Killing Lincoln Sparknotes

We’ve all heard the stories about Honest Abe and his untimely assassination in the theatre, but Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard’s book Killing Lincoln transports us back in time and relives the story of the days leading up to the day that changed America forever. Our story opens up March 4, 1865, six weeks before Lincoln’s assassination, when the United States of America was in the midst of its biggest turmoil. The Southern and the Northern states had divided into the Confederacy and the Union and were fighting in America’s bloodiest war in history: the Civil War. Lincoln was just reelected by his people and taking his second oath of office, little does he know that the man who will seal his fate is sitting in this very crowd and harboring

This battle was the final battle fought in the Civil War. It left the Confederate Army in ruins and caused a lot of damage for the Union Army. General Lee knew that his army could no longer withstand any more attacks, so he did what he dreaded doing the most. On April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered thus ending the Civil War.

The people in Washington D.C. were thrilled that an end had come to this war and that the Union had won, that is except for John Wilkes Booth. Booth was absolutely outraged and this victory for the Union added fuel to his raging fire. Before this moment Booth had merely planned to kidnap the president and hold him hostage until the southern states won the war. He now knew that kidnapping was not going to solve his problem, he wants payback and the only way he can get it is if he takes the president’s life.

To accomplish the perfect assassination Booth must enlist some help, so he calls on some of his coconspirators to help him get the job done. Among Booth’s entourage are Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt. These conspirators believed that their mission was to kidnap the president, but Booth had other plans for them. Blackmail and a lot of convincing made this group of people join Booth’s evil plot against the

Seward his medicine by hand. Mr. Seward’s servant knew that something was wrong. Lewis Powell then made his way up the stairs to find one of Mr. Seward’s sons denying Powell entrance into the bedroom. Powell stabbed this man and he fell unconscious to the floor. His next roadblock was Mr. Seward’s daughter that he just punched and knocked her out. Finally, another one of the Seward children tried to stop the mad man but was also knocked unconscious. Powell then vicious stabbed William Seward until he believed that he was dead. Little did he know that everyone in the home was still