Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Story Summary

Photo portrait of Abraham Lincoln taken in February, 1865 by Alexander Gardner.  Maintained by National Portrait Gallery, O-118, M-100.  Online courtesy, Wikimedia Commons.

The President's head dropped upon his shoulders;
the ball was in his brain.

George Alfred Townsend
Special Correspondent
in

The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth
1866

On the way to his new position, Abraham Lincoln (like Barack Obama, 138 years later) took a train ride from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.  Ahead of the man from Illinois was a seemingly impossible job.  A greatly divided country was inching closer to civil war.

At the capitol, Lincoln delivered his first Inaugural Address.  He warned the country:

We are not enemies but friends -

We must not be enemies.

His words, of course, went unheeded. In April of 1861, the month following his speech, the American Civil War began.

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Original Release Date:  March, 2002
Updated November, 2012