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Killing Lincoln The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever Summary

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Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard attempts to dissect the assassination of the sixteenth president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln. Rather than just telling the simple story of Lincoln being shot in the back of the head at the Ford Theatre, this book goes into great detail to show what various characters from this pivotal time in history were thinking, feeling, and trying to overcome. Bill O’Reilly is no stranger to writing books. Other pieces by Bill are: Killing Reagan, Killing Jesus, Killing Kennedy and many other great pieces of literature that go into great detail to explain the final days of major historical figures. The fact that O’Reilly has …show more content…

The goal of this section of the book is to expose the little details of the American Civil War that greatly impacted the future of a young United States. What this part really stresses is how close Robert E. Lee was to extending the war, which could have greatly changed the history of the United States. The time period of the war that this book focuses on is towards the end of the war. Lee’s men are incredibly out-numbered, starving, exhausted, and losing motivation to fight. It seems like at this point in the war, most of Lee’s men were beginning to realize that the odds of the Confederacy winning this gruesome, unnecessary war were slim to none. This could impact the motivation of any group of men fighting any kind of war. How could one be motivated to fight in a war that they know they are going to lose? This section of the book ends with a highly-detailed description of Lee surrendering to Grant. Lee never made it obvious to men of the Confederacy or the Union the fact that he had come to the point of surrender was internally and emotionally tearing him apart. Lee was always successful and rarely lost anything so one could understand how devastating of a day this was for General Robert E. …show more content…

One of the strongest strengths is the intricate detail used to summarize major historical events. “The authors succinctly describe the closing battles of the Civil War, the assassination, and its aftermath.” (Farrell, 2011) It is obvious that O’Reilly and Dugard took the appropriate amount of time need to adequately write this book. The pictures, inserted throughout the book used to help the reader understand what is going on and paint a mental picture, are also one of the strongest positives that this book possesses. As far as weakness go, there are few. The one thing that a reader may have an issue with is the way some accounts end if they are not used to, or do not like, cliffhanger endings. “The authors profess to be writing history that reads like a thriller, and their account of Lincoln's assassination makes ample use of tricks like cliffhanger endings” (Kirkus Reviews) Other than that, there is not much that a reader could complain about or have an issue

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The book ,A Stillness at Appomattox, written by Bruce Catton in 1953, was an enlightening history of the last year of the war as Union general U. S. Grant led the Army of the Potomac against Confederate general Robert E. Lee to finish the American Civil War. Catton vividly describes the plight of the common soldier while keeping the overview of the war in perspective. He effectively creates a mood of misguidance and loss that is felt in more recent conflicts as well as the Civil War. A highly accredited author , Catton creates an effective story that brings the emotions of the front with the motives of the high command.

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James L. Swanson Chasing Lincoln’s Killer 2009 Chasing Lincoln’s Killer is a book about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a past United States of America president. The introduction of the book is how John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s killer, and his accomplices, made a plan to kidnap the American president, but their plan failed. So, John Wilkes Booth and his little gang decide to kill the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State in one night. John Wilkes Booth would kill the president at Ford’s theater, His accomplice George Atzerodt would kill the Vice President at the Vice President’s hotel room. Lewis Powell and David Herold would kill the Secretary of State.

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No matter how many news reports and newspapers people scour through, there is always a better chance than not that key information is missed because of a biased article writer. Through reading the book, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, no side is left out, and while Swanson is a writer from the North, he manages to cover the entire story of Booth’s manhunt, including the many hidden facts as well as the motive behind Booth’s attack. Through primary sources and other documents, the text is quite informative, and therefore is a must read for anyone and everyone. It does matter if people read this book, because it reveals so much more than what most people know, about this horrific incident. Every day, manhunts and assassinations take place around the

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Page 1. Ms.Dean 7th Grade ELA March 20th,2023 Chasing Lincoln’s Killer Book Report (Book by James L. Swanson) Chasing Lincoln’s Killer is a 194 paged book about President Abraham Lincoln’s Assasination, and of the way it happened ,where it happened,how it happened ,and everyone known who was involved.

