Frequently Asked Questions: The Assassination

What happened at Ford's Theatre?

On April 14th, 1865, famous actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. Lincoln sat in the state box, the flag draped theatre box located in the balcony to your right as you face the stage. Booth shot President Lincoln in the back of the head with a .44 Derringer pistol during a performance of the play Our American Cousin. The bullet knocked Lincoln immediately unconscious, and he never woke up. Dr. Charles Leale, who was watching the play that evening, rushed into the box to help the president. Dr. Leale determined that Lincoln's head wound was mortal. He made the decision to have the president carried to the closest available bed. Dr. Leale and several men carried the unconscious Lincoln to the Petersen Boarding House, across the street from the theatre. A boarder at the house, Henry Safford, directed the group to the boarding house and ushered them into a small room at the end of a first-floor hallway. Lincoln was laid down onto a wood-framed spindle bed, diagonally as the bed was too short. The 16th President of the United States died there, 9 hours later, at 7:22 am on April 15, 1865.

How many people were in attendance on the night of Lincoln’s assassination?

Owner John T. Ford claimed that his theatre could hold 2500 spectators. The real capacity was probably closer to 1900. The news that the president would be in attendance on April 14, 1865 boosted ticket sales towards the higher end for that night's performance. Eyewitnesses stated that some people moved around the theatre for better seats, indicating that it was not a completely full house. The number of audience members that night is likely around 1700, though we will never know for certain. Through the years, many people would later claim to have been present at Ford's that evening. Those claims can be difficult to prove, as no list of attendees was kept at the time.

Who else besides President Lincoln was seated inside the state theatre box on the night of April 14th, 1865? Was anybody in the other boxes that night?

President Lincoln sat in the rocking chair situated to your far right as you face the state box. Seated alongside the president, on a black wooden cane-bottomed chair, was his wife, Mary Lincoln. Two guests and friends of the Lincolns, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Miss Clara Harris, were also in the box. Rathbone sat on the love sofa in the far back left area and his fiancée, Miss Clara Harris, occupied the chair to the far left. Besides being engaged to each other, Major Rathbone and Miss Harris were also stepbrother and stepsister. Clara Harris was the daughter of a US senator, Ira Harris from New York, who was a good friend of Lincoln’s. Ira Harris had married Henry Rathbone’s widowed mother in 1845.

None of the other boxes were occupied for that night’s performance.

What show was President Lincoln watching when he was shot, and what was it about?

The play that night was Our American Cousin, a comedy and satire about American life and culture. The play centers around the interactions of refined and snobby English aristocrats with their coarse and uncivilized American cousin, Asa Trenchard.

Th successful English playwright Tom Taylor wrote the play in 1852, but it was never performed in Britain. As Taylor originally wrote it, the play reads as a melodrama. Asa Trenchard, a country bumpkin from Vermont, travels to England to claim an inheritance and saves the family from a villainous lawyer, Mr. Coyle. The humor of the play arises as the upper-class English aristocrats fall all over themselves to curry favor with Asa because they think that he is rich.

Actress Laura Keene got hold of the script in New York City in the late 1850s. Laura Keene saw potential in the play, but she did not like Taylor's original version. She thought that the only way the play would succeed was if she were to cast the highest quality actors of the time to perform within it. Two famous actors she recruited were Joseph Jefferson and Edward Askew Sothern. E.A Sothern agreed to play the part of the English aristocrat, Lord Dundreary, but only if he were allowed to completely ad-lib his part. He created a ridiculous stammer for his character and added a host of nonsensical aphorisms (e,g. “birds of a feather gather no moss”) to his ad-libbed speeches. Joseph Jefferson, playing the role of Asa Trenchard was supposed to be the lead of the play. Instead E.A. Sothern’s role of Lord Dundreary stole the show, turning what was originally a melodrama into more of a farce comedy.

The play was a huge hit in New York in 1858 and then in London in 1861. It also created a merchandising boom around the character of Lord Dundreary. The play made the careers of Laura Keene, Joseph Jefferson and E.A. Sothern, each of whom had their own traveling productions of the play by 1865. Abraham Lincoln was watching Laura Keene’s production of the play on the night of the assassination.

