where Lincoln was killed
today you can eat sushi in the same place they planned Lincoln's assasination
the theatre
The Peterson house
what the alley looked like where Booth escaped on horseback- just behind the theatreToday we hung out with our friends, Brian and Karla- other traveling nurses from my nursing floor. Today, we decided to begin following the path of John Wilkes Booth. After John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln on April 14, 1865 he fled to Maryland to try to make it as far south as he could into the Confederate states where he was sure that he would be welcomed as a hero.
We began the day by visiting Ford's Theatre and the Peterson House in Washington DC. This year was Lincoln's 200th birthday so the Theatre had been renovated. It is renovated to look exactly the way that it looked the night that Abraham Lincoln was shot. One of the cool things is that it is still a working theatre and you can go and see plays performed there. The theatre seems small but back in its hayday it could hold 1000 people! Thats because they sat smashed together on wooden benches like sardines... At least they changed that. Lincoln's box seat was on stage left above the stage. Lincoln and his wife attended the play with a general and his date.
We sat in the audience and were given a presentation about the events in the theatre the night of the assassination. We learned a lot that we did not know before.. Here goes-
So, the state of Maryland (where I currently live) was technically a Union state, but it did not want to be. In the county where I live, only one person voted for Lincoln to become president. Maryland wanted to secede from the union but the president would not allow it. If they had, all of the states surrounding the nation's capitol would have been its enemies. So, Maryland and John Wilkes Booth were kind of mad. John Wilkes Booth was a very popular and famous actor at the time that he shot the president- like Johnny Depp or something but not as good looking! It must have been crazy after the assassination to hear that it was a beloved and famous actor that had done it. People must have been astonished.
Anyways, Robert E. Lee had just surrenderred the Confederate army 4 days prior to Lincoln's assassination. He ended up attending the play that night kind of as a stress reliever. He loved going to the theatre and had even seen Booth perform in the past. Booth had been scheming with some other people for awhile to kidnap the president and hopefully end the war in that way. But with the surrender, they decided they must act fast. The plan was for the president, vice president, and secretary of state to all be assassinated that night, but Booth was the only one who went through with it.
It was relatively easy for him to do. Even though he was not in the play that night, he was not out of place at the theatre- being a famous actor. So people were none the wiser. He also knew the theatre inside and out. During the production he just walked right up to Lincoln's box and was allowed inside. The secret service was not really around then- the president just had a bodyguard. So Booth stood just outside of where Lincoln was sitting- waiting for the right moment. He waited for the actor in the play to say the funniest line, which was sure to draw loud laughter.. The tour guide recited this line.. and well- in the 21st century it is no longer funny! Anyways, when the laughter started, Booth shot the president and stabbed the general that was Lincoln's guest. He then jumped out of the box onto the stage- probably 10 or 12 feet. His foot got caught in the American flag decorating the presidential box and he ended up tripping and falling on stage most likely breaking his ankle.
The people in the audience actually thought that it was part of the play. For minutes, no one even realized that the president had been shot until the bleeding general came to the window and shouted to stop that man! (Booth). Doctors attending the performance rushed to the president but realized that it was futile. He had a gunshot wound to the back of his head. He was still breathing but unconscious. They lowered him down from the balcony and carried his body across the street to a boarding house that had an open room.
This was the Peterson house. He stayed alive for around 12 hours and then died early in the morning. I read that the bed was so small and that Lincoln was so tall that he had to be layed across it diagonally.
The manhunt for John Wilkes Booth lasted 12 days. He left through a door in the back of the theatre (which we found) and jumped on a waiting horse. He then fled into Maryland. People were not as willing to help him and to get their hands dirty as he had thought, and he had a hard time escaping. He ended up being shot at a farmhouse in nearby Virginia. We ran out of time to go and see some of Booth's other stops in Maryland such as the Surrat House and the Mudd House. Hopefully we will get another chance.
While in Washington DC, we also found the place that John Wilkes Booth had met to conspire about the president's kidnapping and then the assassination plot. Back in the day, it was a boarding house. Now, it is a sushi restaurant in Chinatown. We ended up eating at a Chinese restaurant down the street, as Kraig was the only one into sushi. The food we ended up having was not really that great either. Oh well, you cant win them all.
