Name: ____________________________________________ Date: __________________ Period: ________
Analyze the Articles: Lincoln’s Assassination
Directions: Congratulations, you have chosen well. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln is very interesting to
read and think about. Before you can write your research paper, you must read the articles in order to answer each of the
five essential questions and plan your paper. This will be stamped and turned in for a classwork/homework grade, so
make sure to get this done and do a good job. The better you understand the articles, the easier it will be to answer the
essential questions and write your research paper. Consider the following as you read the article:
Prompt for the Research Paper
Write a research paper in which you explain the political situation leading up to the (attempted) assassination, the
motivation behind the assassination, the nature of the conspiracy involved with the (attempted) assassination, a
description of the (attempted) assassination itself, and the political aftermath of the (attempted) assassination of the
political figure.
As you read have highlighters and colored pencils at hand so that you may identify clearly evidence that addresses each
of the following “Essential Questions.”
Highlight yellow:
1. What was the time period and situation (social, political, and/or economic) leading up to the (attempted)
assassination?
Highlight pink:
2. What motivated the assassin(s) to commit the murder? (This is most likely a disagreement with political opinions
or actions—find something specific.)
Highlight green:
3. Political assassinations are most often the result of a conspiracy, that is, a group of people who come together to
plan to commit an illegal act. What was the nature of the conspiracy involved with the (attempted) assassination?
Who was involved and how did they work out the details?
Highlight orange:
4. What was the timeline of events that enabled the (attempted) assassination to take place? Find a series of at least
five events that show how the assassination took place.
Highlight ______________ (indicate the color of your choosing) or Underline _______________ (indicate the color of your
choosing):
5. What was the political result of the (attempted) assassination? Consider what changes took place in the country or
region after the assassination and how the assassination may have caused these changes.
Tools: Use the following to help you analyze the articles. You will only receive credit for the packet if you complete
these steps.
 Circle words you don’t know. Make time to look up the definitions.
 Write down important ideas from the text in the left-hand margin (especially notes about how the highlighted text
answers the essential questions). You should have at least three important ideas from each article.
 Complete the Thinking Maps on the last two pages (front and back) of the document to help you organize your
notes.
Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
On April 15, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a
famous actor and Confederate
sympathizer (def: person who agrees
with), fatally shoots President Abraham
Lincoln at a play at Ford's Theater in
Washington, D.C. The attack came only
five days after Confederate General
Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive
army at Appomattox Court House,
Virginia, effectively ending the American
Civil War.
Booth, a Maryland native born in 1838,
who remained in the North during the
war despite his Confederate sympathies,
initially plotted to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However,
on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president failed to appear at the spot where
Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces. In April,
with Confederate armies near collapse across the South, Booth hatched a desperate plan to save the
Confederacy.
Learning that Lincoln was to attend Laura Keene's acclaimed (def: praised) performance of Our American
Cousin at Ford's Theater on April 14, Booth masterminded the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice
President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. By murdering the president and two
of his possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to throw the U.S. government into disarray
(def: chaos).
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 (def: pocket-sized pistol) 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. Although Booth broke his leg, he managed to escape Washington on horseback.
A 23-year-old doctor named Charles Leale was in the audience and rushed up to the presidential box
immediately upon hearing the shot and Mrs. Lincoln's scream. He found the president slumped in his
chair, paralyzed and struggling to breathe. Several soldiers carried Lincoln to a house across the street and
placed him on a bed. When the surgeon general arrived at the house, he concluded that Lincoln could not
be saved and would die during the night.
Vice President Andrew Johnson, members of Lincoln's cabinet (def: government leader’s team of
advisers), and several of the president's closest friends stood vigil (def: period spent watching) by Lincoln's
bedside until he was officially pronounced dead at 7:22 am. The first lady lay on a bed in an adjoining
room with her eldest son Robert at her side, overwhelmed with shock and grief.
The president's body was placed in a temporary coffin, draped with a flag and escorted by armed cavalry
(def: soldiers on horseback) to the White House, where surgeons conducted a thorough autopsy. Edward
Curtis, an Army surgeon in attendance, later wrote that, during the autopsy, while he removed Lincoln's
brain, a bullet “dropped out through my fingers” into a basin with a clatter. The doctors stopped to stare
at the offending bullet, “the cause of such mighty changes in the world's history as we may perhaps never
realize.” During the autopsy, Mary Lincoln sent the surgeons a note requesting they cut a lock of Lincoln's
hair for her.
News of the president's death traveled quickly and, by the end of the day, flags across the country flew at
half-staff, businesses were closed and people who had recently rejoiced at the end of the Civil War
mourned Lincoln's shocking assassination.
His body was taken to the White House, where it lay until April 18, at which point it was carried to the
Capitol rotunda (def: large round room) to lay in state on a catafalque (def: platform). On April 21,
Lincoln's body was taken to the railroad station and boarded on a train that conveyed it to Springfield,
Illinois, his home before becoming president. Tens of thousands of Americans lined the train's railroad
route and paid their respects to their fallen leader during the train's solemn progression through the
North. Lincoln was buried on May 4, 1865, at Oak Ridge Cemetery, near Springfield.
Source: http://www.history.com/topics/abraham-lincoln-assassination (The History Channel website)
Author: unknown
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Article Title: “Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination”
Last Updated: 2010
Accessed by: Ms. Handley 03-21-2010
The Text of John Wilkes Booth’s Diary
A small red book, which was actually an 1864
appointment book kept as a diary, was found on the
body of John Wilkes Booth on April 26, 1865. The
datebook was printed and sold by a St. Louis stationer
named James M. Crawford. The book measured 6 by 3
1/2 inches and pictures of 5 women were found in the
diary pockets. Booth's entries in the diary were
probably written between April 17 and April 22, 1865.
The text of the diary is as follows:
"Until today nothing was ever thought of sacrificing to our country's wrongs. For six months we had worked
to capture, but our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done. But its failure was
owing to others, who did not strike for their country with a heart. I struck boldly, and not as the papers say.
