Winner of the Fall 2016 StMU History Media Award for
Best Article in the Category of “United States History”
Post Civil War America showed the country as it never was before. Union and Confederate States, though reunited, still held grief directed toward one another. Most citizens just learned to adapt to the situation, but others choose to act out. An assassin will act as a vigilante by murdering a political figure in order to attempt to change the course of history. The first example of this in America was the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the attempted assassinations of Lincoln’s Cabinet by a group of vigilantes led by America’s first Presidential Assassin: John Wilkes Booth.1
John Wilkes Booth was born in May of 1836 into a family of actors, and was taught by his father Junius Brutus Booth. The Booth family traveled the country and performed for crowds. Booth was a handsome young man and a glorious actor. He often played the romantic hero’s of Shakespeare’s finest tragedies. Most notably he astounded audiences with his portrayal of Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. His good looks and charisma got him through most situations and made him irresistible to young women.2
As the Civil War began, tensions began to rise in the Booth family. John Wilkes Booth was alone in his hatred of the North, and often argued against his Union-loving family. He believed the cause of the Confederates was noble and that southern states’ rights were being ignored. Booth argued that Lincoln was a tyrant that wished to take everything away from the South.3 In 1859, Booth joined the Richmond, Virginia militia, and was assigned to be among one of the men who hung John Brown. Brown was the famous northern abolitionist who planned a slave insurrection and killed five slaveholding men.4 Although he carried deep pride for the Southern cause, Booth never joined the Confederate forces, but instead continued his acting career well into the Civil War.
In 1864, as the war continued, Booth materialized a plan to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln and hold him for ransom for the release of all Confederate prisoners of war.5 To pull this off Booth had to recruit a gang of fellow Confederate sympathizers, and after several meetings, Booth found his perfect team. The first to join his team was John Surratt, a Confederate agent and son of Mary Surratt who owned the Surratt Boarding House.6 The second was David Herold a Confederate sympathizer; the third was George Atzerodt, who was a German immigrant; the last was Lewis Powell, a prisoner of war from the Battle of Gettysburg.7
On March 17, after six months of plotting the kidnapping, Booth received word that Lincoln would be in their area attending a play at a local hospital.8 The men gathered their gear and laid in wait for their target to arrive. Booth set up a perimeter around a long stretch of road in an attempt to kidnap Lincoln en route to the hospital. After hours of waiting, Booth received new information that Lincoln had changed his plans to attend another event on the same day.9 Infuriated, Booth called his men back to the Surratt Boarding House and threw away any hopes of kidnapping Lincoln.
As the war came to an end and the Union victory loomed as inevitable, Booth and his conspirators became enraged and decided to escalate their plans.10 The group planned to destroy the United States government by assassinating President Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward simultaneously. Each of the assassins was given a specific job; Powell would attack Seward in his hotel room, Atzerodt would assassinate Johnson, Herold would supply horses for the men’s escape, and Booth would take on Lincoln himself.11
The plan was set, and now the group only needed an opening. On April 14th, 1865, Booth received word from the manager of Ford’s Theatre, a place where Booth had acted previously, that President Lincoln would be attending that night’s show of Our American Cousin.12 Upon receiving the news, Booth began preparing his men for the night to come. Night fell, and the men headed out, each in the direction of their designated target.
Powell was guided to Seward’s house and when he arrived, he knocked at the door. The door was opened, and Powell pushed his way into the room where Seward laid, and stabbed him in the head multiple times. Powell saw Seward begin to bleed and he fled from the scene immediately. Fortunately for Seward he was wearing head-gear due to a carriage accident he had previously been involved in, and his life was spared. At the same time, Atzerodt headed towards the hotel where Andrew Johnson was staying. Atzerodt first headed to the hotel’s bar to settle his nerves, had a little too much to drink, ended up intoxicated, walked out of the hotel and gave up on the assassination.13 Lastly, Booth began his plot and entered Ford’s Theater armed with his single shot .44 derringer pistol and a large knife.14 Booth then snuck his way into the President’s box and found Lincoln, his wife, Mary Todd, accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and Rathbone’s fiancee. Before anyone saw him, Booth slid his pistol out of his pocket and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Major Rathbone jumped toward Booth, but Booth took out his knife and slashed at Rathbone.15
Once he was freed from Rathbone’s grip, Booth jumped from the President’s box, but as he fell, his leg got caught on a drape and as he landed he broke his leg. Pushing himself up, Booth screamed, “Sic Semper Tyrannis!” which means “Thus Always to Tyrants” and pushed his way to the alley where Booth’s horse was waiting, and he rode off into the night.16
- Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, January 2006, s.v. “John Wilkes Booth,” by R. Baird Shuman. ↵
- Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, January 2006, s.v. “John Wilkes Booth,” by R. Baird Shuman. ↵
- Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, January 2006, s.v. “John Wilkes Booth,” by R. Baird Shuman. ↵
- Arthur F. Loux, John Wilkes Booth : Day-by-Day (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2014), 35. ↵
- Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, January 2006, s.v. “John Wilkes Booth,” by R. Baird Shuman. ↵
- Loux, John Wilkes Booth: Day-by-Day, 166. ↵
- Elizabeth Leonard, Lincoln’s Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion after the Civil War (W. W. Norton & Company, 2005), 41. ↵
- Loux, John Wilkes Booth : Day-by-Day, 190. ↵
- Loux, John Wilkes Booth : Day-by-Day, 190. ↵
- Loux, John Wilkes Booth : Day-by-Day, 192. ↵
- Kathy Wilmore, “Wanted! The President’s Killer,” Junior Scholastic 117, no. 12 (April 20, 2015): 12. ↵
- Loux, John Wilkes Booth : Day-by-Day, 194. ↵
- Wilmore, “Wanted! The President’s Killer,” Junior Scholastic 117, no. 12 (April 20, 2015): 13. ↵
- Wilmore, “Wanted! The President’s Killer,” Junior Scholastic 117, no. 12 (April 20, 2015): 12. ↵
- Loux, John Wilkes Booth : Day-by-Day, 198. ↵
- Loux, John Wilkes Booth : Day-by-Day, 198. ↵
36 comments
Arieana Martinez
This article taught me so much about John Wilkes Booth and his life. This brought me a lot of insight and while I strongly disagree with what he did, I saw his mindset in an era where he felt entitled to being President because of the society he lived in. I was engaged the entire time of reading this, especially when discovering that there were multiple assassinations in play. Great read.