Oh yeah- Sarah- we found Washington DC's Fuddruckers! (we should have eaten there).
We began the day by visiting Ford's Theatre and the Peterson House in Washington DC. This year was Lincoln's 200th birthday so the Theatre had been renovated. It is renovated to look exactly the way that it looked the night that Abraham Lincoln was shot. One of the cool things is that it is still a working theatre and you can go and see plays performed there. The theatre seems small but back in its hayday it could hold 1000 people! Thats because they sat smashed together on wooden benches like sardines... At least they changed that. Lincoln's box seat was on stage left above the stage. Lincoln and his wife attended the play with a general and his date.
We sat in the audience and were given a presentation about the events in the theatre the night of the assassination. We learned a lot that we did not know before.. Here goes-
So, the state of Maryland (where I currently live) was technically a Union state, but it did not want to be. In the county where I live, only one person voted for Lincoln to become president. Maryland wanted to secede from the union but the president would not allow it. If they had, all of the states surrounding the nation's capitol would have been its enemies. So, Maryland and John Wilkes Booth were kind of mad. John Wilkes Booth was a very popular and famous actor at the time that he shot the president- like Johnny Depp or something but not as good looking! It must have been crazy after the assassination to hear that it was a beloved and famous actor that had done it. People must have been astonished.
Anyways, Robert E. Lee had just surrenderred the Confederate army 4 days prior to Lincoln's assassination. He ended up attending the play that night kind of as a stress reliever. He loved going to the theatre and had even seen Booth perform in the past. Booth had been scheming with some other people for awhile to kidnap the president and hopefully end the war in that way. But with the surrender, they decided they must act fast. The plan was for the president, vice president, and secretary of state to all be assassinated that night, but Booth was the only one who went through with it.
It was relatively easy for him to do. Even though he was not in the play that night, he was not out of place at the theatre- being a famous actor. So people were none the wiser. He also knew the theatre inside and out. During the production he just walked right up to Lincoln's box and was allowed inside. The secret service was not really around then- the president just had a bodyguard. So Booth stood just outside of where Lincoln was sitting- waiting for the right moment. He waited for the actor in the play to say the funniest line, which was sure to draw loud laughter.. The tour guide recited this line.. and well- in the 21st century it is no longer funny! Anyways, when the laughter started, Booth shot the president and stabbed the general that was Lincoln's guest. He then jumped out of the box onto the stage- probably 10 or 12 feet. His foot got caught in the American flag decorating the presidential box and he ended up tripping and falling on stage most likely breaking his ankle.
The people in the audience actually thought that it was part of the play. For minutes, no one even realized that the president had been shot until the bleeding general came to the window and shouted to stop that man! (Booth). Doctors attending the performance rushed to the president but realized that it was futile. He had a gunshot wound to the back of his head. He was still breathing but unconscious. They lowered him down from the balcony and carried his body across the street to a boarding house that had an open room.
This was the Peterson house. He stayed alive for around 12 hours and then died early in the morning. I read that the bed was so small and that Lincoln was so tall that he had to be layed across it diagonally.
The manhunt for John Wilkes Booth lasted 12 days. He left through a door in the back of the theatre (which we found) and jumped on a waiting horse. He then fled into Maryland. People were not as willing to help him and to get their hands dirty as he had thought, and he had a hard time escaping. He ended up being shot at a farmhouse in nearby Virginia. We ran out of time to go and see some of Booth's other stops in Maryland such as the Surrat House and the Mudd House. Hopefully we will get another chance.
While in Washington DC, we also found the place that John Wilkes Booth had met to conspire about the president's kidnapping and then the assassination plot. Back in the day, it was a boarding house. Now, it is a sushi restaurant in Chinatown. We ended up eating at a Chinese restaurant down the street, as Kraig was the only one into sushi. The food we ended up having was not really that great either. Oh well, you cant win them all.
Oh yeah- Sarah- we found Washington DC's Fuddruckers! (we should have eaten there).
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