Who shot Lincoln. "Russian Planet" about a conspiracy against the head of state and his associates: strange coincidences, a saving tire and mental insanity of those involved in this case

Criminal:

Clara Harris, photographic portrait of the work Matthew Brady , 1861-1865th:

Rathbone retired from the army in 1870, rising to the rank of breve colonel ( brevet-colonel), due to the mental illness associated with the attempt on Lincoln. After retirement, he struggled to find work. At the same time, Rathbone became convinced that his wife Clara was cheating on him (his wife turned out, as they say "weak on the front"... Many times there were scandals about this, and Klara threatened to divorce him and take the children. But, in 1882, the president Chester Alan Arthur appointed Rathbone US Consul in Hanover (Germany). And in 1882 the family moved to Germany, although Rathbone's mental health continued to deteriorate.
On April 14, 1883, Rathbone attacked his children in a fit of insanity. Rathbone fatally stabbed his wife, who was trying to protect the children. Rathbone then stabbed himself five times in the chest, in an attempted suicide. He was charged with murder but was found insane. He was sent to an asylum for the mentally ill in Hildesheim, Germany, where he died on August 14, 1911. The children were sent to live with their uncle, William Harris, in the United States.
Rathbone was buried next to Clara in the city cemetery in Hanover. The cemetery decided in 1952 that Rathbone and Clara's grave could be disposed of. They were both exhumed and their remains were reburied. ( wikipedia)

Lincoln's Guard:

That evening, a Washington police officer was assigned to guard the box in which the Lincoln couple were. John Frederick Parker .

In this photo, he is presumably the third at the bottom right (in the top hat):

But that evening, after serving the first act of the play, during the intermission, he went down to the "Star Saloon", on the first floor, where they were selling intoxicants, and there he happily sat there with Lincoln's coachman until the wounded president was taken out.

Lincoln's coachman:

"Star Saloon", on the ground floor of Ford's Theater, where Parker drunk most of the performance:

Witnesses:

Theater troupe. The crime took place in the second scene of the third act of the play, when the hero of the play Asa Trenchard uttered a funny phrase performed by actor Harry Hawk: "Don" t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal - you sockdologizing old man-trap. "Killer, Booth, being a former theater actor who knew the play well, synchronized the time of the shot at Lincoln with laughter and applause after this phrase confident that the noise will drown out the sound of the shot.

In the photo - the end of the 3rd act of the play "Our American Cousin" :

Witnesses: viewers:

There was a full house at Ford's theater that day ( oK. 1700 viewers). But almost all the spectators, the appearance of Booth, after the assassination attempt, on the stage, considered it a director's find, and part of the performance, and applauded while Booth was running away, limping, from the stage.

Picture from the press, that time (there was more than one Booth on the stage):

The poster of the ill-fated performance:

Factual circumstances of the crime:

Booth, having made his way (about his penetration into the theater, you can read (Booth's movements by hours and minutes that day) into the corridor leading to the president's box (below he showed a business card to the doorman), taking advantage (lo and behold!) The absence of a guard at the door, and waiting for a funny remarks Harry Hawke, opened the door to the box and instantly shot Lincoln in the head with "Derringer" .

Like this:

Or, like this:

Then, he slashed Major Henry Rathbone, who was trying to detain him, and jumped from the balcony:

So:

Or like this:

Or, like this:

Jumping, Booth hooked his foot on the balcony decoration, in the form of the US flag:

Photo taken at Ford's Theater 3-4 days after the assassination attempt. The decoration of the balcony from which Booth jumped, and which he caught with his foot, hangs down:

A second later, Booth, relishly plops on the stage (picture from a comic book, 2003, where the president remains alive):

Then, limping (Booth had a broken fibula , as a result of the fall), Booth disappears from the stage, shouting provocative slogans:

Murder Weapons:

Pistol "Derringer" , photo from lincoln Assassination Museum (formerly Ford's Theater, Washington):

This photo is to show the real scale of the murder weapon:

Gun booth used to kill Lincoln. Washington, D.C., Aug. 10. The gun used by John Wilkes Booth to kill President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 is now on display at the Judge Advocate General "s Office in the War Department. Edwin B. Pitts, Chief Clerk of the Judge Advocate General" s Office, is shown holding the gun in this picture, 8/10/37:

Here comes knife , it was them, Booth wounded Major Henry Rathbone (found at the place of Booth's death):

Burial of the victim:

Funeral grocery for the president (an interesting detail: on the right there is a poster with a price list, for those wishing to join the army. Check the prices for yourself):

The funeral train that took the body of the assassinated president to Springfield, to the burial site.

The culprit's accomplices:

You can read more about all of them here ( Anatomy of the assassination of a president , eight parts, mastrid, I recommend). The personalities of the criminals are something. The topic of a separate study. I don't even want to write about them. A bunch of clowns.

Punishment:

Booth was shot by a sergeant Boston Corbett (still a fruit) from the 16th New York Cavalry Regiment, when captured Buta and Herald (this one gave up) on a farm in Maryland:

Four conspirators were hanged :

The rest received various prison sentences. Brother got under the distribution Buta - Junius , as well as ford theater owner , who served 40 days in prison on suspicion of involvement and some others, one way or another connected with this case.

Video on the assassination of President Lincoln:

Academic, like, that's how it was:

And it could be so (beginning of the feature film "National Treasure - 2"):

Or maybe so (TV series The Day Lincoln Was Shot):

Well, or finally, like this (and who knows?):

In addition to the post - a forty-page album with fifty photographs and newspaper clippingsby a retired colonel, Arnold A. Rand, in the summer of 1865. There were no blogs before, but to concoct a post, you see, even in those days people wanted to. So they did everything they could.

01 Ford Theater:

02-08 Booth... Two photos bottom-left and bottom-middle - Boston Corbett who shot the killer (if anyone is interested - Corbett on July 16, 1858, to get rid of the temptation at the sight of prostitutes, emasculated himself with scissors):

09 Sam Arnold , one of the conspirators (was sentenced to life in prison, but pardoned in 1869):

10-11 Again Booth... On the bottom right is the devil whispering to him the idea of \u200b\u200ba crime:

12 And again Sam Arnold (album pages are not confused):

13,14,15 Announcements for the capture of criminals and a note by a certain James W. Eldridge (why is she here, and who this Eldridge is, you finally did not understand):

16 Stable James W. Pumphrey , which one Booth hired a horse, which he fled from the scene of the crime. Pumphrey was also handed over and spent about a month in jail until his innocence was proven.

17 Soldiers of the 16th New York Cavalry surrounded and set fire to a tobacco shed on the farm where Booth and Harold :

18, he was charged with assassinating the vice president Andrew Johnson ... I did not cope with the task, swollen all night, out of fear. He was executed with the other three main conspirators:

19-20 Garrett's farm, Maryland, where Booth was killed (in the bottom picture is all that remains of the tobacco shed where Booth and Harold were hiding) ::

21 And again George Atzerodt :

22 Bout's murder during arrest:


23 Preparing the gallows for the rebels, on the territory of the old arsenal in Washington :


24 House Harold :


25 And again, Harold :


26 And yet, he is :


27 Reading out the sentence before execution:


28 Michael O "Loglin (Jr.) , one of the main conspirators. Since he was not charged with any murder (preparation for the attempted assassination general Grant has not been proven), got off with life. But, he died in 1867 from yellow fever.


29 He :


30 Hanging conspirators:

31, one of the finest conspirators. Soldier confederate armies who was charged with the murder By William H. Seward , US Secretary of State known as alaska buyer ... In general, it was like this: Siward was lying in his house, all beaten after an accident (he fell out of the wheelchair the day before), with fractures of his jaw and right arm. Powell made his way into the house, and tried to shoot Siward, who was lying in bed. The pistol misfired, and Powell attempted to hit Siward in the head with the butt of the pistol, stabbing him several times in the head. The guards came running to the noise, and Powell grabbed the knife. After knocking out the guard, Powell glanced at the victim, and decided that Siward was dead. After that, Powell went into hiding. He ended his life on the gallows, in Washington.

In order to avoid unnecessary speculation in advance, we emphasize: it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of whether the circumstances of the assassination attempts on Lincoln were the same as they are interpreted by the official versions, or "everything happened quite differently." This is an example of how sometimes it is simply impossible to reveal the truth. In this case, as with the Kennedy case, one has to deal only with the official versions, i.e. a kind of state verdict. In both cases, independent researchers have not yet had their last word. However, it is not known if they will ever be able to do this. It was believed for decades that the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States of America, was unclear. Lincoln, the man who abolished slavery, was revered by the negroes as the messiah, but the white slave owners from the southern states, wealthy cotton planters, saw him as their mortal enemy. It was one of the fanatical supporters of slavery who shot Lincoln when he visited the theater. The killer turned out to be 26-year-old actor John Wilkes Boots: he tried to escape, but was later killed. His accomplices and everyone who helped him in any way or were involved in a simultaneous assassination attempt on Secretary of State W.H. Seward, as well as all those who plotted the assassination of Vice President Andrew Johnson, were severely punished; four of them were hanged. It seemed that the participants in one of the largest crimes in American history had been punished.

