Abraham Lincoln 4 Essay Research Paper Abraham — страница 3

Rathbone and his fiancee, Clara Harris, to Ford s Theater to see the comedy Our American Cousin. Shortly after 10 P.M. John Wilkes Booth entered the Presidential box and fired a pistol at the left side of Lincoln s head as he was looking to his left. Booth then stabbed Rathbone and then leaped onto the stage, shouting Sic semper tyrannis . He broke a small bone in his leg from the jump but still made an escape. Lincoln was fatally wounded and was taken to a house across the street. Seward was stabbed by Lewis Paine but recovered and Johnson s intended assassin, George A. Atzerodt made no attempt on the Vice President s life. Lincoln s family and members of the cabinet gathered in the room around the President, he never regained consciousness and died at 7:22 the next morning.

Private funeral ceremonies were held in the East Room of the White House on April 19. They put his body in the U.S. Capital were the public could come and pay their last respects. On April 21, a special funeral train began the journey back to Springfield, making stops in several cities along the way. The train arrived in Springfield on May 3, 1865, and Lincoln was buried there in a hillside tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. On April 26, 1865, Booth was shot and killed by federal troops who cornered him in a burning barn near Port Royal, Virginia. Seven men and one woman were arrested as accomplices to Booth. Herold, Paine, and Atzerodt were the most active accomplices and were sentenced to death by hanging. O Laughlin, Arnold, Dr. Mudd were unjustly accused with helping plan the

murder, but got life sentences. Edman Spangler got six years and Mary Surratt was sentenced to death for having Booth s riffle waiting for him that night. On July 7, the three men and one woman were hung. Lincoln did not stay buried at the Oak Ridge Cemetery. His body was kidnapped by a band of ransom-hungry grave robbers, therefore, his body was moved around for the next 36 years. Lincoln was then buried at a spacious memorial of eight acres but grave robbers struck again and as the coffin was half out the police showed up. Under Robert Lincoln s instructions a hole thirteen feet deep was dug below the main catacomb floor, a four-foot base of cement was laid and an iron cage sunk into it. The coffin would be lowered into the cage and cement poured, creating a block eight feet

deep. Finally, Abraham Lincoln can rest in peace.