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In his book, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, Bill O’Reilly attempts to explore, in depth, the events leading up to and immediately after the assassination of President Lincoln. As a Television show host, questions arise as to O’Reilly’s qualifications to write such a book. To make up for the insight that he might lack, O’Reilly co-authors the book with Martin Dugard who, having written numerous non-fiction books prior to this one including The Last Voyage of Columbus and Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone, gives the book the qualifications it needs to be credible. In Part One, O’Reilly chronicles the final days of the Civil War as well as Lincoln and Boothe’s movements as the

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Five days after the Confederacy’s surrender, John Wilkes Booth had successfully killed one of the most influential presidents in American history to do what he believed would redeem power to the southern states. Booth’s main goal was to tear down the Union’s government by taking down their leader and his successors, but the original plan did not involve the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Historian Christopher Hammer explained in his article "Booth's Reason for Assassination", the former actor had created a group of co conspirators and designed "a ploy on March 17 to capture Lincoln as he traveled in his carriage [and had] collapsed when the president changed his itinerary—and several of Booth’s conspirators ultimately left the group.” (Teaching History). Since the failed capture of the president, Booth hatred towards Lincoln grew after hearing the president’s goal to officially abolish slavery in his Second Presidential

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This book is about Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. The person guilty of assassinating Lincoln was John Wilks Booth. John Wilkes Booth was part of a family of celebrated actresses, but he was not known for that. He was known as the person that killed President Lincoln. What some did not know was that John was a racist and did not like that the war was over and the slaves were going to be free.

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In Bruce Catton’s article, “Grant and Lee: A study in Contrasts” he contrasts the differences in the ideologies of the north and the south, while comparing the similarities between the generals themselves. To develop the thesis Catton begins by providing historical context on the two generals working out the terms for surrender of the south, this sets the stage for the next few paragraphs contrasting them. When he contrasts the generals he describes their childhoods and then goes on to describe the ideologies they supported. After this, the author compares the similarities between the generals, which tells the reader that despite the fact they lead two opposing factions in the civil war they weren’t so different as people.

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This theory explained Abraham Lincoln's devastating pre-assassination on 1865. After Many attempts to kidnap Lincoln but failed to work out until the Confederacy surrendered to the North. The well-known stage performing artist John Wilkes Booth thought the president was determined to destroy the constitution, and he turned to the thoughts of assassination. This theory focused on how Booth and co-conspirators come up with their changes plans of murdering the president and two of his possible successors, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to throw the U.S. government into disarray. Looking back with the abduction plot established, the question remains, who was really behind and included in the death of the

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To sum up, Document C shows that General Lee abandoned his faith in himself and asked to be replaced; this is significant because Generals Lee’s dampened mood affects his and his soldiers fighting during the war making them unfocused and

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Steers gathers that “all along the sixteen-hundred-mile journey thousands upon thousands of citizens turned out and stood or sat in their buggies and wagons waiting for the train” (Steers 278). The people of the US showed up in massive crowds just to watch the train transporting Lincolns body, and pay their respects to a man that they all looked up to. At the New York stop, over 500,000 people waited in line to get a glimpse of their murdered president (Steers 283). It was obvious that the American citizens respected Abraham Lincoln.

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There are many different books that tell the story of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. One such book is Killing Lincoln, written by Bill O’Reilly. This book is not only about the assassination of President Lincoln, but it’s about the end of the Civil War too. O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln has many strengths and weaknesses, overall, it’s a good book.

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Lee’s soldiers march to Amelia Court House, Virginia. Although they were fearful, Lee was hoping to make it there before Grant in order for his soldiers to be fed appropriately. However, the long journey began to break them down. “Mile by mile the march turns into a death pageant” (31). Two days after their journey on Tuesday, April 4, 1865, Lee’s army finally makes it to Amelia Court House, but little do the know, there was no food and Grant and his army were “racing to block Lee’s path” (35).

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Before this Lee was making all the Union Generals look terrible and then the Union finally got a win. This changed the whole war because then the Union started winning more battles and they would add up and eventually lead to them winning the war. There was no chance of the Union winning the war until this

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Comparison and Contrast Analysis “A Study in Contrasts” In his essay “A Study in Contrasts,” Bruce Catton effectively delineates the extreme contrasts between Civil War generals Ulysses S. Grand and Robert E. Lee, but also describes their surprising similarities. Cattons’s purpose in employing comparison and contrast in his essay is to describe the differences in the two Civil War generals from the North and the South and how their colossal differences reflect the sectional tensions that lead to the war, but also how they have remarkably similar fighting qualities that help pave to road to peace after war. For instance, he corroborates that Lee was an aristocrat that valued tradition and culture. Catton states that Lee believed that men were

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