Abraham Lincoln Only much later did they pay attention to some mysterious circumstances, to the incongruities that manifested themselves during the persecution of the murderer and the trial - all taken together, it suggests that the background of the murder of Lincoln was not finally clarified. The American historian Theodore Roscoe compiled a list of all the incongruities (note in parentheses that Roscoe also wrote detective novels). His book on Lincoln, The Web of the Conspiracy, was published in 1959.

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, in Washington, DC, Good Friday. The 56-year-old president and his wife watched the comedy Our American Cousin at the Ford Theater. In his box, the guardrail of which was decorated with the American flag, there were, besides him and his wife, a young lady, Clara Harris, who was visiting the President, and her companion, Major Ratbone.

As soon as 10 o'clock struck, the actor John Wilkes Boots, walking down the corridor, approached the presidential box. He opened the door and stopped in a small passage that separated the box and the corridor. He had already come here after dinner and with a knife cut a crack in the inner door of the box. Looking through the slot, he found out where the president was sitting. Now he began to wait for a certain scene in the play. He knew this comedy well, he knew that in this scene the audience laughs loudly every time.

When the episode began, Boots opened the door to the box, quietly walked behind the president (he was sitting in a rocking chair) and shot Lincoln in the back of the head with a small large-caliber pistol. Lincoln dropped dead. Major Ratbone rushed at the killer, but staggered back as Boots stabbed him in the arm; however, the major still tried to grab the criminal again, but he managed to jump over the box fence and jump from a three-meter height onto the stage. At the same time, he caught on the flag with one of his spurs, fell and broke the tibial leg. However, this did not stop him from fleeing. From the stage, he shouted Virginia's motto into the hall, paralyzed with horror: "Sic sempet Tyrannis!" ("This happens with all tyrants!") - and, hiding behind the scenes, ran away through the exit leading from the stage.

Outside Boots was waiting for a horse, but the actor was pursued. With the handle of a knife, he struck in the chest of the man holding the horse, and he fell; then Boots jumped into the saddle and sped away. A certain brave spectator, a lawyer by profession, who chased the killer from the stage itself, cried in vain: “Hold him! Keep it! " Meanwhile, many people recognized Boots. When he disappeared into the darkness, it was barely half past ten.

At this time, another one who attempted murder was fleeing. It was Boots's comrade in the conspiracy, Lewis Payne, a man, although somewhat limited in his mind, but in body as strong as a bear. He tried to assassinate Secretary of State Seward. William H. Seward, who later became famous for his purchase of Alaska, was injured in a crew accident and with a fractured lower jaw, a broken right hand and bruises, lay in his villa in bed; his wife, two sons and a daughter also lived with him. Payne, along with the third conspirator, David E. Harold, rode up to the secretary's villa. Harold stayed outside to watch, he should have waited for Pain. However, as soon as Payne disappeared into the house, Harold tied his horse to a tree and sped away.

Payne entered Seward's house, saying that he had to give something to the sick secretary from the attending physician; then the conspirator tried to force his way into the bedroom on the second floor. Seward's son, Frederick, wanted to stop the stranger, but he drew a Colt and shot at Frederick. However, the gun misfired. Then Payne hit Frederick on the head several times with the handle of the Colt, and then hit him with a hunting knife. Frederic, bleeding to death, collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Payne rushed to Seward's bedroom. The patient was lying in bed; his right arm was in a sling; the broken chin was anchored in a steel and leather orthopedic splint. This bus saved the secretary's life. Payne lunged at the sick man, ignoring his daughter, Fanny, who was sitting by the bed. The assassin tried to thrust a knife into Seward's throat. However, the knife, having pierced the leather bandage, only slid along the steel surface of the splint, however, it cut the patient's face from the lower jaw to the cheekbone. Blood gushed; Seward, awkwardly twisting his hand, rolled out of bed, but at this time Payne was already rushed into the room by August, Seward's son, and the negro who was looking after the patient. However, the big guy Payne easily dealt with both and fled.

Behind him were the wounded Secretary of State, as well as Frederick Seward, still unconscious; August Seward, badly wounded by knife blows to the head; a negro who also received dangerous stab wounds; Fanny Seward, who fainted, and the secretary's wife, who ran into the room only at the end of the fight. Painted with blood, Payne rushed up the stairs, ran out of the house, found a horse tied outside and walked away, but he was mistaken - he did not go where Harold had pointed him. The assassination attempt on Secretary of State Lincoln failed.

This evening, another, third, assassination attempt was planned - on Vice President Andrew Johnson. But the conspirator who was supposed to kill Johnson - George Etzerodt - was frightened. To gain courage, he decided to drink, but he had enough, went over. He did not even try to encroach on the life of the vice president.

Meanwhile, the mortally wounded Lincoln was transferred from the theater to the house opposite, to the boarding house. They did not dare to take him further. The bullet entered the head behind the left ear, pierced the brain and lodged behind the right eye.

Lincoln was put on a bed too small for him; he was still breathing.

Several doctors were standing near him. They understood that it was no longer possible to save the wounded. Lincoln was stripped and wrapped in a warm blanket. The next morning, at 0722 hours, Abraham Lincoln, "Honest Abraham", "liberator from slavery", winner in the Civil War, died without regaining consciousness.

By this time, Lincoln's killer was already far from the city. And this is one of those details in the "Lincoln affair" which, taken by themselves, may turn out to be pure coincidence, but all together make a strange impression.

Vice President Johnson, Secretary of War Stanton, and Secretary of the Navy Welles were notified immediately after the assassination attempt. Stanton immediately appeared and temporarily took over the rule of the country. In one of the rooms of the same boarding house where Lincoln died, he - as reported by eyewitnesses - calmly and deliberately gave instructions about the capture of the killer and his accomplices.

He sent telegram after telegram: orders to march military units, to announce an alarm in all police and border units; arrest orders; orders, prescriptions. For ten hours, Stanton was not only the Secretary of War, but also the Chief of Police, the Chief Justice, and the dictator. It is said that after a short conversation with Vice President Johnson, he simply sent him home. However, according to other evidence, Johnson was not found at all.

According to the first orders and orders given by Stanton, all paths leading out of the city were to be blocked; you couldn't let the criminals slip away. The stations were occupied by the police; The Potomac was patrolled by warships; six roads leading from Washington were blocked by the military.

But, oddly enough, Stanton left two loopholes for the fugitives. Both led to lower Maryland. Although the small state of Maryland remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, it was invaded by Confederate guerrillas. One road led there along a long wooden bridge, the so-called Bridge of the military shipyard, over which it was possible to cross the Anacostia River. The bridge was always guarded, and at nine in the evening it was even blocked. At 10.45, Boots, the president's killer, drove onto the bridge. The sergeant - his name was Cobb - stopped him and asked for the name and purpose of the trip. Boots gave his real name and said he wanted to get home. Sergeant Cobb told me to let him through.

The War Department considered the sergeant's behavior "an unfortunate but excusable mistake." Of course, it could be so, but it is still strange that the military tribunal did not pay much attention to Cobb's behavior, although that same night the sergeant was mistaken twice more. Almost after Boots, David Harold, a conspirator, drove up, who, along with Payne, went to the house of Secretary of State Seward, but then at a difficult moment left his comrade. Harold was admitted immediately, too. Sergeant Cobb said that he, like Boots, mistook him for a night out, having fun in Washington, and then hurrying home.

And then, just a few minutes later, another horseman appeared on the bridge. It was the groom chasing Harold. Harold and Payne borrowed horses from him, agreeing to return them by nine at night. The groom was already waiting for the clients. And then Harold, racing away from Seward's villa, right before his eyes, swept past the stable. The groom recognized the debtor, immediately jumped into the saddle and chased the fugitive. But Sergeant Cobb did not let this third rider, who entered the Bridge of the military shipyard, no longer let the detainee explain that his horse had been stolen. Cobb kept telling him one thing: "The bridge is closed."

The groom returned to the city and reported the stolen horse to the police. Police, already notified of the assassination attempt, suggested there might be some connection between the theft of the horse and the escape of the conspirators. It was decided to set off in pursuit, and for this, the police turned to the army headquarters and demanded that the horses be handed over to them. The request was rejected: no horses were available, and in general the military would take care of the pursuit themselves. And so it happened, but only the next day ...

