Just a few weeks after President Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration in March of 1865 and only five days after Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox on April 9 of that year, ending the terrible U.S. Civil War, Lincoln was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14.
It was the night before Easter, and the President and Mrs. Lincoln sat in the presidential box watching the show. Suddenly, from behind them in the corridor of the theatre, John Wilkes Booth burst into their box, shot the president in the head, and leaped from the box down onto the stage. Despite having fractured a bone in his foot in the fall, Booth shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!" ("Thus always to tyrants") and ran out of the theatre, mounting a horse he had tied outside and fleeing.
Booth was a member of a popular stage family; his brother Edwin was the most celebrated Shakespearean actor of his time, and Booth himself was pop idol material: handsome, dashing, and gifted on stage. But passions about the divisions in the U.S. ran high at that time, and John Wilkes strongly favored the Southern side, the Confederacy.
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The excerpts from Booth's diary during his two weeks on the run are really fascinating. He was very angry that he was being hunted down instead of thanked. He's was a definitely a little crazy. -Rebekah
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