Only a few short hours after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, amateur detectives and conspiracy theorists, questioned and debated the proven fact that the sixteenth president of the United States, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. Booth’s plans for the assassination were detailed, his co-conspirators followed-through on their parts of the plot and the escape route was all mapped out. The successful assassination of President Lincoln and escape of John Wilkes Booth, seemed a sure thing, until Booth was trapped in a barn on Garrett’s farm and ultimately shot dead by a Union soldier.
Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth, had several reasons to murder the President on the night of April 14, 1865. According to Historynet: “Booth, a successful actor whose presence in the theater was not questioned, was a Confederate sympathizer and an ardent believer in the supremacy of the white race over the black.” (www.historynet.com, 2) Theater attendants and theater goers had no reason to be suspicious of Booths intentions that night. As an actor, his presence there was not a concern. As for the reasons he wanted to assassinate Lincoln, he was a supporter of the Confederate army, whereas Lincoln was the main supporter of the Union Army, otherwise known as the North. This fact alone could show why Booth wanted to kill Lincoln. Lincoln was the President that issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which he signed in 1863. The proclamation gave Booth another reason to despise the President. In addition, Booth was probably confident that if he eliminated Lincoln, it would gain him and his cause, which was to protect the confederate way of life, popularity.
Booth had his reasons for wanting to assassinate the President, but how did he plan it all out? On the morning of April 14, Booth had breakfast at the National Hotel, and picked up his mail across from Ford’s Theatre. He discovered that not only the President and his wife would be at the theater that night, but General Ulysses S. Grant would also be accompanying them. (Swanson, 11) This new information would play a sizable part in the assassination. After picking up his mail, Booth made a visit to Vice President Andrew Johnson’s occupancy. While there, he left a note letting Johnson know he wanted to talk. (Swanson, 15) Next, he went to visit Mary Surratt, an accomplice in the murder the mother of John Harrison Surratt, a confederate secret agent and friend of Booth’s. Surratt’s boarding house had become a sort of safe haven for Booth, where he discussed his plans. It was her allowing her boarding house to be used as a meeting place for Booth, that ultimately labeled and convicted her as an accomplice to the murder. Although some thought she had no knowledge of Booth’s plans, the fact remains, she was the first female to be executed by the US government. (Larson, 193) If she had denied Booth’s request to transport the package, would she still have been considered an accomplice? Some may think so, considering she was the mother of a Confederate secret agent and she was still allowing Booth to use her boarding house as a meeting place. Next, as stated in the text,
“Booth made the final arrangements. There were two types of preparation: practical and mental. First, the weapons. Booth chose as his primary weapon a .44 caliber, single-shot-, muzzle-loading pistol manufactured by Henry Deringer of Philadelphia. It was a small, short-barreled, pocket-size handgun designed for concealment, not combat. Its big .44 caliber ball, weighing in at nearly an ounce, was a solid, deadly round. Unlike military pistols that could fire up to six rounds before reloading, the Deringer could be fired just once. Reloading was a time-consuming process that called for two hands and more than twenty seconds. Booth knew that his first shot would be his last.”
(Swanson, 16)
The weapon Booth chose was small and meant to be hidden. This gave him an advantage because no one would see him smuggle the gun into the theater. However, when he went to kill Lincoln, he only had one shot, and wouldn’t have enough time to reload if he missed, so he would need to get very close to the President in order to succeed. The author states that meanwhile, Mary Surratt was arriving in Surrattsville to deliver the note Booth wrote to John Lloyd. As part of the plan, Lloyd was to also have the weapons ready, and he was responsible for holding them until the men came to pick them up later that night. The next step was to assemble the team and assign jobs for each of the conspirators to carry out. There was a detailed plan to not only kill President Lincoln, but also the Vice President, Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. (Swanson 27) This part of the plan did not succeed. The author reveals that “George Atzerodt’s assignment was to assassinate the vice president in his room at the Kirkwood House…Lewis Powell would murder Secretary of State Seward. Additionally, David Herold, an experienced outdoorsman, hunter, and tracker, would accompany Lewis Powell, take him to Seward’s home, and guide the assassin, unfamiliar with the capital’s streets, out of the city where he would meet up with Booth. Booth claimed the most notorious part in the plot for himself. He would slip into Ford’s Theatre and assassinate the president during the play.” (Swanson, 27) Booth most likely assigned these jobs based on what the men’s skills and background work was.
As is turned out, there was a huge difference between planning, and actually going through with the deed itself. After everything had been thought of, Booth still had to assassinate Lincoln himself, which would be no easy feat. According to Swanson, “Booth entered the theater lobby…climbed the curving staircase to the balcony, following the same path the Lincoln’s took to their box…the door was unguarded…seated near the door, was Lincoln’s servant, Charles Forbes. Booth showed Forbes something. To this day, no one knows what words they exchanged or what Booth showed him…Forbes did not attempt to stop him.” (36) According to this source, Lincoln’s servant Charles Forbes let Booth pass right by him into the President’s Box where Lincoln himself sat. The question is, why did he let him pass without any objection? Was it because he was out to get Lincoln himself and he wanted someone to do the deed for him? Was it because he felt oppressed by Lincoln and thought he would be better off without him? Or was he afraid of Booth and instead of doing something about it, just let him pass in fear for his own life? No one knows, but it could have had something to do with the fact that Booth was also a successful actor, and he was well known in the theater.
Booth was very prepared for this moment, and he left no stone unturned. He knew the ins and outs of the theater. As stated by Swanson, “Lincoln had not seen Booth coming. The bullet struck him in the head, on the lower left side, just below the ear. The ball ripped through his chesnut-colored hair, cut the skin, penetrated the skull, and because of the angle of Lincoln’s head at the moment of impact, made a diagonal tunnel through Lincoln’s brain. (41) Based on this source, the assassination was quick, and seeing as it went clean through Lincoln’s brain, most likely resulted in his inability to react. Booth then rushed out the back door to an awaiting horse, and his accomplice, David Herold. Both men started on their escape route that would take them from the Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C., through the Maryland countryside, down South and across the Potomac River, finally entering into Virginia. They made their way through Port Royal and ultimately held up in a barn at the Garrett Farm North of Bowling Green, VA. (Swanson) On April 26, as the Union Army, including Sergeant Boston Corbett, closed in the Garrett farm, they demanded the whereabouts of the two men. They were directed towards the barn. Army captains threatened to set fire to the barn if the men did not come out. At that, David Herold surrendered and stepped right out into the hands of his captors. When Booth refused to come out, Private Conger proceeded to light the fire. When Booth still did not appear, Sergeant Boston Corbett found a small opening in the barn wall, pointed his service rifle through the hole and fired. Booth was shot and they dragged him from the barn into captivity. Three hours after being shot, John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln was dead. (Linder 21)
The assassination of President Lincoln was a turning point in history and impacted the United States greatly. Although John Wilkes Booth didn’t successfully escape, the murder itself was in fact successful. Over the last one hundred and fifty years there have been many different theories about whether Booth escaped after the assassination or not, and it is reasonable to think that these theories will continue on in the future.