The Lincoln Assassination: A Collection of Mistakes. Pages of History City where President Lincoln was assassinated

The man who kept the United States intact and issued the Emancipation Proclamation was born in 1809. Abraham Lincoln was born into a modest environment - a one-room log cabin with dirty floors in Hardin County, Kentucky. His father, Thomas, could not read and could barely write his own name. He was a stern man whom young Abraham never liked. Born into a poor family, his father became a farmer and carpenter who moved his wife and children from rural Kentucky to suburban Indiana when young Lincoln was seven years old. Neither he nor his wife could imagine what heights their son would reach, and what impact he would have on the history of the United States and the whole world.

Briefly about the activities of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was a successful lawyer and served in the US House of Representatives from 1847 to 1949. In 1956, Abraham became a Republican. Two years later, he ran for senator, but lost. Nevertheless, in the sixtieth year, Lincoln became the Republican presidential candidate. He won on presidential elections in November of the same year. A few months after the election, some southern states seceded from the United States. The civil war began soon after.

The Unionists were defeated at Bull Run in July 1961. A year later, Lincoln created the Emancipation Proclamation. Slaves were freed in every state, including those that decided to secede from the United States. The war continued, but in 1963 the United States began to win after their success at Gettysburg in July. In November, Abraham delivered his famous Gettysburg Address. He was re-elected president in 1964, and the Civil War ended a year later. However, Lincoln did not live to see this.

How did Lincoln die?

Abraham Lincoln died in the morning from a bullet wound inflicted the night before by an actor and Confederate sympathizer. The president's death comes just six days after Confederate General Robert Edward Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox, effectively ending the American Civil War.

Who is the killer?

Actor John Wilkes Booth, who remained in the North during the war despite his Confederate sympathies, originally planned to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1965, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president did not appear at the place where Booth and six other conspirators were waiting for him. In April, with the Confederate armies close to collapse in the south, Booth devised a desperate plan to save the Confederacy.

Upon learning that on April 14, Lincoln was to attend Laura Keane's famous performance of Our American Cousin at the Ford Theatre, Booth plotted the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward. By assassinating the president and his two possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to throw the US government into a paralyzing mess.

Following the assassination, John, pursued by troops and Secret Service forces, was finally cornered in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and died of a self-inflicted bullet wound when the barn was burned to the ground. Of the eight other individuals ultimately accused of conspiracy, four were hanged and four imprisoned.

Conclusion

Abraham Lincoln died a tragic death, sacrificing his life for the freedom of millions of people. To this day, he is considered the greatest president in the history of the United States and a champion of civil rights of his people.

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Lincoln assassination

The Civil War ended with the surrender of the Confederate States of America on April 9, 1865. The country was to carry out the Reconstruction of the South and begin the process of integrating blacks into American society. Five days after the end of the war, on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, at a performance of My American Cousin (at the Ford Theatre), Southerner actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the head. The next morning, without regaining consciousness, Abraham Lincoln died. Millions of Americans, white and black, came to pay their last respects to their president during the two-and-a-half-week funeral train journey from Washington to Springfield. The train was carrying two coffins: a large coffin with the body of Abraham Lincoln and a small one with the body of his son William, who had died three years earlier, during Lincoln's presidential term. Abraham and William Lincoln were buried in Springfield at Oak Ridge Cemetery. The tragic death of Lincoln contributed to the creation around his name of the aura of a martyr who gave his life for the reunification of the country and the liberation of black slaves.

Clara Harris

Future wife of Henry Rathbone, daughter of a prominent US senator.

Henry Rathbone

Army Major.

John Wilkes Booth

American actor, assassin of President Lincoln.

On April 14, 1865, during a performance at the Ford Theater in Washington, President Lincoln was mortally wounded by a pistol shot. Booth was not busy in the performance that was on that day, and in general had previously played at the Ford Theater only twice, but he often visited his actor friends there and knew both the building and the theater repertoire well. During the funniest scene of the comedy "My American Cousin", he entered the president's box and shot him after one of the lines, so that the sound of the shot was drowned out by an explosion of laughter. It is believed that Booth exclaimed at the same time: “Such is the fate of tyrants” (Latin “Sic semper tyrannis!” - the motto of Virginia, which in turn repeats the words that, at the time of the death of Julius Caesar, another famous assassin of the head of state allegedly uttered with consonance with John Wilkes Booth by the name of Mark Junius Brutus).

Abraham Lincoln

American statesman, 16th President of the United States and the first of the Republican Party, liberator of American slaves, national hero of the American people. Included in the list of 100 most studied personalities in history.

Mary Ann Todd Lincoln

Wife of the 16th US President Abraham Lincoln, First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot dead at a play at Ford's Theatre. The wife, who was next to her husband during the performance, was never able to recover from the tragedy and soon completely lost her mind. In 1875, her son Robert placed her in a psychiatric clinic. Mary Lincoln spent the rest of her life in France. She died in 1882 at the age of 63.

On April 14, 1865, at a performance of Our American Cousin at the Ford Theater, actor John Wilkes Booth mortally wounded US President Abraham Lincoln. The killer managed to escape, but after 12 days the police caught up with him in a barn in Virginia, and when Booth came out of a torched hideout, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot him in the neck.

