Killing Lincoln

John Wilkes Booth meets with Lucy Hale to end their engagement. They haven’t spoken to each other since their troubled getaway to Newport. Booth genuinely cares for her and wants to say good-bye, but he must be careful to bid her farewell without giving her any idea as to why he’s leaving. He asks for a picture of her before he leaves, and she gives him one, the same picture that will be found on him when he’s killed.

Mary Lincoln has tickets to Aladdin, or The Wonderful Lamp, a grand play in the Union’s honor being held at Grover’s Theatre that night. But Mary has also heard from the owner of Ford’s Theatre that the famous play Our American Cousin is being performed that night and might be the last performance of legendary actress Laura Keene. Laura Keene is the country’s most famous actress and a theatre manager, and she has acted with John Wilkes Booth’s brother Edwin. Ticket sales are not what they should be for Ford’s Theatre because of the war. Even though the theatre will be a lot emptier than Grover’s, Mary just wants to go out for their first social outing since the conclusion of the war. In the end, she chooses Ford’s Theatre.

A string of coincidences take place based on Mary’s decision to choose one play over the other. The same play was seen at the start of Lincoln’s administration, making it the symbolic beginning and end of Lincoln’s administration. Lincoln doesn’t want to see the play, but he also doesn’t want to contradict Mary. She is mentally unstable, especially after the loss of two children. Despite this, Mary is a force to be reckoned with and is mockingly called “Madame President” by others—a title she herself likes to be called. Therefore, Lincoln says he will take care of the preparations. He tells Secretary Stanton that he’s going to the theatre, which he knows will elicit a negative response. His spies have told him of assassination rumors, and Stanton himself warned Grant against attending the theatre the previous night. He tries to do the same with Lincoln. Lincoln refuses, so Stanton tells him to at least bring a guard with him. The author mentions how this one piece of evidence suggests that Stanton is not in on the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln because he would have never suggested protection if he were. Lincoln then asks Stanton and Major Eckert to attend the theatre with him, but both adamantly decline.

Lincoln’s message to Ford’s Theatre arrives at 10:30 A.M., and James Ford hurries to prepare for the president’s appearance. Ticket sales have been slow, and Our American Cousin doesn’t have the same popularity as Aladdin at Grover’s Theatre. With Lincoln’s attendance, however, the theatre owner is banking on success. Ford’s Theatre used to be the First Baptist Church but was purchased by James’s brother John and made into a playhouse, Ford’s Athenaeum. It then burned down, which many thought was the work of God, but John rebuilt it. It reopened in August 1863 and has since been the preeminent theatre in Washington, D.C. It’s also flanked on both sides by taverns.

As James Ford receives the telegram from Lincoln and prepares the theatre and the state box, John Wilkes Booth, who uses Ford’s Theatre as his permanent mailing address, arrives at Ford’s. When Booth goes to the manager’s office to pick up his mail, he overhears Ford talking to stage carpenter James J. Gifford about Lincoln’s attendance that night. This is the break Booth has been waiting for. He now knows that he will kill Lincoln that night and in the theatre. His next dilemma is what the author calls the “traditional assassin’s plight” (161), which is the killing itself and then the escape. Booth knows the theatre like the back of his hand, and everyone trusts him as he is a well-known actor. He then sets about walking through the theatre and making plans for his assassination plot. He sees a music stand in the state box and comes up with a plan. The author finishes the chapter suggesting that Booth wants to know if he can commit the perfect crime and if he will be remembered as a great man for all time.

Good Friday celebrations are underway, including one in Fort Sumter, where the flag is raised to indicate that the war is over and the Union is reunited. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., General Grant goes to meet with Lincoln for a cabinet meeting. Grant is conflicted because he is supposed to go to the theatre with the Lincolns that night and feels obligated to do so, but his wife Julia wants them to leave the city immediately for home and their children. Julia also doesn’t like Mary Lincoln and considers her unstable. Grant feels beholden to his friend, Lincoln, but also doesn’t want to anger his wife.

When Grant arrives to the meeting, he notes how Lincoln conducts the meeting so nonchalantly, as if he’s equal to everyone else in the room and not the final decision maker as president. Grant arrives during the second hour of the meeting and, as Lincoln, planned, his arrival reenergizes the meeting. Lincoln has Grant retell how Lee surrendered, thus allowing Grant’s testimony to further his own agenda of showing the Southern states lenience. The plan works to Lincoln’s benefit as the other cabinet members seem to be onboard with his way of handling the South rather than Andrew Johnson’s way, which is far more draconian. Grant eventually decides that he will in fact attend the theatre with Lincoln and that he and his wife can just leave first thing in the morning. As the meeting drags on, however, Julia sends a telegram to General Grant demanding his return. She has booked them passage on a slower train just to ensure they leave the city. Grant tells Lincoln he must go and can’t attend the night’s performance. Lincoln tries to persuade him but to no avail.

