The wound was certainly fatal, doctors said, but there was very little blood. Lincoln had a compressed wound in his head and doctors had to stick their fingers in the wound so that he could breathe again. Much blood was shed at Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865, but according to Holzer, very little of it belonged to Abraham Lincoln. Major Henry Rathbone rushes to try to stop Booth as Rathbone's fiancee Clara Harris (L) and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln (2nd L) look on. President Abraham Lincoln as he sits in the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington April 14, 1865. Library of Congress shows John Wilkes Booth shooting U.S. Most of the blood relics from Ford's Theatre are not Lincoln's A copy of a hand coloured 1870 lithographic print by Gibson & Co. "It was something he regretted for the rest of his life," Holzer said.ĥ. Grant was confident that the latter would have happened. Grant would have either become one of Booth's victims or he would have stopped the assassination, Holzer said. Had Julia Grant and Mary Lincoln been on better terms, the tragedy at Ford's Theater likely would have unfolded very differently. Accordingly, the Grants declined the invitation, saying they had planned to visit their children in New Jersey. Grant's wife, Julia, despised Mary Todd Lincoln and dreaded the prospect of spending the evening with the first lady. "His plan was to dismember the Union government."īut Booth's grandiose plans were foiled by tension between the spouses of the Civil War hero and commander in chief. "Booth believed he could kill both of them," Holzer says. The announcement was welcome news to Booth. The advertisements for "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater on Good Friday in 1865 promised that President Lincoln and the First Lady would be accompanied by General Ulysses S. Grant on ApThis is an undated photo of a sketch of Gen. Lincoln is said to have replied: "He does talk very sharp at me, doesn't he?"Ĥ. Just a few days before delivering the Gettysburg Address in 1863, Lincoln went to the theater to see a play called "The Marble Heart" - a translated French production in which Booth played the villain.ĭuring the play, according to Holzer, Booth would direct many of his villainous speeches directly toward the presidential box, prompting a theater companion to tell Lincoln: "He almost seems to be reciting these lines to you." Lincoln not only saw John Wilkes Booth perform in a play but he saw him at Ford's Theatre, which would become "the scene of Booth's final act," says Harold Holzer, author of the new book, "President Lincoln Assassinated!" Lincoln once saw John Wilkes Booth in a play Lithograph depicting Abraham Lincoln's assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, being goaded by a Mephistophelian figure to shoot the unsuspecting president, who is visible in a theater box beyond. Read on to learn five surprising anecdotes about the 16th president of the United States and his assassin.ġ. While the major events surrounding Lincoln's death are well chronicled, some fascinating details are less known. The stage actor fatally shot Lincoln in the back of the head, triggering a manhunt for the murderer and his conspirators and a long period of national mourning. There was certainly nothing Lincoln could do on the evening of Apwhen John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theatre. "He was also fatalistic and said, 'If someone wants to get at me, there is nothing I can do to prevent it.'" "He didn't believe assassination was in the American spirit," Holzer said. Yet he did have a deep foreboding about his demise, according to historian Harold Holzer, one of the country's leading authorities on Lincoln. On this day: The murder of Abraham Lincoln 20 photosĭespite pervasive anti-Lincoln sentiment in the South, the president never feared for his life. In fact, he compiled a vast array of menacing letters in a White House desk folder - labeled "A" for assassination. From the moment Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States on November 6, 1860, he was no stranger to death threats.