John Wilkes Booth

Maryland Historical Society

John Wilkes Booth was considered to be among the country's foremost Shakespearean actors at the time of the Civil War. His fame turned to infamy on April 14, 1865, when he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

Booth was born May 10, 1838, on the family farm near the town of Bel Air, Maryland. His father, Junius Brutus Booth, was America's greatest tragedian at the time of his death in 1852. John and his older brothers, Junius Jr. and Edwin, followed in their father's footsteps and established their own reputations as theatrical performers. Booth made his acting debut in 1855 in Baltimore at the age of seventeen. His inspirational acting and handsome features soon won him acclaim as a matinee idol. By 1863, at the peak of his popularity, he was earning an enormous sum for the time-twenty thousand dollars a year.

The Plot
Booth was an ardent Confederate sympathizer who grew to hate Lincoln, believing him a tyrant because of his relentless prosecution of the war against the Confederacy and slavery. As the war dragged on Booth developed a plan to kidnap Lincoln and turn him over to Confederate authorities in Richmond where he could be exchanged for Confederate prisoners being held in Union prison camps.

With the help of Confederate agents in Canada and southern Maryland, Booth assembled a team of conspirators to help carry out his plan. After a failed attempt to abduct Lincoln on March 17, 1865, Booth decided to kill the president along with Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and General Ulysses S. Grant.

The opportunity came on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, when Booth learned that Lincoln would be attending Ford's Theatre that evening. At approximately 10:15 p.m. Booth entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head while the president was watching the comedy Our American Cousin. Booth jumped from the box onto the stage, breaking the small bone in his left leg, and escaped from the rear of the theater. He made his way through southern Maryland, stopping to have his broken leg set by Dr. Samuel Mudd, then crossed the Potomac River to the farm of Richard Garrett near Port Royal, Virginia, where he was cornered by Union cavalry on Wednesday, April 26, 1865. Refusing to surrender, Booth was shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett. The bullet struck Booth in the neck, partially severing his spinal cord and leaving him paralyzed. He died a few hours later of asphyxiation.

At the time of Booth's attack on Lincoln, Lewis Powell viciously attacked Secretary of State Seward, who was convalescing at home after a serious carriage accident. Seward survived the attack. George Atzerodt, assigned by Booth to kill Vice President Johnson, lost his courage at the last minute and fled the scene. General Grant escaped possible attack when he left Washington earlier in the day for New Jersey.

The government tried eight people, including John H. Surratt, Mary E. Surratt, and Dr. Mudd, as co-conspirators with Booth before a military tribunal. All eight were found guilty. Four, including Mary Surratt, received the death penalty; four others, including Mudd, were sentenced to prison, three for life, one for six years. Those sentenced to execution were hanged in the courtyard of the Old Penitentiary (now Fort McNair) in Washington on July 7, 1865, and buried on the prison grounds.

Alford, Terry, ed. John Wilkes Booth. A Sister's Memoir. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 1996.

Rhodehamel John and Louise Taper, eds. "Right or Wrong, God Judge Me." The Writings of John Wilkes Booth. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1997

Steers, Edward Jr. Blood on the Moon. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.