According to the authors, the manner in which Lincoln dies is reminiscent of the mystery that surrounds the death of Jesus Christ, even 2,000 years later. A number of odd happenings—such as guards leaving their posts and telegrams to search for Lincoln’s killer not being sent—facilitate the plot against Lincoln and continue to underscore many conspiracy theories. Despite all this, what is known is that Booth is completing his plot against Lincoln during these final hours. Dressed in all black, Booth stops at Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse. He gives her a spyglass and tells her to make sure it doesn’t get wet. Louis Weichmann, a soldier and government clerk boarding at Mary’s, thinks Booth is suspicious and tries to listen in. Mary catches him and asks him to go fetch horses. When he returns, Booth has already left for Herndon House to meet with Lewis Powell. Powell is tasked with killing the ailing, bedridden Secretary of State Seward. Booth reminds him that the real job is entering and exiting the house, as Seward himself won’t be able to put up a fight, but that there will be a male nurse, Seward’s wife, and three children to consider. Powell, who is mentally impaired from a mule kick, suggests that he has no problem with killing everyone.

Booth next visits Pumphrey’s stable to procure his getaway horse. Although festivities are going on all over town, Booth rides the spirited horse down Pennsylvania Avenue, interrupting crowds of celebratory citizens. He then stops at Grover’s Theatre for a while, and then Deery’s Tavern, where he goes over his plan. His accepts that his chances of killing Lincoln are low, but he wonders if anyone will actually know it’s him if he is able to pull off his plan. He can’t stand the idea of killing Lincoln and escaping, only for no one to know that he’s the killer. He goes to the manager’s office at Grover’s Theatre and writes a letter to the National Intelligencer, implicating himself as the killer, and then adds the names of his co-conspirators as well. When he leaves the theatre, he sees a fellow actor, John Matthews, and asks him to mail the letter the next morning. In case things don’t go as planned or if he can’t pull off the attack, he tells Matthews that he wants the letter back if he finds him before 10 A.M. the next morning. Matthews was actually someone who took Booth in after the aborted kidnapping at Soldiers’ Home, and Booth had unsuccessfully tried to recruit him. In handing Matthews the letter, Booth is implicating him by association.

Booth and Matthews then see the Grants leaving with their luggage. Booth trots up to their carriage but doesn’t do anything. Julia Grant will later remember the horrible man who stared them down in their carriage as they left town. Booth hears from a passerby that the Grants will not be in town that evening, which disheartens him. Grant was one of his targets, along with Lincoln. He rides to Ford’s Theatre, where he begins racing the horse up and down the street, practicing for his getaway. No one knows this is what he is doing, especially a maid at Ford’s who sees him practicing this from Baptist Alley. After practicing his getaway, Booth invites stagehands to drink with him at Greenback Saloon. He then says hello to the owner of the saloon, Jim Ferguson, and finally goes back to the National Hotel. The author points out how close all the buildings in the city are, from Mary Surratt’s Boardinghouse to the National Hotel to Kirkwood House (where Vice President Andrew Johnson stays) to the White House to Secretary Seward’s home. As Booth checks back in, the clerk notes how pale and sickly he looks. Though his drinking for the day is catching up with him, Booth is also beginning to fully realize the momentous task he is about to undertake in killing the president.

As Lincoln walks back to the War Department for a meeting with Seward about the fate of a Confederate ringleader, he tells his longtime bodyguard William Crook that he believes people want to take his life and that they will succeed. He says that he has no doubt that the men will not escape, but that it would be impossible to stop someone who wanted to take his life. Later, Lincoln again asks Seward and Eckert if they’ll join him, but the two men again refuse, which hurts Lincoln. He later tells Crook that he doesn’t want to go to the theatre that night. The author indicates that Lincoln says it “like a man facing a death sentence” (174).

