Booth, John Wilkes, 1838-1865

John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor and murderer who assassinated United States president Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. During the American Civil War he served as a Confederate spy; he opposed the then-recent abolition of slavery in the United States. Booth was a noted actor from the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland. During the Civil War, he was a Confederate sympathizer who denounced Lincoln and joined the Confederate Secret Service. Originally, Booth and his co-conspirators had plotted to kidnap Lincoln to aid the Confederacy before later deciding to murder him, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. Although the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, had surrendered to the Union Army four days earlier, Booth believed that the American Civil War remained unresolved because the Army of Tennessee of General Joseph E. Johnston continued fighting. Booth shot Lincoln once in the back of the head. Lincoln's death the next morning completed Booth's piece of the plot. Seward, severely wounded, recovered, whereas Vice President Johnson was never attacked. Booth fled on horseback to Southern Maryland and was tracked down twelve days later, hiding in a barn at a farm in rural Virginia. Booth's companion David Herold surrendered, but Booth maintained a standoff. After the authorities set the barn ablaze, Union soldier Boston Corbett fatally shot him in the neck. Paralyzed, he died a few hours later. Of the eight conspirators later convicted, four were hanged.