Chasing Lincoln's Killer Book Report

Chapter 1 of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson is about the assassination plan of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth. This assassination plan had strengths and weaknesses. John Wilkes Booth was a twenty-six year old actor who was a strong, loyal, and passionate confederate. Booth and his conspirators had a mission to take down some of the top leaders of the United States of America - the President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Johnson, and U.S Secretary of State William Seward. In assessing this plan, which is similar to any other assassination plan, it includes good and bad situations with conspirators, location/time, and also weapons.

Chasing Lincolns killer by James L Swanson. This story talks about the event and death of Abraham lincoln. John Wilkes Booth, the main person that killed and shot Lincoln .He hated Lincoln, and previously tried to kidnap him.

Booth was focused on getting away as fast as possible. Booth and Herold headed to Dr. Samuel A. Mudd’s house. Booth was unable to walk because of his injured leg, so Herold went to knock on Mudd’s door. Mudd recognized Herold, Mudd was okay with helping kidnap the President, he was however not okay with being a part of the assassination.

He could not devote all of his time and attention to the manhunt, for he still had a war to fight in, so he hired a good friend of his, Colonel Lafayette Baker, to come down from New York to help with the investigation. On April 20th, Jones saw the Calvary ride out of town and thought that it was the best time for Booth and Herold to cross the Potomac into Virginia. Virginia, unlike Maryland, was Confederate territory, so the farther South they went, the safer they would be. Jones supplied Booth and Herold with a boat and supplies and told them which way to row it.

No matter how many news reports and newspapers people scour through, there is always a better chance than not that key information is missed because of a biased article writer. Through reading the book, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, no side is left out, and while Swanson is a writer from the North, he manages to cover the entire story of Booth’s manhunt, including the many hidden facts as well as the motive behind Booth’s attack. Through primary sources and other documents, the text is quite informative, and therefore is a must read for anyone and everyone. It does matter if people read this book, because it reveals so much more than what most people know, about this horrific incident. Every day, manhunts and assassinations take place around the

In his book, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, Bill O’Reilly attempts to explore, in depth, the events leading up to and immediately after the assassination of President Lincoln. As a Television show host, questions arise as to O’Reilly’s qualifications to write such a book. To make up for the insight that he might lack, O’Reilly co-authors the book with Martin Dugard who, having written numerous non-fiction books prior to this one including The Last Voyage of Columbus and Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone, gives the book the qualifications it needs to be credible. In Part One, O’Reilly chronicles the final days of the Civil War as well as Lincoln and Boothe’s movements as the

John Wilkes Booth made many mistakes in carrying out his plan. Greatness comes after success, and that's why so many people fail exactly like Booth did- they work for glory instead of

Although John Wilkes Booth committed an awful crime, he took a huge stand by assassinating President Abraham Lincoln and changed the course of U.S. history forever. This tragic event happened at a very important point in history. The Civil War had been raging since 1861, resulting in the loss of thousands of Americans and further splitting the country in half. On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered the last of the Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, ending the Civil War. The union was thrilled.

“John” notes that Booth’s family was a renowned acting dynasty at the time of the Civil War. Booth himself was an ardent supporter of slavery with a burning hatred for Abraham Lincoln (Britannica.com). “Assassination,” suggests that Booth’s hatred of Lincoln may have been caused in part Lincoln’s undemocratic practices. The President deemed censorship of speeches and newspapers necessary during the Civil War. Additionally, the President was able to suspend any writ of habeas corpus, which prevented trials from taking place (2009).

O’Reilly introduces John Wilkes Booth as the mastermind behind the President Lincoln assassination. John Wilkes Booth was a well-known popular stage actor from Maryland. He starred in many different shows that people, such as the president, would attend. After the Civil War the Union supporters from the North celebrated day and night. The people were excited that they had won the war, except John Wilkes Booth.

Five days after the Confederacy’s surrender, John Wilkes Booth had successfully killed one of the most influential presidents in American history to do what he believed would redeem power to the southern states. Booth’s main goal was to tear down the Union’s government by taking down their leader and his successors, but the original plan did not involve the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Historian Christopher Hammer explained in his article "Booth's Reason for Assassination", the former actor had created a group of co conspirators and designed "a ploy on March 17 to capture Lincoln as he traveled in his carriage [and had] collapsed when the president changed his itinerary—and several of Booth’s conspirators ultimately left the group.” (Teaching History). Since the failed capture of the president, Booth hatred towards Lincoln grew after hearing the president’s goal to officially abolish slavery in his Second Presidential

After a series of correspondence between General Ulysses S Grant and Robert E Lee, they agreed to meet On April 9th, 1865, both Grant and Lee met at the Appomattox Court House to discuss the terms of surrender Grant and Lee remembered each other from the Mexican - American war Around four in the afternoon, General Lee officially surrendered Upon the surrender, General Grant allowed the Confederate soldiers to retain some freedoms He allowed them to keep their sidearms, horses, and other items He also allowed them to return to their homes under probation News of the surrender took time to travel to the rest of the Confederate soldiers

The book that I decided to read for my quarter book report was Manhunt, The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson. I chose this book because I thought it would be interesting to learn about how they actually tracked down Abraham Lincoln’s killer after he was assassinated. Manhunt went into a lot of detail about how Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth, was found. The story started off on the morning of March 4th, 1865, which was the morning of Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration.

Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth who supported the Confederacy even though they lost the American Civil war to the Union. Booth murdered Lincoln while he was watching a play at Ford’s Theatre. The murder was similar because there were apparently several co-conspiritors who helped Booth plan the assassination. Both of

Many of America's leaders were assassinated such as John F. Kennedy and MLK. The motives to their assassinations were most from disagreements which is the same motive for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On April 14th 1865, John Wilkes, shot and killed Abraham Lincoln at a play at ford Theatre . John Wilkes Booth was born in Maryland and was born in 1838. He lived in the north during the civil War but but yet he still didn’t agree with Abraham Lincoln.