Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Epic card · No. 14130

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot in the head while attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. He died the following day, six weeks into his second term and a month before the conclusion of the American Civil War. Lincoln was watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd, Major Henry Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancé Clara Harris when John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot him from behind. Lincoln was taken to the Petersen House across the street, where he died the following morning. With Union victory imminent, Booth and his conspirators, including Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt, originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln to aid the Confederacy. After that plan failed to materialize, they decided to assassinate him, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Booth hoped that eliminating the three most important officials of the federal government...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Adam Cuerden, Public domain