Official version

In addition to Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, Major Henry Rathbone and his beloved Clara Harris were in the presidential box. Booth found himself in the aisle connecting the box and the corridor at ten o'clock in the evening, and remained to wait for a certain comedy scene, which always aroused the laughter of the audience.
According to the plan, the rising noise was supposed to drown out the shot. At the beginning of the episode, the actor went behind the president, who was sitting in a rocking chair, and at the right moment shot him in the back of the head. Rathbone tried to detain the killer, but he stabbed him in the arm. The major recovered quickly and again tried to grab Booth as he was preparing to jump over the box railing. He, in turn, tried to hit Rathbone in the chest, and then jumped over the fence.
Falling onto the stage from a height of three meters, he caught his spur on the flag that adorned the box, and in the fall broke his left leg, which, however, did not prevent him from running onto the stage. At that moment, he raised a bloody knife over his head and shouted into the audience the Virginia state motto Sic semper Tyrannis! (lat. “It happens with all tyrants!”). Then he got out, hit the man holding the horse with the handle of the knife, and fled from his pursuers.

The wounded Lincoln was transferred to a boarding house opposite the theater. The next morning, the president died without regaining consciousness. At the same time, a certain Lewis Powell (Payne) made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward - an associate of Lincoln who later became famous for buying Alaska - in his house. Shortly before the assassination attempt, Seward was in a road accident: his jaw was broken and right hand, the ligament of the foot was torn, and the whole body was covered with bruises. Payne snuck into his house on the pretext that he needed to give Seward something from the doctor, and entered his bedroom. The conspirator inflicted several blows with a knife, including in the throat. The Secretary of State survived. During the assassination attempt, Seward's son August was injured.

An assassination attempt was also being prepared on Vice President Andrew Johnson, but the conspirator George Atzerodt “drank too much for courage” and did not go anywhere.

The conspiracy against the leaders of the United States, the investigation linked with the end of the civil war: only five days had passed after the surrender of the commander-in-chief of the Confederate army, the North won. The investigation identified ten participants in the conspiracy: Booth was killed during the arrest, four - David Herold, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt - were hanged on July 7.

Execution of Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt (left to right). Photo: Library of Congress

Three more - Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold and Michael O "Loughlin - were sentenced to life imprisonment, Edward Spangler received six years in prison. John Surratt, one of the main characters in this story, was hiding abroad for some time (where no one was looking for him), and then was acquitted.

conspiracy theory

In 1959, the American historian Theodore Roscoe published The Web of Conspiracy. In it, the author drew attention to the episodes official version consequences that seem incredible and raise questions.

The assassination attempt was immediately reported to Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. Stanton immediately arrived at the scene of the assassination, and then, settling in the same boarding house, for many hours served as chief of police and supreme judge, giving orders to catch the killer and sending out telegrams. After a short conversation with the vice president, the secretary of war allegedly let him go home, although according to another version of Johnson, no one tried to look for him at all.

This is where the weirdness starts. One of Stanton's first orders was to block all roads leading out of the city. The police occupied train stations, the Potomac River was guarded by ships, and the six roads leaving Washington were blocked by the military. However, the conspirators were left with two paths that led to the state of Maryland, one of them - along the Navy Yard Bridge, which was guarded around the clock. On the day of the assassination, the bridge was guarded by a sergeant named Cobb. At 22:45 local time, Booth introduced himself to him by his real name and said that he was going home. The assassin of the president was released from the city.

Following Booth, David Harold drove up to the bridge, helping Powell at the home of Secretary of State Seward. His Sergeant Cobb, like Booth, allegedly mistook him for a reveler who had fun in Washington and missed the time when he had to return home.

A few minutes later a stable boy galloped up after Harold, from whom the conspirators borrowed horses and did not return them at the agreed nine in the evening. Seeing the rushing Harold, who clearly did not intend to give up the horse, its owner rushed after him. But Sergeant Cobb didn't let him across the bridge. Then the groom returned to the city and filed a complaint about the stolen horse with the police. The suggestion arose from its employees that this theft might be connected with the flight of the conspirators, and they turned to the army headquarters with a demand for the horses. The military rejected the request, saying that they had not received such orders, and they would deal with the criminals on their own. Until the next day, however, no one lifted a finger.

Another little-explained circumstance that Roscoe points out is how Bout was able to get into the presidential box without interference. On the eve of the performance, Lincoln asked Stanton to appoint Major Eckart as his bodyguard, but the Secretary of War announced that his aide-de-camp was busy and put John Parker, who had a reputation as a drunkard and frequenter of brothels, as well as many penalties for inappropriate use of weapons and sleeping on duty, to the president. Parker did not change his image and soon after the start of the performance he went to a bar. The path for the killer was clear.

The motive for the murder is also not entirely plausible. It is commonly believed that Booth, an ardent supporter of the southerners, decided to take revenge on Lincoln for defeating the Confederacy. But the fact is that, contrary to popular legend, the president fought not for the liberation of blacks, but for the unity of the state. By and large, he didn’t give a damn about the slaves: in his campaign speech, Lincoln said that there could be no question of any equality, but the superiority of the white race does not mean that blacks should be deprived of everything.

