Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party.

Assassination

Lincoln had met frequently with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant as the war drew to a close. The two men planned matters of reconstruction, and it was evident to all that they held each other in high regard. During their last meeting, on April 14, 1865 (Good Friday), Lincoln invited Grant to a social engagement that evening. Grant declined (Grant's wife, Julia Dent Grant, is said to have strongly disliked Mary Todd Lincoln). The President's eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, also turned down the invitation.

Related Topics:
April 14 - 1865 - Good Friday - Julia Dent Grant - Mary Todd Lincoln - Robert Todd Lincoln

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Without his bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon, to whom he related his famous dream of his own assassination, the Lincolns left to attend a play at Ford's Theater. The play was Our American Cousin, a musical comedy by the British writer Tom Taylor (1817 to 1880). As Lincoln sat in his state box in the balcony, John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Southern sympathizer from Maryland, crept up behind the President's box and waited for the funniest line of the play hoping the laughter would cover the gunshot noise. On stage, actor Harry Hawk said the last line Lincoln would ever hear "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal?you sockdologizing old man-trap...". When the laughter came John Wilkes Booth jumped into the box the president was in and aimed a single-shot, round-slug .44 caliber Deringer at his head, firing at point-blank range. The bullet entered behind Lincoln's left ear and lodged behind his eyeball. Booth then shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!" (Latin: "Thus always to tyrants," and Virginia's state motto; some accounts say he added "The South is avenged!") and jumped from the balcony to the stage below. But as he dropped, the spur of his boot became caught in the American flag draping the box, and he fell awkwardly onto the stage, breaking his leg.

Related Topics:
Bodyguard - Ward Hill Lamon - Dream - Ford's Theater - Our American Cousin - Tom Taylor - John Wilkes Booth - Maryland - Caliber - Deringer - Sic semper tyrannis

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Despite his injury, Booth managed to limp to his horse and escape, and the mortally wounded & paralyzed President was taken to a house across the street, now called the Petersen House, where he lay in a coma for some time before he quietly expired. Abraham Lincoln was officially pronounced dead at 7:22 AM the next morning, April 15, 1865 (Easter Saturday). Upon seeing him die, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton lamented "Now he belongs to the ages."

Related Topics:
Petersen House - April 15 - 1865 - Easter Saturday - Edwin Stanton

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After Lincoln's body was returned to the White House officials prepared him for his "lying in state," and now a newly discovered photograph from the estate of photographer, artist and engraver John B. Bachelder has surfaced showing Abraham Lincoln but a few hours post mortem. It was published for the first time ever in Lloyd Ostendorf's last book

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("Lincoln's Photographs: A Complete Album" by Lloyd Ostendorf,

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Rockywood Press, Dayton, Ohio, 2004). As an archivist of Lincoln photographs published before his untimely death in September of 2004, Mr. Ostendorf

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labeled the photo in question here "O-130", and since there are currently 130 known photos of Lincoln, it is considered the most recent photographic discovery of Lincoln. Mr. Ostendorf did not include the details in his book of how he came upon the picture, however it is surmised that John B. Bachelder's descendants found it and let Mr. Ostendorf know about it and use it.

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The photograph of the 16th President is not linked here out of

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lurid interest, nor morbid curiosity, but as a new historical find, if authentic it is in fact the only immediately post mortem photograph of

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the late beloved president to be taken by Mr. Meserve, on the morning of

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April 15th 1865. Link:(WARNING; possibly disturbing image)

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http://www.geocities.com/cathytreks/lincolnatpeace2.jpg

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Booth and several other conspirators had planned to kill a number of other government officials at the same time, but for various reasons Lincoln's was the only assassination actually carried out (although Secretary of State Seward was badly injured by an assailant). Several of the conspirators were eventually captured. Four people were tried by military tribunal and hanged for the assassination plot (David Herold, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell (aka Lewis Payne) and Mary Surratt, the first woman ever executed by the United States government.) Three people were sentenced to life imprisonment (Michael O'Laughlin, Samuel Arnold and Dr. Samuel Mudd). Edward Spangler (aka Edman aka Ned) was sentenced to six years imprisonment. John Surratt, tried later by a civilian court, was acquitted. The fairness of the convictions, particularly of Mary Surratt, have been called into question, and there are doubts as to the exact degree of her involvement, if any. Booth himself was shot when discovered holed up in a barn (the barn itself collapsed in the 1930s and the site is now the median of a state highway in Virginia).

Related Topics:
David Herold - George Atzerodt - Lewis Powell - Mary Surratt - Michael O'Laughlin - Samuel Arnold - Samuel Mudd - Edward Spangler - John Surratt

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Lincoln's body was carried by train in a grand funeral procession through several states on its way back to Illinois. The nation mourned a man whom many viewed as the savior of the United States. He was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, where a 177 foot (54 m) tall granite tomb surmounted with several bronze statues of Lincoln was constructed by 1874. To prevent continued attempts to steal Lincoln's body and hold it for ransom, Robert Todd Lincoln had Lincoln exhumed and reinterred in concrete several feet thick on September 26, 1901. See Abraham Lincoln's Burial and Exhumation.

Related Topics:
Oak Ridge Cemetery - September 26 - 1901 - Abraham Lincoln's Burial and Exhumation

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Many medical experts now suspect that Lincoln may have suffered from congestive heart failure and Marfan Syndrome, both of which can be fatal.

Related Topics:
Congestive heart failure - Marfan Syndrome

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