It is also strange that in the theater Boots was able to freely enter the president's box. After all, a policeman was supposed to be in the corridor in front of the door to the box. However, Parker - that was the name of this man - instead of standing on duty, first sat in the auditorium, and then went to the bar. It was later revealed that the man had a bad reputation. He had already been punished more than once for disobedience and drunkenness in the line of duty.

Upon learning that it was decided to kill him at a secret meeting in Richmond, the capital of the Confederates, the president said: “I have trained myself to think that if someone intends to kill me, they will do it. Even if I put on a shell, start walking surrounded by the Life Guards, still nothing can be changed. There are a thousand ways to get to the person they are going to kill. " However, he was convinced that it was not common for Americans to commit political assassinations.

However, in his desk there were about eighty letters, the authors of which had threatened him with death. He collected them, tied them with twine and inscribed on them the word "Assassination" - "Murder." From time to time, these death threats seemed to excite him. But he reassured himself: “... I don't see what the rebels would have achieved by this; it would not have brought them victory in the war, everything would still go on as usual ... "

Now the war has come to an end: the first all-out war in world history. On April 9, 1865, General Lee, commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army, capitulated to General Upiss S. Grant, commander of the Union forces.

After four years of civil war, which both sides fought with unprecedented brutality, the North defeated the rebellious southerners. Since April 9, residents of the northern states have experienced indescribable euphoria. They felt victorious and wanted the defeated southern states to make up for all the losses caused by this war and pay reparations to the northerners.

However, Abraham Lincoln was of a different opinion. He wanted to treat the people of the southern states not as conquered or conquered, but as equal citizens of the United States of America. He thought about reconciliation, about a new unification of the disintegrated parts of the United States.

From the very beginning, the goal of the war was unity. However, when the war ended, the president with his opinion was left alone: \u200b\u200bthe people around him thought differently.

The war began because two completely different forms of management were formed in the North and South of the United States. If the North became more and more industrial, then the South lived mainly in cotton. Cotton was the "king of the southern states". The demand for it was increasing; his plantations brought ever greater profits. However, slavery remained the basis for the economic prosperity of large cotton plantations. The capital of the northerners was factories, the southerners were negro slaves. So the question of slavery began to play a decisive role.

Already in 1807, the slave trade was prohibited by federal law. Meanwhile, not long before this, and subsequently, the United States acquired significant territories, and the total area of \u200b\u200bthe country practically doubled. The United States included Louisiana, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and part of Colorado. The question arose whether slavery should be allowed in these areas. Southerners were in favor of slavery, even more than that, they demanded to abolish the law prohibiting the trade in slaves, adopted in 1807, but the northerners did not want and could not agree to this. After all, the spread of slavery would lead to the dominance of the southern states.

At first, the dispute was conducted only at the legal level. The southern states insisted that it was the responsibility of each individual federal state to prohibit or permit slavery. The northern states could not oppose anything to this view. However, lawyers in the southern states took it one step further. They considered that each individual state was so independent that it could secede from the Union at any time.

This controversy reached its culmination in the late 1850s: in 1858, a previously little-known lawyer Abraham Lincoln, the son of a simple lumberjack, began public speaking. The 49-year-old politician decided to compete for the seat of Senator from the state of Illinois, but did not succeed. Then he set out to run for president from the newly formed Republican party. In the South, they were skeptical that this "uncouth bumpkin" is trying to win over voters with this kind of thesis: "And any city or house that is divided in itself will not stand" (Gospel of Matthew, 12, 25). I believe that such a situation - half-freedom, half-slavery - cannot be tolerated for a long time. I do not believe that the Union will dissolve - I do not believe that the house will fall apart.

On the contrary, I hope that this split will end. We'll have to choose either one or the other. "

Opponents of the Republicans called them "abolitionists", equating to a group of people who, beginning in the 1830s. advocated the abolition of slavery in all states of the Union. Against their will, the Republicans, who in reality only tried to prevent the emergence of new "slave states", were forced to accept drastic measures, unpopular even in the North. In general, no one dared to think about the equality of blacks and whites, including Lincoln, who was originally an opponent of slavery.

Here is what he said in one of his campaign speeches: “Today, less than ever, I advocate for the establishment of social and political equality in any form between the black and white races, - today I am less than ever, advocate for blacks to become voters or juries, to be allowed to hold office or marry white women; there are physical differences between the white and black races, which, I believe, forever exclude the possibility of both races coexisting on the basis of social and political equality. And since both races cannot live in equality, but are forced to stay side by side, obeying or subordinating, then I, like everyone else, advocate that the primacy of the white race be guaranteed. However, I do not believe that because the white race is superior to the black, blacks should be denied everything. I do not understand why just because I do not want to take a black woman as a slave, I must take her as a wife. I just want to leave her alone. I am already fifty years old, and I have never had a Negro slave or a Negro wife at all.

Therefore, it seems to me that we can do without black slaves, and without black wives. " On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected President of the United States, but elected by the minority. Votes were divided and the majority supported other parties. In the South, in the territories south of the Ohio and Potomac rivers, no one voted for Lincoln at all. They were convinced that nothing good could be expected from this president, elected only by people from the north. Therefore, the southerners decided to peacefully withdraw from the Union, and to do this even before Lincoln officially takes office.

The state of Carolina laid the foundation for the split of the Union. It was followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas. In February 1861, they declared themselves the "Confederate States of America" \u200b\u200band elected Jefferson Davis, a former US Secretary of Defense, as their president. The United States Constitution did not provide for such a turn of events, and therefore the northerners did not initially challenge this decision; there were no objections even when the Confederates began to seize the property of the Union, customs and post offices, arsenals and forts on their territories, and when, finally, instead of the star flag, they introduced their own flag. Only Fort Sumter, which covered the entrance to the harbor near the port of Charleston, was not immediately captured by the Confederates - it remained in the hands of the federal government. However, the provisions at Fort Sumter were dwindling day by day.

Lincoln was opposed to the secession of the southern states. From the very beginning, he showed a firm determination to prevent the disintegration of the nation by all means - he really considered the United States as a single nation. On March 4, 1861, taking the oath, he declared that his goal was to restore unity. And he decided to lift the siege from Fort Sumter, i.e. for a start, supply his garrison with provisions. He sent a flotilla there, insisting that the supply of bread to the "brave starving lads" who had settled in the fortress was by no means a military action. Since then, the question remains open whether Lincoln intended to achieve his goal in a peaceful, non-military way, or resorted to cunning in order to provoke his opponents to any violent action.

Be that as it may, before the flotilla reached its destination, Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter. On April 12, in the early dusk, the star banner was fired upon. The next day, the garrison of the fort capitulated.

It is believed that the war began precisely because of this audacious attack, which horrified Lincoln to the depths of his soul, for the worst thing happened: an American raised a weapon on an American. However, in fact, with the occupation of Fort Sumter, everything could be over, and its garrison could be evacuated according to all military rules. But, apparently. Lincoln decided to start a war. He behaved almost like a dictator. Without waiting for the consent of Congress, he ordered the blockade of the southern harbors and at the same time drafted 75,000 volunteers into the army, and also mobilized regular military units. These unauthorized actions prompted a number of states in the Upper South, which were still part of the Union, to join the Confederation as well: North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, as well as Virginia, Washington and Jefferson.

Nevertheless, the Confederation remained weaker than the North: its total population - 5-6 million whites and 3.5 million slaves - was half that of the northerners. But, most importantly, almost all industry remained in the north. Therefore, the open speech of the Confederates was their strategic mistake; the southerners were wrong in believing that they could conquer the northern states. And yet, at first, they achieved some success.

However, for the northerners, the most terrible fact was not these defeats, but the obvious disinterest of England and France in the restoration of the Union; already in May, both of these powers - unexpectedly for the federal government - recognized the status of a belligerent country for the Confederation. They didn't need a strong Union.

When the supply of cotton stopped because of the war, European states began to lean towards intervention, towards open support of the American South.

To prevent this threat (if it came true, the United States would remain forever split). Lincoln published the famous Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, in which "by virtue of his powers as President of the United States" and relying on his military powers, declared all slaves in the southern states from January 1, 1863 free.

True, this proclamation did not help the slaves at all, but at the international level it was she who played a decisive role. Now, for moral reasons, the European powers could no longer intervene and openly support the South, which was fighting to preserve slavery.

Later, a legend arose (very popular to this day) that Lincoln fought for the emancipation of slaves throughout the war, from the very beginning. In fact, the liberation of the Negroes was only a means to win the war, while Lincoln's main goal was to unite the country.

