The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln
After
Before
During
Facts
Abraham Lincoln was born in humble surroundings, a one-room log cabin with dirt floors in Hardin County, Kentucky.
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Thomas Lincoln married Sarah Bush Johnston shortly after Nancy's death, and young Abe immediately bonded with his stepmother. A bright woman, she encouraged Abe's education, and took his side in the frequent arguments the young boy had with his father.
Lincoln's mother, the illegitimate Nancy Hanks, died when Lincoln was only nine years old
On April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth shot him
The attack came only 5 days after confederate gereral Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army to appomattox court house
Lincoln slumped forward in his seat, Booth leapt onto the stage and escaped through the back door.
His father, Thomas Lincoln, could not read and could barely sign his name. He was a stern man whom young Abe never liked very much.
Thomas Lincoln was a farmer and carpenter who moved the family from rural Kentucky to frontier Indiana when young Abe was seven years old.
Thomas built a crude 360-square foot log cabin where he lived with his wife, Abe, and elder daughter, Sarah.
On March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait.
Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces
In April, with Confederate armies near collapse across the South, Booth hatched a desperate plan to save the Confederacy.
That Lincoln was to attend Laura Keene’s acclaimed performance in Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater on April 14, Booth plotted the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. By murdering the president and two of his possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to throw the U.S. government into a paralyzing disarray.
Lincoln was then carried across the street to Petersen's Boarding House, where he died early the next morning.
The conspirators were all captured, and Booth was shot while trying to escape from Union soldiers.