PRESIDENT LINCOLN DEAD
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On Saturday, April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died in the Petersen House* on 10th Street here in the Nation's Capital across from Ford's Theater where he was shot in the head by actor/Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at 10:15 last evening.
The outcome was never in doubt. Attending physician Dr. Charles Leale determined very quickly after his examination that Mr. Lincoln's wound was mortal.
At 7:22 Washington time, the sixteenth President of the United States was pronounced dead, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton said..."And now he belongs to the ages."
JFK+50 NOTE
President Lincoln, 56 years old, never regained consciousness but Dr. Leale stayed by his bedside holding his hand just to let him know "he had a friend."
John Wilkes Booth escaped on horseback and was cornered in a Virginia tobacco barn about two weeks later and killed. Booth was the ringleader of a conspiracy which included confederates who planned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson & Secretary of State William Seward.
*The Petersen House, built in 1849, is located at 516 10th St., NW, Washington, D.C. It was owned in 1865 by German immigrants William & Anna Petersen. Dubbed, "the house where Lincoln died," it is now operated by the National Park Service.
SOURCES
"President Abraham Lincoln Is Dead," JFK+50, April 15, 2011, www.jfk50.blogspot.com/
"The Petersen House," National Park Service, www.nps.gov/