Just months before Lincoln issued his proclamation, he declared that Congress had no right to free slaves in any state. When General Hunter of the North declared all slaves of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina free on May 9, 1862, Lincoln disavowed the decree. Horace Greeley, publisher of the New York Tribune, in an open letter to Lethargy, rebuked the president for his position on slavery. Lincoln replied: “My highest goal is the salvation of the Union, not the destruction or maintenance of slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing a single slave, I would. And if I could save the Union by freeing some and ordering to free others, then I would do that too. "

After the Proclamation on the Emancipation of Slaves appeared, the war continued for another year and a half, and from month to month it became more and more brutal and bloody. This was the first modern war. Hand grenades, rockets, mines, and machine guns were used; torpedoes, sea mines, battleships, armored trains, and balloons were used. The opponents used high-explosive shells, flamethrowers against each other, tried to create "offensive gas of asphyxiation". In Alabama, they even built a submarine almost six meters long; in February 1864 she sank an enemy ship near Charleston; however, the boat itself sank with him.

As the tactics and techniques of warfare changed completely, there were no more moral restrictions. Morally, this war was a return to barbarism; a particularly ardent supporter of this method of warfare was General William T. Sherman. He waged war not only against the armed forces of the enemy, but also - with no less brutality - against the civilian population. His main method was terror. During an eight-week "march to the sea", his army, knowing no mercy, marched through Georgia, destroying everything in its path. Following the army, which he called "the instrument of the Lord's justice," there were thousands of marauders and black arsonists and thieves. “We are fighting not only against a hostile army, but also against a hostile people. It is necessary that everyone, whether he is old or young, rich or poor, should feel the harsh hand of war, "Sherman said. After he devastated Georgia, it was North and South Carolina. However, all these massacres perpetrated by Sherman had little effect on the course of the military campaign. April 9, 1865, General Lee capitulated at Appomattox, Virginia; the war has come to an end, the North has won; The "Confederate States of America" \u200b\u200bno longer existed. but most of the country was devastated; casualties exceeded the total losses that America will suffer in two future world wars. Both the warring parties felt great hatred for each other. Lincoln decided to radically change the political course. The hatred had to be extinguished. The president pleaded with his ministers not to treat the southern states as a conquered country. He wanted to see fellow citizens in the inhabitants of the southern states. "After the end of the war, no persecutions, no bloody deeds are needed!" Lincoln insisted. “No one has the right to expect that I will take part in the executions and hanging of these people, even the worst of them ... We must put an end to all reproaches and accusations if we want to cooperate and want to restore the Union. Some of our friends are too eager to become complete masters of the situation; they seek to push the southerners around without looking back and do not regard them as fellow citizens. They do not want to respect their rights in the least. I don’t share such feelings ”.

General Grant also participated in this cabinet meeting, to whom the commander-in-chief of the southern states had surrendered just a few days earlier. When Grant was asked what terms of surrender he presented to the soldiers of the defeated Confederate army, he replied: "I let them go home to their families and said that they would not be punished in any way if they did nothing from now on." However, not all people around Lincoln shared his position. For example, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton believed that it was necessary to occupy the South, deploy troops there and pursue a policy of retaliation.

The cabinet meeting at which Lincoln spoke about reconciliation took place on the morning of April 14, 1865. On the evening of the same day, Lincoln was shot. A fanatical Southern supporter killed a man who could better defend the rights of the South than anyone else!

It is here, undoubtedly, that there is a contradiction, an absurdity: could any Southerner now be interested in the murder of Lincoln? One can, of course, assume that Boots did not know anything about the policy of reconciliation that Lincoln was going to pursue, or did not believe in it. John Wilkes Boots, "the most handsome man in Washington ", did not come from the southern states, but from Maryland. The question of the abolition of slavery did not interest him at all - neither from an economic point of view, nor from an emotional one. He was born into an acting family; his father, Junius Brutus Boots, has long been considered America's best actor.

John Wilkes Boots was not that famous. However, apparently, he tried with all his might to make people talk about himself. At the beginning of the war, when the southerners fired at Fort Sumter, right during the performance, he shouted from the stage into the auditorium that this bombardment was one of the most heroic deeds in history. He shouted this not in the South, but in Albany, New York, for which he was expelled from the city.

Two years later, he joined the underground Confederate movement. As an actor and performing in a wide variety of cities and states, he was able to discreetly keep in touch with other Southerner agents. So, the murderer of Abraham Lincoln, writes Roscoe, was not at all an irresponsible madman, but was a secret agent who participated in a ramified conspiracy and had many accomplices.

However, you should not imagine this underground movement as something like an organization with strict discipline, and yet it could help Boots carry out his downright fantastic plan: to kidnap the president and take him to Virginia. Three times Boots prepared to commit a kidnapping - the first time on January 18, 1865. The president had to be attacked at the Ford Theater, then tied up, lowered on a rope from the box where he was sitting, onto the stage below, and then, hiding behind the scenes , through the emergency exit, take Lincoln to the waiting carriage outside. According to another plan, the president was to be attacked as he walked along a forest path in the vicinity of Washington. But none of these plans could be implemented, since the president at the last moment was constantly changing his daily routine. In the end, Boots (probably after South capitulated) abandoned the kidnapping plan and decided to kill. The only question is whether he himself conceived the murder.

Here is another enigmatic moment in the "Lincoln affair": On April 14, noon, the President - as a White House security official later noted - while going to the theater in the evening, asked Secretary of War Stanton to appoint one of his adjutants, Major Eckart, a reliable and very strong man as his bodyguard ... Stanton declined the request: that evening, Eckart was allegedly needed elsewhere, and it was impossible to do without him.

Stanton lied; that evening Eckart was completely free from service.

Instead, Stanton put the drunkard Parker, who soon left his post, in front of the door of the box, and then the killer was able to freely enter the presidential box ...

But back to the fugitives. On the other side of Anacostia, Harold overtook Boots, and on the night of April 15, they raced along a pre-planned path. However, the broken leg hurt badly, and therefore Boots decided to visit the doctor, Dr. Samuel Mudd, who lived in Bryantown - a few months ago he had already stopped by to see him once. At 4 o'clock in the morning, the fugitives drove up to Mudd's house and woke the sleeping doctor. Boots wrapped his face in a shawl, leaving only his eyes open. Harold and Mudd removed him from the horse and carried him into the house. There the doctor cut open his boot and put a bandage on his leg. Only late in the morning, Harold and Boots set off again. Before that, the doctor once again examined the injured leg and made two passable crutches.

Later, before the trial, Dr. Mudd said that the patient turned his face away all the time, so he could not see it. However, the court did not believe him.

The judges even considered that it was Dr. Mudd who recommended the fugitives to go to a certain Colonel Cox, so that he ferried them across the Potomac, the border that opened the way to Virginia. Dr. Mudd was sentenced to life in hard labor.

However, on the way to Colonel Cox, Boots and Harold got lost and therefore got to him too late; he no longer dared to cross the Potomac with them, but hid them among the marshes 3 km from his home. There, Boots began to keep a diary.

Meanwhile, in Washington, they managed to capture Lewis Payne, who had committed an attempt on the life of Secretary of State Seward, as well as George Etzerodt, who was supposed to kill Vice President Johnson. In addition, they drew attention to the boarding house of a certain Sarratt, where Boots often visited. The owner herself, Mrs. Sarratt, and three suspicious persons were arrested. True, one of the probably main conspirators was not captured: we are talking about John H. Sarratt, the son of the hostess. All those arrested were taken to the warship Saugus, anchored in the Potomac; there they were shackled. By order of Stanton, canvas bags were put on the heads of the prisoners, tightening them around their throats. The bags had only tiny breathing holes; the prisoners could not see, hear or speak.

Meanwhile, they continued to look for Boots and Harold. Stanton announced that anyone who helps the fugitives or provides them with refuge will be executed. Soon traces of them were found. First, they went to Dr. Mudd, then to Cox, but the fugitives managed to leave his possession: they still managed to cross the Potomac. For the head of Boots was appointed a reward - $ 100,000, for Harold - 25,000.

The fugitives were found 125 kilometers south of Washington, near Port Royal. They stayed with a farming family, posing as Confederate soldiers returning home. When on Tuesday 25 April troops appeared in the vicinity of the farm. Boots and Harold hid in the barn where the tobacco was kept. There, on Wednesday night, they were tracked down.

According to the order, Boots and Harold were to be taken alive. The soldiers surrounded the barn and demanded that the conspirators come out. Having received no answer, they threatened to set fire to the barn. They spread brushwood near the wall of the shed and gave the fugitives five minutes to think. More than five minutes have passed; finally, Harold went out and gave up. Boots stayed in the barn and shouted that he would shoot everyone. Then the soldiers set fire to the brushwood. The flame immediately spread to the building, and through the palisade the soldiers saw Boots hobbling on crutches along the burning barn and could not find a way out. Then a shot rang out, one of the soldiers fired. Mortally wounded Boots fell. The soldiers pulled him out of the barn; by morning, Lincoln's killer had expired.