John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln during Act 3, Scene 2 of the play, about 10:15 pm. Booth chose this moment because it would be when the audience was laughing at the funniest laugh line in the show. Harry Hawk, playing Asa Trenchard, had gotten into an argument with the character Mrs. Mountchessington about the "manners of good society." As Mrs. Mountchessington left the stage, Hawk retorted "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 mantrap!" The roars from the audience gave Booth the cover he needed to enter the box and pull the trigger.

Click here to learn more about the extraordinary life of actress and theatre manager Laura Keene.

How old was President Lincoln when he was shot?

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, and died on April 15, 1865. He was 56 years, 2 months, and 3 days old.

What were Lincoln’s last words?

President Lincoln’s last words were “She won’t think anything about it.” The Lincolns had nestled close together and were holding hands. Lincoln’s words were in response to Mary asking, “What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?” Mary was referring to Clara Harris, one of their guests at the theatre. Five minutes later, John Wilkes Booth entered the state box.

Where was the Secret Service when President Lincoln was shot? Why wasn’t Lincoln guarded?

Abraham Lincoln signed the bill creating the Secret Service on April 14, 1865, the day of the assassination. However, their primary mission at that time was the prevention of counterfeiting. The Secret Service was not assigned to protect the president until after the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley. Some Secret Service agents had protected the president on occasion, but the agency was not charged specifically with presidential security. Before 1901, there was no policy about who protected the president. Presidents would simply grab whatever law enforcement agent was close at hand.

As for the evening of April 14, 1865, a lone Washington, D.C. police officer named John Parker was assigned to escort the President from the White House to Ford’s and back. His whereabouts at the time of the assassination are unknown. Some have suggested Lincoln may have invited him to take a seat with a better view elsewhere in the theatre. Lincoln usually did not have a security officer stand outside his box during plays. There is some evidence that Parker may have taken a drink at the Star Saloon next door with the president’s coachman and messenger during the intermission. There is no evidence on whether he remained there during the assassination. In general, presidential security was a much more casual affair in the 19th century. Keeping a constant watch on the president, as we would expect today, would not have been part of Parker’s duties.

The Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police Department filed charges against Parker in May 1865, alleging dereliction of duty in allowing the assassin to shoot the president. The charges were dismissed a month later, and no transcripts of the hearing survive. Parker continued on with the police force until 1868. Parker was not called to testify during the trial of the conspirators, and no full account of his actions that night exists. We will most likely never know his perspective on the tragic events of April 14, 1865.

The Civil War was the first American war in which the average soldier could reliably aim their firearms and hit a target. However, many Americans continued to believe that guns were very unreliable and inaccurate. They believed so even after the Civil War. As such, presidential security at the time was not so concerned about assassins sneaking around with guns. The potential for crowds or mob violence seemed to pose a bigger threat. John Parker was not disciplined for leaving his post, because there was no clear policy for how he should have acted. Parker saw himself as a police escort whose job was to escort the presidential carriage while it was out in the street. He did not see himself as a dedicated personal security guard for the president. That continued to be the policy through the assassinations of James A. Garfield and William McKinley, before Secret Service was permanently assigned to the president in 1901.

Lincoln himself did not seek any form of personal protection, and he was somewhat cavalier and fatalistic about his own security. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was always concerned with the president’s vulnerability to attack. Stanton often had military units escort President Lincoln’s carriage on his travels in the city. Lincoln’s friend from Springfield, Illinois, Ward Hill Lamon, also often served a self-appointed, informal role as the president’s bodyguard. Lamon was in Richmond on the night of Lincoln’s assassination.

Did theatre visitors witness the shooting?

Almost no one inside the theatre actually witnessed the shooting. Only one recorded eyewitness account mentioned seeing the shot. James P. Ferguson, owner of a restaurant next to Ford’s Theatre, sat in the dress circle (balcony level) directly across from the state box. He claimed, “I saw a flash of the pistol right back in the box.” Ferguson described President Lincoln's head as leaning slightly forward and turned somewhat to his left at the time of the flash. Many others would report hearing the sound of the shot, though some audience members did not hear it over the roars of laughter at the play. Even Major Rathbone, sitting in the box itself, did not know Booth had entered. He heard the report from the gun and only saw Booth through the smoke after the shot was fired.