I walked with a firm step through a thousand of his friends, was stopped, but pushed on. A colonel was at
his side. I shouted Sic semper before I fired. In jumping broke my leg. I passed all his pickets (def: soldiers
standing guard), rode sixty miles that night with the bone of my leg tearing the flesh at every jump. I can
never repent (def: be sorry for) it, though we hated to kill. Our country owed all her troubles to him, and
God simply made me the instrument of his punishment. The country is not what it was. This forced Union is
not what I have loved. I care not what becomes of me. I have no desire to outlive my country. The night
before the deed I wrote a long article and left it for one of the editors of the National Intelligencer, in which
I fully set forth our reasons for our proceedings. He or the gov'r . . .
. . . After being hunted like a dog through swamps, woods, and last night being chased by gunboats till I was
forced to return wet, cold, and starving, with every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why?
For doing what Brutus was honored for [Note: This is an allusion to Julius Caesar!]. What made Tell (def:
William Tell, a Swiss hero who assassinated an Austrian leader in the 1300s) a hero? And yet I, for striking
down a greater tyrant than they ever knew, am looked upon as a common cutthroat. My action was purer
than either of theirs. One [Brutus] hoped to be great himself. The other [William Tell] had not only his
country's but his own, wrongs to avenge. I hoped for no gain. I knew no private wrong. I struck for my
country and that alone. A country that groaned beneath this tyranny, and prayed for this end, and yet now
behold the cold hands they extend to me. God cannot pardon me if I have done wrong. Yet I cannot see my
wrong, except in serving a degenerate (def: in a condition that is worse than before) people. The little, the
very little, I left behind to clear my name, the Government will not allow to be printed. So ends all. For my
country I have given up all that makes life sweet and holy, brought misery upon my family, and am sure
there is no pardon (def: forgiveness) in the Heaven for me, since man condemns me so. I have only heard of
what has been done (except what I did myself), and it fills me with horror. God, try and forgive me, and
bless my mother. Tonight I will once more try the river with the intent to cross. Though I have a greater
desire and almost a mind to return to Washington, and in a measure clear my name - which I feel I can do. I
do not repent the blow I struck. I may before my God, but not to man. I think I have done well. Though I am
abandoned, with the curse of Cain upon me (def: God’s punishment for Cain, the first murderer, when he
killed his brother Abel), when, if the world knew my heart, that one blow would have made me great,
though I did desire no greatness. Tonight I try to escape these bloodhounds once more. Who, who can read
his fate? God's will be done. I have too great a soul to die like a criminal. Oh, may He, may He spare me
that, and let me die bravely. I bless the entire world. Have never hated or wronged anyone. This last was
not a wrong, unless God deems (def: considers) it so, and it's with Him to damn (def: send to hell) or bless
me. As for this brave boy with me, who often prays (yes, before and since) with a true and sincere heart was it crime in him? If so, why can he pray the same?
I do not wish to shed a drop of blood, but I must fight the course (def: chosen action).' 'Tis all that's left to
me."
Mystery surrounds this diary. The little book was taken off Booth's body by
Colonel Everton Conger. He took it to Washington and gave it to Lafayette C.
Baker, chief of the War Department's National Detective Police. Baker in
turn gave it to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The book was not produced
as evidence in the 1865 Conspiracy Trial. In 1867 the diary was "rediscovered" in a "forgotten" War Department file with 18 pages missing.
Although most sources indicate 18 missing pages the FBI's forensic
laboratory has examined the diary and stated that 43 separate sheets are
missing. This means that 86 pages are gone. . . .
Over the years there has been endless speculation on those missing pages
including rumors that they had surfaced. Nevertheless, they remain officially
missing. Two of the pages were torn out by Booth himself and used to write
messages to Dr. Richard H. Stuart on April 24, 1865. To speculate on their
contents makes for interesting reading, but it's essentially fruitless as no one
knows for sure what the rest of the missing pages may or may not have
contained.
Booth's diary is on display at Ford's Theatre. . . .
Source: http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln52.html (Abraham Lincoln Research site)
Author: Roger J. Norton
Article Title: “The Text of John Wilkes Booth’s Diary”
Publisher: unknown
Published: 12-29-96
Accessed by: Ms. Handley 03-21-2010
Introduction:
The Assassination of President Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. Over the next
twelve days, as a fractured nation mourned, the largest manhunt ever attempted closed in on his assassin, the
twenty-six-year-old renowned (def: famous) actor, John Wilkes Booth. . . .
. . . In November 1860, a little-known Republican state senator from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln was
elected president of the United States. Since he was a vocal opponent of slavery, Lincoln’s victory enraged
millions of Southern sympathizers, including an acclaimed young actor named John Booth, who blamed
abolitionists (def: opponents of slavery) for the growing division of the country.
“You all feel the fire now raging in the nation’s heart. It is a fire lighted and fanned by Northern fanaticism (def:
extreme enthusiasm), a fire which naught (def: nothing) but blood can extinguish,” Booth wrote in a
monologue he would never deliver.
By 1862, the small skirmish (def: brief fight of scuffle) that began the previous year had turned into a full-blown
Civil War, a bloody stalemate (def: position in which no progress can be made) with no end in sight. As
casualties (def: victims) stumbled into Washington, Lincoln haunted the War Department, absorbing the loss of
life all around him. Out of all the suffering, he resolved, must come what he would later call a “new birth of
freedom.”
In January 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, an order freeing the slaves within
the Confederate states, and transforming the meaning of the Civil War. By August 1864, a second presidential
term seemed improbable (def: unlikely), until the Union army broke through Confederate defenses in Atlanta,
Georgia. It was a victory that allowed Lincoln to win a second term.
For Booth, the news of four more years of Lincoln as president was almost too much to bear. At twenty-five
years old, his dreams of glory beyond the stage were passing him by.