The main participant in the conspiracy was dead. However, a diary was found with him and handed over to the Ministry of War. Strange, but during the trial of the conspirators, Boots's diary was not paid any attention, although it was undoubtedly an important piece of evidence. They did not remember him at all. It was only a few years later that Brigadier General Lafayette K. Baker (who was Chief of Police during the Civil War) said in a speech before the Congressional Inquiry Committee that he had given Boots' diary to Secretary of War Stanton, his immediate superior; when he got it back, there were several pages missing. Stanton replied that these pages were not there even when Baker handed him the diary. In total, eighteen pages were torn out - all from the same part of the diary that described the events of the days leading up to the assassination of Lincoln.

The trial against the persons who participated in the Buts conspiracy, as well as their accomplices, began on May 9, 1865 in the Washington military prison. Those arrested were brought before an emergency military commission. The case was subject to a military court, since at the time of the assassination, Lincoln was the supreme commander. Major General Lewis Wallace became one of the nine judges (in a few years he will write the novel Benour, which is still one of the world's bestsellers today). The main idea of \u200b\u200bthis "novel from the era of Christ" is retribution. And retribution was the main goal in the trial against the conspiracy participants. The judges were very harsh. Of the eight defendants, four were sentenced to be hanged: Nain, Harold, Etzerodt, and Mary Sarratt. On July 7, 1865, the sentences were carried out, although Mary Sarratt was not convicted of anything at all. Later, the case with her will be called a judicial murder. She died, one might say, instead of her son, John Sarratt, who participated in the conspiracy and fled to Canada. American historian Roscoe believes that "there is no doubt that Stanton deliberately let him go."

When, four months after Lincoln's assassination, the American consul in London reported to Washington that Sarratt had been seen in England, he was told that, after consulting with the Secretary of War, it was deemed inappropriate to do anything. Sarratt was later spotted in Italy. But even then Stanton did not want to do anything; it was in vain that Secretary of State Seward urged the Secretary of War to solicit the arrest of the conspirator. Stanton didn't react at all. However, Seward did not give up and, with the help of the Secretary of the Navy, eventually achieved what he wanted. In December 1866, an envelope was sent to Egypt to capture Sarratt, who had fled there. However, when he finally appeared before the court, no decision could be reached.

The second trial against him was terminated years ago. Theodore Roscoe is convinced that from the very beginning both the capture of Sarratt and the organization of the trial, serious delays were deliberately allowed.

When it comes to the mysterious moments in the Lincoln assassination, the name of Secretary of War Stanton constantly pops up. A hundred years passed, and in 1961 an accidental find reinforced the assumptions about Stanton's possible involvement in the assassination of the president. A second-hand bookstore in Philadelphia was selling a book that once belonged to Brigadier General Lafayette K. Baker, on the cover of which Baker, who had quarreled with Stanton, left an interesting inscription, signed by the general. The inscription was made on May 2, 1868. It begins like this: “I am constantly persecuted. They are professionals. I can't get away from them. "

Then, in the form of an allegory, Baker talks about the murder of Lincoln. “There were three people living in New Rome: Judas, Brutus and the Spy. When the defeated one was dying, Judas appeared and honored the one he hated. And when he saw his death, he said: “Now eternity is destined for him. And the nation - to me! "

The last words can be taken as a paraphrase of the words spoken by Stanton after Lincoln's death: "Now he belongs to eternity." At the end of the note it says: “If anyone asks what happened to the Spy, it was me. Lafayette K. Baker, 2.5.68 ". Baker died a few months later. Even then, it was suspected that the former chief of the secret police had been poisoned.

And the fate of Lafayette K. Baker himself, and the inscription left by him, are still shrouded in mystery. A number of other events related to the "Lincoln case" also cannot be clarified. The chain of evidence that can be twisted from them is by no means a solid one. And all these riddles give the right to doubt that in the "Lincoln case" everything is in fact as clear as it seemed for almost a century.

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

On April 14, 1865, at the play Our American Cousin at the Ford Theater, actor John Wilkes Booth fatally wounded US President Abraham Lincoln. The killer managed to escape, but after 12 days the police overtook him in a barn in Virginia, and when Booth emerged from the burning hiding place, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot him in the neck.

Official version

In addition to Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, Major Henry Rathbone and his beloved Clara Harris were in the presidential box. Booth found himself in the aisle connecting the box and the corridor at ten in the evening, and was left to wait for a certain comedy scene, which always made the audience laugh.
According to the plan, the resulting noise was supposed to drown out the shot. At the beginning of the episode, the actor walked behind the president, who was sitting in a rocking chair, and at the right moment shot him in the back of the head. Rathbone tried to stop the killer, but he stabbed him in the arm with a knife. The major quickly recovered and again tried to grab Booth at the moment when he was preparing to jump over the box fence. He, in turn, tried to hit Rathbone in the chest, and then jumped over the fence.
Falling onto the stage from a height of three meters, he caught his spur on the flag that adorned the box, and broke his left leg when falling, which, however, did not prevent him from running onto the stage. At that moment, he threw a bloody knife over his head and shouted the Virginia motto Sic semper Tyrannis into the hall! (lat. "This happens with all tyrants!"). Then he got out, hit the man holding the horse with the knife handle, and hid from his pursuers.

The wounded Lincoln was transferred to a boarding house opposite the theater. The next morning, the president died without regaining consciousness. At the same time, a certain Lewis Powell (Payne) made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward - an associate of Lincoln who later became famous for buying Alaska - at his home. Shortly before the assassination attempt, Seward had a road accident: his jaw and right arm were broken, a ligament in his foot was torn, and his entire body was covered with bruises. Payne sneaked into his house on the pretext that he needed to give Seward something from the doctor, and entered his bedroom. The conspirator stabbed him several times, including in the throat. The secretary of state survived. During the assassination attempt, Seward's son Augustus was injured.

An assassination attempt was also made on Vice President Andrew Johnson, but the conspirator George Atzerodt "drank too much for courage" and did not go anywhere.

The investigation linked the conspiracy against the leaders of the United States to the end of the civil war: only five days passed after the capitulation of the commander-in-chief of the Confederate army, the North won. The investigation identified ten participants in the conspiracy: Booth was killed during the arrest, four - David Herold, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt and Mary Sarrat - were hanged on July 7.

Executions of Mary Sarrat, Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt (left to right). Photo: Library of Congress

Three more - Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold and Michael O "Laughlin - were sentenced to life in prison, Edward Spangler received six years in prison. John Sarratt, one of the main characters in this story, was hiding abroad for some time (where no one looked for him), and then was acquitted.

Conspiracy

In 1959, a book by the American historian Theodore Roscoe, The Web of a Conspiracy, was published. In it, the author drew attention to episodes of the official version of the investigation, which seem incredible and raise questions.

The assassination attempt was immediately reported to Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells. Stanton immediately arrived at the scene of the assassination, and then, settling in the same boarding house, for many hours served as chief of police and chief judge, ordering the capture of the killer and sending out telegrams. After a short conversation with the Vice President, the Secretary of War allegedly let him go home, although according to another version of Johnson, no one tried to look at all.

This is where the oddities begin. One of Stanton's first orders was to block all routes leading out of the city. Police occupied train stations, the Potomac River was guarded by ships, and six roads leaving Washington were blocked by the military. However, the conspirators were given two paths that led to Maryland, one of them - along the Bridge of the military shipyard, which was guarded around the clock. On the day of the assassination attempt, the bridge was guarded by a sergeant named Cobb. At 22:45 local time, Booth introduced himself to him by his real name and said that he was going home. The president's killer was released from the city.

After Booth, David Harold drove up to the bridge, helping Powell at the house of Secretary of State Seward. His Sergeant Cobb, like Booth, was allegedly mistaken for a reveler who had fun in Washington and missed the time when he had to return home.

A few minutes later a groom came after Harold, from whom the conspirators borrowed horses and did not return them at the agreed nine in the evening. Seeing Harold rushing, who clearly did not intend to give up the horse, her owner rushed after him. But Sergeant Cobb did not let him cross the bridge. Then the groom returned to the city and filed a statement about the stolen horse with the police. Its employees suspected that this theft could be related to the flight of the conspirators, and they turned to the army headquarters with a demand to hand over the horses. The military rejected the request, saying that they had not received such orders, and that they would deal with the criminals on their own. Until the next day, however, no one lifted a finger.