Lincoln himself took a soft stance towards the vanquished. At the same time, Secretary of War Stanton disagreed with this position and believed that the South needed to be occupied and avenged. It turns out that the "fanatical southerner" Bout for some reason killed a man who offered the most favorable conditions to the defeated southerners.

On the night of April 15, when Harold and Boots met after crossing the Navy Yard bridge, they called on Dr. Samuel Mudd in Bryantown because the actor's broken leg was in severe pain. Before entering the house, Booth wrapped his face in a shawl so that the doctor could not see him. Mudd put a bandage on the damaged bone and built two crutches, after which the conspirators continued on their way. At the trial, Mudd said that Booth turned away from him all the time and did not let himself be seen, but the judges decided that it was the doctor who advised the fugitives to contact Colonel Cox, who was supposed to ferry them across the Potomac. This enterprise, however, failed, and Colonel Cox hid the conspirators a few kilometers from his house, where Booth began to keep a diary.

In Washington, meanwhile, they arrested Mary Surratt, the hostess of the boarding house, where the actor often went, and three other suspicious persons. Payne and Atzerodt were also captured.

Quite large rewards were assigned for the heads of Booth and Harold. Eventually, their trail was found near Port Royal, where they hid with a family of farmers, posing as Confederate soldiers. The soldiers had an order to take the conspirators alive, but in spite of him, Bout was mortally wounded and died the next morning. The soldiers found his diary and handed it over to the ministry, but they seemed to have forgotten about it. A few years later, Brigadier General Lafayette Baker remembered that he had given the actor's diary to his boss Stanton (Baker was then chief of police), and when he got it back, some pages were missing.

In 1961, a book that once belonged to Baker was accidentally found. 93 years earlier, a brigadier general wrote on its cover: “I am constantly being followed. These are professionals. I can't get away from them." This is followed by an allegorical story about the conspiracy of Judas, Brutus and the Spy, while references to Stanton are found in the words of Judas, and the owner of the book calls himself the Spy. Baker was poisoned a month later.

According to historian Roscoe, Baker or Stanton are also responsible for the loss of the only photographic plate on which photographer Alexander Gardner, who worked on the case, captured the corpse of John Wilkes Booth.

Roscoe believes that Stanton also let go John Surratt, the son of Mary Surratt, whose execution was later ruled a judicial murder because she could not be convicted of anything. Sarrat fled first to Canada, then to England, then he was seen in Italy. However, when information about his whereabouts reached the Secretary of War, Stanton did not pay any attention to it. In the winter, the conspirator was caught in Egypt at the initiative of Secretary of State Seward, but he never received a guilty verdict. The second court case was dismissed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Everyone's gone crazy

Earlier this year, investigative author Dave McGowan began publishing a series on the Lincoln assassination.
McGowan notes that on April 14, in addition to the President and, as mentioned above, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward, the conspirators also planned to kill General Ulysses Grant and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. He gives detailed descriptions the lives of people involved in events in one way or another, and almost all of them have one common feature- they were not mentally healthy.

So, Sergeant Thomas "Boston" Corbett castrated himself about seven years before he shot Booth. In addition, he was mentally unstable and heard voices. For refusing to follow orders, he was dismissed from service, but was allowed back in 1863. Corbett quickly rose to the rank of sergeant, and did not bear any responsibility for the murders of Booth. In 1887, the sergeant was hired by the Kansas state legislature, where one day he either fired or brandished a gun, for which he was finally placed in a psychiatric hospital.

In the presidential box, along with the Lincolns, were Major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris. She was the Major's half-sister and was the daughter of US Senator Ira Harris. They later got married and moved to Germany. In 1883, after an unsuccessful attempt to kill his children, Rathbone stabbed his wife to death and then tried to commit suicide. He spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.

The president's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, became completely insane after her husband's death and began to suffer from hallucinations, as a result, her son placed her in a mental hospital.

Robert Lincoln was not crazy, but surprisingly managed to become involved in the assassinations of three US presidents at once: in 1881, he was present at the assassination of James Garfield, and in 1901, William McKinley. In late 1864 and early 1865, Robert was involved in a strange incident: on a railway platform, a stranger saved the younger Lincoln from injury and possibly even death. It was Edwin Booth, the elder brother of John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln maintained a friendship with him for many years and may have had an affair with the daughter of the US Senator Lucy Hale, who had previously been the bride of John Booth.

The Butes' sister Rosalie died in 1880 in a "mysterious attack". The third brother, Junius Brutus, is believed to have gone insane. The killer actor's nephew, Edwin Booth Clark, became a naval officer and disappeared at sea: according to the official story, he committed suicide by jumping overboard.

Following the announcement of a bounty on the heads of the fugitives, the War Department received the bodies of Frank Boyle and William Watson, who looked like Booth. Stanson's agency covered up the murders and disposed of the corpses (one of them was thrown into the Potomac).

