President Lincoln by DOYLE
By DOYLE
Washington D. C. Friday, April 14, 1865 – the president was shot in a theatre tonight, and is perhaps mortally wounded.
-Associated Press
By DOYLE
One hundred forty-nine years ago, the nation was shocked when President Lincoln was shot while watching a play.
We went to Fords Theatre, and saw the booth President Abraham Lincoln was sitting when John Wilkes Booth killed him, just five days after the civil war ended! Booth killed Lincoln because he loved the Confederacy, and was furious that they lost the war.
Ford’s Theatre is in Washington, DC. It is important because it is the site of an important event that happened in American History.
Lincoln could’ve changed American history, because his wife was feeling ill that evening and he wanted to stay at the White House. But he didn’t want to disappoint anyone, so they went to the play.
Before the Assassination Plot, Booth and his co-conspirators wanted to kidnap Lincoln. But when it was time to launch the plot, Lincoln changed his schedule, so the plot was scrapped. Then, Booth decided to assassinate Lincoln and other officials. Their plan was to shoot Lincoln and the vice president. Half of it worked.
Booth shot the president in the back of the head, and then proceeded to jump onto the stage. He yelled “ Sic Semper Tyrannis” which is Latin for “As Always With Tyrants.” And jumped from the box onto the stage and ran into an alley.
We saw this newspaper story at the Newseum.
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Editor's Note: I understand it seems ghoulish to focus on the assassination of President Lincoln rather than his presidency or the Emancipation Proclamation.
Let me explain - it all started when we saw that Dr. Samuel Mudd and three other Lincoln "co-conspirators" had been imprisoned at Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortuga. Their imprisonment prompted a conversation with the boys about the conspiracy, which covered topics like the Civil War, slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation, etc.
Doyle took a real interest in all of this, and we had always planned to visit Ford's Theatre in Washington, so I knew he would be able to blog about it. When we saw the newspaper stories at the Newseum from the assassination, the pieces brought the event to life for him.
Using historic places and original accounts to understand history and put it all into context is the whole reason we're taking this trip, so I went with it.
