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A Summary Of Booth's Assassination

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On the morning of April 14, 1865, Booth went to visit Ford's Theater, something he often did, and at this visit he learned that the President would be visiting the Theatre to see a play that night.(Holzer “The president is shot” 90) Booth decided that this was his chance, that he would assassinate the president and have his accomplishes murder other heads of the government, thinking that the combination of these might be enough to save what was left of the Confederacy.(Marrin 211) However, Booth was not the first to want to kill the president, in fact Abraham Lincoln recived so many threats by mail that he kept some of them in an envelope labeled “Assassination”.(Holzer “The president is shot” 42) In spite of this, Booth believed that this …show more content…
Once Booth was set on assassinating, he called all the men who were a part of the kidnapping scheme to help him with the biggest blow to the Union since the beginning of the war. John Surratt, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen, though willing to kidnap the president, did not wish to be a part of the assassination.(Holzer “The president is shot 98-99) With three less than he previously had, Booth was left with George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell and David Herold. Booth gave them their tasks, Atzerodt will murder the Vice President, Andrew Johnson, Powell will murder William Seward, the Secretary of state, and Herold will help Powell escape.(Wilmore 13) At 6:00pm Booth went to Ford's to make his preparations, he came to the hallway behind the box seats and used his knife to carve a divot in the wall opposite to the door, with this he could block the door with a stick that he hid before leaving.(Holzer “The president is shot” 101) At 9:00pm Booth again came to the theatere, however, this time when he left he would be the Presidents murderer. …show more content…
When the reality of the event was understood the audience was thrown into a frenzy as women fainted and people yelled “Catch him!”, “Hang him!” and “Kill him!”. (holzer “The president is shot” 112-113) Even with the horrendous pain in his leg, while Booth rode away he was satisfied because he would now be forever remember as the first person to assassinate an American President. However, unlike Booth, his companions did not accomplish their assigned tasks. After forcing his way into the Secretary of state's house, Powell came into the bedroom where Seward was sleeping and began to slash his face with his knife. This did not kill him though, because Seward had been in a riding accident and has wearing a metal brace around neck that probably saved his life, and before Powell could do any more damage he was chased out of the house.(Holzer "the

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