Lincoln's Last Days
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February 17, 1862
Lincoln promotes Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of major general of volunteers.
February 20, 1862
Willie Lincoln dies of typhoid fever.
September 22, 1862
Lincoln uses the opportunity of the Union success at Antietam to issue his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the Confederacy.
November 19, 1863
Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address at the battlefield. It is regarded as one of the greatest presidential speeches ever delivered.
March 8, 1864
Lincoln and Grant meet for the first time at a White House reception celebrating Grant’s promotion.
June 8, 1864
Lincoln is nominated for a second term as president.
November 8, 1864
Lincoln is elected to a second term.
March 4, 1865
Lincoln delivers his second inaugural address. John Wilkes Booth is in the audience.
April 4 to 7, 1865
Lincoln tours the captured Confederate capital of Richmond.
April 11, 1865
Lincoln, from a window at the White House, makes his last speech.
April 14, 1865
At Ford’s Theatre, John Wilkes Booth shoots and mortally wounds Abraham Lincoln.
April 15, 1865
President Abraham Lincoln dies and Vice President Andrew Johnson is sworn in as the new president.
April 19, 1865
Lincoln’s body lies in state in Washington, D.C.
April 21 to May 4, 1865
A funeral train, retracing Lincoln’s first inaugural route through the nation, travels from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln, together with the body of his son Willie, is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery.
Thomas Lincoln.
The Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861.
The crowd at Lincoln’s second inauguration, March 4, 1865.
President Lincoln’s funeral car passing the Columbus, Ohio, state house during its trip from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois. At major cities, Lincoln’s coffin was removed from the funeral train and placed in state so people could pay their respects.
John Wilkes Booth Time Line
June 30, 1821
Renowned actor Junius Brutus Booth and his companion, Mary Ann Holmes, settle in Virginia, having left their native England.
May 10, 1838
John Wilkes Booth is born near Bel Air, Maryland.
November 30, 1852
Junius Brutus Booth dies.
August 14, 1855
Booth first appears onstage in Shakespeare’s Richard III, starring two of his older brothers, at the Charles Street Theatre in Baltimore.
August 1857
Booth joins the company of the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia as an apprentice actor.
1858
Booth joins the Marshall Theatre company in Richmond.
December 2, 1859
As a member of the Militia Company F of Richmond Volunteers, which he’d joined the previous month, Booth witnesses the execution of abolitionist John Brown. Shortly after this, Booth leaves the company.
December 20, 1860
South Carolina is the first state to secede from the Union.
March 4, 1861
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated president.
April 12, 1861
Southern guns open fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina; the American Civil War begins.
November 9, 1863
President Lincoln goes to Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., to see The Marble Heart, starring John Wilkes Booth.
July 26, 1864
Booth meets with Confederate secret agents in Boston.
October 18 to 27, 1864
Booth meets with Confederate secret agents in Montreal, Canada. They give him $1,500.
March 4, 1865
Booth is in the audience as President Lincoln delivers his second inaugural address.
April 9, 1865
Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant.
April 14, 1865
Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre.
April 26, 1865
John Wilkes Booth dies outside Richard Garrett’s barn near Bowling Green, Virginia.
May 10, 1865
The trial of Booth’s fellow conspirators begins.
June 28, 1869
John Wilkes Booth’s body is buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore in an unmarked grave.
Junius Brutus Booth in theatrical costume.
Washington, D. C.
Finding Lincoln in the Nation’s Capital Today
WHETHER YOU VISIT WASHINGTON, D.C., in person or online, the city has many memorials to Abraham Lincoln. You will be able to walk down streets he walked down and visit places he lived and frequented. Photographs, maps, and other information available online provide in-depth background about the city and the presidency.
THE WHITE HOUSE
www.whitehouse.gov and www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
In the 1860s, there was not a fence around the White House. Residents of Washington and visitors could stroll through the grounds, and even enter the building. Military bands played concerts there regularly. The Lincoln family entertained on the lawn. Abraham Lincoln once said that he enjoyed the White House, except that people seemed to want him to make a speech whenever they saw him.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S COTTAGE
www.lincolncottage.org
The Armed Forces Retirement Home
Rock Creek Church Road NW and Upshur Street NW
During the hot Washington, D.C., summers of 1862 to 1864, President Lincoln and his family moved to this cottage on a hill approximately four miles north of the White House. Here breezes tamed the humidity and the Lincolns could entertain friends and relax with their children.
FORD’S THEATRE CAMPUS
www.fordstheatre.org
This museum complex, which includes several sites around Ford’s Theatre, traces Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, assassination, and legacy.