Another little-explained circumstance that Roscoe notes is how Booth was able to infiltrate the presidential box without interference. On the eve of the show, Lincoln asked Stanton to appoint Major Eckart as his bodyguard, but the Secretary of War announced that his adjutant was busy, and assigned President John Parker, who had a reputation as a drunkard and a regular at brothels, as well as many penalties for inappropriate use of weapons and sleep during execution. Parker did not change his image and soon after the start of the performance he went to the bar. The path was clear for the killer.

The motive for the murder does not look entirely plausible either. It is believed that Booth, an implacable supporter of the Southerners, decided to take revenge on Lincoln for defeating the Confederacy. But the fact is that, contrary to popular legend, the president fought not for the liberation of blacks, but for the unity of the state. By and large, he did not give a damn about slaves: in his campaign speech, Lincoln said that there could be no talk of equality, but the superiority of the white race does not mean that blacks should be deprived of everything.

Lincoln himself took a soft line with the vanquished. At the same time, Secretary of War Stanton did not agree with this position and believed that the South must be occupied and avenged. It turns out that the "fanatical southerner" Booth for some reason killed the man who offered the most favorable terms to the defeated southerners.

On the night of April 15, when Harold and Boots met after crossing the military dockyard bridge, they went to see Dr. Samuel Mudd in Bryantown, because the actor's broken leg was in great pain. Before entering the house, Booth wrapped a shawl over his face so that the doctor would not see it. Mudd put a bandage on the damaged bone and erected two crutches, after which the conspirators continued on their way. At the trial, Mudd said that Booth always turned away from him and did not allow himself to be seen, but the judges decided that it was the doctor who advised the fugitives to turn to Colonel Cox, who was supposed to ferry them across the Potomac. This venture, however, failed, and Colonel Cox hid the conspirators a few kilometers from his house, where Booth began to keep a diary.

In Washington, meanwhile, they arrested Mary Sarrat, the hostess of the boarding house, where the actor often went, and three other suspicious persons. Payne and Atzerodt were also captured.

For the heads of Booth and Harold were appointed rather large awards. They were eventually found near Port Royal, where they were hiding in a family of farmers, posing as Confederate soldiers. The soldiers had an order to take the conspirators alive, but despite him Booth was mortally wounded and died the next morning. The soldiers found his diary and handed it over to the ministry, but there they seem to have forgotten about it. A few years later, Brigadier General Lafayette Baker recalled that he gave the actor's diary to his boss Stanton (Baker was then the chief of police), and when he received it back, some pages were missing.

In 1961, a book that once belonged to Baker was accidentally found. 93 years earlier, a brigadier general had written on its cover: “I'm constantly being persecuted. They are professionals. I can't get away from them. " This is followed by an allegorical story about the conspiracy of Judas, Brutus and the Spy, while references to Stanton are found in the words of Judas, and the owner of the book himself calls himself a Spy. A month later, Baker was poisoned.

According to historian Roscoe, Baker or Stanton are also responsible for the loss of the only photographic plate on which photographer Alexander Gardner, who worked on the case, captured the corpse of John Wilkes Booth.

Roscoe believes that Stanton also allowed John Sarratt, the son of Mary Sarratt, to leave, whose execution was later ruled a judicial murder, since she could not be convicted of anything. Sarrat fled first to Canada, then to England, then he was seen in Italy. However, when the Secretary of War received information about his whereabouts, Stanton paid no attention to it. In the winter, the conspirator was caught in Egypt on the initiative of Secretary of State Seward, but he never received a conviction. The second case was dropped due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Everybody went crazy

Earlier this year, the author of numerous investigations, Dave McGown, began publishing a series of stories about the Lincoln assassination.
McGown notes that on April 14, in addition to the President, and, as mentioned above, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward, the conspirators were also planning to kill General Ulysses Grant and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. He gives detailed descriptions the lives of people involved in one way or another in the events, and almost all of them have one thing in common - they were not mentally healthy.

For example, Sergeant Thomas "Boston" Corbett castrated himself about seven years before he shot Booth. In addition, he was mentally unstable and heard voices. For refusing to obey orders, he was dismissed from service, but was allowed back in 1863. Corbett quickly rose to the rank of sergeant, and was not responsible for the murders of Booth. In 1887, the sergeant was recruited to the Kansas State Legislature, where one day he either started shooting, or simply brandished a pistol, for which he was finally placed in a psychiatric hospital.

In the presidential box, along with the Lincoln couple, were a couple of Major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris. She was the Major's half-sister and was the daughter of US Senator Ira Harris. They later got married and moved to Germany. In 1883, Rathbone stabbed his wife to death after a failed attempt to kill his children, and then tried to commit suicide. He spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.

The president's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, became completely insane after the death of her husband and began to suffer from hallucinations, as a result of which her son placed her in a mental hospital.

Robert Lincoln was not crazy, but he surprisingly managed to become involved in the murders of three US presidents at once: in 1881 he was present at the assassination of James Garfield, and in 1901 - William McKinley. In late 1864 - early 1865, Robert was involved in a strange incident: on a railway platform, a stranger saved the younger Lincoln from injury and possibly even death. It was Edwin Booth, older brother of John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln maintained a friendship with him for many years and may have had an affair with the daughter of US Senator Lucy Hale, who was previously John Booth's fiancée.

Butov's sister Rosalie died in 1880 in a "mysterious attack". It is believed that the third brother, Junius Brutus, has gone mad. The nephew of the assassin actor Edwin Booth Clark became a naval officer and disappeared into the sea: according to the official version, he committed suicide by jumping overboard.

Following the announcement of the bounty for the heads of the fugitives, the War Department received the bodies of Frank Boyle and William Watson, who looked like Booth. Stanson's agency covered up the killings and disposed of the corpses (one of them was thrown into the Potomac).

When they talk about the "mysterious assassination of the President of the United States," 99 out of 100 cases mean the death of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas: since there is still no definite answer who killed the 35th President and why. In connection with the secrets and mysteries, the death of the sixteenth head of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is almost never remembered - this event, its causes and characters are considered known and understandable. However, there are people who believe that with the first-ever assassination of an American president, not everything is so obvious ...

What history says

The generally accepted story of the death of Abraham Lincoln says that the sixteenth President of the United States was fatally wounded on April 14, 1865 at the Washington Ford Theater, where he watched the comedy "My American Cousin" from the lodge with his wife and several acquaintances. A few days before that, the Civil War ended with the surrender of the Southern States, and the motives for the murder were connected with it: the famous actor and secret agent and supporter of the Confederacy, John Wilkes Booth, became the killer. He and his associates conspired against the main enemy of the Southerners, President Lincoln.

This conspiracy first involved the kidnapping of Lincoln, but then turned into an assassination plan.

So, at about 10 o'clock in the evening, at the very time when the play was the most ridiculous segment, Booth entered the presidential box and fired a pocket pistol in the back of Lincoln's head (very often you can find the clarification that the killer deliberately chose this moment to laugh in the auditorium drowned out the sound of the shot, although this was done so that the person who entered would not be heard in the box). After that, he wounded the officer who was trying to detain him and jumped onto the stage with a pathetic exclamation in Latin "Such is the fate of tyrants." According to eyewitness accounts, including the report of a young doctor Charles Lilya found only in 2012 in the National Archives, Booth, when jumping from a three-meter height, got entangled in a hanging American flag, fell so unsuccessfully that he broke his leg, but still managed to escape from the theater. 12 days later, he, along with an accomplice, was overtaken in Virginia and killed in a shootout. By that time, President Lincoln had long been dead - the wound was fatal and he died without regaining consciousness, at about 7 a.m. on April 15, 1865. In the summer of the same year, eight of Booth's conspirators were brought to trial, four of whom were executed after being found guilty of an anti-state conspiracy.

What the facts add

So, the situation seems to be crystal clear - the supporters of the southern Confederation, which was defeated in the Civil War, decided to take revenge on their main enemy, the liberator of black slaves, Abraham Lincoln, killed him, and then paid for their crime. But, even if you do not fall into the excessive enthusiasm typical of many amateurs everywhere to look for conspiracies and intrigues, many circumstances of the story of the Lincoln assassination raise questions. First of all, these are the motives of conspiracy and crime. It is believed that the Confederate supporters killed the president out of revenge. However, personally for Booth, participation in the murder was practically meaningless: he belonged to a famous acting dynasty, he himself was a fairly successful actor and was not connected with the slave-owning South by any economic or financial interests. From the point of view of his future, it was not profitable for Booth to kill Lincoln.

