Abraham Lincoln's Assassination Conspiracy

801 Words2 Pages

Amanda Dieterle Professor John Jacobsen History 1301 8 July 2016 Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States and one of our countries most notable figures in history, was assassinated on April 14, 1865. In today’s society, many believe there are conspiracy theories about almost everything that the government has done, but many do not think that conspiracies could date back as far as mid 1860’s. The discussion of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the well thought out shooting and escape, and the days that follow are going to be closely examined throughout this paper. Abraham Lincoln was watching Our American Cousin with his wife and two others at Ford’s Theater when John Wilkes Booth, a …show more content…

Major Henry Rathbone, who was sitting in the box with his fiancé and President Lincoln’s wife watching the play, jumped up and lunged at John Wilkes Booth. Booth was able to jump from the box after stabbing Major Rathbone but ended up breaking his leg. He escaped Washington D.C. and escaped to Virginia and where he died on April 26, 1865. Richard Garrett who was eleven years old at the time, gave an eyewitness account of Booth’s death at his family’s farm. Garrett’s lectures were published in the Confederate Veteran and according to him, Booth had arrived at the farm without the family knowing of President Lincoln’s death due to mail being halted after the collapse of the Confederate government. During dinner, Garrett states that they informed Booth of Johnston’s army surrendering which in turn meant the Civil War was over and Booth had failed to save the Confederacy even with President Lincoln dying. Later, he states that they learned of Lincoln’s death and that there was a reward out for Booth. Lieutenant Colonel Everton Conger eventually tracked down Booth and his location, however Booth refused to surrender stating he would rather come out and fight and then began setting the barn he was hiding in on fire. Sergeant Boston Corbett then shot Booth because he saw a pistol raised at him, however there are contradicting reports against that as well. Booth by now was wounded in the neck and paralyzed as he was dragged out of the barn and put on the front porch of the Garrett’s

Open Document