John Wilkes Booth
Maryland
May 10,1838-April 26, 1865
Booth was a handsome famous actor that was born in Maryland. He began acting at age seventeen, and immediately his acting career took off. Booth then began to get into politics in the 1850s. He joined the Know-Nothing Party, and he supported the institution of slavery.
During the Civil War, Booth worked as a Confederate secret agent, and frequently met with the heads of this agency in Canada.
In the summer of 1864, Booth began to formulate plans to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. This was because he was recruited to do so by members of the Confederate secret service, who supplied Booth with money. Booth began to recruit friends and people supporting the Confederacy to help him with his plan.
On March 15 1865, Booth met with fellow men he recruited at a restaurant in Washington that is actually three blocks away from the place where Lincoln was assassinated. Booth's men came up with a perfect plan to kidnap Lincoln on March 17, 1865 where word got out that the president would be attending a play at the Campbell Hospital in Washington. Booth's plan was to kidnap Lincoln on his way to the hospital, and then offer him for ransom for Confederate prisoners of war. Booth's plan however dissolved when Lincoln decided to change his mind, and not go to the play. (Some believe that Lincoln's Union spies heard that their was going to be a plan to kidnap Lincoln at the hospital.)
On April 14, 1865, after the Union victory of the Civil War (April 9,1865), Booth heard that Lincoln would be attending a play named, "Our American Cousin", a comical play at Ford Theater. Booth knew the theater very well, and had many friends there also. He devised a plan to now assassinate the president. He checked out the theater that morning, he figured out where the president would be sitting (in the state box) and made it easy for him to get to the box without being detected. He also drilled a small hole in the wall so he could see the president from outside the state box. Booth hoped that the resulting chaos from his actions would lead to a comeback for the south. At 10:15 pm Booth went through with his plan, and shot the president in the back of the head. He then got in a scuffle with Major Rathbone (Lincoln's guest), and Booth stabbed Rathbone (who would survive) and then jumped off the box. When Booth landed he broke his leg, and went on stage shouting, "Freedom." He then ran out of the theater to the back door, jumped on his horse and headed south for Virginia.
After a 12 day chase, Booth was found at a farm barn near Virginia. Booth is now surrounded by Union troops, and a military commision that was designed to find him. The commision tells Booth that either he come out, or they will set the barn on fire. Booth tells the men "You may prepare a stretcher for me. Draw up your men. Throw open the door. Lets have a fair fight." The men then set the barn of fire. Smelling the flames Booth yells out "One more stain on the old banner." Then Booth stands up, and gets shot by a Sergeant by the name of Boston Corbett.