In addition, revenge on the part of the southerners looks like a dubious motive from a rational point of view. In addition, it is known that Lincoln was the man who, perhaps, after the end of the war, most defended the interests of the South. The fact is that many representatives of the military and political leadership of the North believed that heavy indemnities should be imposed on the defeated in order to compensate for the losses during the war, and the Southern states themselves should be defeated in rights. This position was held, in particular, by General Ulysses Grant, the future eighteenth president of the country - however, Lincoln defended the opinion that the South should become an equal part of the United States, and not only did not need to impose an indemnity on the southern states, but also to help in their restoration ... A number of researchers draw attention to the fact that on April 14, 1865, it was Grant who invited Lincoln with his wife and their acquaintances to the performance at Ford's theater, who was also supposed to be at the performance, but could not come at the last moment, citing family circumstances.

Therefore, it is believed that the assassination of Lincoln was organized not by vengeful southerners, but by opponents of the president among his own associates, dissatisfied with his political and economic course.

According to this hypothesis, Booth and his accomplices were only performers who received all kinds of support "from within." Thus, attention is drawn to the fact that the president was guarded that evening by only one bodyguard, and even then he was not at the door of the box at the decisive moment. Then, surprisingly, Booth, who broke his leg in an unsuccessful fall on the stage, managed not only to get out of the theater, but also to hide from the city - although all exits from Washington were blocked for an hour (the policeman who released the killer from the city after one of the bridges, later received only mild censure). Finally, the circumstances of the death of Booth, a very undesirable witness, are alarming: when he and his accomplice were overtaken in Virginia, the accomplice was allowed to surrender alive, and Booth was shot, despite the official order to be sure to take him alive. A diary was found with him, but he did not figure in the investigation and trial, and then appeared in the archive, but the pages corresponding to the time immediately before the murder were missing in the diary.

In the history of the United States, there are many interesting and tragic events that influenced the course of the development of the state. One of these is the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865. Why and who killed Lincoln, in what historical era did it happen - the answers to these questions will interest the readers of the article. We will answer the nickname in as much detail as possible.

How Abraham Lincoln was killed

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th American President, considered a national hero and liberator of black people from slavery, is one of the most famous and beloved heroes of American history. He was president since 1861, during the most difficult years for America - the Civil War and the confrontation between North and South. In 1865 he was re-elected for the second time, which showed how actively the Americans supported him.

On April 9, the Civil War in the United States officially ended, the country breathed freely. April 14, 1865 President Lincoln walks with his wife to a play at the Ford Theater, Washington. A southerner fanatic, actor John Wilkes Booth, who has arrived there, enters the presidential box and shoots him in the head. Jumping out of the box, Booth shouts: “Freedom! The South is avenged! " and flees.

Without regaining consciousness, the next morning A. Lincoln dies. Americans were deeply outraged when they learned that the newly elected President Lincoln, beloved and respected by most people, had been killed. The year 1865 will forever remain in US history as the year of the assassination of the president. After all, Lincoln was a very popular and attractive person, distinguished by honesty and high moral principles.

So who and why was Lincoln killed? political reasons or on the killer's personal dislike for the president - let's try to understand this by considering the historical events of that time, the identity of the killer and his victim.

Abraham Lincoln: childhood and adolescence

A. Lincoln was born in Hodgenville on February 12, 1809, into the family of a poor farmer. In order to develop free lands, the family soon moved to Indiana. His mother died when the boy was 7 years old, and his father remarried a widow with three children. Abraham had to constantly earn extra money in order to help the family, mainly by physical labor: he is hired either as a woodcutter, or as a hunter, sometimes as an employee, or as an agent of a trading company.

That is why he was able to study at school for only 1 year, having learned to read and write. However, over time, a great craving for knowledge prompted him to self-study, which helped him become not only a fairly literate person, but also an educated lawyer.

By the age of 21, when Lincoln decided to take up his own business, having left his family, he turned into an intelligent young man of tall stature (193 cm), in terms of his reading degree superior to any young man who studied for many years at school. The story of his life is a series of ups and downs, successes and failures.

The beginning of a political career

In 1832, Lincoln first tried to be elected to the Illinois legislature, but failed. After that, he devotes the next years to intensive self-study in legal and other sciences. In these same years, he began to form a negative attitude towards the problem of slavery in America, which later played a role in the tragedy that happened to him. This must be considered when figuring out the reason why Lincoln was killed.

To have money for life and study, Abraham and his friends began commercial activities, opening a shop, but the business did not bring profit. Then he enters the service as a postmaster in New Salem, and then becomes a land surveyor. Even in his youth, friends give him the nickname "Honest Abe", which he earned for his absolute honesty and decency.

A second attempt to be elected to the Legislative Assembly was crowned with success in 1835, his next step was to pass the exam for the title of lawyer, for which he was able to prepare completely independently. Over the next few years, practicing law, he became famous as a defender of poor citizens, taking on the most difficult cases completely disinterestedly. Over the years, he was elected 4 times from the Whig party, and then moved to the city of Springfield.

His personal life also changed during these years. In 1842 A. Lincoln married M. Todd. According to some reports, he suffered all his life from hereditary disease - Marfan's syndrome, which is expressed in high expressiveness, and therefore often fell into depression. His wife Mary loved him very much and strongly supported his political views. Shortly after President Lincoln was assassinated, she went mad and died.

The couple had 4 sons, but 3 of them died in childhood. The only surviving child, the eldest son Robert Lincoln, fought with the rank of captain, then became Secretary of War, and in 1889 he became the US ambassador to England, having lived to old age.

In 1846, Lincoln entered the House of Representatives of Congress from his state from the Whig party. At this time, he in every possible way condemns the policy of aggression by the United States, which was manifested during the Mexican-American war, and also advocates the abolition of slavery. Because of these political views, he had to leave politics and again take up legal affairs. He becomes a consultant for the Illinois Central Railroad Company.

In 1854, a Republican Party was created in the United States, which began the struggle to abolish slavery, and after 2 years Lincoln became its representative, but he lost the first elections to his rival from the Democratic Party.

However, already in 1860 the party nominated him as a candidate for the presidency. Thanks to his fame as a hardworking and honest politician who came out of the people, A. Lincoln gains 80% of the vote and becomes the 16th President of the United States. But not all of his political views, especially slavery, are met with enthusiasm. Some politicians disagree with him, and even some states are trying to announce the secession from the state, and he has to make a statement that the abolition of slavery is not planned in the near future.

American Civil War

The president, in which he condemned slavery as an immoral phenomenon, denied the existence of the state in a state of "half-slavery and half-freedom." At the same time, the President-elect adhered to rather moderate positions. While categorically rejecting slavery, he spoke of the impossibility of its violent abolition in order not to violate the property rights of the planters and to avoid a split of the state.

The election of A. Lincoln as president in 1860 caused the separation of the southern slave states from the United States and the creation of a Confederation with its capital in Richmond. And although in his inaugural speech, Lincoln actively called for the unification of the country, he could not prevent the conflict. The war between the South and the North was started in 1861 between states that held opposing views of slavery. The president's desire to give freedom to black Americans has multiplied the number of enemies and political opponents. Among these dissenters was the one who killed Abraham Lincoln.

The civil war dragged on, economic losses and human casualties increased, and the issues of slavery remained unresolved. The turning point in the attitude of citizens towards the president was the Homestead Act, adopted in 1862, according to which any citizen (who did not participate in the battles on the side of the South) could receive land ownership for a tax of $ 10. This contributed to the settlement of vacant land, the solution of agricultural problems and led to the development of agriculture and farming in the country. Lincoln's popularity began to skyrocket.

All these years A. Lincoln has been pursuing a democratic policy aimed at maintaining a two-party system in the country, preserving freedom of speech and other achievements of democracy.

On December 30, 1863, the President signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted freedom to all slaves. The country is entering a period of destruction of slave relations and the liberation of black residents. This decision gave impetus to an increase in the influx of volunteers into the army of northerners, consisting of liberated black residents. In 1865, the war ends with the defeat of the Confederacy, which united the southern slave states.

Opponents of President Lincoln

During the years of government and the Civil War, the president had many opponents. The majority of the population of the southern states, who were defeated in the war, did not support his desire to free slaves, so the question of why Lincoln was killed by people who absolutely disagreed with his decisions in the state structure and the reforms carried out had a completely understandable answer: precisely because of the decisions to free black slaves America.

During this period, he adopted some laws that benefited the country and himself as a politician:

• imprisoning all deserters and supporters of slavery through the courts;
• the Homestead Act, according to which the settlers who cultivate the land and build buildings become its owners.

The repeated elections in 1864 brought A. Lincoln a second victory (his opponent was the representative of the Democratic Party, General J. McClellan). Already on January 31, 1865, the US Congress, at the insistence of the President, adopted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery in the United States.

