Chapter 27: The Assassination Ends Lincoln’s Journey

Ten days after his Richmond visit Abe is murdered on Good Friday, April 14, 1865 at Ford’s Theater by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth who acts after hearing that Blacks will be given the right to vote.

The final martyr to the promise of a new birth of freedom for America lays in state on April 19-20 and is then returned to Springfield at Mary’s orders for burial. On May 4 his coffin is placed in a temporary crypt at Oak Ridge Cemetery next to the remains of his son Willie.