Assassination!: The Brick Chronicle of Attempts on the Lives of Twelve US Presidents by Brendan Powell Smith Page A
Authors: Brendan Powell Smith
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finally gaining a clear advantage over an increasingly desperate Confederacy.
Despite the proximity of Washington, DC, to enemy lines, and the prevalence of Southern sympathizers in the capital, President Abraham Lincoln would, at times, still ride through the city unguarded and alone.
On one evening in mid-August of 1864, Lincoln was riding to his family’s summer retreat just outside the city when a rifle shot startled his horse, and Lincoln lost his hat.
The president rode the rest of the way at a fast pace, working hard to regain control of his horse, and eventually arriving by the guarded gate.
Retracing Lincoln’s route, the guard later found Lincoln’s hat, and, on inspection, discovered a bullet hole through it.
When the hat was returned to him, Lincoln asked that the matter not be made public, and added that, “I long ago made up my mind that if anybody wants to kill me, he will do it . . . It seems to me, the man who would succeed me would be just as objectionable to my enemies—if I have any.”
Chapter 3
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
April 14, 1865
Son to the most famous Shakespearean actor of his day, young John Wilkes Booth carried on his family’s tradition. Three years into his acting career, at age twenty, he was proclaimed the handsomest actor on the American stage.
By 1861, at age twenty-three, Booth was starring in lead roles in theaters in New York, Boston, Chicago, and St. Louis, earning $20,000 a year (equivalent to about $500,000 today), and reviewers considered him the most promising young actor in America.
Young women from the North and the South found Booth’s refined charms and dashing good looks irresistible, and he never had trouble finding female companionship.
Having grown up in a slaveholding area of Maryland, Booth made no secret of his admiration for the South when it seceded in 1861, and once wrote that he considered slavery “one of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us) that God ever bestowed upon a favored nation.”
He openly stated his contempt for President Lincoln’s appearance and pedigree, as well as his “coarse low jokes and anecdotes, his vulgar smiles and his frivolity.” And he held him personally responsible for a bloody, protracted, and unnecessary war.
Booth did not enlist as a soldier, but chose to use his personal wealth and special privilege as an actor to move freely about the country as a way to smuggle badly needed medical supplies to the South.
At the same time, Booth also courted Lucy Hale, the daughter of an abolitionist US senator from New Hampshire, and they became secretly engaged to marry.
By the time of Lincoln’s reelection in late 1864, the war was going increasingly poorly for the South. Booth turned his attentions away from acting and began recruiting a band of loyal friends to assist in a decisive action he desperately hoped might turn the tide of the war.
The plan was to abduct President Lincoln from a theater, knocking him unconscious as the lights were turned out, then spirit away their captive to Virginia, where Lincoln would be held as ransom for the release of thousands of Confederate prisoners of war.
Deemed unfeasible, a revised plan was made. On March 17, 1865, Booth learned that the president was to visit wounded soldiers at Campbell Hospital just outside of Washington. Booth and five others made preparations and lay in wait to ambush Lincoln’s carriage en route.
Booth’s men overtook the carriage.
But upon peering inside, they discovered the president was not on board. Lincoln had changed his plans and was at that moment attending a function at the very hotel in Washington where Booth was staying.
Worrying that their botched plan would arouse suspicion, the group fled. After this incident, two of Booth’s conspirators decided they would no longer participate in Booth’s plans.
The next few weeks saw the fall of the Confederate capital at Richmond and the surrender of the commander of the
Despite the proximity of Washington, DC, to enemy lines, and the prevalence of Southern sympathizers in the capital, President Abraham Lincoln would, at times, still ride through the city unguarded and alone.
On one evening in mid-August of 1864, Lincoln was riding to his family’s summer retreat just outside the city when a rifle shot startled his horse, and Lincoln lost his hat.
The president rode the rest of the way at a fast pace, working hard to regain control of his horse, and eventually arriving by the guarded gate.
Retracing Lincoln’s route, the guard later found Lincoln’s hat, and, on inspection, discovered a bullet hole through it.
When the hat was returned to him, Lincoln asked that the matter not be made public, and added that, “I long ago made up my mind that if anybody wants to kill me, he will do it . . . It seems to me, the man who would succeed me would be just as objectionable to my enemies—if I have any.”
Chapter 3
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
April 14, 1865
Son to the most famous Shakespearean actor of his day, young John Wilkes Booth carried on his family’s tradition. Three years into his acting career, at age twenty, he was proclaimed the handsomest actor on the American stage.
By 1861, at age twenty-three, Booth was starring in lead roles in theaters in New York, Boston, Chicago, and St. Louis, earning $20,000 a year (equivalent to about $500,000 today), and reviewers considered him the most promising young actor in America.
Young women from the North and the South found Booth’s refined charms and dashing good looks irresistible, and he never had trouble finding female companionship.
Having grown up in a slaveholding area of Maryland, Booth made no secret of his admiration for the South when it seceded in 1861, and once wrote that he considered slavery “one of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us) that God ever bestowed upon a favored nation.”
He openly stated his contempt for President Lincoln’s appearance and pedigree, as well as his “coarse low jokes and anecdotes, his vulgar smiles and his frivolity.” And he held him personally responsible for a bloody, protracted, and unnecessary war.
Booth did not enlist as a soldier, but chose to use his personal wealth and special privilege as an actor to move freely about the country as a way to smuggle badly needed medical supplies to the South.
At the same time, Booth also courted Lucy Hale, the daughter of an abolitionist US senator from New Hampshire, and they became secretly engaged to marry.
By the time of Lincoln’s reelection in late 1864, the war was going increasingly poorly for the South. Booth turned his attentions away from acting and began recruiting a band of loyal friends to assist in a decisive action he desperately hoped might turn the tide of the war.
The plan was to abduct President Lincoln from a theater, knocking him unconscious as the lights were turned out, then spirit away their captive to Virginia, where Lincoln would be held as ransom for the release of thousands of Confederate prisoners of war.
Deemed unfeasible, a revised plan was made. On March 17, 1865, Booth learned that the president was to visit wounded soldiers at Campbell Hospital just outside of Washington. Booth and five others made preparations and lay in wait to ambush Lincoln’s carriage en route.
Booth’s men overtook the carriage.
But upon peering inside, they discovered the president was not on board. Lincoln had changed his plans and was at that moment attending a function at the very hotel in Washington where Booth was staying.
Worrying that their botched plan would arouse suspicion, the group fled. After this incident, two of Booth’s conspirators decided they would no longer participate in Booth’s plans.
The next few weeks saw the fall of the Confederate capital at Richmond and the surrender of the commander of the
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