“For four years I have cursed my willful idleness (def: laziness) and begun to deem (def: consider) myself a
coward and to despise my own existence. I cannot longer resist the inclination, to go and share the sufferings
of my brave countrymen, holding an unequal strife (def: bitter rivalry) against the most ruthless (def: showing
no mercy) enemy the world has ever known,” Booth wrote.
John Booth wanted to contribute to the Southern cause, but not as a soldier in the Confederate Army. He
looked for something grander — a single, heroic gesture that would turn the tide of history and catapult him
into immortality. In 1864, he started taking assignments from the Confederate underground, a loose network
of spies living north of the Mason Dixon Line. With a small band of co-conspirators, he began plotting a scheme
to kidnap Abraham Lincoln, and ransom him for thousands of imprisoned Confederate soldiers.
On April 3, 1865 the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia, fell to Union forces. Only six days later, General
Robert E. Lee surrendered, and the war was effectively over. Booth was overcome with disappointment and
bitterness. He resolved to punish the North for what it had done to the South, and his desperation gave rise to
a new scheme: to kill the tyrant (def: absolute ruler who exercises power cruelly and unjustly) responsible for
the demise (def: slow and predictable end) of his beloved Confederacy — President Abraham Lincoln.
When John Booth arrived at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the morning of April 14 to pick up his mail,
he overheard someone announce that President Lincoln was to be in attendance for that evening’s show. For
the next eight hours, the actor made frenzied (def: wildly excited) preparations for what he hoped would be
the greatest performance of his life. He quickly reassembled his co-conspirators, and filled them in on his plan
to kill the three most powerful men in America.
“He’s killing the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, presumably to throw the government into
chaos. When you’re at the end of the rope and there’s nothing left, you’ll do drastic things. And clearly, I think
Booth thought that this was the only thing left that he could give the Confederacy,” says historian and author
Edward Steers Jr. in the film [American Experience: The Assassination of President Lincoln, shown on PBS].
Later that evening, at 10:15 p.m., John Wilkes Booth arrived at Ford’s Theatre and lurked in waiting for his
opportunity. As the play reached a climax and the lead actor delivered his biggest laugh line of the evening, a
single shot rang out and hit the president in the neck. Before anyone could stop him, Booth jumped over the
balcony, breaking his ankle, ran across the stage, and escaped into the darkness.
From the Peterson House, where Abraham Lincoln lay dying, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton took over control
of the government. He interrogated witnesses, ordered bridges and roads closed, and put the Union cavalry
(def: soldiers on horseback) on high alert. Outside, panic and disbelief traveled through the streets as word of
Lincoln’s death spread. For twelve days, as the killer and one of his accomplices made their way south, Stanton
organized a manhunt of unprecedented (def: never before seen) size and traced the fugitives through thick
woods and swampland, and into Virginia’s confederate stronghold.
Booth was convinced that if he could just make it to Virginia and the deep South beyond, he would be lauded
(def: praised) as a hero and a savior. But hiding in the woods, as he read newspaper accounts of his
performance, he was stunned: the entire country, North and South, had denounced (def: publicly criticized)
him. His visions of triumph and grandeur were shattered.
On April 26, at three in the morning, a search party surrounded John Booth and his accomplice David Herold.
By then, they had reached Garrett’s farm, just south of Port Royal, Virginia, and were hiding inside a tobacco
barn. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused. After a tense standoff, Union soldiers set the barn ablaze (def: on
fire), and a lone cavalryman fired at Booth, hitting him in the neck. Booth died three hours later.
While the hunt for John Wilkes Booth was ongoing, a funeral train carried the remains of Abraham Lincoln on a
1,700-mile journey from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois. Along the way, some seven million people
lined the tracks or filed past Lincoln’s open casket to pay their respects to their fallen leader.
“When people wept for Lincoln, or when they went to their diaries and they drew black around the pages of
those days, they were really weeping for themselves. They were weeping for their own kids. They were
weeping for their own losses in the war,” says historian David W. Blight in the film [American Experience: The
Assassination of President Lincoln, shown on PBS]. “We mourn for ourselves even when we mourn a great
public leader.”
“It was with the assassination that the myth of Abraham Lincoln was born. Lincoln was not universally liked or
beloved during his presidency. Millions of people hated him. Once he was assassinated, everything changed,”
adds James L. Swanson, author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer and a young adult version of
the story, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer.
“Abraham Lincoln came to power during an exceptionally turbulent (def: chaotic and restless) time,” says
American Experience executive producer Mark Samels. “America was, in essence, split in two, and this virtually
unknown, untested leader was tasked with solving the worst crisis in our collective history.”
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/assassination/introduction (WGBH American
Experience)
Author: Unknown
Article Title: “Introduction: The Assassination of President Lincoln”
Publisher: WGBH Educational Foundation
Copyright: 01-20-2009
Accessed by: Ms. Handley 03-21-2010
The Trial of the Lincoln
Assassination Conspirators
APRIL 14, 1865
For President Abraham Lincoln, things looked
brighter on Friday, April 14, 1865 than they had for
a long time. Five days earlier, General Robert E.
Lee effectively ended the long nightmare of the Civil War by surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia, and
just the previous day, the city of Washington celebrated the war's end by illuminating every one of its public
building with candles. Candles also burned in most private homes, causing a city paper to describe the nation's
capital as "all ablaze with glory." The President decided he could finally afford an evening of relaxation: he
would attend a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in downtown Washington.
About eight-thirty, the President and Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and his date, Clara
Harris, arrived in a carriage at Ford's Theatre on Tenth Street. As the presidential party entered the theatre,
the play was stopped and the band struck up "Hail to the Chief." The audience stood to give the President a
rousing (def: lively; full of energy) standing ovation.
