Late on a April night in 1865, the unthinkable became true. America’s president had been assassinated. In 1865, a lot changed for Americans who were in love with their president after president Lincoln was shot. There are many conspiracy theories questioning who was involved, for what reasons, and the bigger reason the assassination was planed. The fate of those responsible will also be examined. On April 14, 1865, president Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. The assassination of Lincoln occurred 5 days prior to the civil war’s end in which Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the confederate army Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Booth was a confederate and did not like how he saw …show more content…
on March 14, 1865. Booth’s family was full of well known actors of this time period including Booth himself. This meant that he was quite familiar with Ford’s Theater making the assassination that much easier for him. Booth’s new and improved plan was to take out the Secretary of State, President, and Vice President, the three most powerful and needed men of the south. Booth had many other conspirators behind the scenes of the the master plan. The men who were meant to kill the Secretary of State were Lewis Powell and David Herold, as the man who was assigned to kill the Vice President was George Atzerodt. Although none of the conspirators went through with the plan but John Wilkes Booth. When Lincoln arrived late to Ford’s Theater, he immediately went up to a private box above the stage along side his wife, army officer Henry Rathbone, and Henry’s fiance. When Booth came to the private box, the army officer rushed towards Booth only for Booth to stab the officer in the shoulder then proceeded to point a .44 caliber to the back of Lincoln’s head. Booth then jumped down from the box on to the stage while shouting, “Sic semper tryannis!”, which means thus ever to tyrants, the Virginia state motto. Lincoln died the next day at 7:22