President Lincoln names Andrew Johnson the military governor of Tennessee

Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was nominated by Lincoln and confirmed the same day by the U.S. Senate as Military Governor of his home state, with the rank of brigadier general of volunteers.  An ardent and infamous Unionist, he took on a difficult task in a divided state in which fighting was still raging and would do so for two more years.  His careful and tireless service there made him a national figure and helped secure his place, though a Democrat, on the Republican ticket in 1864.  (By John Osborne) 
clear_left
On
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
clear_tab_people
On
clear_tab_images
On

John Wilkes Booth shoots President Lincoln during the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford’s Theatre

Abraham Lincoln became the first American president assassinated in office.  As part of a wider plot to cripple the United States government at this crucial moment, John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln through the head from behind during a performance of "Our American Cousin" in Ford’s Theatre in the capital. Mortally wounded, Lincoln died a few hours later in a house across the street from the theater.  (By John Osborne)
clear_left
On
Type
Crime/Disasters
clear_tab_people
On
clear_tab_images
On

Vice-President Andrew Johnson takes the oath as seventeenth President of the United States

Former Vice-President Andrew Johnson took the oath of office as President of the United States at ten in the morning in his rooms at the Kirkwood House in Washington, D.C.. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase administered the oath and the gathering looking on included the Attorney-General, the Secretary of the Treasury, and half a dozen U.S. Senators. The ceremony was brief and included just a few remarks from the new chief executive. An emergency cabinet meeting followed at the Treasury Building. (By John Osborne)   
clear_left
On
Type
Legal/Political
clear_tab_people
On
clear_tab_images
On

Andrew Johnson (American National Biography)

Scholarship
Hans L. Trefousse, "Johnson, Andrew," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00566.html.
The election of Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent secession crisis confronted Johnson with a difficult choice. Should he, like other Tennessee Democrats, uphold southern pretentions, or should he declare his Unionism, a position more popular among the opposition in East Tennessee than among his own party associates? Johnson never hesitated; fully convinced that the Union must be preserved and knowing that there would be no future for him in a southern Confederacy dominated by men like Jefferson Davis, whom he had fought for years, he defied the southern mainstream.
American National Biography Online

President Lincoln dies from the head wound John Wilkes Booth inflicted eight hours before

John Wilkes Booth had shot President Lincoln once in the head just after 10:30 p.m. the previous evening at  Ford's Theater in Washington. The stricken president was taken, gravely wounded but alive, to the Petersen Boarding House across the street.  Efforts to treat him were deemed futile and at seven twenty-two in the morning he quietly died there, never having regained consciousness.  (By John Osborne)
clear_left
On
Type
Crime/Disasters
clear_tab_people
On
clear_tab_images
On
Subscribe to