Lincoln is forced into a last-minute meeting with New Hampshire Congressman Edward H. Rollins, and later other petitioners, all too aware that he doesn’t want to be late for his carriage ride and upset Mary. He finally meets her and the two go for ride in an open carriage. The war has been hard for them both, and they’ve spent so little time alone together lately that the mood is tentative for Mary, but she takes joy in seeing Lincoln so lighthearted. Lincoln is relieved that the war is over. He talks about the future with Mary, which is something he hardly ever does. He tells her of his plans to retire from office when his work is done and move them back to Illinois. The carriage then takes them to the Navy Yard, where Lincoln boards USS Montauk. The eager crew mobs Lincoln, and he must leave as he and Mary have to get ready for the theatre.

William Crook, Lincoln’s bodyguard, is supposed to be replaced by John Parker, an unscrupulous policeman who is always late. He accompanies Lincoln to a few other events and thinks about the head of Lincoln’s security detail—who suggested that Lincoln should never go out at night, especially not to the theatre. But everyone knows that Lincoln will be at the show that night, especially after the papers have all printed that he will be attending the performance at Ford’s. Even though Lincoln is considered to be the most hated man in America, he doesn’t think about the people that dislike him. Mary is second guessing the night out, yet Lincoln wants to go because he feels obligated to the people who expect to see him there. They’ve also found replacements for the Grants. The Rathbones—Major Henry Reed Rathbone and his fiancée, Clara Harris—will attend the play with them. As Crook ruminates on whether it was a good decision to invite Rathbone, Parker finally arrives. Parker has been disciplined severely on multiple occasions, yet somehow keeps his role as a policeman. When Crook says good night to Lincoln, an exchange in kind that they make all the time, Lincoln says “good-bye” instead of “goodnight,” a difference that haunts Crook for the rest of the night.

At the same time that Lincoln says good-bye to Crook, Booth is eating dinner at the National Hotel. The play at Ford’s will start at 8 P.M., and Booth’s plan will start soon after 10 P.M. Booth is in such good spirits that he starts drinking again for a bit of liquid courage. Booth’s plan is to kill Lincoln during the third act. There’s a moment in the play when actor Harry Hawk will be the only person on stage. Hawk will deliver a line that always makes everyone laugh. When the theatre explodes in laughter, Booth will shoot. He will already be inside the state box, so all he will need to do is remove the Deringer pistol, and he will use his Bowie knife if he needs to fight his way out. He will jump over the railing and exit the backstage door, then flee to Maryland and, later, Mexico. But he will stop during the assassination while on stage to deliver the line “sic semper tyrannis” (182), or “death always to tyrants.”The phrase is also the motto of the Virginia commonwealth.

Booth returns to his room and gets the knife and pistol. He then packs a small bag of necessities and leaves for a final meeting with his co-conspirators. Booth leaves things behind in his room on purpose, including a scrap of paper with Confederate codes that link him to Jefferson Davis in Richmond and the million-dollar Confederate gold fund in Montreal, as well as a valise that implicates both John Surratt and his mother, Mary. His logic is that if he is killed or captured, he wants everyone else to go down with him, as well as proving that he is the actual mastermind behind the plot. Booth then goes to Ford’s and has a drink in the attached tavern. He drinks with the orchestra director who tells him he will never be as good as his father. Booth says: “When I leave the stage I will be the most talked about man in America” (183). 

Lincoln’s meeting with Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax is running late. Mary interrupts, reminding the president of their plans for the evening at the theatre. Lincoln finally heeds Mary’s concerns and the two leave the White House. The carriage picks up the Rathbones and then makes its way amid festivities to Ford’s Theatre. Mary is elated to see Lincoln in such a good mood. Lincoln enters the theatre at 8:25 p.m., and the couples, along with John Parker, make their way to the state box. When Lincoln arrives, Laura Keene adlibs a line to let the disappointed theatergoers know that Lincoln is now in attendance. William Withers, the orchestra director who had previously had a drink with Booth, stops the production and plays “Hail to the Chief.” The audience rises and cheers for Lincoln. He then sits in the rocking chair that is always present for his appearance, where he is nearly hidden from the audience by a curtain. Though a somewhat scandalous act, Lincoln holds hands with Mary.

There is only one route to and from the state box. On the other side of the box’s door is an unlit hallway, which then has another door at its end. John Parker is supposed to sit at this door and make sure that no one goes in or out, yet he gets thirsty during the play and decides to go to Taltavul’s saloon to have a drink, where footman Charles Forbes joins him. Perhaps more shocking is the fact that John Parker, a man who has had a lifetime of career missteps and disciplinary proceedings, will not be punished for this incredible act of negligence.

