The Assassination of Lincoln: Fords Theatre
1865 · event
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln settled into the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., eager for an evening of respite. The American Civil War had devastated the nation for four years, and though Union victory appeared imminent, the president's face bore the deep lines of accumulated sorrow. Beside him sat Mary Todd, his devoted wife, alongside Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris. The orchestra struck up as the curtain rose on "Our American Cousin," a lighthearted comedy meant to provide temporary escape from the weight of leadership and loss that had shadowed Lincoln's presidency.
As the third act unfolded and laughter rippled through the theatre, John Wilkes Booth, a celebrated actor and passionate Confederate sympathizer, slipped into the presidential box. His hand trembled as he raised a derringer pistol to the back of Lincoln's head. The shot rang out, sudden and terrible, its significance not immediately grasped by many in the audience who believed it part of the performance. Lincoln slumped forward, mortally wounded, his face grotesquely transformed in an instant from peaceful repose to tragedy.
The president was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where physicians fought desperately through the night to save him. But the wound was beyond healing. In the grey dawn of April 15, surrounded by his cabinet and closest advisors, Abraham Lincoln breathed his last, his great work unfinished, the nation robbed of its leader at history's most fragile moment.