Abraham Lincoln Assassination Research Paper

Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination What happened to our sixteenth president? Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1803 in a log cabin at Hodgenville, Kentucky. His parents were Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was nicknamed “Honest Abe” or also “The Great Emancipation”. Abraham Lincoln was a well-respected boy in his village. When Lincoln was nine years old, his mother passed away. She died of a milk sickness. His father, Thomas Lincoln, remarried one year after. His step-mothers name was Sarah Bush Johnston. Sarah was from Kentucky with three kids of her own. Sarah encouraged Lincoln to begin reading. Abraham began reading the family bible, and then began with popular books at the time. (Biography.com Editors

He was a shopkeeper when he first moved there. He later then became a post master. When finally, he became a shop owner. The Black Hawk War soon then broke out, and people in the area elected Abraham Lincoln as the captain. When the war ended, Lincoln began his political career. He then became a member of the Whig Party. Abraham first had to teach himself the laws. Lincoln met a woman named Anne Ruthledge. The two were engaged until she died at the age of twenty- two years old of typhoid fever. Lincoln was severely depressed for a while, but then he served in the single term (1847-1849). He was a Whig member for Illinois. Lincoln then became unpopular back at his hometown after criticizing the Mexican-American War. He decided not to run for second term after. Lincoln then became a lobbyist for the Illinois Railroad which was an attorney company. He did criminal trials at points as well. One of his cases was a man said Lincoln’s client committed a murder, and knew it was him because of the bright light from the moon that night. Lincoln brought out an almanac, and saw that it was too dark that night to have seen anything. Pleading Lincoln’s client innocent of that

Just before the political battle, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. (Biography.com Editors n.d.) John Wilkes Booth was the man who killed Lincoln. Booth was born in Maryland in 1838. He stayed in the north while the Civil War was happening. On March 20, 1865, Booth planned on kidnapping Lincoln, but failed because Lincoln did not show up. John had six other men involved as well. John was one of the largest manhunts, and had 10,000 federal troops on him. Lincoln was at Ford’s Theatre watching “Our American Cousin”. John assassinated Lincoln’s Vice President, Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of the State, William H. Seward. At 10:15 p.m. John fired a .44 caliber single-shot derringer behind Lincoln’s head. A twenty-three year old doctor was in the audience, and heard Mary scream, so he ran to the box. When he got there, he saw Lincoln having trouble breathing, paralyzed, and slumped over. The doctor said he’d die in the night. His friends, Andrew Jackson, and Lincoln’s cabinet were all there. Abraham Lincoln eventually died at 7:22 a.m., Mary and Robert were in shock and grieving. (History.com Staff 2009) His body was placed in a temporary coffin with a draped flag over the coffin. They escorted Lincoln’s body to the White House. His body was placed in the state capitol. A funeral train took Lincoln’s body back home. Abraham Lincoln’s resting place is now in