Abraham Lincoln, in the first months of his second presidential term, begins to resolve the issue of restoring 11 breakaway states within a federal state, promising them amnesty.

In his speech at the inauguration, the president called for the preservation of "peace in his home", but he was no longer destined to implement these plans. Because a few days later, a performance was to take place in the theater, where he was going to go with Lincoln, where the conspirators, led by J. Booth, killed him, thereby cutting off the life of one of the most beloved US presidents.

Killer biography

John Wilkes Booth is the man who killed Abraham Lincoln. To understand why he committed this crime, let's talk about his life and political views... After all, from time immemorial it was believed that the roots of evil must always be sought in childhood and education.

J. Booth was born on May 10, 1838 in a family of theater artists Iu. B. Booth and M. E. Holmes, who lived on a small farm in Maryland. In the family, he was the 9th child, and the name was given to him in honor of the politician with radical views J. Wilkes from England. His family did not belong to any religious concession, and besides, his parents were not even married. They formalized their marriage only after the birth of their 10th baby in 1851.

The boy studied at a local school with great reluctance, and his parents did not strongly insist on his diligent teaching. At the age of 12, his father forced him to enroll in military academy in Milton, where teachers demanded strict discipline and diligence in their studies from pupils. There also took place an interesting meeting between Booth and a fortune-teller, which predicted him a very short life and a bad death. Perhaps she already knew that she was predicting this to the man who would become known in America as the one who killed Lincoln.

A year later, Booth moved to another educational institution, then at the age of 14, after the death of his father, he dropped out and expressed a desire to get the profession of a deceased parent - to become an actor. He begins to study oratory and stubbornly studies the works of Shakespeare and other playwrights. Three years later Booth made his stage debut in Richard III in a supporting role (Baltimore Theater). At first, the audience did not strongly welcome the new actor, but with his perseverance and determination, he continues to achieve success.

In 1857, John entered street theater under the pseudonym YB Wilkes in Philadelphia, which helped him to become a star. The audience enthusiastically received him as a genius actor and gave him the nickname "The Most Handsome American". Now playing the lead roles, he embarked on his first American tour.

J. Booth met the beginning of the Civil War in the north and immediately began to express his admiration for the actions of the southern states, calling them heroic. He spent all the war years traveling around the country, conquering all more fans and simultaneously breaking hearts of fans. In doing so, he became an undercover agent of the Confederacy, helping to deliver smuggled medicines to the Southerners. His views on slavery, due in part to the fact that his homeland, Maryland, belonged to the slaveholding states, largely predetermined his future fate as a man who dreamed of changing the policy of the country by force and dared to become the one who killed President Lincoln.

Conspirators in Washington

In the fall of 1863, a friend of the Butov family, J. Ford, opened his theater in Washington and invited Booth to play one of the leading roles in the premiere of The Marble Heart. Ford's Theater in the future will become the site of tragedy, going down in history as "the theater in which Lincoln was killed."

This performance is attended by A. Lincoln, who really liked the actor Booth. But when the president was invited to visit their box during intermission, Booth refused, showing a strong dislike for his family. Booth hated Lincoln, blaming him for all military misfortunes. In 1863, he even ended up in police custody for shouting curses from the stage at the American president during a performance. Forced to swear allegiance to the Union, he was released, getting off with a fine.

In 1864, before the start of the presidential elections, realizing that the Confederation had lost the war and Lincoln would be elected a second time, Booth began to think about a plan to kidnap the president. His friends S. Arnold and M. O "Lowland became his accomplices, and the meetings took place in Baltimore in the apartment of M. Branson, a supporter of the Southerners. Then their hopes were not crowned with success, but upon arrival in Washington, Booth begins to hatch more radical plans.

The conspirators decide to kidnap all the main members of the US government, led by the president. Resolute and aggressive supporters of the southerners: D. Herold, J. Atzerodt, L. Powell, and others. Led by Booth, they became the people who planned, took part in the meetings, which were held in the house of the mother of one of the members of J. Surrat's group. helped, and who killed President Lincoln afterwards.

After Lincoln's inauguration in March 1865, J. Booth drastically changed the plan of the operation, coming to the conclusion that the most effective step would not be kidnapping, but the assassination of the American president.

When on April 11, the newly elected American president made a speech near the White House, in which he told the Americans about the restoration of the rights of black slaves, J. Booth was among the spectators and, completely disagreeing with his words, decided that this speech would be the final in Lincoln's life.

Murder Day - April 14, 1865

The fact that the president would watch the comedy play "My American Cousin" at Ford's theater, Booth learned in advance from his friend, the owner of the theater. Ford himself proudly informed the future killer of the honor that would be awarded to his establishment: a visit by the head of state to a performance. Booth took this news as an attractive opportunity to achieve his insidious goal, because he was well-versed in all the corridors and nooks of the theater building. Ford's theater, by his decision, became the place where Lincoln was killed.

On April 13, the last meeting of the conspirators took place. Booth, as the ringleader of the conspirators, gave his instructions on political assassinations: his friends D. Harold and L. Powell were to murder US Secretary of State W. Seward, and J. Acerodt - the destruction of Vice President E. Jackson. J. Booth planned to accomplish his mission alone. All three murders were to take place at 22.00.

And then came April 14 - the day Lincoln was killed. When J. Booth came to the play, he was well versed in its content. He deliberately chose the time of the murder so as to enter the box and shoot at the moment of burst of laughter in the hall after another funny remark on the stage. Although it turned out a little differently.

J. Booth dressed in a black suit, wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Entering the box, he closed the door behind him so that no one would interfere. Stepping to the president's chair, Booth fired a derringer at him. The sound of the shot spread throughout the hall, because due to the excitement, the killer did not guess the moment, and a loud shot rang out in silence - all the spectators immediately turned their heads at the terrible sound.

Infantry commander G. Rathbourne, who was sitting in this box, was the first to orientate himself, who wanted to prevent the killer, but Booth wounded him with a knife and jumped into the hall from a height of 3.5 m. Clinging to the flag with a spur of his boot, the criminal fell unsuccessfully and broke his leg. Limping, he stepped onto the stage and shouted the Virginia motto "This will always be with tyrants!" All the people around were in shock, so the killer managed to escape from the theater through the back door. So the Ford Theater became the place where Lincoln was killed.

At the same time, L. Powell made his way into the house of the Secretary of State, but the murder did not take place. Having inflicted several blows with a knife, he could only injure him, while his partner escaped in the meantime. The third "killer" J. Atserodt did not dare to commit a crime and spent the night in a tavern, worrying about his fate. There he heard the news that Lincoln had been killed at Ford's theater.

On Booth's instructions, the accomplices planned a meeting near the city, but only two showed up there - Booth and Harold. Due to a leg injury, Booth had to urgently look for a doctor whom he knew from underground during the war. The doctor gave him a splint and gave him crutches.

Search for the killer

Several thousand soldiers were mobilized to search for the conspirators, and at that time they were sitting out in a house in Maryland. On the way further south, J. Booth suddenly learned that all residents were condemning him for killing an unarmed man. Unaware that the one who killed Lincoln was in front of them, people in the conversation accused the killer of cowardice, since he shot Lincoln from the back. After hearing this, the offender decided to tell his story and version of all the events that happened in a diary that he writes on the road. Moving south, the conspirators swam across the river to Virginia and tried to seek help from familiar Confederates, but everywhere they were refused.

At this time, all the other conspirators had already been captured and sent to prison. Booth and Harold walked to Garrett's farm in Baulin Green, a man who helped fugitive southerners after the war. The killers hid there in the barn. However, the police were already on their trail.

On the evening of April 26, in Virginia, police and soldiers surrounded and set fire to a barn, and Booth went out with a revolver, at that moment Sergeant B. Corbett shot and fatally wounded him in the neck, after 2 hours the offender died.

All the other conspirators were brought before a military court, which sentenced four of them to be hanged, the rest to imprisonment for life.

Funeral of the President

A. Lincoln's funeral proved that he was loved and respected by everyone. The train with his body traveled from New York to Springfield, covering 2,730 km. Millions of Americans, white and black, came to pay their last tribute to the president over the entire 2.5-week journey. Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery. You can ask any American: "What year was Lincoln killed?" And he will answer immediately and without error: "In 1865", because the tragic death of this president created around him the halo of a martyr who died in the struggle to overthrow the US slave system. In honor of A. Lincoln in 1876, a statue was built in Washington with the money of subscribers, another - in Chicago.

John Wilkes Booth, forever in the history of the United States as the one who killed Lincoln, set a vivid example of the fact that a man alone can change the course of history of an entire state. If he had not dared to murder on April 14, 1865, then American history could have developed very differently.