16th President of the United States of America Abraham Lincoln(February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865) lived a life filled with mysticism.

Suffice it to say, for example, that Lincoln, being a great admirer of spiritualism, spent a lot of time communicating with otherworldly forces and, having become a real professional in this area, he subsequently did not need a board, a candle, or other magic to contact the other world. attributes, it was enough to close in a room in complete darkness, close your eyes and "tune in", began to teach the basics of summoning spirits to many of his followers - over time, they say, there were hundreds of them.

During one of his dives, he learned from the spirits the date of his own death, and shortly before his death, he gave an order to his students: when they would establish contacts with the world of the dead behind the Ouija board in the future, the first thing to do was to invoke his spirit, and he, in turn, will do everything to come from another world to earth, make contact and answer all questions.

By the way, to this day, mediums around the world claim that the spirit of the former American president is the most contact and sociable, it is recommended that beginners taking their first steps in the field of spiritualism begin their practices with it.

Interest in spiritualism manifested itself in Abraham Lincoln at the very beginning of his political career. After the death of his beloved son Willie, he was very sad and, as they say, could not eat or drink, he walked sad and pale all the time, and sometimes he could lie in bed for days on end without getting up. And then someone advised him to attend a session of the medium and enter into communication with the spirit of Willie.

Most historians assume that this adviser was his wife Mary Todd, but there is evidence that Lincoln himself, independently of Mary, was previously interested in spiritualism, and the tragedy in the family became only an excuse to “dive” into this topic with his head.

In a letter to his friend Joshua F. Speed, written in 1842, Lincoln notes that he was "always strongly attracted to mysticism" and that he always felt that he was being directed "not by his own will, but by some other force that impels to the world of the dead, communication with which is possible only through a talking board with letters, numbers and a pointer, which is controlled by spirits.

Historians believe that Lincoln's experience with several mediums, as well as his own seances, influenced the entire course of world history. After all, it was at seances that the president came up with the idea of ​​a non-standard measure for those times, thanks to which he went down in history. It can be said that with the light hand of spirits in 1863 a manifesto was published on the emancipation of slaves in America.

One of the well-known mediums of that time, Mrs. Cranston Laurie, wrote in her memoirs that the president always took a firm anti-slavery position, considering slavery an evil and opposing the spread of this system throughout the United States, and therefore at the sessions he constantly asked if it was possible the abolition of slavery, and what it can be fraught with.

During his presidency, Lincoln conducted séances with various mediums, including J. B. Conklin, Nettie Coleburn, Mrs. Miller, Cora Maynard, and many others. By the way, Maynard took credit for the manifesto on the emancipation of slaves, stating this in her autobiography. Nettie Coleburn also ascribed this honor to herself, referring to how she, in a state of trance, convinced Lincoln for an hour and a half that the war would not end until he abolished slavery.

Lincoln's position on slavery led to his assassination - and this, according to some reports, was also predicted by the president at one of the sessions. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth while he and his wife were sitting in the box of the Ford Theater in Washington DC. Lincoln died a few hours later.

In addition to the séances, Lincoln had two startling warnings about his own death. Shortly before the election of 1860, he saw his reflection in the mirrors several times, and this brought him out of balance. He saw two different reflections at the same time. One of the faces was covered with a deadly pallor, and when you tried to peer into it, it immediately disappeared. Mary Todd Lincoln interpreted this as a sign that he would be re-elected for a second term, but would not live to see it finish.

Ten days before the assassination, Lincoln had a prophetic dream where, as if in reality, he saw his own death. He wrote in his diary, preserved in museums to this day:

“I went to bed late. And soon he began to dream. There seemed to be a dead silence around me. Then, stifled sobs were heard, as if many people were crying. It seemed to me that I got out of bed and slowly went down the stairs. And here the same mournful sobbing broke the silence, but no mourners could be seen.

I moved from room to room, but not a single living soul caught my eye, although all the way I was met by the same mournful sounds of sadness. All the rooms were lit, every object was familiar to me, but where are all these people who mourn as if their hearts were bursting with grief? This puzzled and alarmed me.

What would that mean? Determined to find out the reason for what was happening - something mysterious and terrible - I continued to walk until I reached the East Apartments, where I entered. In front of me was a hearse on which rested a body dressed in funeral attire. Soldiers in the guard of honor stood around him and a mass of people crowded - someone mournfully looked at the body, his face was covered, the rest wept bitterly.

"Who died in the White House?" I asked one of the soldiers. "President," came the reply. And then the crowd burst into a loud woeful cry, which woke me from my sleep. That night I did not sleep again, and although it was only a dream, since then a strange anxiety has not left me.

On the evening before the assassination, Lincoln told members of his cabinet that he had a dream of being assassinated by an assassin. On the day of the assassination, Lincoln shared with his bodyguard, W. G. Crook, that for three nights in a row he had been dreaming that he would be killed. Crook urged him not to go to the Ford Theater that evening, but Lincoln objected, saying that fate was inevitable, and if he was destined to die, so be it.

