The Day Lincoln Was Shot

Abraham Lincoln is relieved that Richmond has fallen and the Civil War is effectively over. He faces contentious discussions with his Cabinet about how to treat the defeated Confederacy. Many members want punishment, but he argues for mercy. Lincoln is despised by many Confederates and receives numerous death threats. He carries a rather fatalistic attitude toward them. He has a disturbing dream about hearing cries in the White House and seeing a coffin in the East Room surrounded by mourners crying out that an assassin has murdered the President.

Booth, a fanatical Confederate sympathizer from an acting family who feels overshadowed by his father and brother and longs to leave his mark on history, sees Lincoln as a tyrant and slavery as a proper way of life. He begins to assemble a motley group of Confederates, including Lewis Thornton Paine (Powell) and David E. Herold, a simple-minded accomplice. They form a plot to kidnap the President, but the war ends on April 9.

On April 11, Booth is outraged when he hears Lincoln’s speech promising citizenship and the vote to African-Americans, and his plan shifts from kidnapping to murder.

On April 14, Booth assassinates Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre, after ordering Lewis Thornton Paine to kill Secretary of State William Henry Seward, and directing George A. Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood Hotel. Later that night, the President is attended by doctors and is moved across the street to Petersen House, where he dies the following morning at 7:22 A.M., surrounded by friends and family for the remaining eight hours.

The manhunt for Booth lasts two weeks, ending when he is shot inside a burning barn and dies on the front porch shortly after. Back at Ford’s Theatre, the play continues, and the credits reveal that four of Booth’s henchmen and Mary Surratt were hanged. Ironically, Lincoln’s successor Johnson was much harsher on the defeated South than Lincoln would have been.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 11:10