While Lincoln is settling into the state box, Booth sits on horseback outside Herndon House and goes over the plan one more time with his co-conspirators. He reminds them that the president will be assassinated at 10:15 p.m. exactly, which means all their killings will also have to take place at that time. Booth wants people to think that Washington, DC is filled with assassins, thus causing alarm with the public so that he and his fellow co-conspirators can slip out of the city amidst the confusion. Lewis Powell and David Herold will murder Seward. Powell is the assassin, and he will enter the house by pretending to bring a bottle of medicine for Seward. Herold will facilitate the escape. George Atzerodt is tasked with slaying Vice President Andrew Johnson. Booth then tells the men about the letter he wrote to the National Intelligencer, thus underscoring that they’re all complicit in the plot and shouldn’t back out.

Booth arrives at Ford’s and calls for Ned Spangler, who works for the theatre as a scene changer. Spangler does not want to hold Booth’s horse as he doesn’t want to lose his job. He brings Joseph Burroughs, a young boy who does odd jobs for the theatre, to assist. Booth then enters the theatre and makes a point to greet everyone. He checks the tunnel beneath the stage that leads to the backdoor. After ensuring that nothing and no one is blocking his escape route, he exits the theatre. He goes to Taltavul’s and orders a bottle of whiskey and is elated to see that Lincoln’s bodyguard is there drinking. At 10 p.m., he leaves.

The third act has begun as Lincoln puts on his trademark overcoat, which bears the manifesto, “One Country, one destiny” (193). It’s seven minutes past the hour, and Lincoln pulls back the privacy curtain to look at the crowd. At the same time, Booth enters Ford’s Theatre, pale and shaken, though trying to remain calm. The ticket taker, who is in awe of Booth due to his celebrity status, chats with him but notices how pale he looks. Another employee notes that Booth has been in an out of the theatre multiple times that day. Yet neither employee wonders at Booth’s antics and they return to their jobs. Booth makes his way up to the state box and, upon reaching it, is relieved to see that Lincoln’s bodyguard is still in the saloon. He hands his calling card to a White House messenger who lets him pass without any questions.

A young girl looks up to see Lincoln and is excited to see John Wilkes Booth in the wings. Then she sees Lincoln staring out. She turns to tell the gentleman next to her, who is the owner of Taltavul’s, Jim Ferguson, and when she turns back around notes that Booth is gone. Booth now stands in the darkened hallway that leads to the state box. Although he could turn around and stop everything, he remembers the Confederate cause and the desire of Lincoln to free the slaves. He also remembers that he is the only one who can do something about what he sees as the upsetting state of the country. He takes the music stand he spied earlier and lodges it against the door, thus dead bolting the door from anyone getting in to stop him. Earlier, he’d also carved a small hole into the state box door, and he now spies on the president through this hole.

The state box is actually the shape of a parallelogram. The Lincolns sit along the railing, while the Rathbones sit to their right at an angle to the stage. Booth is staring at the back of Lincoln’s head through the peephole. He hears his cue approaching in 10 seconds and removes his weapons. He steps inside the state box and hears Harry Hawk deliver his line, and then the crowd begins laughing uproariously.

Secretary of State Seward’s house had known one other tragedy, when Philip Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key (who wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner”), was shot and killed by a congressman who was his wife’s lover. At 10:15 p.m., Lewis Powell beats on the door of Seward’s house. Secretary Seward himself is asleep due to the medication he is on, but a young black servant named William Bell answers the door. Powell tells him that he has medicine for Seward, and Bell tells him he cannot let him enter but that he will take the medicine. Powell eventually pushes past Bell, calling him a racial slur and reminding him that he’s talking to a white man. Powell is met by Seward’s son Frederick, who has heard all the commotion and comes to inquire. Frederick goes to his father’s room, thus alerting Powell to which room the Secretary is in. Frederick tells him his father is sleep and that he can leave the medicine. Powell pretends to comply, then rushes at Frederick. But his gun jams, and so the two fight until Powell knocks Frederick unconscious. William Bell flees the house and screams “murder” (199) into the night. Herold hears Bell’s cries for help and realizes that he doesn’t want to be a part of the plan, especially as soldiers are sure to respond. He ties Powell’s horse to a tree and flees on his own horse. Inside, Powell beats Frederick to a bloody pulp with his gun until it breaks, then continues on to Seward’s room.

