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  • April 14, 1865: Booth Narrowly Escaped From Washington, DC on Random Things About A Timeline Of Hunt For John Wilkes Booth

    (#3) April 14, 1865: Booth Narrowly Escaped From Washington, DC

    With Abraham Lincoln lifeless, the theater in an uproar, and Union troops around every corner, Booth had to get out of Washington as quickly as possible. One of his co-conspirators had placed a horse at the stage door. Booth mounted it and rode down to the Navy Yard Bridge, which led from Washington to Maryland.

    After almost being stopped at the bridge by a guard, Booth continued and met up with David Herold, another member of the group. Together, they rode to Surratt's Tavern in Surrattsville, MD (now called Clinton), where the proprietors had agreed to hide supplies for the two of them.

    On the night of April 14, they rode away from the tavern, heavily armed.

  • April 18, 1865: While Hiding In The Pine Thicket, Booth Wrote In His Journal on Random Things About A Timeline Of Hunt For John Wilkes Booth

    (#7) April 18, 1865: While Hiding In The Pine Thicket, Booth Wrote In His Journal

    On the third day in the pine thicket, April 18, Booth and David Herold grew restless. They had good reason to remain hidden, though, as it is estimated that at one point a column of Union soldiers passed within 600 feet of their hideout.

    Spooked by the huge hunt and worried that the horses the two men were hiding with were making too much noise, Herold silenced the animals.

    Booth may have been writing in his red leather diary at that moment. It's unclear when he began keeping the journal, but it remains the only firsthand account of his thought process during this period. In it, he railed against the "persecution" he was facing and seemed genuinely surprised he was not being treated as a hero.

  • April 14, 1865: Booth Shot Lincoln In Ford's Theatre on Random Things About A Timeline Of Hunt For John Wilkes Booth

    (#2) April 14, 1865: Booth Shot Lincoln In Ford's Theatre

    Booth's plan was for a group of men to take out four key Union officials on the same night: President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William Seward, and General Ulysses Grant. The organizers believed this would throw the Union into chaos, allowing the defeated Confederacy to reorganize and take Washington.

    It wasn't until later that Booth learned every attempt but his own had failed; he was too focused on his mission. Using connections he had developed over the years as an actor, he got access to the presidential box on April 14, 1865, during a performance of Our American Cousin. No one noticed the handsome young actor enter the box, pull out his derringer, and point it at the back of Lincoln's head.

    Booth shot Lincoln at 10:15 pm. Immediately after, he rushed past onlookers, intending to jump from the balcony to the stage. On his way, Army officer Henry Rathbone tried to stop him. After sinking his knife into Rathbone's shoulder, Booth leaped from the presidential box, landing awkwardly and seemingly breaking his leg.

    There was confusion in the audience, with some bystanders saying they thought it was all part of the play until they heard Mary Todd Lincoln screaming. Onstage, Booth yelled, "Sic semper tyrannis" (Thus always to tyrants), which was the state motto of Virginia. It was also famously associated with Brutus, the man who did away with Julius Caesar. Booth had played the character onstage and might have felt a kinship with Brutus.

  • April 25, 1865: The Garretts Moved Booth And Herold From Their House To A Barn on Random Things About A Timeline Of Hunt For John Wilkes Booth

    (#13) April 25, 1865: The Garretts Moved Booth And Herold From Their House To A Barn

    On April 25, Booth slept in, drank whiskey, and played with Richard Garrett's children. By nightfall, the Garretts grew suspicious of their visitors and insisted they spend the night in the barn. Grudgingly, Booth agreed, and both he and Herold bedded down there.

    It proved to be the last night of Booth's life. 

  • April 26, 1865: Booth Tried To Duel The Union Commander For His Freedom on Random Things About A Timeline Of Hunt For John Wilkes Booth

    (#15) April 26, 1865: Booth Tried To Duel The Union Commander For His Freedom

    "I have too great a soul to die like [an offender]," Booth wrote in his journal just a few days before his fateful standoff at Richard Garrett's farm. Yet there he was, skulking in a barn, surrounded by Union cavalry. When the Union soldiers started laying kindling outside the barn, Booth knew they weren't planning on waiting much longer, so he offered to duel the commanding officer for his freedom.

    The Union commander declined and set fire to the barn. As Booth came charging out, he was shot in the neck by a young soldier named Boston Corbett. 

    In the last moments of his life, Booth asked one of the soldiers to hold up his hands. Looking at his own hands, Booth muttered "Useless, useless." And then, at 7:15 am, he passed.

  • April 26, 1865: Union Soldiers Originally Tried To Take Booth Alive on Random Things About A Timeline Of Hunt For John Wilkes Booth

    (#14) April 26, 1865: Union Soldiers Originally Tried To Take Booth Alive

    Before they went to bed on April 25, the Garretts locked the barn, likely fearful that their guests would try to take their horses. Union soldiers then received a tip about Booth's whereabouts. It wasn't the Garretts, however, who tipped them off, but Willie Jett, the Confederate soldier who had previously helped the fugitives.

    Around 2:30 in the morning on April 26, Booth awoke to the sound of cavalry approaching the barn from the main house. He woke David Herold, and the two tried to escape, only to find the barn door locked

    A standoff ensued. The Union forces could have easily taken the barn, but it was known that Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, wanted Booth alive. During the standoff, Herold begged Booth to be released. Eventually, Booth agreed, and Herold surrendered to the Union forces.

    But there would be no surrender for Booth.

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When John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, he was neither the most famous nor the best actor in the United States. John Wilkes Booth's determination and ambition drove him to do things that other actors of the 19th century would not dare to take risks on stage. He sympathized with the Confederacy and was very dissatisfied with the outcome of the Civil War.

On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated by him. On April 26, 1865, the murderer John Wilkes Booth was shot dead by the police while on his way to escape. The random tool introduced 15 details about the timeline of the hunt for John Wilkes Booth.

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