FORD’S THEATRE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE AND MUSEUM
511 Tenth Street
Audio tours and costumed interpreters highlight the history of Ford’s Theatre and the path of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency from his arrival in Washington to the moment he stepped into Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. Here you can see the flag-draped state box where Lincoln was shot, as well as artifacts such as John Wilkes Booth’s derringer.
The exterior of Ford’s Theatre as it exists today.
PETERSEN HOUSE
516 Tenth Street
Imagine the last hours of Lincoln’s life and learn about the people who surrounded him during the vigil. You will see a reproduction of the bed in which the president died.
CENTER FOR EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP
Tenth Street, next to the Petersen House
This new center explores the aftermath of the assassination, the hunt for John Wilkes Booth, and Lincoln’s legacy.
LINCOLN MEMORIAL NATIONAL MEMORIAL
nps.gov/linc/
West Potomac Park, at the west end of the National Mall
This huge monument is one of the most important sites in Washington, D.C. It is almost a hundred feet tall and surrounded by thirty-six columns, one for each state that was in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death. In the central hall is the famous statue of Lincoln seated, with a thoughtful expression on his face. Carved on the walls to the north and south are the words of the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
EMANCIPATION GROUP STATUE
nps.gov/cahi/historyculture/cahi_lincoln.htm
Lincoln Park
East Capitol and Eleventh Street NE
This park is the first site in Washington, D
.C., to be named for Abraham Lincoln. It is just east of the Capitol building. There are two statues in the park, of Mary McLeod Bethune, a pioneer educator as well as civil and women’s rights activist, at one end and of Abraham Lincoln at the other. The statue of Lincoln is symbolic: he stands holding the Emancipation Proclamation before the figure of a kneeling black man. However, the statue does not acknowledge the active, influential roles played by many black Americans in the antislavery and civil rights movements. The model for the kneeling man was Archer Alexander, the last person captured under the Fugitive Slave Act.
EISENHOWER EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING
Seventeenth Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue
This new building is on the site of the old War Department Building where Secretary of War Stanton’s office and the telegraph office once stood. It is just a short distance from the White House. It is not open for tours, but as you think about Lincoln walking here so many times at night to get news of the battles in progress, you will understand how different the president’s life was in 1865.
Military Terms
Artillery. Weapons such as cannons or guns that work by launching large or small missiles of some kind (cannonballs, bullets).
Barrage. The repeated and powerful firing of artillery at a target.
Battalion. A grouping of soldiers in an army. During the Civil War, this was a military unit usually containing 400 to 800 troops, depending on the branch (infantry, cavalry, artillery, etc.), and commanded by a lieutenant colonel.
Bayonet. A swordlike blade attached to the front end of a rifle or musket, allowing it to be used as a stabbing weapon.
Bridle. Headgear used to control a horse.
In this staged photograph with a painted backdrop, the soldier at left has a bayonet attached to his musket.
An illustration showing Union cavalry capturing Confederate cannons.
Cavalry. Soldiers who fight on horseback.
Commissary. The organization that purchases and distributes food to the troops.
Corps. During the Civil War, a military unit usually containing between 10,000 and 15,000 troops, and commanded by a major general.
Detachment. Usually a small group of troops temporarily organized to carry out a specific purpose or duty away from the main unit.
Division. In the Civil War, a military unit usually containing about 6,000 troops and commanded by either a brigadier general or a major general.
Harassment. A series of repetitive, small attacks designed to delay or prevent an enemy’s planned action.
Infantry. Soldiers who fight on foot.
Musket. A long-barreled firearm that has a smooth bore in its barrel, unlike a rifle’s barrel, which contains grooves that cause the bullet to spin, thus increasing its accuracy.
Probe. Investigation by a soldier or a small group of soldiers of an enemy position in order to discover information about that enemy.
Reconnaissance. The gathering of information about an enemy.
Sentry. An armed guard in the military.
Shoulder board. A rectangular piece of cloth containing the symbol of an officer’s rank.
Traces. The side straps, chains, or ropes used to attach a horse to a wagon.
Teamsters and their horse-drawn wagons.
Bibliography
Alexander, Edward Porter. Military Memoirs of a Confederate: A Critical Narrative. New York: De Capo Press, 1993.
Baker, Lafayette C. History of the United States Secret Service. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2010.
Bishop, Jim. The Day Lincoln Was Shot. New York: Harper & Row, 1955.
