Existing comment:
Assassination of President Lincoln
On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln was attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre, accompanied by his wife and their guests, Major Henry R. Rathbone and his fiancée, Clara Harris. That evening, the guard assigned to the president had thought it safe to abandon his post. As a result, John Wilkes Booth found it relatively easy to enter Lincoln's box and shoot him. As Booth leapt out of the box to the stage about twelve feet below, he caught the spur of his boot on a flag and broke his leg when he landed. Nevertheless, he escaped. It was not until twelve days later that Union soldiers cornered Booth in a barn in Caroline County, Virginia, where he died of a bullet wound.
Currier & Ives Lithgraphy Company, 1865 |