Our American Cousin Summary

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According to Kauffman, Booth knows he has brought misery upon his family he also describes the people of the nation as strayed and of impurity. The night at Ford’s Theatre, there were divergent groups of people: clerks, businessmen, politicians, tourists, and with the Civil War afoot there had been many soldiers attending as well to escape the horrors of the Civil War. There were veterans from Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Bull Run there to see the comedy play, Our American Cousin. The main attraction however, was the announcement that President Lincoln would be there along with his wife, and Ulysses S. Grant. (Kauffman 4) Booth snuck up behind Abraham Lincoln and put the .44 Derringer up to the back of his head and pulled the trigger. It was as …show more content…

He then stumbled out the back door and escaped on horseback. Through the chaos, people were yelling false alarms that Booth has been caught and it was time to hang him. It was as if there was a poison in the air getting in people’s minds. (Kauffman 11) Superintendent Richards and his men kept an eye out for Booth’s horse. They spoke to the little boy who held the horse during the shooting. “Peanuts” Borrows gave an excellent description of how Booth escaped on a horse and the details of the animal. The news of the shooting took off quick with the eyewitnesses. (Kauffman 16) Booth fled to a farm in Virginia and settled there until April 26, 1865, when investigators caught up with him. They set fire to the barn and shot Booth when he would not surrender. John Wilkes Booth died hours later due to his injuries. In this time period, investigators didn’t have the technology or time to receive the best results. After Booth was killed and brought back to Washington, investigators started interrogating the suspects in custody and government officials. Since then, little investigation has been done and those who write about the assassination are being published nationwide, with false

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