Ford's Theater: The Box Seat Where Lincoln was Shot
Assassination of
the President.—On the morning of April 14, l865,
General Grant arrived in
Washington, and attended a meeting of the cabinet at eleven o'clock.
An arrangement was made at the close of the meeting for the President
and the general to attend Ford's Theatre in the evening, and a box was
engaged. The general was called to New York, and did not attend. The
President, with
Mrs. Lincoln and a little party, was there. Mr. Lincoln was seated
in a high-backed chair. .
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The play was Our American Cousin;
and just before its close, at a little past ten o'clock,
John Wilkes Booth, an actor, entered the President's box, closed and
fastened the door behind him, and, with a derringer pistol in one hand
and a dagger in the other, he rested the former on the back of the chair
occupied by the President and shot him. The ball entered behind his ear,
passed through his brain, and lodged near one of his eyes. The President
lived nine hours afterwards, but in an insensible state. The assassin
was seized by Major Rathbone, who was in the box. Booth dropped his
pistol, struck Rathbone on the arm with his dagger, tore away from his
grasp, rushed to the front of the box with the gleaming weapon in his
hand, and, shouting "Sic semper tyrannis !" ("So may it always be with
tyrants!"—the motto on the seal of Virginia), leaped upon the stage. He
was booted and spurred for a night ride. One of his spurs caught in the
flag, and he fell. Rising, he turned to the audience and said, The South
is avenged!" and then
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The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
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escaped by a back door. There he mounted
a horse which a boy had held for him, fled across the Anacosta, and
found temporary refuge among sympathizing friends in Maryland. The
President died the next morning, April 15, 1865.
Capture of John Wilkes
Booth
Booth was pursued and overtaken in
Virginia, concealed in a barn. He refused to surrender. The barn was set
on fire, and the assassin was shot by a sergeant.
The President's body was embalmed and
taken back to his home in Springfield by almost the same route as he
went to the capital more than four years before. Everywhere loyal people
of the land were his sincere mourners. Foreign governments and
distinguished men expressed their grief and sympathy, and French
Democrats testified their appreciation of his character and services by
causing a magnificent gold medal to be struck and presented to the
President's widow. It is about four inches in diameter. One side bears a
profile, in relief, of Mr. Lincoln, surrounded by the words, in French,
"Dedicated by the French Democracy. A. Lincoln. twice elected President
of the United States." On the reverse is an altar, bearing the following
inscription, also in French: "Lincoln, Honest Man. Abolished Slavery,
Re-established the Union, and Saved the Republic, without Veiling the
Statue of Liberty. He was Assassinated the 14th of April, I865." Below
all are the words: '' Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." On one side of
the altar stands winged Victory, with her right hand resting upon a
sword and her left holding a civic wreath. On the other side stand two
emancipated slaves —the younger, a lad, offering a palm branch, and the
elder pointing him to the American eagle, bearing the shield, the
olive-branch, and the lightning, with the motto of the Union. The older
freedman holds the musket of the militia-man. Near them are the emblems
of industry and progress. Over the altar is a triangle, emblematic of
trinity—the trinity of man's inalienable rights—liberty, equality, and
fraternity. |