The presidential party took their seats in a specially-prepared box on the left side of the stage. During the
second scene of the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth, a southern-sympathizing actor, climbed the stairs
to the mezzanine (def: lowest balcony in a theater). He showed a card to Lincoln's valet-footman (def: male
servant) and was allowed entry through a lobby door leading to the presidential box. Reaching the box, Booth
pushed open the door. The President sat in his armchair, one hand on the railing and the other holding to the
side a flag that decorated the box, in order to gain a better view of a person in the orchestra. From a distance
of about four feet behind Lincoln, Booth fired a bullet into the President's brain as he shouted "Revenge for the
South!" (according to one witness) or "Freedom!" (according to another). Major Rathbone sprang up to grab
the assassin, but Booth wrested (def: pulled away with an effort or struggle) himself away after slashing the
general with a large knife. Booth rushed to the front of the box as Rathbone reached for him again, catching
some of his clothes as Booth leapt over the railing. Rathbone's grab was enough to cause Booth to fall roughly
on the stage below, where he fractured the fibula (def: leg bone between the knee and ankle) in his left leg.
Rising from the stage, Booth shouted "Sic semper tyrannus!" and ran across the stage and toward the back of
the theatre. [Note: In Booth's diary, he insisted he shouted "Sic semper tyrannus!" ("Thus to tyrants!") before
he shot Lincoln. Most accounts of the assassination report that Booth broke his leg upon landing on the stage.
Eyewitnesses, however, did not report that Booth limped across the stage and one historian, Michael
Kaufmann, argued that Booth injured his leg in his hurried attempt to mount his horse after exiting Ford's
theater.] Ed Spangler, a Ford's theater stagehand, opened a rear door as Booth rushed out to a horse being
held for him by Joseph Burroughs (better known as "Peanuts"). Booth mounted the horse and swept rapidly
down an alley, then to the left toward F Street – and disappeared into the Washington darkness.
About 10:15, the same time as Booth fired his fatal (def: deadly) shot, two men well known to Booth, Lewis
Powell and David Herold, approached the Washington home of Secretary of State William Seward, where the
Secretary lay bedridden (def: forced to remain in bed) from a recent carriage accident. Powell knocked on the
door of Seward's home as Herold waited outside with his horse. Powell told the servant who answered the
door, William Bell, that he had a prescription for Secretary Seward from his doctor. Over Bell's objections,
Powell began walking up the steps toward the Secretary's room. One of the Secretary's sons, Frederick
Seward, confronted Powell. Seward told Powell he would take the medicine, but Powell insisted on seeing the
Secretary. When Seward continued to refuse him entry to the bedroom, Powell clubbed him violently with his
revolver (fracturing Seward's head so severely that he would remain in a coma for sixty days), then slashed the
Secretary's bodyguard, George Robinson, in the forehead with a bowie knife (def: single-edged hunting knife).
Finally reaching the Secretary in his bed, Powell – shouting, "I'm mad, I'm mad!" – stabbed him several times
before he could be pulled off by Robinson and two other men. Powell raced down the stairs and out the door
to his bay mare (def: horse).
Sometime after 10:30, Booth approached the Navy Yard bridge leading over the Potomac to Maryland.
Questioned by the sentry (def: lookout, probably a soldier) guarding the bridge about his purposes, Booth said
he was "going home" to his residence "close to Beantown (def: nickname for Boston)." The sentry allowed
Booth to pass. Five to ten minutes later a second rider, David Herold, approached the bridge. Herold told the
sentry his name was "Smith" and had been "in bad company" and wanted to get home to White Plains. The
sentry decided to let Herold pass. Shortly thereafter, Booth and Herold met up.
Booth and Herold arrived around midnight in Surrattsville, where they proceeded to a home and tavern kept
by John Lloyd. Herold burst into Lloyd's home shouting, "Lloyd, for God's sake, make haste (def: hurry) and get
those things!" Lloyd, without replying, turned to get two carbines (def: rifles) that had been delivered three
days earlier by Mary Surratt, owner of the tavern. Herold took the carbines and a bottle of whiskey. He gave
the whiskey bottle to Booth, who drank from it while sitting on his horse. In less than five minutes, they were
off again, heading south.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the President lay dying in a private home across the street from Ford's Theater.
Without ever regaining consciousness, he would live for seven more hours. . . .
INVESTIGATION AND ARRESTS
Less than six hours after the attack, investigators – under the direction of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton –
already began to focus on the 541 High Street home of Mary Surratt, a house where Booth was known to have
stayed during his frequent visits to Washington. Rousing (def: waking) Surratt from bed about four in the
morning, investigators questioned her about Booth's whereabouts. When the investigators left, Surratt
exclaimed to her daughter (according to Louis Weichmann, a boarder in Surratt's house), "Anna, come what
will, I am resigned. I think J. Wilkes Booth was only an instrument in the hands of the Almighty to punish this
proud and licentious (def: immoral) people."
On April 17, shortly after eleven at night, a team of military investigators again arrived at the Surratt home to
interview her and other residents about the assassination. While they were doing so, Lewis Powell, carrying a
pick-axe, knocked on the door. Powell – at the unlikely late-night hour – claimed to have been hired to dig a
gutter. Mary Surratt refused to back up his story. Surratt told investigators, "Before God, sir, I do not know
this man, and have never seen him, and I did not hire him to dig a gutter for me." While in the Surratt home,
investigators uncovered various pieces of incriminating evidence, including a picture of John Wilkes Booth
hidden behind another picture on a mantelpiece. Facing arrest, Surratt asked a minute to kneel and pray.
Surratt and Powell were taken into custody, where William Bell, Secretary's Seward's servant, identified Powell
as the man who had stabbed the Secretary.
The investigation, directed by Lafayette Baker of the National Detective Police, produced three more arrests on
the 17th. Investigators picked up Edman Spangler after gathering reports from theater-goers and nearby
residents that Booth had yelled for Spangler in the hours before the assassination and that Spangler had told a
theater worker who witnessed Booth's escape, "Don't say which way he went."
