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"I long ago made up my mind that if anybody wants to kill me, he will do it. If I wore a shirt of mail and kept myself surrounded by a bodyguard, it would be all the same. There are a thousand ways of getting at a man if it is desirable that he should be killed. Besides, in this case, it seems to me, the man who would come after me would be just as objectionable to my enemies -- if I have any."
Abraham Lincoln to journalist Noah Brooks in 1863
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9:00 A.M.
Booth met with his fiancee, Lucy Hale (daughter of John P. Hale, former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire). He then went to Booker and Stewart's barbershop on E Street near Grover's Theatre where barber Charles Wood trimmed his hair. Afterwards, he may have stopped at the Surratt boardinghouse and met with Mary Surratt. Booth then returned to his hotel in Washington. This was the National Hotel, just 6 blocks from the Capitol on the northeast corner of Sixth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Booth stayed in room 228. Many guests recognized Booth as he walked in because he was one of America's most famous actors.///
11:00 A.M.
Booth left the National Hotel and went to Ford's Theatre to pick up his mail. He was dressed in dark clothes and wore a tall silk hat. He wore kid gloves of a bland color, had a light overcoat slung over his arm, and carried a cane. At Ford's he learned from Henry Clay Ford, 21, that President Abraham Lincoln would be attending the evening performance of Our American Cousin. Booth then spent some time walking around the theater. He knew nearly every line of the play. He figured out that the greatest laughter in the theater would be taking place about 10:15 P.M. He also realized the actor, Harry Hawk, would be alone on stage at that moment. He made up his mind. This would be the time to assassinate the president.///
7:00 P.M.
Booth put on black riding boots, new spurs, a black frock coat, black pants, and a black slouch hat. He picked up his diary. Booth carried a compass, a small derringer, and a long hunting knife that could be stuck inside his pants on the left side. Booth loaded the .44-caliber derringer with a lead ball. It was a single shot pistol. At 7:45 he exited the National Hotel.8:00 P.M.
Booth held one final meeting with his co-conspirators (both the time and location of this meeting is not known for certain). Powell would assassinate Secretary Seward. Herold would guide Powell to Seward's home and help him escape from Washington. Atzerodt would shoot Vice-President Johnson. Booth would kill Lincoln. All attacks would take place simultaneously at 10:15 P.M. The entire gang would then meet at the Navy Yard Bridge. From there they would ride to Surrattsville and pick up guns and binoculars at John Lloyd's leased tavern.
10:00 P.M.
Booth entered Ford's lobby at about 10:07 P.M. He went up the stairs to the dress circle. He moved slowly even stopping completely to lean back against the wall. Soon Booth could see the white door he needed to enter to get to Lincoln's State Box. Charles Forbes, the president's footman, was seated next to the door and Booth apparently handed him a card. Quietly, Booth then opened the door and entered the dark area in back of the box. It was now between 10:15 P.M. and 10:30 P.M. Booth propped the door shut with the wooden leg of a music stand which he had placed there on one of his earlier visits during the day. Whether Booth actually made the niche in the wall was disputed by at least one member of the Ford family; see pp. 73-75 of W. Emerson Reck's A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours.
He then opened an inside door behind where the president was sitting. He put his derringer behind Lincoln's head near the left ear and pulled the trigger. Because of the laughter in the theater, not all patrons heard the shot. Booth may have said, "Sic semper tyrannis!" (Latin for "Thus always to tyrants"; many in the audience thought he said these words after he landed on the stage; not all eyewitnesses agreed on Booth's words or even if there were any.) Major Henry Rathbone, also sitting in the State Box, thought Booth shouted a word that sounded like "Freedom!" Rathbone began wrestling with the assassin, and Booth pulled out his knife and stabbed Rathbone in the left arm.
Booth climbed over the banister of the box and dropped about 11 feet to the stage. He landed off balance snapping the fibula bone in his left leg just above the ankle. (At least one assassination expert, Michael Kauffman, feels Booth did not break his leg in his leap to the stage. Kauffman feels Booth broke his leg later that night when his horse took a fall.) Adrenalin flowing, Booth flashed his knife and quickly crossed the stage and out the back of the theater. He jumped on his mare and escaped from the area. At approximately 10:45 Booth crossed the Navy Yard Bridge. Soon he would be in Maryland.
12 Midnight
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More than 11 miles south of Ford's Theater, Booth and Herold arrived at Mary Surratt's tavern. Booth had a drink of whiskey, and the fugitives picked up field glasses and a Spencer rifle. John Lloyd later testified that Booth said, "I am pretty certain that we have assassinated the President and Secretary Seward." At the time Booth didn't know Powell failed to kill Seward, and Atzerodt had made no attempt to kill Johnson. Because his leg was hurting terribly, Booth needed medical attention. The whiskey provided only temporary relief. Booth and Herold rode off into the dark countryside. They rode through T.B. and past the home of Joseph Eli Huntt. They eventually ended up at Dr. Samuel Mudd's house at approximately 4:00 A.M.
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