Killing Lincoln Sparknotes

Killing Lincoln tells of the historical events of March Fourth, 1865, when Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated for his second term as the President of the United States, through July Seventh, the day those who were tied to the conspiracy that killed Lincoln were prosecuted and hung. The time between these dates contained some of the most important moments that paved the way for American history. These included the Union victory of the Civil War over the Confederates, Lincoln’s plan for peace and unity, and John Wilkes Booth’s passion for the Confederacy and hatred for Lincoln - which led to the planning and execution of an assassination so bold that it would forever change the course of history. The novel also details Booth’s escape and the aftermath

of the first Presidential assassination conspiracy. Killing Lincoln would particularly interest those who are fascinated with the Civil War, the life of Abraham Lincoln, mysterious conspiracies, or simply the history of our country. However, these intriguing events, along with the author's vivid words and details, provide a story that would suck any reader into the pages. No matter what one’s interests are, Killing Lincoln will give the reader a thought-provoking and suspenseful experience of one of our nation’s most important events.
The novel opens with a prologue that introduces the two main driving forces of the story: Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln’s plan is to unify the country, but Booth’s couldn’t be any more different. He plans to kidnap the president. As the Civil War rages on, the Confederates are pushed out of Petersburg and Richmond, their capital, and now face starvation. They are on a long hike toward High Bridge for rations when Union forces cut them off. The Confederate cavalry defeat the Union at high bridge, but fail to do so at Sayler’s Creek, which becomes one of the bloodiest battles in the War. Finally, the Confederate’s Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Grant. The Confederate defeat prompts Booth to intensify his plan. He recruits conspirators to assassinate the president and other politicians, like secretary Seward and Vice President Johnson. After missing the opportunity to carry out the plan on April 14th, Booth discovers that both Lincoln and General Grant are going to see a play at Ford’s theater on the 15th. Though Grant backs out of attending that night, Booth still follows through with his plan. He gets to the President’s box in the theater at 10:15 and fires his gun into the back of Lincoln’s head. Lincoln was officially pronounced dead the next morning after being moved to a building across the street. When Booth jumps from the balcony after shooting, he breaks his leg but manages to escape the theater and go to the bridge leading to Maryland en route toward Pro-Confederate Virginia. He meets up with co-conspirator Herold just after he escaped from the stabbing of Seward by another accomplice, Powell. A fourth conspirator, Atzerodt, failed in his assassination attempt of Johnson. The two escaped criminals hide out with many confederate sympathizers over the next weeks, but eventually get caught in a barn by Union Cavalry, whose investigation was led by Lafayette Baker. Herold surrendered, but Booth stood his ground, though paying the price and getting shot in the back of the neck. He died the next morning. Most of the people involved with the assassination were hung, including Mary Surratt, a friend of Booth’s. Others were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The mind behind Killing Lincoln is that of Bill O’Reilly, a man with experience in journalism, news reporting, and teaching. He attended Marist College, where he majored in history. After graduating, he moved to Miami and taught classes in English and History. He then went back to school where he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism, which would help him get into a career in news reporting. He began his career in the early 1980s and became one of the most well known men in his field. In 1996 he was given his own news show, The O’Reilly Factor. During the time of his news anchor career, O’Reilly utilized his historical knowledge to produce over twenty-five novels. Among these were a series of books about the assassinations and attempted assassinations of famous historical figures, such as this novel. After Killing Lincoln, he wrote Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus, Killing Patton, and Killing Reagan. Because of his historical novels and his success as a news anchor in his own show, Bill O’Reilly has become one of the most talked about political commentators in America.
To write Killing Lincoln, Bill O’Reilly partnered with Martin Dugard, a New York Times bestselling author. Because Dugard had experience writing historical non-fiction novels and O’Reilly did not at the time, he was a great man to co-write the book. Dugard began professionally writing in 1988, where he wrote articles for a sports magazine. His first historical novel was written in 2000. Since then, he has written novels about Captain James Cook, Henry Stanley and David Livingstone, Christopher Columbus, and famous military men in the Mexican War. Dugard has co-written every book in the “Killing” series with Bill O’Reilly, and continues to write as a career.
This novel is the first of it’s kind. There are not many other works of nonfiction that are told like a fiction story. Killing Lincoln is presented as a thriller novel rather than a simple list of facts. Therefore, though all the information may not be “new” and can be found using other sources, it is presented in a very different and unique format. In the epilogue of the book, O’Reilly writes, “Just as the story of Julius Caesar has been told and retold for centuries, the tragedy that befell Lincoln should be known by every American”. This book caters to the interests of Americans who don’t find it interesting to read books in the nonfiction format, so this story can be known by all. O’Reilly also said, “His life and death continue to shape us as people, even today”. This is very true in many ways. Lincoln’s death is the reason Presidential security is much tighter today, rather than the white house being open to the public as it was before. Also, the lives of Booth’s descendants have been changed because of the assassination. In 2011, the descendants of Booth had the DNA of Booth’s collarbone compared with the DNA from another relative to see if Booth really did die that night. The results were pending as of the time of the book’s release. Because the events recorded in Killing Lincoln continually affect people today, this “new” information needs to be retold frequently, allowing people to know the history that continues to shape our country.
At the very end of the novel, in a section titled “Notes”, Bill O’Reilly writes about his experiences when doing research for the book, as well as listing the sources that he used for each of the four sections of the novel. He discusses how the events of Lee’s retreat and the final days of the war are very well documented, including nonfiction works as well as first hand accounts from soldiers and personal memoirs form General Grant, James Longstreet, and General Sheridan. When researching the final days leading up to Lincoln’s death, O’Reilly gained access to floor maps and first hand accounts of the layout of the white house in the days of Abraham Lincoln. Many books utilized in this section were written by historians and detailed the final days of Lincoln’s life. An hour-by-hour description of April 15th was provided by a novel for the third section of Killing Lincoln, as well as many other nonfiction sources. An interesting detail that Bill O’Reilly mentions is that there were a few books that contradicted one another when he was researching information. An example he provided was a book called Spies, Traitors, and Moles, by Peter Kross, and another titled Dark Union, by Leonard Guttridge and Ray Neff. Recalling what O’Reilly wrote in the Afterward, Neff was often called an unreliable source. This was why he was not believed when criticizing Lafayette Baker’s History of the United States Secret Service, which was also used by O’Reilly in writing this novel. Also listed under the fourth section of the book were Booth’s journal entries and The life of Dr. Samuel Mudd, written by Mudd himself. When analysing these sources, one can realize that O’Reilly’s research was in-depth and extensive. You can notice the abundant number of primary sources that he used, mostly in the form of memoirs. He also uses many secondary sources, some of which are very detailed. Overall, the author’s use of sources can be praised by the reader and one can trust that Killing Lincoln was written as accurately as it could have been.
Throughout the novel, O’Reilly frequently uses pictures and maps with subtitles to convey what a person or place looks like, or to display the movement of something so the reader can further understand the events that are taking place.

