Chasing Lincoln’s Killer
Chapter 4
- Abraham Lincoln
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.
It’s the life in your years.”
“It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than
to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
Communication Newspapers,
postcards, telegraph
messages, mail
couriers, messenger
pigeons, and letters
were all forms of
communication
used in the 1860’s.
People were able to
share news by using
any of these
sources.
Mastermind –
John Wilkes
Booth
shot Lincoln
Lewis Powell –
Seward House
Attacker
George Atzerodt –
Vice- President
Johnson
David Herold –
Seward House
Accomplice
Mary Surratt – Delivered package to
tavern and instructed to
get guns/supplies ready
for pick up
Leale’s fingers probed for the source of the blood and
found it behind the left ear: a neat, round hole, about the
diameter of a man’s fingertip, clotted with a plug of
coagulated blood. (p. 68)
– to change or cause to change from a liquid to a
thickened mass
coagulate
manipulate To draw life-sustaining oxygen into the lungs, Leale
pressed Lincoln’s chest and ordered two men to
manipulate Lincoln’s arms like levers on a water
pump. (p. 68)
– to operate with the hands, especially in a skillful way
This is an antique water pump.
Leale told the men to basically lift
Lincoln’s arm the way they would
lift up and push down the long
lever on the water pump. Do you
see the lever on this pump?
--------------------
Other great actresses from the nineteenth-century
American theater have faded into oblivion while
Laura Keene is remembered for a single unscripted
act that took place over a few minutes in the box at
Ford’s on April 14, 1865. (p. 73)
oblivion
– a state of being forgotten
Laura Keene was an actress
in Our American Cousin.
She has not faded into
oblivion.
Even the brief carriage ride between Ford’s and the
White House over unpaved, muddy streets, gouged with ruts and tracks from hundreds of carriage wheels,
would be too much for Lincoln to endure. (p. 73)
gouged
– to cut or dig out
causing a groove or hole
Gouged wheel ruts.
Do you see the
ridges in the mud?
Ford’s Theater
Booth escaping Ford’s Theater – chased by only Army
Major Joseph Stewart.
East on F Street past Herndon House
Past Patent Office on left and Post Office on right
Then onto Pennsylvania Ave
Through Capital Grounds and
To Navy Yard Bridge to Maryland
Booth’s
Escape
Route
William Seward
Lewis Powell
Seward House
Ford’s Theater US Army
Surgeon
Charles
Leale
A national treasure for all Americans, Ford's Theater is a 19th century structure
located on 10th street in Washington, D. C.. It is a living tribute to President Abraham
Lincoln’s love of the performing arts.
The building was founded in 1833 as the First Baptist Church of Washington. In 1861,
the congregation leased it to John T. Ford, an extremely successful theatrical
entrepreneur from Baltimore.
He converted the church into a music hall called “Ford's Athenaeum." But, a fire
destroyed the building in 1862.
It was reconstructed in the following year as "Ford's New Theater." The first
performance in the new venue took place on August 27, 1863.
Kirkwood House
George
Atzerodt
Vice-President
Andrew Johnson
The Kirkwood House, once named the
Fuller Hotel, was built in 1847. It was the
home of Andrew Johnson. After
Lincoln’s assassination, Johnson took
the Presidential Oath of Office in Aoril,
1865 at the Kirkwood House.
Laura Keene’s
blood stained
dress
Ford’s Theater
John Wilkes
Booth
Ford’s Theater
Lincoln being carried lifeless to
Peterson House
The Petersen House is a 19th-century federal style row house located
at 516 10th Street NW in Washington, D.C. On April 15, 1865, United
States President Abraham Lincoln died here after being shot the
previous evening at Ford's Theater, which was located across the
street. The house was built in 1849 by William A. Petersen, a German
tailor, which Is how the house got its name.
