The Lincoln Assassination

Andrew Johnson

17th President of the United States, A Southerner form Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, he became president. He opposed radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto. The first U.S. president to be impeached, he survived the Senate removal by only one vote. He was a very weak president.

John Bell

A wealthy slaveowner from Tennessee who served in both the House and the Senate, he ran for U.S. President against Lincoln, Breckinridge, and Douglas in 1860 with the Constitutional Union Party on a moderate pro-slavery platform.

Radical Republicans

After the Civil War, a group that believed the South should be harshly punished and thought that Lincoln was sometimes too compassionate towards the South.

Robert E. Lee

American general; he refused Lincoln's offer to head the Union Army and agreed to lead Confederate forces. He successfully led several major battle until his defeat at Gettysburg, and he surrendered to the Union's Commander General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse

Stephen Douglas

American politician from Illinois who developed the method of popular sovereignty as a way to settle slave state or free state. He helped passed the compromise of 1850 as well as giving the states the choice with popular sovereignty.

Dred Scott

American slave who sued his master for keeping him enslaved in a territory where slavery was banned under the missouri Compromise

Ulysses S. Grant

An American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.

David E. Herold

An accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the Lincoln assassination. Surrendered to Union Army after trying to flee

Samuel Arnold

Another long-time friend of Booth, Arnold was not in Washington at the time of the assassination. However, investigators tied Arnold to Booth's original kidnapping plot. Sentenced to life in prison, Arnold was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, and survived until 1906, when he died of tuberculosis.

Michael O'Laughlen

Booth's childhood friend was an ex-Confederate soldier. After he turned himself in to the authorities, he was tried as a conspirator, though his role remained unclear. O'Laughlen was sentenced to life in prison and sent to Fort Jefferson, off of Key West, Florida, where he died of yellow fever in 1867.

John Parker

Born into slavery, he eventually bought his freedom. He became a successful businessman and worked to help others escape slavery.

John Surratt

Co-conspirator of Lincoln's death who didn't do much when Lincoln changed his plans that night. Ended up fleeing the country to Europe, where eventually he was caught and extradited. Tried in a civilian court in the state of Maryland. Confessed to trying to kidnap, not murder the President and was voted innocent by a jury.

Edman Spangler

He was an alleged conspirator in the Abraham Lincoln assassination and had worked at Ford's Theatre at the time of Abraham Lincoln's murder.

John Breckinridge

Nominated by pro-slavers who had seceded from the Democratic convention, he was strongly for slavery and states' rights and ran in the election of 1860

Laura Keene

She was the actress onstage at Ford's Theatre, Washington on April 14, 1865 when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth during a performance of Our American Cousin.

Henry Rathbone

Slashed with a knife and is wounded during Booth's rampage at Ford's Theatre, after trying to assist Lincoln, who was mortally shot.

Mary E. Surratt

Was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to death, she was the first woman executed by the United States federal government, and was hanged. She was the mother of John Surratt, also alleged to have been involved in the conspiracy.

Clara Harris

Went to Ford's Theatre with Lincoln the night he was assassinated; Rathbone's fiancee

Lucy Hale

Who was john wilkes booth engaged to

Boston Corbett

a member of the 16th new york cavalry, he caught Booth and Herold at the Garrett farm and set the barn on fire, Herold surrendered, and they shot Booth, who died two hours later

Lewis Powell (Paine)

attempted unsuccessfully to assassinate United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, and was one of four people hanged for the Lincoln assassination conspiracy.

Peterson House

house across the street from theater where Abraham Lincoln stayed for 9 hours after being shot until he died

Ford's Theatre

is a historic theatre in Washington, D.C., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865.

Dr. Samuel Mudd

physician who was convicted and imprisoned for aiding with John Wilkes Booth

George Atzerot

was a conspirator, with John Wilkes Booth, in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Assigned to assassinate Vice-President Andrew Johnson, he lost his nerve and did not make an attempt. He was executed along with three other conspirators by hanging.

Everton Conger

was an American Civil War officer who was instrumental in the capture of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in a Virginia barn twelve days after Lincoln was shot.

John Wilkes Booth

was an American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.