Maps are used to show movement of the armies during the final battles of the Civil War, the layout of a city, or the route that someone takes over a course of time. There is one map in the novel on page 241, just after the beginning of the fourth part, that showed the position of Booth and Herold over time after the assassination. On the map, there are descriptions of major events as well. However, at the time that this map is placed in the story, nearly all of the events it described hadn’t happened yet. A reader who had not known all the events of his escape yet would be confused looking at the map, and when a reader finished the novel, they would have to go back to the beginning of the fourth part to look at the map. This is the only map or picture in the novel that could have been improved on. Perhaps O’Reilly could have included several maps throughout the course of his escape in the book, and the completed route at the very end. Besides this one flaw, the use of pictures and maps in the writing are very effective and help the novel

tremendously.
Though, on the surface, Bill O’Reilly conforms to the general appeal of Lincoln and the Union being the heroes of the story, and Booth and the Confederates being the villains, and he even says in the epilogue, “John Wilkes Booth epitomizes the evil that can harm us, even as Abraham Lincoln represents the good that can make us stronger”, this does not appear to be the case when analysing Killing Lincoln.

The writing of this novel seems to be in favor of Booth and the Confederate cause. The first piece of evidence that supports this is the Title of the book. Killing Lincoln is the task that Booth is trying to accomplish throughout the book. In this sense, the author is not antagonizing Booth, but making him the protagonist. Yes, the novel does show events from Lincoln’s perspective, but it also shows the perspectives of General Grant, Robert E. Lee, and members of the conspiracy like Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold. The majority of the novel is told from the perspectives of Pro-Confederate men, making John Wilkes Booth the true protagonist of the story. The reader finds themselves sympathizing with Booth as he carries out his plan, or is in a dangerous situation. In the chapters leading up to the assassination, you follow Booth as he prepares for the crime. The author slowly builds suspense as Booth walks up the stairs of Ford’s Theater, carefully enters the box in which Lincoln is located, and pulls out a gun and knife for the murder. O’Reilly cleverly ends the chapter when the

actor on stage proclaims the line that Booth chose to kill Lincoln after. Just when you are expecting the assassination to occur, the story jumps to Powell and Herold, as they attempt the murder of Seward. Similarly, you fear for the fellow conspirators as they carry out their plots. The reader feels sympathetic toward the Confederate army during the first part of the book as well. When the troops are in desperate need of rations or get cut off by the Union army, the reader is rooting for them to succeed. By feeling this, the author successfully influenced his Pro-Confederate bias on the reader.