Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
The assassination of Abraham
Lincoln took place on Good Friday, April 14,
1865. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln
happened when President Abraham Lincoln and Mary went to
Ford's Theater in Washington to see a played called My American
Cousin. Shortly after 10:00, an actor named John Wilkes Booth,
with a hatred for Negroes and a passion for the dead
Confederacy, snuck up silently behind President Abraham Lincoln
in the Presidential Box and assassinated President Abraham
Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham
Lincoln by firing one shot into President Abraham Lincoln
's head. Then John Wilkes Booth leapt to the stage,
yelling Sic semper tyrannis - "Thus always to tyrants" - and
fled into the night.
President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John
Wilkes Booth
President Abraham Lincoln was carried
unconscious across the street to a private home and laid upon a
bed. Throughout the night his friends and family kept a vigil,
though doctors had already pronounced the wound fatal.
President Abraham Lincoln never regained consciousness.
When did President Abraham Lincoln die?
President Abraham Lincoln died the following
morning, April 15, at 7:22 a.m. at the age of 56. Secretary of
War Edwin Stanton, standing nearby, stated: "Now he belongs to
the ages." The day after President Abraham Lincoln 's death
became known as Black Easter.
Millions of Americans grieved the loss of
President Abraham Lincoln as if they had lost a father. Even
his enemies spoke in praise of his courage and selflessness. A
train carried President Abraham Lincoln 's body west from
Washington to Springfield, Illinois. All along its route,
people gathered by the thousands, silently weeping as the man
who had preserved the Union passed by and into history.
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