. Not knowing the city well, Powell’s abandonment virtually assured his capture. Booth had no way to know any of this had happened and when he accomplished his mission, leapt from the President’s box and shouted “Sic semper tyrannis!” to the stunned audience he had reason to believe he had eliminated the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State.

Booth’s theatrical leap from the Lincoln’s box proved costly. Booth’s boot poetically caught on an American flag draped from the box, he landed awkwardly breaking his leg. While adrenaline fueled his escape from DC and in to Maryland where he eventually met up with Herold, his broken leg slowed their escape which would require a speedy crossing of the Potomac to safer country. Booth and Herold first went to Dr. Samuel Mudd’s farm where he received treatment for his leg and crutches. Mudd instructed them to go to seek help from Captain Samuel Cox whose farm was a difficult journey through the Maryland swamps. Given Booth’s condition, Mudd recommended a layover at the home of William Burtles. When Booth and Herold ran in to a free black man named Oswell Swann who knew the swamps, they paid him to guide them directly to Cox. Cox brought the fugitives to the man who could get them to Virginia. Thomas Jones was a sort of Confederate secret agent who specialized in smuggling people and material across the river during the war. He was in need of money given the lack of employment opportunity from the Confederate army as well as the loss of value of the Confederate bonds he’d invested in. Jones hid the men in a pine thicket for five days, waiting for the right time. During those mind-numbing days Jones brought them food and, most importantly to Booth, newspapers. It was here that Booth first realized that the country at large did not see him as a modern-day William Tell or Brutus, as he fashioned himself, but as a cold-blooded murderer. He had turned Lincoln in to a martyr.

Booth and Herold hid in the thicket for five days as Union manhunters swarmed around. Finally, Jones sensed an opportunity and saw them off in a canoe with instructions on how to proceed. Using candlelight sparingly to avoid detection, they incredibly rowed the wrong way and after an entire night rowing ended up back in Maryland. Luckily for the two men, Herold knew the area and brought them to a sympathetic home where they stayed until the following night. By the time they reach Virginian soil 9 nights had passed.

The men made their way about 20 miles south to the Rappahannock River where a few Confederate soldiers helped them cross and then guided them to Richard Garrett’s farm where they introduced themselves as the Boyd cousins, Confederate soldiers returning from the battlefield. Thomas Jones proved to be Booth’s savior after the broken leg setback, but the Confederate soldiers would be a curse. The Colonel Lafayette Baker’s Sixteenth New York Cavalry was searching on the Virginia side of the Potomac based on a tip and made their way to the spot where Booth and Herold had crossed the Rappahannock the day before. Inquiring about recent crossings Baker learned that two men, one with a broken leg, crossed the river southbound with three Confederate soldiers the day before. Baker had no doubt it was Booth and feared he was being protected by the Confederate army.

By this point Garrett had become highly suspicious of the so-called Boyd cousins and informed them they would not be welcome after that night. He relegated them to the barn. That night the Sixteenth thundered past the Garrett Farm to the village of Bowling Green where they believed they would find Booth. Instead they found the Confederate soldiers, one of whom, Willie Jett, betrayed Booth immediately. The Confederates agreed to lead the Cavalry to Garrett’s farm. Unbeknownst to Booth and Herold, they had been locked inside the barn by their suspicious host. When the Cavalry arrived Booth and Herold were trapped and refused to come out. Baker decided to smoke them out and Herold submitted. However, Booth appeared to want to go down with the ship. Peering through the barn’s slats Boston Corbett claimed Booth was about to take a shot and decided to shot first. He delivered the fatal shot.

Booth survived for several hours on the Garrett’s porch. His last words as he stared at his hands were “useless… useless.”

Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt hanging at Fort McNair.

For their roles in the assassination plot Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were sentence to death by hanging. Mudd and two others involved in the planning received life in prison. The man who held Booth’s horse outside of Ford’s Theater received six years. Thomas Jones kept his secret for 18 years, then wrote a book detailing his role in the escape.

Lincoln’s assassination was a turning point in American history. It provides a clear point where the Civil War era ends and Reconstruction begins. The assassination also created Lincoln the myth. Lincoln was from the frontier, he was a surprise candidate, was elected by plurality, spent his entire presidency at war with people he viewed as his constituents, suffered many personal and political setbacks during his presidency, faced a revolt in his own party leading up to the 1864 election, and was facing the daunting task of reconstruction once Lee’s troops surrendered. It was not at all obvious to all of his contemporaries that only Washington would rival his claim to the greatest to ever hold the office. Politicians caught up in the whirlwind of mid-nineteenth century American politics saw a dangerous radical if they were Democrats or a dithering hack unable to capitalize on a golden opportunity if they were Radical Republicans. But as time passed and wounds of Civil War and Reconstruction began to heal, Lincoln’s legacy has become crystal clear; and the man who saved the nation died for its sins. This is because of Booth.