Samuel Arnold was arrested at Fortress Monroe in Maryland. Investigators determined Arnold to be the
author, "Sam," of a vaguely incriminating letter found in a search of a trunk in Booth's hotel room following the
assassination. In his March 27 letter to Booth, Arnold wrote, "You know full well that the [Government]
suspicions something is going on" and that "therefore the undertaking is becoming more complicated." He
declared, however, that initially "None, no not one, were more in favor of the enterprise (def: project) than
myself."
Arnold's arrest proved especially helpful because he identified a number of individuals he said had met in
March to plan the kidnapping of the President. According to Arnold, at a meeting at the Lichau House on
Pennsylvania Avenue in March, seven men developed a plan to abduct (def: kidnap) Lincoln at a theatre, take
him to Richmond, and hold him there until the Union agreed to release Confederate prisoners. Arnold said his
part was to have been "to catch the President when he was thrown out of the box at the theatre." In addition
to himself and Booth, Arnold told investigators that men at the meeting included Michael O'Laughlen, George
Atzerodt, John Surratt, a man with the alias of "Moseby," and another small man whose name he did not
know.
Two of the men identified by Arnold as part of the original kidnapping plan soon were in custody. One,
Michael O'Laughlen, voluntarily surrendered himself in Baltimore. O'Laughlen, wearing black clothes and a
slouch hat and claiming to be a lawyer, had allegedly (this contention would later be hotly disputed (def:
opposed) by his defense attorney) entered the home of the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, on the night
before the assassination and inquired about the Secretary's whereabouts. At the time of the attacks the next
night, however, O'Laughlen was not fulfilling his suspected assignment of assassinating Stanton, but was
instead drinking at the Rullman's Hotel.
George Atzerodt's arrest came on April 20 at the home of his cousin in Germantown, Maryland. Atzerodt had
aroused suspicion by asking a bartender on the day of the assassination at the Kirkwood Hotel in Washington
about the Vice President Andrew Johnson's whereabouts. (The Vice President had taken a room at the hotel.)
The day after Lincoln's assassination, a hotel employee contacted authorities concerning a "suspicious-looking
man" in "a gray coat" who had been seen around the Kirkwood. John Lee, a member of the military police
force, visited the hotel on April 15 and conducted a search of Atzerodt's room. The search revealed that the
bed had not been slept in the previous night. Lee discovered under a pillow a loaded revolver, a large bowie
knife, a map of Virginia, three handkerchiefs, and a bank book of John Wilkes Booth.
Meanwhile, efforts to apprehend (def: capture and arrest) Lincoln's assassin continued. Military investigators
tracking Booth's escape route south through Maryland reached the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd home on April
18. Mudd admitted that two men on horseback arrived at his home about four o'clock on the morning of April
15. The men, it turned out, were John Wilkes Booth – in severe pain with his fractured leg – and David Herold.
Mudd said that he welcomed the men into his house, placed Booth on his sofa for an examination, then carried
him upstairs to a bed where he dressed the limb. After daybreak, Mudd helped construct a pair of crude (def:
roughly made) crutches for Booth and tried, unsuccessfully, to secure a carriage for his two visitors. Booth
(after having shaved off his mustache in Mudd's home) and Herold left later on the fifteenth. Mudd told
investigator Alexander Lovett that the man whose leg he fixed "was a stranger to him." He also misled Lovett
about Booth's escape route, telling the investigator that the two men had headed south, when they actually
had departed to the east.
Lovett returned to the Mudd home three days later to conduct a search of Mudd's home. When Lovett told of
his intentions, Mudd's wife, Sarah, brought down from upstairs a boot that had been cut off the visitor's leg
three days earlier. Lovett turned down the top of the left-foot riding boot and "saw the name J Wilkes written
in it." Mudd told Lovett that he had not noticed the writing. Shown a photo of Booth, Mudd still claimed not
to recognize him – despite evidence gathered from other area residents that Mudd and Booth had been seen
together the previous November. Mudd became the seventh conspirator to be arrested.
Near the banks of the Rappahannock River in Virginia, investigators closed in on their prey on April 26. Everton
Conger and two other investigators pulled Willie Jett out of a bed in a hotel in Bowling Green to demand,
"Where are the two men who came with you across the river?" Jett knew that Conger meant Booth and
Herold. When Jett had talked with the two conspirators they had made no effort to hide their identity. Herold
had boldly declared, "We are the assassinators of the President. Yonder is J. Wilkes Booth, the man who killed
Lincoln." Jett told Conger that the men they sought "are on the road to Port Royal" at the home of "Mr.
Garrett's."
Reaching Garrett's farm, the government party ordered an old man, Garrett, out of his home and asked,
"Where are the two men who stopped here at your house?" "Gone to the woods," Garrett answered.
Unsatisfied with Garrett's response, Conger told one of his men, "Bring me a lariat (def: rope for tying up an
animal) rope here, and I will put that man up to the top of one of those locust trees." One of his sons broke in,
"Don't hurt the old man; he is scared; I will tell you where the men are – . . . in the barn."
Finding the suspects to be in the Garrett barn, Conger gave Booth and Herold five minutes to get out or, he
said, he would set fire to it. Booth responded, "Let us have a little time to consider it." After some discussion
in the barn, Booth proposed that if the capturing party were withdrawn "one hundred yards from the door, I
will come out and fight you." When his proposal – and a second one for a withdrawal to fifty yards – was
rejected, Booth said in a theatrical voice, "Well, my brave boys, prepare a stretcher for me." As Conger
ordered pine boughs (def: branches) placed against the barn to start a fire, Booth announced, "There's a man
who wants to come out." After being called "a damned coward" by his partner, David Herold stepped out of
the door of the barn and into the hands of his capturers.
