Assassination:


Lincoln had met frequently with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant as the war drew to a close. The two men planned matters of reconstruction, and it was evident to all that they held each other in high regard. During their last meeting, on April 14, 1865 (Good Friday), Lincoln invited Grant to a social engagement that evening. Grant declined. Finally, Major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris (his step-sister and fiancee) agreed to go.

John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate spy from Maryland, heard that the president and Mrs. Lincoln, along with the Grants, would be attending Ford's Theatre. Having failed in a plot to kidnap Lincoln earlier, Booth informed his co-conspirators of his intention to kill Lincoln. Others were assigned to assassinate Vice-President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward.

Without his main bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon, to whom he related his famous dream of his own assassination, Lincoln left to attend the play, Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theater. As a lone bodyguard wandered, and Lincoln sat in his state box (Box 7) in the balcony, Booth crept up behind the President's box and waited for the funniest line of the play, hoping the laughter would cover the gunshot noise. On stage, actor Harry Hawk said, "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap..." When the laughter came Booth jumped into the box the president was in and aimed a single-shot, round-slug .44 caliber Deringer at his head, firing at point-blank range. The bullet entered behind Lincoln's left ear and lodged behind his right eyeball. Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth but was cut by Booth's knife. Booth then shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!" (Latin: "Thus always to tyrants") and escaped, but was later shot dead in Virginia. This happened on Good Friday, April 14, 1865.


An army surgeon, Dr. Charles Leale quickly assessed the wound as mortal. The President was taken across the street from the theater to the Petersen House, where he lay in a coma for nine hours before he died. Several physicians attended Lincoln, including U.S. Army Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes of the Army Medical Museum. Using a probe, Barnes located some fragments of Lincoln's skull and the ball lodged 6 inches inside his brain. Lincoln, who never regained consciousness, was officially pronounced dead at 7:22 A.M. the next morning, April 15, 1865. There is some disagreement among historians as to Stanton's words after Lincoln died. All agree he began "Now he belongs to the..." with some stating he said "ages" with others believe he said "angels". After Lincoln's body was returned to the White House, his body was prepared for his "lying in state" in the East Room.

The Army Medical Museum, now named the National Museum of Health and Medicine, has retained in its collection since the time of Lincoln's death, several artifacts relating to the assassination. Currently on display in the museum are the bullet that was fired from the Deringer pistol, ending Lincoln's life, the probe used by Barnes, pieces of his skull and hair and the surgeon's cuff, stained with Lincoln's blood. The museum can be found at www.hmhm.washingtondc.museum

Lincoln's body was carried by train in a grand funeral procession through several states on its way back to Illinois. The nation mourned a man whom many viewed as the savior of the United States. He was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, where a 177 foot (54 m) tall granite tomb surmounted with several bronze statues of Lincoln was constructed by 1874. To prevent repeated attempts to steal Lincoln's body and hold it for ransom, Robert Todd Lincoln had Lincoln exhumed and reinterred in concrete several feet thick in 1901.