“And I also promised my wife that I would go to the theater with her, and it’s not good to deceive women,” he joked, after which this phrase of his became one of the quotes of great personalities. Send to the theater, instead of the usual "all the best" he said to Crook "sorry and goodbye." All historians are convinced that he knew that he would be shot that evening.

The funeral train brought Lincoln's body home to the city of Springfield, Illinois, to be interred there. It is said that since then every year in April, on the anniversary of Lincoln's assassination, the ghost of the funeral train moves along the rails of the track along which the real funeral train followed from the capital of the country - Washington - through the state of New York and further west to Illinois. . However, the ghost train never reaches its destination.

However, there are stories that there are two ghost trains. At the first, a locomotive pulls several black-draped wagons and emits black smoke. One of the carriages is a military one and the sounds of mourning music are heard from there. At the second, the locomotive pulls only one platform with the coffin of the president.

An American newspaper, whose journalists were convinced that the train story was just a legend, and conducted their own investigation, once published the following material:

“From year to year in the month of April, somewhere around midnight, the air on the tracks becomes somehow piercing, penetrating to the bone, although on both sides of the track it remains warm and motionless. Any observer, sensing such air, immediately tries to quickly get out from the paths and settle down somewhere, look. Soon the head locomotive of the mourning train, entwined with long black ribbons, passes with an orchestra of black instruments playing mourning music, and grinning skeletons sit everywhere.

It passes silently. If the night is moonlit, then at the moment when the ghost train passes, the clouds obscure the moon. When the lead locomotive passes, a funeral train with flags and ribbons rushes in behind it. The rails seem to be covered with black carpet, a coffin is visible in the center of the car, while all the air around it and the whole train behind it is filled with countless people in blue military uniform, some of them carry their coffins on their shoulders, while others rely on them.

If at this time it happens to be a real train, then its noise subsides, as if it was swallowed up by a ghost train. When a ghost train passes, all clocks, from pocket watches to grandfather clocks, stop. And if you look at them later, they are all five or eight minutes behind. It was noticed that on the night of April 27, it suddenly turned out that all the clocks were lagging behind along the entire route.

Already today, ufologists from all over the world who have visited the place where the train appeared agreed in one opinion: it exists! Its passage was recorded by many instruments, but so far no one has been able to photograph or film the train - nothing is displayed on film and in digital format.

Some time after Lincoln's death, his widow Mary Todd decided to arrange a photo shoot for herself by inviting renowned photographer William Mumler. The picture that came out of him became historical. The black-and-white photo turned out to be not only a portrait of the president's wife, but also blurry outlines resembling the face of the late president himself.

Lincoln's spirit is said to continue to haunt the White House. For the first time, steps attributed to Lincoln's ghost were noted by employees in the corridors of the second floor. The first person who allegedly saw his ghost was Grace Coolidge, the wife of Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth President of the United States, who was in office from 1923 to 1929.

She noticed the silhouette of Lincoln, standing at the window in the Oval Office, looking out over the Potomac River. Since then, his ghost has been seen in this position or felt in this place. The poet Carl Sandburg once said that he felt (but did not see) Lincoln standing next to him at the window.

The apparition of the ghost recreates a real scene that military chaplain Bowles happened to witness one evening during Lincoln's presidency. Bowles arrived at the Oval Office for a meeting with Lincoln. The President at that moment sadly looked out the window. “It occurred to me that never in my life had I seen such deep sorrow on a face, and I had seen many sad faces,” Bowles wrote of the incident.

Lincoln's former bedroom, which is often referred to as Lincoln's room, is one of the places where his ghost appears. This part of the building houses heads of state who have arrived on an official visit, many of whom talked about strange phenomena taking place there - from the sound of footsteps to visual hallucinations.

When Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was visiting President Franklin D. Roosevelt one day, she heard footsteps in the hallway and then a knock at the door. When she opened it, she was startled to see Lincoln standing before her in a frock coat and high hat. The Queen fainted. This could have been attributed to visions if at least two other guests had not seen Lincoln sitting on the bed and putting on his shoes.

Eleanor Roosevelt usually worked in the evenings and often felt Lincoln's presence. Sometimes the Roosevelts' dog, Fala, would suddenly bark furiously for no apparent reason.

President Harry Truman was also sure he heard Lincoln walking around the house. When Truman's presidency ended, the ghost seemed to disappear from the White House. During the Ronald Reagan administration, the president's daughter Maureen said she saw Lincoln's ghost in Lincoln's room.

In addition to the footsteps of Lincoln's ghost being heard in the White House, they are also heard at his burial site in Springfield.

In the history of the United States, there are many interesting and tragic events that influenced the course of the development of the state. One of these is the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865. Why and who killed Lincoln, in what historical era it happened - the answers to these questions will interest the readers of the article. We will answer nick as detailed as possible.

How Abraham Lincoln Was Assassinated

Abraham Lincoln - the 16th American president, who is considered a national hero and the liberator of black people from slavery - is one of the most famous and beloved heroes of American history. He was president starting in 1861, during the most difficult years for America - the years civil war and confrontation between North and South. In 1865 he was re-elected, which showed how actively the Americans supported him.

