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Chasing Lincoln’s Killer is a book about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It begins in 1865, when the Civil War was finally over and Robert E. Lee had surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9th. Lincoln decided to spend time with his wife Mary Todd because she’d been depressed since their son died in 1862. On April 14th, they went to Ford’s Theater for a play that turned out to be “Our American Cousin”.
Meanwhile, one of the most celebrated actors in the country was devastated by the Confederacy’s impending loss. The actor had plotted to kidnap president Lincoln and use this hostage to affect the outcome of the war. He traveled to Canada, made contact with Confederate sympathizers and forged connections. He then met with co-conspirators who would eventually be involved in assassinating Lincoln: David Herold, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, a family called Surratt and Dr. Samuel Mudd (who set Booth’s broken leg). In both instances when he could have shot him—on March 4th 1865 and April 11th 1865—he didn’t take that opportunity because he knew it wouldn’t make a difference anymore.
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth took advantage of the opportunity to kill President Lincoln. He heard that the president and his wife would be attending a performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C., so he quickly contacted some members of his previous assassination plot against other government officials. Lewis Powell was assigned to attack Secretary of State William H. Seward; David Herold was supposed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson; and Booth himself would murder Abraham Lincoln during a performance at Ford’s Theater. One man involved in the conspiracy refused to commit any murders but agreed after being threatened by Booth, while Mary Surratt prepared supplies for Booth after killing Lincoln.
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in the head at Ford’s Theater. The president was watching a play when he got shot in the back of his head by Booth during a moment where everyone laughed uproariously. Major Henry Rathbone lunged toward him and tried to catch him but was stabbed viciously instead. Booth jumped off the presidential box onto the stage and broke his leg on impact with the floor because Rathbone had been grabbing for him while trying to stop him from escaping. Ignoring pain, he yelled “sic semper tyrannis”, which means “thus always to tyrants” along with “the South is avenged”. He then escaped out of Ford’s theater through an alleyway that led across a bridge into Maryland where he convinced guards there to let him cross despite it being 9 PM curfew time.
There was a lot of confusion in the theater. A young doctor named Charles Leale rushed to the president’s booth and discovered that he had been stabbed, but he didn’t see any wounds on Lincoln’s body. He then opened up Lincoln’s eyes and realized there was an injury to his brain. The only thing he could do at that point was stabilize him until other doctors arrived. It would not be appropriate for Lincoln to die in a place of entertainment, so they carried him out into the street where they found a room in a boarding house across from Ford’s Theater and managed to get him inside before anything else happened.
Meanwhile, Lewis Powell and David Herold planned on how to get into the Seward house. They had heard that he was injured in a carriage accident recently. He would be vulnerable if they attacked him now. Powell carried medicine with him and told William Bell, who answered the door, that it was for Seward’s doctor to give to the secretary himself because of his injuries from an accident last week. However, Bell refused to let Powell see Seward or talk about giving him medicine so he went looking for where Seward was lying down. He fought viciously with Frederick and Augustus (Seward’s sons) as well as Fanny (Sewards daughter).
