Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865 sixteenth president of the United States of America
died of a gun shot wound to the head in a back room of the house across the road from the Ford theater Washington DC. Where he had been attending a performance of Our American cousin several hours earlier John Wilkes Booth1838-1865 a successful actor had gained access to the box in which President Lincoln,
Mary Todd Lincoln, Clara Harris 1834-1883) and Major Henry Rathbone1837-1911
As the president lay dying the authorities were already moving to capture the persons responsible for the assassination of President Lincoln
Union soldiers, led by Lieutenant Edward P. Doherty of the 16th New York Cavalry Regiment, pursued Booth through Southern Maryland and across the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers to Richard Garrett's farm, near Bowling Green, Caroline County, Virginia. He had been housed in the barn with the assistance of Captain Willie Jett, of Mosby's Command (Virginia Partisan Rangers). Early in the morning of April 26, 1865, the soldiers caught up with Booth. Trapped in a tobacco barn owned by Richard H. Garrett, David Herold surrendered. Booth refused to surrender and Everton Conger ordered the soldiers to set the barn ablaze. Sergeant Boston Corbett fired at Booth against orders, fatally wounding him in the neck. Booth was dragged from the fire and died on the porch of the nearby farmhouse at age 26. The bullet had severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him. His last words were reportedly, "Useless, useless."
Bellow is a very interesting link which retells the story of these events in a clear concise way
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http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln.html
The sad thing about most of the people involved in this incident was thereafter there lives were wreaked and they never fully recovered check out the wiki to see what happened to them in later years.