On April 9, the American Civil War officially ended, the country breathed a sigh of relief. April 14, 1865 President Lincoln goes with his wife to a play at Ford's Theater (Washington). A Southern fanatic, actor John Wilkes Booth, who came there, infiltrates the presidential box and shoots him in the head. Jumping out of the box, Booth shouts: “Freedom! The South is avenged!" and flees.

Without regaining consciousness, the next morning A. Lincoln dies. Americans were deeply indignant when they learned that the newly elected President Lincoln, beloved and respected by most people, had been assassinated. The year 1865 will forever remain in the history of the United States as the year of the assassination of the President. After all, Lincoln was a very popular and attractive person, distinguished by honesty and high moral principles.

So who and why was Lincoln assassinated, for political reasons or because of the killer's personal dislike for the president - let's try to understand this by considering the historical events of that time, the identity of the killer and his victim.

Abraham Lincoln: childhood and youth

A. Lincoln was born in Hodgenville on February 12, 1809 in the family of a poor farmer. In order to develop free land, the family soon moved to Indiana. His mother died when the boy was 7 years old, and his father remarried a widow with three children. Abraham had to constantly earn extra money to help the family, mostly by manual labor: he was hired either as a woodcutter, or as a hunter, or as an employee, or as an agent of a trading company.

That is why he was able to study at school for only 1 year, having learned to read and write. However, over time, a great desire for knowledge prompted him to self-study, which helped him become not only a fairly literate person, but also an educated lawyer.

By the age of 21, when Lincoln decided to start his own business, leaving his family, he turned into an intelligent young man tall (193 cm), in terms of erudition surpassing any young man who has studied for many years at school. His life story is a series of ups and downs, successes and failures.

The beginning of a political career

In 1832, Lincoln first tried to be elected to the Illinois legislature, but failed. After that, he devotes the coming years to intensive self-study in legal and other sciences. In the same years, he begins to form negative attitude to the problem of slavery in America, which subsequently played a role in the tragedy that happened to him. This must be taken into account when finding out the reason why Lincoln was killed.

In order to have money for life and education, Abraham and his friends begin commercial activity, opening a trading shop, but the business was not profitable. Then he enters the service of the postmaster in New Salem, and then becomes a land surveyor. Even in his youth, friends give him the nickname "Honest Abe", which he deserved for absolute honesty and decency.

A second attempt at election to the legislature was crowned with success in 1835, his next step was to pass the bar exam, for which he was able to prepare completely on his own. Over the next few years, while practicing as a lawyer, he became famous as a defender of the poor, taking on the most difficult cases completely disinterestedly. Over the years, he was elected 4 times from the Whig party, and then moved to the city of Springfield.

His personal life also changed during these years. In 1842 A. Lincoln married M. Todd. According to some reports, all his life he suffered from a hereditary disease - Marfan's syndrome, which is expressed in high expressiveness, and therefore often fell into depression. His wife Mary loved him very much and strongly supported his political views. Shortly after President Lincoln was assassinated, she went insane and died.

The couple had 4 sons, but 3 of them died in childhood. The only surviving child, the eldest son Robert Lincoln, fought in the rank of captain, then became Secretary of War, and in 1889 became the US envoy to England, having lived to old age.

In 1846, Lincoln entered the House of Representatives of Congress from his state from the Whig party. At this time, he strongly condemns the US policy of aggression, which was manifested during the US-Mexican War, and also advocates the abolition of slavery. Because of these political views, he had to leave politics and again take up legal affairs. He becomes a consultant for the Illinois Central railroad.

In 1854, the Republican Party was created in the USA, which began to fight for the abolition of slavery, and after 2 years Lincoln became its representative, but he lost the first election to his competitor from the Democratic Party.

However, already in 1860, the party nominated him as a candidate for the presidency. Thanks to his fame as a hardworking and honest politician who came out of the people, A. Lincoln gains 80% of the vote and becomes the 16th President of the United States. But not all of his political views, especially on slavery, are met with enthusiasm. Some politicians do not agree with him, and even individual states are trying to announce their secession from the state, and he has to make a statement that the abolition of slavery is not planned in the near future.

American Civil War

The President, in which he condemned slavery as an immoral phenomenon, denied the existence of the state in a state of "half-slavery and semi-freedom." At the same time, the elected president adhered to rather moderate positions. Categorically rejecting slavery, he spoke of the impossibility of forcibly abolishing it, so as not to violate the property rights of the planters and to avoid a split in the state.

The election of A. Lincoln in 1860 as president caused the separation of the southern slave states from the USA and the creation of the Confederation with its capital in Richmond. And although in his inaugural speech Lincoln actively called for the unification of the country, he could not prevent the conflict. The war between the South and the North was started in 1861 just between the states that held opposing views on slavery. The president's desire to give freedom to the black people of America multiplied the number of enemies and his political opponents. Among these dissenters was the one who killed Abraham Lincoln.

The civil war dragged on, economic losses and human casualties multiplied, and slavery issues remained unresolved. The turning point in the attitude of citizens to the president was the Homestead Act of 1862, according to which any citizen (who did not participate in the battles on the side of the South) could receive land in property for a tax of 10 dollars. This contributed to the settlement of empty lands, the solution of agrarian problems and led to the development of agriculture and farming in the country. Lincoln's popularity began to skyrocket.

