J. W. Booth

In a tragically ironic twist of fate, actor John Wilkes Booth's last public act was in the theater, and it assured him the fame he had always desired as a stage performer. It also earned him a place of dark infamy in Civil War history. Booth was born in 1838 in Bel Air, Maryland, the ninth of ten children. His father Junius and brother Edwin were both great Shakespearean actors. John Wilkes was a popular actor, noted for his striking good looks, irresistible charm, and flamboyant lifestyle. He was athletic--an expert horseman, fencer and marksman--and impressive in his bearing despite average height (5'8"). With his dark, alluringly exotic appearance, Booth was truly a great "ladies man" adored by innumerable mistresses. His popularity with audiences produced an impressive annual income of $20,000 at a time when the average annual income of a working-class family was under $400. By 1861 Booth was a strong supporter of slavery and the Confederacy, distressed by the threat to genteel Southern society and repulsed by the "vulgar" President, Abraham Lincoln. As the war ground down toward the inevitable demise of the Confederacy, his rising bitterness focused on the "tyrant" in the White House.		Soon after Lincoln's reelection in November 1864, Booth hatched a plot to kidnap the president and take him to Richmond. He recruited a cohort of Washington-area riff-raff and spent most of his time and money on details of the plot. The conspirators often met in the boardinghouse of Mary Surratt, mother of Booth's friend John Surratt (a Confederate spy). Others included Sam Arnold, Michael O'Laughlen, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell, and Davy Herold. Booth studied maps, explored escape routes, and trailed the president throughout Washington. By April the kidnapping plot had fizzled and three of the conspirators drifted away (O'Laughlen, Surratt and Arnold). Booth became increasingly depressed and began drinking heavily. Realizing that the Confederacy was a lost cause, he resolved to assassinate Lincoln in a last act on the great stage of history. In addition, Powell would kill Secretary Seward and Atzerodt would kill Vice President Johnson. Powell tried but failed and Arzerodt backed out at the mast minute, but Booth succeeded. On April 14, during a play at Ford's Theater, he fired a derringer at point-blank range into the back of Lincoln's head. Booth escaped the city and, traveling with Herold, hoped to reach Mexico. They were tracked down by Federal cavalry and found hiding in a barn at the Virginia tobacco farm of Richard Garrett. Herold surrendered but Booth chose to shoot it out and was killed on the morning of April 26, 1865. Herold, Powell, Atzerodt and Mary Surratt were hanged on July 7, 1865; four other conspirators were given prison terms. (See "With Malice Toward None: Lincoln's Final Days.")
© 2004 David C. Hanson, Virginia Western Community College