Conger lit the fire minutes later. With flames rising around him, Booth, carrying a carbine (def: rifle), started
toward the door of the barn. A shot rang out from the gun of Sergeant Boston Corbett. Booth fell. Soldiers
carried Booth out on the grass. Booth turned to Conger and said, "Tell mother I die for my country." Moved
into Garrett's house, Booth revived somewhat. Repeatedly he begged of his captors, "Kill me, kill me." Booth
again weakened. Two or three hours after being shot, he died.
One suspected conspirator would elude (def: escape from) investigators for more than a year and would not
stand trial with the other eight: John Surratt, Jr., the son of Mary Surratt. Surratt fled to Canada after the
assassination. In September, Surratt traveled to England and later to Rome. Finally arrested in Egypt on
November 27, 1866, Surratt was brought back to the United States for trial in a civilian court in 1867. . . .
CONFEDERATE TERRORISM ON TRIAL
The War Department saw the trial as an opportunity to prosecute not only the eight charged conspirators, but
also the already-dead Booth, Jefferson Davis (def: President of the Confederate States that separated from the
Union during the Civil War) , and the Confederate Secret Service. Prosecutors suggested that as the war
turned in favor of the federal government, the Confederacy became increasingly willing to support dubious
(def: dishonest or immoral) enterprises that would have been rejected under less desperate circumstances.
Witnesses told of Confederate plots to destroy public buildings, burn steamboats, poison the public water
supply of New York City, offer commissions (def: money) to raiders (def: attackers) of northern cities, mine
(def: empty) a federal prison, starve Union prisoners-of-war, and even mount a biological attack. . . .
. . . The prosecution offered evidence to show that the conspiracy against Abraham Lincoln and other high
government officials began sometime after the battle at Gettysburg – probably in the summer of 1864.
Witness Sanford Conover (whose real name later turned out to be Charles Durham) reported Confederate
Secret Service head Jacob Thompson as identifying the goal of the conspiracy as to "leave the government
entirely without a head" by killing not only Lincoln, but also Vice President Johnson, Secretary of War Stanton,
Secretary of State Seward, and General Grant. Conover, a former employee of the Rebel war Department, in
what is widely believed to be perjurious (def: dishonest, particularly under oath) testimony quoted Thompson
as saying there was "no provision (def: preparation) in the Constitution of the United States by which, if these
men were removed, they could elect another President." . . .
. . . Key government witness Louis Weichmann – a boarder (def: person renting a room) at Mary Surratt's and a
friend of Booth, Powell, and other conspirators – testified that on March 27, 1865 John Surratt visited
Richmond and conferred (def: had a discussion) with Confederate Attorney General Judah Benjamin and
President Jefferson Davis. Surratt returned from Richmond to Washington, before heading north out of the
Capital on April 3. On April 6, John Surratt arrived in Montreal carrying with him – according to the
prosecution's theory – final approval for Booth's assassination attempt. Sanford Conover, a former employee
of the Rebel War Department, testified that he was present at a meeting in the Montreal hotel room of Jacob
Thompson when dispatches (def: messages) brought by Surratt from Richmond, including a letter in cipher
(def: code) from Jefferson Davis, were discussed. According to Conover's testimony – strongly attacked by
latter-day supporters of Davis – "Thompson laid his hand [on the dispatches from Richmond] and said, "This
makes the thing all right." A Canadian banker testified that Jacob Thompson withdrew $184,000 from the over
$600,000 in his private Montreal account on April 6. Special Judge Advocate John Bingham, in his summation
(def: final argument in court) for the government, found the evidence against Jefferson Davis damning:
What more is wanting (def: missing)? Surely no word further need be spoken to show that John Wilkes
Booth was in this conspiracy; that John Surratt was in this conspiracy; and that Jefferson Davis and his
several agents named, in Canada, were in this conspiracy. . . . Whatever may be the conviction (def:
belief) of others, my own conviction is that Jefferson Davis is as clearly proven guilty of this conspiracy
as John Wilkes Booth, by whose hand Jefferson Davis inflicted the mortal (def: causing death) wound
on Abraham Lincoln.
Bingham found further confirmation of Davis's guilt in a letter of October 13, 1864, discovered in the
possession of Booth after the assassination of Lincoln. The ciphered (def: written in code) letter, which
notified Booth that "their friends would be set to work as he had directed," was proven to have been typed on
a cipher machine recovered from a room in Davis's State Department in Richmond. Finally, Bingham found
incriminating Davis's reaction in North Carolina upon learning of the President's assassination: "If it were to be
done at all, it were better that it were well done." . . .
SENTENCES AND EXECUTIONS
On June 29, 1865, the Military Commission met in secret session to begin its review of the evidence in the
seven-week long trial. A guilty verdict could come with a majority vote of the nine-member commission; death
sentences required the votes of six members. The next day, it reached its verdicts. The Commission found
seven of the prisoners guilty of at least one of the conspiracy charges, and Spangler guilty of aiding and
abetting Booth's escape. Four of the prisoners (Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, and David
Herold) were sentenced "to be hanged by the neck until he [or she] be dead." Samuel Arnold, Dr. Samuel
Mudd and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to "hard labor for life, at such place at the President shall
direct." Edman Spangler received a six-year sentence. . . .
EPILOGUE AND THE CONSPIRACY AS NOW UNDERSTOOD
. . . Military personnel escorted Dr. Samuel Mudd, Michael O'Laughlen, Edman Spangler and Samuel Arnold to
Fort Jefferson in Dry Tortugas, Florida. . . . On March 1, 1869, Mudd and the other three imprisoned
conspirators received an eleventh-hour (def: at the last possible moment) presidential pardon (def: official
release from further punishment) from President Johnson. . . .
Over the years, critics have attacked the verdicts, sentences, and procedures of the 1865 Military Commission.
These critics have called the sentences unduly (def: excessively) harsh, and criticized the rule allowing the
death penalty to be imposed with a two-thirds vote of Commission members. The hanging of Mary Surratt, the
first woman ever executed by the United States, has been a particular focus of criticism. . . .
