So here’s what went down: it’s early morning, April 15, 1865, and the whole country just got sucker-punched in the soul. President Abraham Lincoln—yes, the Lincoln, top-hat-wearing, Emancipation-Proclaiming, Civil-War-winning Lincoln—died. He was shot the night before while trying to enjoy a little theater. Man just wanted to laugh at a play, maybe forget about the weight of saving the Union for two hours, and this dude John Wilkes Booth comes along like, “Surprise, it’s a plot twist!” And not the kind anybody wants.
Booth wasn’t just any fool with a gun. He was an actor. A famous one. And a Confederate sympathizer who thought he could bring back the South by turning Ford’s Theatre into a crime scene. It wasn’t just Lincoln on the hit list, either—oh no, this was a whole assassination package deal. Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward were also supposed to be taken out. Seward got stabbed in his own bed (he lived, but probably never slept the same again), and Johnson? His would-be assassin chickened out. Honestly, that might’ve been a blessing and a curse.
Now cut to three hours after Lincoln dies. The country is in shambles—people crying, clutching their pearls, writing sad letters with quill pens—and here comes Andrew Johnson like, “Hey y’all, I’m president now!” He got sworn in at the Kirkwood House hotel, probably still smelling like last night’s whiskey and political regret. And boom—just like that, we went from Lincoln to this guy who made very different choices during Reconstruction. Let’s just say, if you thought things were tense before, buckle up.
Meanwhile, back in the streets, America was in mourning. Even way out in Utah, people were shook. Stores shut down, the usual daily drama paused, and folks just stood around like, “Damn, not Abe.” Because when a man leads the country through war and ends slavery, you don’t just move on. That man earned his legacy. Booth, on the other hand, ran off like a coward, hid for 12 days, then got smoked in a barn like the sorry traitor he was.
And let’s talk justice real quick. Four of Booth’s crew—including a woman named Mary Surratt—got executed for their roles in the conspiracy. That’s how serious this was. Lincoln’s death wasn’t just a tragedy; it was a straight-up national trauma that changed everything—politics, race relations, the mood of the entire country. We went from hope and healing to hold up, what is happening? overnight.
So yeah—April 15, 1865. A day we lost one of our greatest leaders… and inherited a whole lotta chaos. If history had a side-eye emoji, this would be it.