All these years, A. Lincoln has been pursuing a democratic policy aimed at maintaining a two-party system in the country, preserving freedom of speech and other achievements of democracy.

On December 30, 1863, the President signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which gave freedom to all slaves. The country is entering a period of destruction of slaveholding relations and the liberation of black residents. This decision gave impetus to an increase in the influx of volunteers into the army of northerners, consisting of liberated black residents. In 1865, the war ends with the defeat of the Confederation, which united the southern slave states.

Opponents of President Lincoln

During the years of government and the Civil War, the president had many opponents. The majority of the population of the southern states that were defeated in the war did not support his desire to free the slaves, so the question of why Lincoln was killed by people who absolutely disagreed with his decisions in the state structure and the transformations carried out had a completely understandable answer: precisely because of the decisions to free black slaves America.

During this period, he passed some laws that benefited the country and himself as a politician:

• imprisonment of all deserters and supporters of slavery through the courts;
• the Homestead Act, according to which the settlers who cultivate the land and build buildings become its owners.

The repeated elections of 1864 brought A. Lincoln a second victory (his opponent was the representative of the Democratic Party, General J. McClellan). Already on January 31, 1865, the US Congress, at the insistence of the President, adopted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to prohibit slavery in the United States.

Abraham Lincoln, in the first months of his second term, begins to resolve the issue of restoring the 11 seceded states to the federal state, promising them an amnesty.

In his speech at the inauguration, the president calls for the preservation of "peace in his home," but he was no longer destined to put these plans into practice. Because in a few days a performance was to take place in the theater where he was going to go with Lincoln, where he was killed by conspirators led by J. Booth, thereby cutting off the life of one of the most beloved US presidents.

Biography of the killer

John Wilkes Booth is the man who killed Abraham Lincoln. To understand why he committed this crime, let's talk about his life and political views. After all, from time immemorial it was believed that the roots of evil should always be sought in childhood and upbringing.

J. Booth was born on May 10, 1838 in the family of theater artists Yu. B. Booth and M. E. Holmes, who lived on a small farm in Maryland. He was the 9th child in the family, and he was named after the radical politician J. Wilkes from England. His family did not belong to any religious concession, and besides, his parents were not even married. They formalized their marriage only after the birth of their 10th baby in 1851.

The boy studied at the local school with great reluctance, and his parents did not strongly insist on his diligent study. At the age of 12, his father forced him to enter the military academy in Milton, where the teachers demanded strict discipline and diligence from the pupils in their studies. Bout also had an interesting meeting with a fortune-teller, who foretold him a very short life and a bad demise. Maybe she already knew that she was predicting this to the man who would become known in America as the one who killed Lincoln.

A year later, Bout moved to another educational institution, then at the age of 14, after the death of his father, he drops out of school and expresses a desire to get the profession of the deceased parent - to become an actor. He begins to study oratory and persistently studies the works of Shakespeare and other playwrights. After 3 years, Booth made his debut on stage in "Richard the Third" in a minor role (theater in Baltimore). The audience at first did not welcome the new actor very much, but with his perseverance and determination, he continues to achieve success.

In 1857, John enters the street theater under the pseudonym YB Wilkes in Philadelphia, which helped him become a star. The public enthusiastically accepted him as a brilliant actor and gave him the nickname "The Most Handsome American". Playing now the main roles, he went on his first tour of America.

George Booth met the beginning of the Civil War in the north and immediately began to express his admiration for the actions of the southern states, calling them heroic. He spent all the war years traveling around the country, gaining an increasing number of fans and breaking the hearts of fans along the way. In doing so, he became an undercover agent for the Confederacy, helping to deliver smuggled medical supplies to southerners. His views on slavery, partly due to the fact that his homeland, the state of Maryland, belonged to the slave states, largely predetermined his future fate as a man who dreamed of forcibly changing the policy of the country and dared to be the one who killed President Lincoln.

Conspirators in Washington

In the autumn of 1863, a friend of the Booth family, J. Ford, opens his theater in Washington and invites Booth to play one of the leading roles in the premiere of Marble Heart. Ford's theater in the future will become a place of tragedy, going down in history as "the theater in which Lincoln was killed."

At this performance there is A. Lincoln, who really liked the actor Booth. But Booth refused the President's invitation to visit their box during the intermission, showing a strong dislike for his family. Booth treated Lincoln with hatred, blaming him for all military misfortunes. In 1863, he even got into the police for shouting curses from the stage at the American president during the performance. Forced to swear allegiance to the Union, he was released, escaping with a fine.

In 1864, before the start of the presidential election, realizing that the Confederacy had lost the war and Lincoln would be re-elected, Booth began to think about a plan to kidnap the president. His friends S. Arnold and M. O "Lowland became his accomplices, and the meetings were held in Baltimore in the apartment of M. Branson, supporters of the southerners. Then their hopes were not successful, but upon arrival in Washington, Booth begins to hatch more radical plans.

