April 14, 1865 would go down in history as the day when the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated; marking history as the first time this happened to a president. It happened five days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant thus ending the Civil War and causing displeasure among those in the South who did not agree with the outcome. Among them was the young John Wilkes Booth who had access to the theatre due to his family’s influence because of their skills as actors (Clarke). Booth would later be known in history as the man who would change history using a weapon commonly referred to as a pocket cannon (Slomski). John Wilkes Booth used the pocket canon after making sure no one was able to enter the room with a wooden block that he placed in the way of the door (Nicolay 299). Possibly one of the best known guns in the country, the .44 caliber derringer that was used by Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln rests at Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site in Washington, D.C alongside the bloodstained pillowed that cushioned the late …show more content…
Security around the president has been improved since then and it’s continued to get stronger after more presidents were assassinated after President Lincoln.
I chose to write about the derringer that was used to assassinate Abraham Lincoln because I’ve always been fascinated by Lincoln. For as long as I can remember he has been one of my favorite presidents and I was interested to learn more about the events surrounding his death because we’re never really taught the whole story in school growing up. I’ve always wondered exactly why Booth did what he did and while I haven’t gotten to the point of understanding the way his brain was working, and doubt I ever will, it’s been interesting to see why he chose to do what he did in the way he did