John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was a prominent American actor known for his performances in Shakespearean plays, particularly as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet." Born into a theatrical family, he gained fame for his charm and talent on stage. However, Booth's legacy is overshadowed by his actions during the Civil War, as he held strong pro-Confederate beliefs that set him apart from most of his family, who supported the Union. In a dramatic turn of events, he orchestrated the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theater, an act fueled by his disdain for Lincoln and the outcome of the war.
After shooting Lincoln, Booth fled and was pursued by authorities for eleven days before being cornered in a barn in Virginia. The circumstances surrounding his death remain ambiguous, whether he took his own life or was shot by a soldier. Booth's assassination of Lincoln had profound implications for the United States, including an increase in presidential security and a shift in public perception of Lincoln, who was later revered as a martyr. In the aftermath, several of Booth's conspirators faced trial, and four were executed, marking a significant moment in American history.
John Wilkes Booth
Assassin
- Born: May 10, 1838
- Birthplace: Bel Air, Maryland
- Died: April 26, 1865
- Place of death: Bowling Green, Virginia
American assassin of President Abraham Lincoln
Cause of notoriety: Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln soon after the end of the Civil War.
Active: 1865
Locale: Washington, D.C.
Early Life
John Wilkes Booth (jahn wihlks bewth) was one of ten children of the noted tragic actor Junius Brutus Booth. The younger Booth made his first theatrical appearance at seventeen and soon had established a solid reputation as an interpreter of many leading roles in the plays of William Shakespeare, particularly that of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595). Muscular, dark-haired, and incredibly handsome, Booth was perfect for the part.
Although he seldom prepared well for his roles, his innate ability and resplendent style carried him through his performances. Having mastered most of the major male roles in Shakespeare’s plays, Booth toured the nation performing them. His good looks and outstanding talent made him irresistible to women.
Criminal Career
When the Civil War erupted in 1861, most of Booth’s family supported the Union. Booth, on the other hand, was violently pro-Confederate. He deplored Abraham Lincoln and, by 1864, had devised a scheme to kidnap the president and hold him hostage, to be ransomed only on the release of Confederate prisoners of war.
When this plot failed to materialize, Booth devised another scheme. As the Union victory in the Civil War appeared inevitable, he met with several conspirators at Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse in Washington, D.C., and with them outlined his plan to assassinate the president, the vice president, and Lincoln’s cabinet members. Booth, assuming the responsibility for killing Lincoln himself, wanted these assassinations to occur almost simultaneously.
On Good Friday, 1865, Booth learned from the manager of Ford’s Theater, where he was well known and had often acted, that the president was expected to attend the evening performance of Tom Taylor’s Our American Cousin (pr. 1865). The Lincolns were ambivalent about attending the play, but the president craved relaxation after an exhausting week. Mrs. Lincoln invited General and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant to join them, but the Grants were about to leave town, so they declined their invitation.
Booth was determined to kill Lincoln that night. Early in the evening, he fortified himself with brandy at a bar near Ford’s Theater. After the play began, he entered the theater and burst into the president’s box, where he shot Lincoln, firing a single bullet from his derringer into the president’s brain. An accomplice attacked Secretary of State William H. Seward at about the same time and almost killed him. Plans to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson went awry.
In the confusion following his shooting of Lincoln, Booth jumped onto the stage, but he became entangled in some drapery, causing him to land at an awkward angle and break his leg. Despite this injury, Booth limped from the theater, where David E. Herold joined him. The two rode to Maryland, stopping along the way to have Dr. Samuel Mudd set Booth’s broken leg.
The fugitives hid out in Maryland for several days before making their way to Richard Garrett’s farm near Bowling Green, Virginia. Meanwhile, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton launched a massive hunt to track down the fugitives. It was eleven days after the shooting and ten days after President Lincoln’s death on April 15, 1865, that government agents tracked Booth to the farm where he was hiding.
With the farm surrounded, Herold, who had retreated into Garrett’s tobacco barn with Booth, surrendered. Attempting to flush Booth from the barn, his pursuers set fire to the building. A shot rang out. It remains unclear whether Booth shot himself or Sergeant Boston Corbett fired the shot. At any rate, Booth, now dead, clearly could not be tried for Lincoln’s assassination.
Legal Action and Outcome
Although John Wilkes Booth’s death placed him beyond the scope of the law, various conspirators were arrested and, in May, 1865, those most obviously involved were brought to trial. Many were given long prison sentences, and, on July 6, after a speedy trial that was a mockery of justice, four were sentenced to be hanged. The sentence was carried out the following day before swarms of spectators gathered at Washington’s Old Arsenal to witness the executions.
Impact
One impact of Lincoln’s assassination, the first to befall an American president, was that presidential security was very much increased to prevent a recurrence of such a devastating event. A more historically important impact, however, was that Lincoln’s death turned him into a martyr and greatly enhanced the nation’s appreciation of him both as a man and as president. Scorned by many during his first term of office and reviled by many after his election to a second term, Lincoln assumed a hallowed position in American history. In most polls that measure the popularity of the American presidents, Lincoln’s name leads the list.
Further Reading
Clark, Champ. The Assassination: Death of the President. Alexandria, Va.: Time/Life, 1987. An accessible account of Lincoln’s assassination written for general audiences.
Clarke, Asia Booth. John Wilkes Booth: A Sister’s Memoir. Edited and with an introduction by Terry Alford. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1996. Booth’s sister provides details about her brother’s early life and upbringing. Somewhat biased but nevertheless valuable, as is the penetrating introduction.
Goodrich, Thomas. The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Part 2 focuses on the actual assassination and serves as an excellent presentation.
Hanchett, William. The Lincoln Murder Conspiracy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986. Hanchett reviews the varied threads of the conspiracy aimed at eliminating Lincoln, his vice president, and members of his cabinet.
Higham, Charles. Murdering Mr. Lincoln: A New Detection of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Famous Case. Beverly Hills, Calif.: New Millennium Press, 2004. Detailed information about plans to assassinate Lincoln with special emphasis in chapter 8 on the actual assassination.