JOHN WILKES BOOTH SHOOTS PRESIDENT LINCOLN AT FORD'S
At 10:15 p.m., a single pistol shot was heard as Mr. Lincoln was sitting in a rocking chair along side his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. The bullet, fired from a Deringer pistol at close range, entered the back of the President's head.
The assassin, later identified as the well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth*, grappled with one of Lincoln's theater guests, Major Henry Rathbone, then leaped to the stage below. Booth then fled out the back of the theater and escaped on horseback.
Mr. William Petersen, who owned a boardinghouse opposite Ford's on 10th Street, offered use of one of his rooms on the 1st floor. Mrs. Mary Lincoln, in a frantic state, followed her husband into the boarding house.
SOURCES
"The Assassination: Death of the President," by Champ Clark, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA, 1987.
"We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts," edited by Timothy S. Good, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, 1995.
The Presidential Box
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) John F. Kennedy was the fourth and hopefully the last POTUS to be assassinated. The first was President Abraham Lincoln who was shot on April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theater on 10th Street here in the Nation's Capital.
At 10:15 p.m., a single pistol shot was heard as Mr. Lincoln was sitting in a rocking chair along side his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. The bullet, fired from a Deringer pistol at close range, entered the back of the President's head.
The assassin, later identified as the well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth*, grappled with one of Lincoln's theater guests, Major Henry Rathbone, then leaped to the stage below. Booth then fled out the back of the theater and escaped on horseback.
One of the eyewitnesses in the theater at the time of the shooting described it as follows...
"...a pistol was fired and...Lincoln (was) shot...a second (later) a man vaulted over the ballister of the box saying Sic Semper Tyrannis and adding revenge for the South, ran across the stage with a knife in his right hand."
After some delay getting into the theater box, assistance was rendered to the President. Dr. Charles Leale located the wound in the back of Lincoln's head.
He immediately determined this wound to be mortal. Fearing the President would die before he could be returned to the White House, Dr. Leale directed soldiers to carry Lincoln to the nearest bed.
He immediately determined this wound to be mortal. Fearing the President would die before he could be returned to the White House, Dr. Leale directed soldiers to carry Lincoln to the nearest bed.
Mr. William Petersen, who owned a boardinghouse opposite Ford's on 10th Street, offered use of one of his rooms on the 1st floor. Mrs. Mary Lincoln, in a frantic state, followed her husband into the boarding house.
The President was laid diagonally across the single bed in the room because it was too short for his 6'4" frame. Dr. Leale was assisted by Dr. Charles Sabin Taft and Dr. Albert F. King who both were in the theater at the time of the shooting. President Lincoln lingered through the night, but died at 7:22 on the morning of April 15, 1865.
*John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) was born in Bel Air, MD to a prominent theatrical family. JWB attended Bel Air Academy, Milton Boarding School & St. Timothy's Hall before debuting on stage at age 17. He was a nationally known leading man by the late 1850s.
During the Civil War, JWB was a Confederate sympathizer known to oppose abolition & was devastated by the surrender of Lee in early April 1865. After shooting AL, JWB was on the run for 2 weeks before being surrounded in a barn in Virginia where he was shot & killed.
SOURCES
"The Assassination: Death of the President," by Champ Clark, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA, 1987.
"We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts," edited by Timothy S. Good, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, 1995.
The Presidential Box
Ford's Theater
Photo by John White (2016)