There does seem little question, however, that four of the convicted conspirators participated – in ways either
large or small – in Booth's plan to assassinate key federal officials. Lewis Powell clearly attempted to stab to
death Secretary Seward. David Herold, Dr. Samuel Mudd, and Edman Spangler aided Booth's escape from
Washington. Herold and Mudd provided aid to Booth with full knowledge of his crime – and Spangler most
likely did as well.
The four other convicted conspirators – and Jefferson Davis – undoubtedly supported at least Booth's original
plan, to kidnap Lincoln and take him to Richmond. George Atzerodt, in a confession made shortly before he
was hanged, admitted to have willingly agreed to play an important role in the planned abduction (def:
kidnapping), but claimed not to have supported the assassination – and to have first heard of the plan to
assassinate Lincoln just two hours before Booth fired his fatal shot. Arnold also admitted his initial willingness
to participate in the kidnap plot. The evidence with respect to O'Laughlen's and Mary Surratt's complicity (def:
involvement) in the scheme is only slightly less compelling (def: requiring action or belief). Recent scholarship
(def: academic study) has strengthened the already strong evidence that approval for the kidnapping came
directly from Jefferson Davis. William Tidwell's Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the
Assassination of Lincoln shows that large numbers of Confederate troops had massed (def: gathered) in March
of 1865 in the northern neck of Virginia along what must have been a planned route to take Lincoln to
Richmond. Apart from a planned abduction of Lincoln, there was no plausible (def: believable; possible)
strategic reason for their placement in that area.
The prosecution fairly can be faulted (def: blamed) for intentionally obscuring (def: hiding) the fact that there
were two conspiracies involving Lincoln in 1865: the original abduction plan, developed in the fall of 1864 and
supported by all eight conspirators and top Confederate leadership, and Booth's assassination plan, conceived
only after the original plan fell through when Lincoln cancelled plans to attend a play at the Campbell Hosptial
on the outskirts of Washington on March 17. (The plan had been to intercept the President's carriage as it
returned from the matinee performance.) . . .
Source: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/lincolnaccount.html (The Trial of
the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators)
Author: Doug Linder
Publisher: unknown
Article Title: “The Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators”
Published: 2009
Accessed by: Ms. Handley 03-21-2010
The Lincoln Assassination and Its Aftermath
Introduction:
. . . [Lincoln’s assassination] had a profound (def: very great) impact on the United States. The political
leadership in the North were stunned, the public were distraught. . . . The news of the death of Abraham
Lincoln . . . took many hours to spread across the American continent. However, the reaction of the people,
who saw no repeated footage of the assassin’s act, was far more emotionally volatile (def: unstable; situation
that could quickly become angry or violent) [than reactions to President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963].
The intention of this talk is not simply to rehash (def: repeat) the events surrounding the murder itself, but to
also look at the immediate impact this event had on the American people, particularly those in the Northern
states. A considerable factor in the depth of the public response to Lincoln’s assassination was the fact that
the American Civil War had all but ended. Only the army under Confederate General Joseph Johnston
remained unvanquished (def: undefeated), in addition to several small units in the west. The Northern states
were in a celebratory mood after the news of capture of Petersburg and Richmond, followed by the
surrender of General Robert E. Lee and the army of North Virginia. The formal celebration of Lee’s, and in
effect the South’s, surrender had taken place on 11th April, during which Lincoln gave a speech from the
White House to crowds outside about the problems of reconstruction (def: restoring the southern states to
the Union). One man in this crowd, whose name was John Wilkes Booth, did not share the delirious (def:
extremely excited or emotional) joy of the people around him. After President Lincoln finished his message,
Booth was heard to mutter “That’s the last speech he will ever make”. . . .
The Public Reaction:
By the time of his death Lincoln had become a minority political leader; he was despised by the
disenfranchised (def: deprived of rights, especially voting rights) South, and opposed by the Democratic Party
in the North and radical elements in the Republican Party. Many influential newspapers were against Lincoln,
and he was held in low esteem by most politicians. Therefore the depth and spontaneity (def: sudden, the
result of impulse instead of planning) of emotion raised by President Lincoln’s death struck many by surprise.
...
On the 15th April, as word of the murder crossed the nation, bells tolled (def: rang) and cannons were fired
every half hour for a day and night. Union armies were aroused by the news and wanted to wreak vengeance
(def: cause chaos and destruction as punishment) on the South. There was widespread suspicion among
soldier and citizen alike that the assassinations were part of a wider Confederate plot. As buildings were
draped in black and businesses closed, mobs forced known or suspected sympathizers of the South (including
two ex-Presidents) to decorate their own homes in mourning black. Grief and anger struck the Northern
states in roughly equal proportion. Even many who had hated Lincoln were enraged, and Southern
sympathizers hid from mobs either in their homes or police stations. Some were tarred and feathered (def:
covered in tar and feathers, a punishment at the time), others were ridden on rails. There were instances of
open supporters of the South being beaten to death, and of Union troops shooting people who exulted (def:
celebrated) in Lincoln’s death. Police arrested some for insulting Lincoln, dragging them to courts where
prison sentences were meted (def: given) out. Alternately police were called upon to save the lives of others
who had uttered some similarly foolish sentiments.
Hatred had beset (def: filled) the North. This emotional state was fuelled by newspaper editors, many of
whom had previously reviled (def: hated) Lincoln. Admittedly there were some staunchly (def: showing
loyalty) Democratic and anti-Lincoln areas in the North that widely celebrated the President’s murder, such as
Union County, Illinois and Marietta, Indiana. News of such celebrations provoked further outrage in the larger
population. Radical Republicans seized control during this period, whipping up public anger, and pleading
with the new President, Andrew Johnson, to allow reprisals (def: retaliations; punishments) against the
former Rebels (def: Southern states). The Radicals had long believed that Lincoln’s plans for amnesty (def:
forgiveness) and reconstruction (def: restoring the Southern states to the Union) in the South were weak, and
dearly wanted the South to suffer for its secession (def: breaking away from the Union). In general, the South
reacted against the assassination of Lincoln. Confederate army veterans were particularly quick to express
their abhorrence (def: hatred of) to the assassination. Most Southern newspaper editors also denounced
(def: criticized) the act of Booth and his accomplices. However, the Southern response was equally motivated
out of sympathy for Lincoln and fears for the South, for they saw the instatement (def: installation in office)
of President Johnson as a great calamity (def: disaster).
