Booth Killed: Manhunt Ends After Lincoln Assassination
Union soldiers cornered John Wilkes Booth in a tobacco barn on the farm of Richard Garrett near Port Royal, Virginia, on April 26, 1865, twelve days after he assassinated President Lincoln. Booth refused to surrender. The soldiers set the barn on fire. Sergeant Boston Corbett shot Booth through a gap in the barn wall; the bullet severed Booth's spinal cord, paralyzing him. He died on the Garrett porch at dawn, aged 26. His last words were reportedly "Useless, useless." Booth had believed killing Lincoln would revive the Confederate cause. Instead, it united the North in grief and rage, ensuring that Reconstruction would be harsher than Lincoln had planned. Eight co-conspirators were tried by military tribunal; four were hanged on July 7, 1865.
April 26, 1865
161 years ago
Key Figures & Places
assassin
Wikipedia
Union (American Civil War)
Wikipedia
Virginia
Wikipedia
Abraham Lincoln
Wikipedia
Abraham Lincoln assassination
Wikipedia
John Wilkes Booth
Wikipedia
Union
Wikipedia
John Wilkes Booth
Wikipedia
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Wikipedia
Virginia
Wikipedia
Abraham Lincoln
Wikipedia
David Herold
Wikipedia
1838
Wikipedia
What Else Happened on April 26
He climbed 6,000 feet of rock just to read his own letters in the wind. Petrarch didn't come for the view; he came because he felt trapped inside a stone tower.…
A fresco of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child reportedly materialized on the wall of a half-finished church in Genazzano, Italy. This event transformed the s…
Giuliano's heart stopped under a chalice, his blood soaking the altar steps while Lorenzo ran for his life. The Pazzi conspirators thought they'd toppled Floren…
Blood soaked the marble altar as knives struck during High Mass in the Duomo. Lorenzo de' Medici survived by diving into the sacristy, but his brother Giuliano …
A muddy river, a crowded church, and a father who needed to pay his parish dues before the local constable knocked. That was the cost of William Shakespeare's e…
English colonists made their first landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia, on April 26, 1607, before proceeding up the James River to establish Jamestown on May 14. T…
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.