The conspirators decide to kidnap all the main members of the US government, led by the president. The meetings, which were held in the house of the mother of one of the members of the J. Surratt group, were attended by decisive and aggressive supporters of the southerners: D. Herold, J. Atzerodt, L. Powell and others. Led by Booth, they became the people who planned, helped, and who assassinated President Lincoln afterwards.

After Lincoln's inauguration in March 1865, George Booth abruptly changed the plan of the operation, coming to the conclusion that the most effective step would be not the kidnapping, but the assassination of the American president.

When on April 11 the newly elected American president delivered a speech near the White House, in which he told Americans about the restoration of the rights of black slaves, George Booth was among the spectators and, completely disagreeing with his words, decided that this speech would be final in Lincoln's life.

Murder Day - April 14, 1865

The fact that the president would watch the play-comedy "My American Cousin" at the Ford Theater, Booth learned in advance from his friend, the owner of the theater. Ford himself proudly informed the future killer of the honor that his establishment would be awarded: a visit by the head of state to a play. Booth took this news as an attractive opportunity for the implementation of his insidious goal, because he was well versed in all the corridors and nooks and crannies of the theater building. Ford's theater, according to his decision, became the place where Lincoln was killed.

On April 13, the last meeting of the conspirators took place. Booth, as the leader of the conspirators, gave his instructions on political assassinations: his friends D. Harold and L. Powell were to kill US Secretary of State W. Seward, and J. Atzerodt was to kill Vice President E. Jackson. J. Booth planned to complete his mission alone. All three murders were supposed to happen at 22.00.

And then came April 14, the day Lincoln was assassinated. When J. Booth came to the performance, he was well versed in its content. He deliberately chose the time of the murder so as to enter the box and shoot at the moment of an explosion of laughter in the hall after another cheerful remark on the stage. Although everything turned out a little different.

J. Booth dressed in a black suit, putting a wide-brimmed hat on his head. Entering the box, he closed the door behind him so that no one would interfere. Stepping up to the president's chair, Booth fired at him with a derringer. The sound of the shot reverberated throughout the hall, because due to excitement the killer did not guess the moment, and a loud shot rang out in silence - all the spectators immediately turned their heads to the terrible sound.

The infantry commander G. Rathbourn, who was sitting in this box, was the first to orient himself, who wanted to prevent the killer, but Booth wounded him with a knife and jumped into the hall from a height of 3.5 m. Clinging to the flag with the spur of his boot, the criminal fell unsuccessfully and broke his leg. Limping, he walked onto the stage and yelled the Virginia motto, "So it will always be with tyrants!" All the surrounding people were in shock, so the killer managed to escape from the theater through the back door. So Ford's theater became the place where Lincoln was assassinated.

At the same time, L. Powell made his way to the Secretary of State's house, but the murder did not take place. After inflicting several blows with a knife, he could only injure him, while his partner fled in the meantime. The third "murderer" J. Atzerodt did not dare to commit a crime and spent the night in a tavern, worrying about his fate. It was there that he heard the news that Lincoln had been assassinated at Ford's Theatre.

On Booth's instructions, the accomplices planned a meeting near the city, but only two turned up - Booth and Harold. Due to a leg injury, Bout had to urgently look for a doctor, whom he knew from the underground during the war. The doctor gave him a splint and crutches.

The search for the killer

Several thousand soldiers were mobilized to search for the conspirators, and at that time they were holed up in a house in Maryland. On the way further south, J. Booth suddenly learned that all the inhabitants condemned him for the murder of an unarmed man. Not knowing that the one who killed Lincoln was in front of them, people in the conversation accused the killer of cowardice, because he shot Lincoln from the back. After listening to this, the criminal decided to tell his story and version of all the events in a diary that he writes on the road. Moving south, the conspirators crossed the river to Virginia and tried to seek help from familiar Confederates, but everywhere they were refused.

At this time, all the other conspirators had already been captured and imprisoned. Booth and Harold went to Garrett's farm at Bowlin' Green, the man who helped the fugitive Southerners after the war. The killers hid in the barn there. However, the police were on their trail.

On the evening of April 26 in Virginia, the police and soldiers surrounded and set fire to the barn, and Booth went outside with a revolver, at that moment Sergeant B. Corbett shot and mortally wounded him in the neck, after 2 hours the criminal died.

All the other conspirators were brought before a military court, which sentenced four to hang, the rest to life imprisonment.

President's funeral

The funeral of A. Lincoln proved that he was loved and respected by everyone. The train with his body traveled from New York to Springfield, covering 2,730 km. Over the entire 2.5 week journey, millions of Americans, whites and blacks, came to pay their last respects to the president. Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery. You can ask any American: "In what year was Lincoln assassinated?". And he will answer immediately and without error: “In 1865,” because the tragic death of this president created around him the halo of a martyr who died in the struggle to overthrow the US slave system. In honor of A. Lincoln in 1876, a statue was built in Washington with the money of subscribers, and another in Chicago.

John Wilkes Booth, who forever remained in US history as the one who killed Lincoln, showed a vivid example that a person alone can change the course of the history of an entire state. If he had not dared to kill on April 14, 1865, then American history could have turned out very differently.