On 16th April, Easter Sunday, churches were fuller than they had been for the previous 10 years. From the
pulpits came additional cries for vengeance (def: revenge) against the slave-holding South, ignoring any need
for evidence of the South’s involvement in Lincoln’s assassination. Rare amongst the religious leaders was the
voice of moderation and conciliation (def: bringing opposing parties together). A number of preachers even
implied that Lincoln had been removed by God’s intent because he was too merciful towards the South. A
resounding (def: clear) theme that emerged, and would remain, in religious services was that Lincoln had
been ordained (def: formally chosen) by God to do his work on earth. The politician had taken on a divine
(def: godlike) image, compared frequently to Moses, sometimes even to Jesus. Parallels were drawn with the
fact the Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, which was seen as further evidence of his martyrdom (def:
someone sacrificed for the greater good). Unlike Christ the President did not rise again. Nevertheless,
Abraham Lincoln’s human qualities were downplayed while his heart and soul were lionized (def: made into a
celebrity).
Plans began to be made for Abraham Lincoln’s burial. Many states desired to inter (def: bury) the dead
President within their borders, citing Lincoln’s strong connections with their respective areas; eventually
Springfield, Illinois, was chosen. There was great demand to see the body, and a long path by rail (def: train)
was selected for Lincoln’s journey to his grave, mapped to retrace his path to Washington in 1861 [for his
inauguration as President]. Nobody had predicted the depths of mourning that would greet the dead
President. Over 25,000 people went to the White House on 18th April to see the body, which was then taken
by grand procession to the Capitol where another 25,000 paid their respects. When the dead President left
Washington by a funeral train, 7 days after his death, massive crowds came to witness its passage. Both cities
and town were packed with mourners, often bidding to outdo rival cities in their display of grief. People
would travel for days to line alongside the rail tracks in the hope of a brief glimpse of the funeral train as it
passed by. It is estimated that a staggering total of 7 million Northerners looked upon the hearse or coffin, of
which 1.5 million had looked upon Lincoln’s face. The funeral procession finally ended after 14 days in
Springfield, Illinois. . . .
Conclusion:
. . . The public mourning for the murdered President evolved into an idolization of Lincoln. This process was
assisted by political leaders who sought to use Lincoln’s death for their own ends, and religious leaders, who
imbued (def: filled) the President with a religious significance akin to Sainthood. No doubt many Americans in
the northern states were genuinely moved by Lincoln’s death. They were struck with the bittersweet
sensation of being victorious in war, while suffering the most grievous loss in peace.
The effect of Lincoln’s assassination on American history and mythology is immense. The event itself spawned
so many conspiracy theories, both at the time and today, that Oliver Stone (def: screenwriter who made a
movie suggesting Kennedy’s assassination was the result of a conspiracy) would be envious. Even Lincoln’s
murderer would be elevated to the status of folk legend, although the stories of Booth never being captured
lingered on, and the deaths of many “real” John Wilkes Booth occurred in the later parts of the 19th century. .
. . Needless to say, Lincoln maintains a special and revered place in the minds of many Americans, as well as
foreigners. His symbolic value was crafted in his untimely death, which overshadowed many of his political
and personal flaws. Abraham Lincoln’s assassination became a defining moment in history. Lincoln’s Secretary
of War, Edwin Stanton, was most prescient (def: knowing in advance) when he witnessed the President’s last
breath and declared: “Now he belongs to the ages.”
Source: http://www.americancivilwar.asn.au/conf/2006/lincoln_assassination.pdf (American Civil War
Roundtable of Australia (NSW Chapter) 2006 Conference Papers)
Author: unknown
Publisher: American Civil War Roundtable of Australia, Inc. (NSW Chapter)
Article Title: “The Lincoln Assassination and Its Aftermath”
Published: 2006
Accessed by: Ms. Handley 03-21-2010
Putting it All Together
Complete the following Thinking Maps™ with information from the various/all the articles. Look at the
sections you highlighted to guide you to the right areas.
Tree Map: Use the information you highlighted in the articles above to answer the first and third questions in
the Tree Map below. Each of the “branches” has one of the essential questions you will need to answer in
your research paper. Be sure to list as many answers as you can think of; you can always add “rows” to the
bottom of the tree map if you need more space, but you must fill in the rows that are provided. Next to each
entry, cite the author’s last name or the title of the article (if the author is “unknown”) you obtained the
information from. You must use each article at least once.
Flow Map: Use the following flow map to answer the essential question, “What was the timeline of events that
enabled the assassination to take place or almost take place?” by using the information in the articles above. You can
add boxes to the timeline if you need them, but you must fill in all the boxes that are here. Remember that each box is
for a different event that makes up the story of the assassination, and the events should be in chronological order. Cite
the author’s last name or title of the article you gained the information from just outside the boxes that contain the
information.
Multi-Flow Map: In the Multi-Flow Map below, paraphrase (def: restate using other words) the causes and effects of the
(attempted) assassination. The “Cause” section (the left side) should answer the essential question, “What motivated the
(would be) assassins to commit murder?”The “Effect” section (the right side) should answer the essential question, “What
was/were the political result(s) of the assassination or attempt?” You can add boxes to the multi-flow map if you need
them, but you must fill up the boxes that are there. Cite the author’s last name or title of the article you gained the
information from just outside the boxes that contain the information.