April 15, 1865
The day Lincoln was assassinated is a day that a lot of people know, but not many people know the events that led up to the him being killed. While I was visiting Washington DC, I was able to take a trip to the Ford Theater and go on a tour through it.
Inside of the theater they had a hallway and on the walls were pictures. One side of the hallway had a timeline of what Lincoln was doing throughout that day. The other side had a timeline of what John Wilkes Booth was doing. It was pretty interesting to see how they both went about the day, one was going along like it was just any other day, while the other was preparing to murder the President of the United States.
Here are pictures that I took of the timeline so you all can see what happened throughout the day:
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The Shot
At 10:15 pm Booth snuck into the box where Lincoln and Mary were and he shot him in the back of the head with a .44 caliber derringer pistol.
A young Army officer named Henry Rathbone and his fiance were also in the booth. Rathbone rushed towards Booth to try and stop him but was stabbed and then Booth turned to jump from the balcony. As Booth jumped he shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!” which means "Thus ever to tyrants" which is the Virginia state motto.
Booth jumped from the balcony and landed on the stage, breaking his leg. During all the chaos, he was able to slip out of the theater and escape on the horse he got earlier.
Lincoln was taken from the theater across the street to the Petersen House, which was just a boarding house at the time, but is not a historical site. Here is a picture of one of the pillows that Lincoln was laying on when he died that is still stained with his blood.
The Search for Booth
After Booth fled, he was able to meet up with some accomplices along the way, one of them being David Herold, and headed to Maryland. After getting his leg treated by a doctor named Samuel Mudd, they got a boat and crossed the Potomac River towards Virginia.
On April 26th, Union troops were able to finally catch up to them and cornered them in a farmhouse in Virginia. The troops set fire to the home in an attempt to flush them out. Herold surrendered and exited the farmhouse, but Booth remained inside the burning building.
One of the soldiers claims that Booth raised a weapon towards him, so he fired off a round, striking him in the neck. The soldiers were able to go inside and carry him out alive. He stayed alive for the next three hours and then said his last words as he was staring at his hands "Useless, useless...."
Conclusion
My time at the Ford Theater was a pretty sobering one. It is always a different experience to be in a place where something like this happened. I really liked how they had the hallway where you could take the time and see the two different timelines that played out for the day and then how everything came together at 10:15 pm when the shot was fired.
My time in Washington DC was amazing. There is so much history there. I can't wait to share more of my travel stories from there. Thank you for taking the time to read this story. If you liked it votes are always appreciated. I really do appreciate all of the votes and everyone that reads my work. Thank you all, you are awesome.
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