Booth, John Wilkes

Life Span
to
Full name
John Wilkes Booth
Place of Birth
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
South
Origins
Slave State
Occupation
Other
Other Occupation
Actor

John Wilkes Booth (American National Biography)

Scholarship
The kidnapping plot evaporated when the city of Richmond fell and the war ended. Five days later, on 14 April 1865, Booth learned that President Lincoln planned to attend Our American Cousin (starring Laura Keene) at Ford's Theatre. Working quickly, Booth assigned [George] Atzerodt to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson and [Lewis] Payne to kill Secretary of State William Seward while Booth himself murdered Lincoln. Atzerodt lost his nerve and made no attempt on Johnson, but Payne, a young giant, wounded Seward severely, as well as several others who tried to defend him.

Booth meanwhile had entered Ford's Theatre at about ten o'clock, moving across the rear of the balcony to the president's box. Waiting for the audience's laughter to cover the report of his derringer, Booth entered the box and fired a single .44-calibre bullet at point-blank range into the back of Lincoln's head. He shouted "Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged!" according to some, slashing with a dagger at Major Henry Rathbone, who tried to restrain him. Booth then leaped the twelve feet from the presidential box onto the stage, breaking his left leg. He escaped from the theater to a waiting horse, and, accompanied by [David] Herold, fled Washington. They stopped at the home of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd in Bryantown, Maryland, to have Booth's leg set, then hid in neighboring woods for six days while federal troops vainly searched for them.
Stephen M. Archer, "Booth, John Wilkes," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-01210.html.

John Wilkes Booth (Goodrich, 2005)

Scholarship
Although [John] Wilkes [Booth] was an outspoken advocate of Southern rights, other siblings in the Booth family were either neutral or, as was the case with older brother Edwin, strongly pro-Union.

In 1859, when the startling news from Harpers Ferry arrived, John Booth was performing in Richmond. Begging officers to take him along, the actor joined a Virginia militia unit as it rushed north to quell the attempted slave revolt led by the abolitionist John Brown. Although diametrically opposed to Brown’s beliefs, Booth nevertheless came to understand and respect the grit and determination of the white-bearded Kansan. After his capture and trial, Booth was also present at Brown’s execution. More than his life, it was John Brown’s death that stirred the actor’s greatest admiration. The image of the “rugged old hero” standing alone on the scaffold unflinchingly, moments from eternity, without a friend or rescuer in sight, was one that Booth never forgot…One of the lessons Booth learned from Brown was that even in utter defeat, millions of souls might still be stirred; that one bold man with a will of iron and a heart of steel could make a difference and change the course of history. “John Brown was a man inspired, the grandest character of this century!,” praised Booth.
Thomas Goodrich, The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), 60-61.
Date Event
Virginia executes John Brown
In New York City, John Wilkes Booth performs with his brothers Edwin and Junius for the only time
John Wilkes Booth shoots President Lincoln during the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford’s Theatre
President Lincoln dies from the head wound John Wilkes Booth inflicted eight hours before
Fugitive John Wilkes Booth rides into Maryland and reaches the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd at four a.m.
John Wilkes Booth and David Herold continue their flight across Maryland then hide in a remote thicket
In Baltimore, assassination conspirator Michael O'Laughlin is arrested in the morning in Baltimore
Assassination conspirator Samuel Arnold is arrested in the morning at Fortress Monroe in Virginia
- John Wilkes Booth and David Herold are hiding from their pursuers in a remote Maryland pine thicket
George Atzerodt, failed assassin in the John Wilkes Booth conspiracy, is captured in Maryland
At the War Department, Secretary Stanton announced large rewards for the capture of the Lincoln conspirators
Doctor Samuel Mudd, who treated and sheltered John Wilkes Booth, is arrested at his Maryland farm
John Wilkes Booth is trapped in a Virginia barn, is shot, and dies of his wound just before dawn
In Washington, President Johnson orders a military trial for John Wilkes Booth's accused fellow plotters
In Washington, the officers of the military court for John Wilkes Booth's accused fellow plotters are named
In Washington, membership of the military court for John Wilkes Booth's accused fellow plotters is adjusted
In Washington, the accused Lincoln Assassination plotters all plead not guilty before their military court
Chicago Style Entry Link
Evans, C. Wyatt. The Legend of John Wilkes Booth: Myth, Memory, and a Mummy. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004.
view record
Goodrich, Thomas. The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Booth, John Wilkes," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/5133.