Lincoln Assassination - Intermediate Level

It was not Henry Rathbone but Basil Rathbone who starred as Sherlock Holmes in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1939).

General Grant may have originally been a target for assassination, but as he cancelled his plans to go to the theatre that night he was not attacked.

Booth escaped the theatre by jumping from the Presidential Box to the stage and then running out the backstage door.

General and Mrs. Grant had intended to attend the theatre that night with the Lincolns, but cancelled their plans that afternoon.

George Atzerodt lost his nerve, got drunk, and left without attempting to assassinate Vice President Johnson. This suggests that Atzerodt's fear and intoxication hindered his ability to carry out the assassination.

Although Louis Wiechmann lived in Mary Surratt's house and witnessed the comings and goings of the conspirators, he was never convicted of conspiracy himself. He served as a key witness against the conspirators.

Booth broke his left fibula. The break likely occurred on his awkward jump to the stage from the Presidential Box, but he also had a night of hard riding after his escape, so it is possible that the break was either exacerbated or made complete on his ride out of town. Major Rathbone suffered a stab wound to the arm, inflicted by Booth. "Peanut John" Burroughs, an errand boy at Ford's Theatre, was holding Booth's horse outside the stage door. Booth hit him over the head with the butt of a knife and kicked him in the chest as he mounted his horse on his escape.

Dr. Samuel Mudd was tried and convicted in conjunction with the assassination. He escaped hanging by one vote, instead receiving a sentence of life in prison. He was pardoned four years later. There is evidence that he was in fact guilty of knowingly aiding Booth on his escape, though there are those who still maintain his innocence. Contrary to popular belief, the phrase "His name is mud" is not a reference to Samual Mudd, but dates to at least 1823 and likely earlier.

Although convinced of Mary Surratt's complicity in the assassination, the military tribunal which convicted her expressed hesitation at executing her, given that she was a middle-aged woman. President Johnson refused to pardon her and she was executed on July 7, 1865 along with Atzerodt, Herold, and Powell.

Of the Lincoln children, only Robert Lincoln survived into adulthood. He had three children, one of whom died as a teenager. His daughter Mary had one son, who died childless in 1971. His daughter Jessie married Warren Beckwith. She had two children - Mary Lincoln Beckwith (d. 1975) and Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith (d. 1985). Neither had children.

After shooting Lincoln, Booth dropped the gun on the floor of the Presidential Box. The gun was later collected by officials.

The attack on Secretary Seward was unsuccessful because he had a broken jawbone and was wearing a cast covering his jugular. When Powell came at him with a knife, Seward was able to avoid fatal wounds thanks to the coverage given by the cast he wore and by rolling off the bed and to the floor during the attack.

Mary Surratt's task on April 14, 1865, was to hide a package for Booth at a tavern she owned so that he could retrieve it during his escape. Additionally, there were also some guns hidden at the tavern a few weeks prior, which Booth intended to take with him.

Booth chose his three targets of assassination based on specific reasons. He targeted the Vice President because he was a successor to the Office of the President, meaning that his assassination could potentially create chaos and disrupt the government. He chose the Secretary of State because he was a powerful and staunch supporter of Lincoln's policies, and eliminating him would weaken Lincoln's administration. The explanation suggests that Booth's motivations were primarily political and aimed at destabilizing the government rather than personal or financial vendettas.

Understandably upset, Mary Lincoln was wailing loudly in the Petersen House. She made repeated visits to her husband's death bed. Around 3 a.m., she began to wail loudly as her husband gasped for breath. Secretary Stanton, who had taken charge of the situation, commanded that someone take her out of the bedroom where Lincoln lay and not let her back in. She was taken back to the front parlor and wasn't in the room when her husband passed away.

John Surratt, the son of Mary Surratt, was caught in late 1866 in Egypt and taken back to the US for trial. He was acquitted by a hung jury. This may have been a result of the political firestorm surrounding his mother's trial and execution.

It has been alleged by some historians that Lincoln's bodyguard, John Parker, was derelict in his guard duty in abandoning his post; other historians have claimed that Parker was not required to be at the theatre but only to guard Lincoln on his way from the White House to the theatre. Either way, he was not at the theatre during the assassination, and no one knows his exact whereabouts at the time, as the records of his statement made to authorities during the investigation have been lost.

Lewis Powell was assigned to assassinate Secretary William Seward.

Charles Leale was let into the Box by Major Rathbone, who removed the barricade blocking the door to the Box. Charles Taft was sitting in the lower level of the theatre and was lifted into the Box from the stage level, arriving just after Dr. Leale. Dr. Joseph Barnes was Lincoln's Surgeon General, and helped attend to the president once he arrived on the scene. Edwin Stanton was Lincoln's Secretary of War, and was present at the Petersen House throughout the evening while President Lincoln was dying.

Booth kept people out of the Presidential Box during the assassination by barricading the door shut from the inside using a piece of a broken music stand. This action prevented anyone from entering the box and potentially interrupting or stopping the assassination.

Laura Keene, John Dyott, and George Parkhurst were all actors in that evening's performance of Our American Cousin, but only Harry Hawke was onstage at the time of the assassination.

The Lincoln's had four sons - Robert, Eddie, Willie, and Tad.

Only Robert Lincoln lived to adulthood. Eddie died at age 4 in 1850 before the Lincoln's came to Washington. Willie died in 1862 in the White House. Tad died in 1871 at the age of 18.

It is believed that she said "that dreadful house" in reference to the theatre, and not the Petersen House, as she was said to be looking at the theatre when she spoke.

George Atzerodt was one of the individuals involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson. He was assigned the task of assassinating Johnson but ultimately failed to carry out the plan.