Rosa Castillo
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a tragedy for the country who just restored from the Civil War. The author provides substantial information on the background and life of John Wilkes Booth. The context of this article provides its readers with details into the attempted kidnapping and planning that led to the assassination. Great article to read!
Lilliana Canales
This article was interesting because personally, I have no knowledge of John Wilkes Booth prior to Lincoln’s assassination. If he really wanted to, he probably could have got to the president sooner with his charisma and charm. It’s saddening that the reason a great president lost his life was due a political disagreement, however great things came from this president and he accomplished all he could during his lifetime.
Raymond Munoz
What if things had been flipped, for example, what if one of the unsuccessful men had been given the task of assinating President Lincoln and failed? I believe in that case the country and war would’ve been put on very different paths. There’s this saying from a movie, “you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” and I do believe this might’ve been the case with President Lincoln. Now, I’m not trying to say that President Lincoln was a bad person, I’m just saying that he might’ve gone on to experience different things after the assassination and such experiences could’ve turned him for the worse. Just look at Booth and his associates, I’m sure they didn’t grow up as kids wanting to murder politicians, but with time and new situations they grew to hate the government so much that they took the law into their own hands. It’s all about the actions and choices you make, because they do define you.
Roman Olivera
I didn’t know that there was supposed to be three assassinations on that night. This group of assassins seemed really well organized and had a lot of help with locations and setups with coconspirators. Its sad to see such anti government views from so many people in a time where the president was trying to make so much good change in America. I start to wonder what was done to the other two assassins after the attempts as well as the people who gave information on and access to President Lincoln. Definitely reading the second part of this article.
Suvesh Vasal
This article was extremely interesting and the manner in which you told it in made it even better. You need to finish the second part soon. I know all about the assassination and escape of John Wilks Booth, but I really enjoyed the way you told it. One question I have is why was the security around the president so bad? I couldn’t imagine just having the leader of our country in a box with absolutely no protection around him.
Natalia Flores
Oh! A cliff hanger! I only heard about Booth’s plan on the History channel, but vaguely. It’s profound how deep his hate was for the North that he would try to assassinate President Lincoln and not just once. He actually tried to kidnap him which surprised me. I had no idea that he tried that. The accomplices as well are not well known in history textbooks so to hear about them is insightful. That’s surprising since Powell attacked the Secretary of State, and that another attempt almost went down with Vice President Johnson.
Mario Sosa
I had already known about how Booth and his co-conspirators planned to kill the president, vice president, and secretary of state at the same time, but your article had some things that were very intriguing and new to me. One thing that caught my attention was how Booth planned to kidnap Lincoln at a play, and how his assassination of Lincoln took place at a theater. It would make sense he would do this since he was an experienced actor. If Booth had plotted to confront Lincoln a third time, I wonder if he would have done it at another play? Really engaging article, great job!
Faisal Alqarni
Hi Robert, this is a very well written first part on America’s first Assassin. This assassination plot as sad as it turned out to be in reality It really reads like a play and does raise questions on if really Booth was the mastermind behind all of the planning for this as to me he sounds somehow simple, but the fact that he was able to pull it off does say a lot about his dedication to his dark cause.
Nahim Rancharan
Wow! This article was structured in a way that it kept me engaged and wanting to read more. Despite the fact that Abraham Lincoln is one of the most famous and notable presidents in American history, this article did a great job at telling the story of an important moment in American history. Prior to reading this article, I only knew about the details of President Lincoln’s assassination, but I did not know that this was part of a long, orchestrated process of kidnapping that later developed into a more serious tactic, which unfortunately ended up in his assassination. John Wilkes Booth is known for his role in Lincoln’s assassination, but it was interesting to see how he was not the only one involved in the entire scheme of attacking the presidency. Very interesting article. Job Well Done!