We read all the lead to present a different history.
On April 9, 1865, the southern rebels surrendered in the small village of Apomatox, and the four-year "Civil War" finally ended. In those days, President Lincoln, who had been depressed, had a rare high mood. The end of the war gradually dispersed the dark clouds that hung over the United States. On the streets of Washington, the American people have begun to celebrate the victory of the war and the reunification of the country. On the morning of April 14, Lincoln received the influx of visitors at the White House and in the afternoon discussed with the Cabinet enthusiastically the issues of post-war national reconstruction. At the meeting, he opposed the plan proposed by The War Secretary Edwin Stanton to deal with the rebels, and once again made it clear that he wanted to forgive the Confederacy.
Portrait of General Grant and President Lincoln
After the Cabinet meeting, General Grant and President Lincoln discussed the evening's social events, and First Lady Mary suggested going to the theater to see the play, and she was eager to relax with her husband. But when she heard that Grant's wife, Julia, was also going to accompany her, she immediately changed her face, and the well-behaved Grants declined Lincoln's invitation on the grounds that they were going to visit their families in New Jersey. However, major newspapers and theater posters announced that the Lincolns and Grants were going to ford's theater.
U.S. Army General and 18th President Grant
On the evening of April 14, 1865, the opera "Our Cousins of America" was sung at the Ford Theater in Washington, D.C. The theater was packed, and the audience applauded from time to time for the superb performances of the actors. Abraham Lincoln in the president's box was also in a good mood because of the witty and exaggerated plot. After laughing, Lincoln flashed in his mind the absurd but very real dream he had made a few days ago. He dreamed that he had been assassinated at such a similar time in this similar scene. On the way to the theater, he hesitated several times, and even stopped the car because of the ominous premonition in his heart to consider whether to continue watching the opera.
▲ The box where Lincoln was assassinated
Lincoln had a melancholy personality, liked everything with fatalistic overtones, and was convinced of some unlucky hallucinations, and now this strong uneasiness surged into Lincoln's heart, causing him to be unable to continue to watch the play with peace of mind. He tilted his head and just happened to see his wife next to him with a puzzled face. In order not to worry his wife, Lincoln suppressed his uneasiness and whispered to her to continue to enjoy the opera. Soon, the opera reached its climax, and the applause and cheers in the theater continued. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and chaos broke out in the box, and Abraham Lincoln was shot in the back of the head and fell to the ground, and the murderer was the young actor John Wilkes Booth.
Born in an American theater family, Booth was superbly acting and handsome, and was the object of many women's pursuit at that time, and his family members were basically inclined to the Northern Confederation, but Booth firmly supported the Confederacy. During the Civil War, Booth often used his role as an actor to carry out some espionage activities. After the surrender of the Confederacy, Booth drunk himself almost every day, and his former reactionary group was attacked, leaving him and four other people behind. He was really unwilling to accept such an outcome, so he decided to have a "duel" in which the fish died and the net was broken. When he happened to see in the tabloids that Lincoln was going to see the theater, he knew his chance had come.
Assassination of President Lincoln
Maybe fatalism is true, which is why it leads to tragedy under a series of coincidences. The door lock of the presidential box had been broken a few days before, but no one had repaired it; and at 10 p.m. on the 14th, Booth had used the actor's convenience to enter the theater as usual, and the presidential guards did not stop him because he was a well-known actor; even John Pike, a policeman who was supposed to be guarding the side of the hall leading to the box, hid in another room for drinking and chatting because he had no interest in opera. In this way, Booth smoothly entered the box. Booth didn't seem to be any different from usual, but the hand in his pocket that clenched the handle of the gun so much that he was slightly sweating revealed his nervous mood at this time.
The drama is about to enter its climax, and Booth, as a killer, will naturally make full use of this opportunity. After entering the box, he wiped the sweat from his palms and quietly aimed the muzzle of his gun at Lincoln. When the climax came, the cheers and laughter in the theater masked the sound of gunfire, hiding it all in this small box. After a moment of consternation, the box was suddenly chaotic, and Major Reisborn was the first to react and rushed forward to try to catch the murderer, while the others rushed Lincoln to the hospital. In the confusion, Booth pulled out his hunting knife and slashed Resborn, and then tried to climb over the guardrail to escape, but unfortunately the flag on the railing wrapped around the spur boots and fell to the ground.
▲Oil painting of American Civil War scene
Ignoring his injured left leg, Booth frantically brandished his hunting knife and shouted at the audience in French: "This is the end of the tyrant!" Horrified, the theater crowd forgot to catch the killer, and Booth was able to escape from ford's theater and gallop south on horseback. However, Booth did not become a "hero" as he imagined, but became a notorious assassin. The assassinated Lincoln was rushed to the hospital, although the doctors tried their best to rescue, but still lack of surgery, the next morning at 7:22, the great president of American history Lincoln unfortunately passed away, at the age of 56. By this time, the killer Booth had fled to Maryland. After spraining his foot while jumping out of the box, he had to spend the night hiding in a family's cowshed. On April 19, he began looking for an opportunity to cross the Potomac River to Virginia on the other side.
The next day, the U.S. Department of War offered a $100,000 reward for the arrest of fugitive Booth. It was also on this day that Booth managed to get a boat. For the next two days, due to the swollen river, he had to lie dormant for two days on the Maryland-Virginia border until April 22, when he managed to cross the river and travel south to Richard Garrett's farm, hiding in a barn. Meanwhile, the New York 16th Cavalry and detectives employed by the Federation followed the trail to Garrett Farm.
President Lincoln's train funeral
At around 2 a.m. on April 26, Detective Luther Baker led 26 fighters to surround the barn and force it out by igniting it to create smoke. Faced with a billowing heat wave and choking smoke, Booth had to jump on one foot and move toward the barn gate, but suddenly a gunshot rang out, and Booth collapsed to the ground. Since then, the assassination of President Lincoln has become a headless public case, and Booth's real motives have also triggered a century-long debate and exploration in later generations.
bibliography:
"Tribute to Lincoln", "History of the Civil War", "The Test of Fire: The American Civil War and Reconstruction"
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