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A Summary Of John Wilkes Booth's Assassination

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Assassinating a president was unheard of until John Wilkes Booth had assassinated the sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, on April 14th, 1865. This was the first assassination of a president ever. John Wilkes Booth had assassinated president Lincoln but he did not act alone.
John Wilkes Booth had many accomplices in this act. One of Booth's accomplices was Lewis Powell. Booth had met Powell at a hotel and he soon recruited him to help with his plan to take down the president and the leading power in the government. Booth had also took in George Atzerodt to help in this horrific act. Lewis Powell was sent to attempt to murder Secretary of State William Henry Seward, but this did not go as planned. Powell ended up attempting to shoot Seward's son but he had misfired. He had also slashed Sergeant George F. Robinson an army nurse watching over Seward. Also in his attempt to reach Seward he had punched Seward's daughter in the face. When he had got to Seward he had stabbed and slashed him on the neck and cheek.(Blakemore) George Atzerodt had become filled with fear so he did not complete his task. Atzerodt’s task was to murder vice president Andrew Johnson at his hotel. Atzerodt had not even make it past the hotel bar. He was going to drink a little bit to calm his nerves but he kept drinking …show more content…
Although he did not plan on jumping out of the window and breaking his leg that is what happened. Outside there was someone waiting with a horse for him. (“John Wilkes Booth shoots Abraham Lincoln”) Booths run was cut short though. This is because he had been tracked down by 10,000 troops, detectives, and police officers. (“ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S ASSASSINATION”) He was caught on April 26th, along with David Herold. Officers had given the two of them the chance to surrender. Herold had surrendered while Booth did not. This resulted in the officers setting fire to the barn that Booth was in. An officer had shot Booth while the others arrested

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