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The Story Of John Wilkes Booth's Assassination

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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. The South however was not at all happy. John Wilkes Booth was particularly outraged. After hearing the news he would make a plan to do something that would forever alter the course of American history. He planned to assassinate …show more content…

Lincoln, along with his wife and other political figures, were seated in the Presidential Box for the show. There was a guard posted outside the door named John F. Parker. To Booth’s advantage, the guard decided to go get a drink at a nearby tavern. The door to the Presidential Box was closed but not locked, giving Booth the perfect opportunity to carry out his awful plan. He went into the Box and pulled out his .44-caliber derringer pistol and shot the president of the United States. Of course what followed was utter shock and panic. Many of the people in the Box tried to stop Booth from escaping but Booth was too fast. He jumped out of the Box and aimed for the stage. However, his foot got caught on the decorating on the outside of the Box so he landed rather awkwardly on the stage, breaking his shin in the process. He then yelled “Sic semper tyrannis” (thus always to tyrants) and disappeared without a trace. Lincoln would die early the next morning on April 15, …show more content…

After assassinating the sixteenth president of the United States, Booth left behind a legacy of being a villain and a murderer. One action erased the rest of his life of being an actor. He will forever be remembered as the man who murdered Abraham Lincoln. As covered in my paper, this tragic event has left a long lasting impact on America with the creation of the secret service and Andrew Johnson becoming president and creating mass chaos in the government. If Booth could’ve see the legacy he left behind, he may have felt regret but as he said in his famous diary entries, “Right or Wrong, God Judge

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