Booth, John Wilkes. “Right or Wrong, God Judge Me”: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Corrick, James A. The Civil War: Life Among the Soldiers and Cavalry. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000.
Crook, W. H. Through Five Administrations: Reminiscences of Colonel William H. Crook, Body-Guard to President Lincoln. Charleston, SC: Nabu Press, 2011.
Grant, Ulysses S. The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1992.
Hatch, Frederick. Protecting President Lincoln: The Security Effort, the Thwarted Plots, and the Disaster at Ford’s Theatre. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011.
Kaplan, Fred. Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer. New York: Harper, 2008.
Kauffman, Michael W. American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. New York: Random House, 2004.
Leale, Charles Augustus. Lincoln’s Last Hours. Seattle, WA: CreateSpace/Amazon, 2012.
Longstreet, James. From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America. New York: Mallard, 1991.
McPherson, James M., ed. The Atlas of the Civil War. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2005.
McPherson, James M. Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief. New York: Penguin, 2008.
Mudd, Nettie, ed. The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd. New York: Neale Publishing Co., 1906. Also available online at archive.org/details/cu31924032760930.
O’Reilly, Bill, and Martin Dugard. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2011.
Stiles, Robert. Four Years Under Marse Robert. Charleston, SC: Nabu Press, 2011.
Swanson, James L. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. New York: William Morrow, 2006.
Symonds, Craig L. Lincoln and His Admirals. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Wagner, Margaret E., Gary W. Gallagher, and Paul Finkelman, eds. The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.
Winik, Jay. April 1865: The Month That Saved America. New York: Harper Perennial, 2001.
Recommended Reading
Allen, Thomas B., and Roger MacBride Allen. Mr. Lincoln’s High-Tech War: How the North Used the Telegraph, Railroads, Surveillance Balloons, Ironclads, High-Powered Weapons, and More to Win the Civil War. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Children’s Books, 2009.
Armstrong, Jennifer. Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2005.
Denenberg, Barry. Lincoln Shot: A President’s Life Remembered. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2011.
Fleming, Candace. The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary. New York: Schwartz & Wade, 2008.
Freedman, Russell. Lincoln: A Photobiography. New York: Clarion Books, 1987.
Hansen, Joyce. Between Two Fires: Black Soldiers in the Civil War. New York: Franklin Watts, 1993.
Haskins, Jim. Black, Blue & Gray: African Americans in the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1998.
Holzer, Harold. Father Abraham: Lincoln and His Sons. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press, 2011.
Judson, Clara Ingram. Abraham Lincoln: Friend of the People. New York: Sterling Point Books, 2007.
Kalman, Maira. Looking at Lincoln. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2011.
McPherson, James M. Fields of Fury: The American Civil War. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002.
Meltzer, Milton. Voices from the Civil War. New York: HarperTrophy, 1992.
Robertson, James I., Jr. Robert E. Lee: Virginian Soldier, American Citizen. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2005.
Smith, Lane. Abe Lincoln’s Dream. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2012.
Swanson, James L. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer. New York: Scholastic, 2009.
Recommended Websites
There are many fine websites on the Internet about Abraham Lincoln and his achievements. Here are a few:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN PAPERS AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html
The Library of Congress’s collection of Abraham Lincoln papers includes approximately 20,000 documents, ranging from correspondence to drafts of speeches and important papers such as the Emancipation Proclamation.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
www.alplm.org<
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The official site of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is designed to promote the story of Abraham Lincoln in its entirety.
THE LINCOLN INSTITUTE
www.abrahamlincoln.org
The Lincoln Institute is an educational site designed to assist students and groups studying the life of Abraham Lincoln and the impact he had on the preservation of the Union, the emancipation of black slaves, and the development of democratic principles that have found worldwide application. Links to specialized Lincoln Institute sites are available on the web page as well. These include “Abraham Lincoln and Freedom” and “Abraham Lincoln & Friends,” among others.
MR. LINCOLN’S WHITE HOUSE
www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org
A site devoted to the White House and living in Washington, D.C., during Lincoln’s lifetime.
Abraham Lincoln’s inkwell. Pens at the time were pointed wedges of metal attached to a handle. A writer dipped the pen point into a pool of ink contained in an inkwell, a process that had to be repeated until the writer was finished.
Recommended Viewing
American Experience: Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided. Director, David Grubin. DVD. PBS, 2001. 360 minutes, NR.
American Experience: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Director, Barak Goodman. DVD. PBS, 2009. 82 minutes, NR.
The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns. Director, Ken Burns. DVD. PBS, 1990. 680 minutes, NR.