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I am not a professional historian or writer. I taught American history for 28 years and was particularly interested in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. For 24 years my students did a mock trial simulating the real one that followed the assassination in 1865. If you have any questions, or simply would like to discuss the case, please e-mail me.
NOTE: This website has 3 main sections: Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination, the Abraham Lincoln Research Site, and the Mary Todd Lincoln Research Site.
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"Assassination is not an American practice or habit, and one so vicious and so desperate cannot be engrafted into our political system. This conviction of mine has steadily gained strength since the Civil War began. Every day's experience confirms it. The President, during the heated season, occupies a country house near the Soldiers' Home, two or three miles from the city. He goes to and...from that place on horseback, night and morning, unguarded. I go there unattended at all hours, by daylight and moonlight, by starlight and without any light."
Secretary of State, William Seward, July 15, 1862
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"Crook, do you know I believe there are men who want to take my life? And I have no doubt they will do it.....I know no one could do it and escape alive. But if it is to be done, it is impossible to prevent it."
Abraham Lincoln to bodyguard, William H. Crook, on April 14, 1865
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"The last day he lived was the happiest of his life."
Mary Todd Lincoln to Rev. Noyes W. Miner. Source: The Later Life and Religious Sentiments of Abraham Lincoln, a lecture by Rev. J.A. Reed. (Text in July 1873 edition of Scribner's Monthly)
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"I knowed they'd kill him. I ben awaiting fur it."
Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, Abraham's stepmother, upon being told the news of the assassination |
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WHY DID BOOTH WANT WILLIAM SEWARD ASSASSINATED? |
| If Andrew Johnson had also been assassinated as Booth planned, Senate President Pro Tempore Lafayette S. Foster of Connecticut would have become acting president pending an election of a new president. The process of electing a new president could only be set in motion by the secretary of state; thus Booth felt Seward's assassination would throw the Union government into "electoral chaos." A Presidential Succession law passed on March 1, 1792, was still in effect in 1865. It provided that the president pro tempore of the Senate was third in line to the presidency and the Speaker of the House was fourth. This law didn't make any succession provisions beyond the Speaker. For much more information on this theory please see the article entitled "Why Seward?" by Michael Maione and James O. Hall in the Spring 1998 edition of the Lincoln Herald. |
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE PEOPLE TRIED BY THE MILITARY COMMISSION IN 1865
AND JOHN SURRATT |
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Sources consulted in the creation of this assassination site include: The Day Lincoln Was Shot: An Illustrated Chronicle by Richard Bak, The Day Lincoln Was Shot by Jim Bishop, When Lincoln Died: The Assassination, The Funeral Journey, The Pursuit and Trial of the Conspirators, The Complete Story in Pictures and in the Words of His Day by Ralph Borreson, The Great American Myth by George S. Bryan, The Riddle of Dr. Mudd by Samuel Carter III, Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial and Punishment by Roy Z. Chamlee, Jr., The Unlocked Book by Asia Booth Clarke, Anatomy of an Assassination: The Murder of Abraham Lincoln by John Cottrell, The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln And Its Expiation by David Miller Dewitt, The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence edited by William C. Edwards and Edward Steers, Jr., We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts edited by Timothy S. Good, The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy by Thomas Goodrich, The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies by William Hanchett, Journal of the Lincoln Assassination edited and published by Frederick Hatch, The Union vs. Dr. Mudd by Hal Higdon, April Tragedy by Torlief S. Holmes, The President Is Shot! The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Harold Holzer, American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael W. Kauffman, Samuel Bland Arnold: Memoirs of a Lincoln Conspirator edited by Michael W. Kauffman, Twenty Days by Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography by Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt, The Last Lincoln Conspirator: John Surratt's Flight from the Gallows by Andrew C. A. Jampoler, The Assassin's Accomplice - Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln by Kate Clifford Larson, Kennedy and Lincoln: Medical and Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations by Dr. John K. Lattimer, The Death of Lincoln; the Story of Booth's Plot, his Deed and the Penalty by Clara E. Laughlin, Lincoln's Avengers - Justice, Revenge, and Reunion After the Civil War by Elizabeth D. Leonard, The Assassination of Lincoln: History and Myth by Lloyd Lewis, The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd by Nettie Mudd, Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Osborn H. Oldroyd, Alias 'Paine' Lewis Thornton Powell, the Mystery Man of the Lincoln Conspiracy by Betty J. Ownsbey, The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators compiled and arranged by Benn Pitman, A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours by W. Emerson Reck, Right or Wrong, God Judge Me: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth edited by John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper, The Web of Conspiracy by Theodore Roscoe, Prince of Players: Edwin Booth by Eleanor Ruggles, Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Edward Steers, Jr., His Name is Still Mudd by Edward Steers, Jr., The Escape and Capture of John Wilkes Booth by Edward Steers, Jr., The Trial: The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators edited by Edward Steers, Jr., The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, As Recorded
in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft edited by Edward Steers, Jr. and Harold Holzer, Surratt Courier published by the Surratt Society, Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson, April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War by William A. Tidwell, Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln by William A. Tidwell with James O. Hall and David Winfred Gaddy, Mary Surratt: An American Tragedy by Elizabeth Steger Trindal, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Thomas Reed Turner, Beware the People Weeping: Public Opinion and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Thomas Reed Turner, His Name Was Mudd: The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, Who Treated the Fleeing John Wilkes Booth by Elden C. Weckesser, A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865 by Louis J. Weichmann, John Wilkes Booth by Francis Wilson, and Lincoln and Booth: More Light on the Conspiracy by H. Donald Winkler.
The Surratt House Museum has a list of recommended Lincoln assassination books.
This page is part of the Abraham Lincoln Research Site. Questions, comments, corrections or suggestions can be sent to Roger Norton, the creator and maintainer of this site. All text except reprinted articles was written by the webmaster, ©1996-2010. All rights reserved. It is unlawful to copy, reproduce or transmit in any form or by any means, electronic or hard copy, including reproducing on another web page, or in any information or retrieval system without the express written permission of the author. The website was born on December 29, 1996.
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