Seward’s daughter, Fanny, hears the commotion outside as she sits at her father’s bedside. Sergeant George Robinson is also inside the room and attempts to block Powell from entering. Powell is able to force his way in and stabs Robinson with his Bowie knife, severely injuring the man with a deep wound to the forehead. He then punches Fanny in the face, knocking her unconscious, and attempts to kill Seward. He stabs him repeatedly, though he can’t reach the jugular due to a splint the Secretary is wearing. Seward’s other son, Augustus, who is a soldier, hears the commotion and enters the room. Powell then attacks him, and when Robinson comes to and joins the fight, he is stabbed four more times.

Powell has stabbed four people in the house, though he doesn’t realize that all are still alive. As he’s fleeing, a State Department messenger, Emerick Hansell, arrives and is stabbed. He, too, is spared due to Powell’s haste. William Bell shouts for help still, and Powell realizes that Herold has fled. He doesn’t know the city but mounts his horse and trots off after throwing the knife away. Though William Bell races after him shouting “murder,” no one stops to listen to him because he’s black. Powell makes it to the edge of town where he hides in a field.

George Atzerodt is supposed to kill Andrew Johnson. Instead, he drinks heavily at Kirkwood House, the same hotel he and Johnson are staying at. Johnson, more than any of the other targets, is hated by Southerners and considered a traitor. He also takes a hardline against the South and wishes to punish them far more cruelly than Lincoln allows. Though Johnson should be a likely target, Atzerodt spends his time getting drunk and drawing attention to himself. Earlier, he picked up his horse from Naylor’s stable, where Herold also rented his horse. The stable foreman doesn’t like either man, but Herold hadn’t returned with the horse and so the foreman had a drink with Atzerodt to try and find out where Herold was. Atzerodt didn’t give anything away despite being drunk, and when he left on the horse, nearly falling off, the foreman followed him but to no avail.

Andrew Johnson dines alone at the hotel and appears as if he’s waiting to be summoned for some great occasion. He, too, has turned down an invitation to see Our American Cousin. Johnson is largely uneducated but was chosen by Lincoln because he needed a Southerner on the ticket to appeal to the South. He is essentially a figurehead. The author notes that Johnson will suffer impeachment and the title of “worst president in history” (206).

Atzerodt returns to Kirkwood House at 10:15, where Johnson is alone in his room. But Atzerodt just gets drunk at the bar. He never wanted to be involved with murder, and the alcohol ensures that he doesn’t murder the vice president, due to his drunkenness.

Booth steps out of the shadows at the appointed time and shoots Lincoln in the back of the head, just as the president leans forward. When an autopsy is later conducted, it will be determined that “the ball entered behind the left ear and traveled diagonally across the brain, coming to rest above the right eye” (208). Despite this, four separate doctors will examine Lincoln’s corpse and come up with different assessments as to what happened.

Mary Lincoln sees Lincoln slump forward, while Rathbone, a soldier, knows instantly the sound of gunfire and stands, defensive. Rathbone rushes Booth, who has now pulled out his Bowie knife. He slashes at Rathbone, cutting him deep in the arm to the bone. Booth shouts “freedom” (208) to the audience, which is confused about the gunshot and the commotion. Harry Hawk is alone onstage and stares at the state box. Booth attempts to jump onto the stage, a jump he’s done numerous times in performances, but misjudges the thickness of the flag attached to the state box and falls onto the stage awkwardly and fractures his left fibula. Everyone is stunned and confused. James Ford thinks that Booth is performing a stunt for attention. Booth then rants about the South being free and Hawk, seeing the bloody knife, runs. Major Rathbone calls for help and implores people to stop Booth. He and Clara Harris shout that the president has been shot. Panic ensues, and Booth makes his escape. He stabs at Withers and tussles with the carpenter, but flees through the exit door, where he kicks and bludgeons Peanut John and makes his escape into a crowd on horseback.

Booth continues his escape as victory processions turn into mobs. News is spreading that President Lincoln has been shot, and everyone is rushing to Ford’s to see for themselves. Panic still ensues inside the theatre, while at Grover’s, the news also breaks out. In the audience is Lincoln’s 12-year-old son, Tad, who is whisked back to the White House. It’s soon revealed that Seward has also been assaulted. Mike O’Laughlen hears the news and realizes that he needs to flee town immediately. The stable foreman, John Fletcher, sees Herold riding by with his horse and attempts to stop him. When Herold flees, he gives chase. Meanwhile, Booth attempts to walk the horse through the streets, careful not to draw attention to himself. When he is closer to the Navy Yard Bridge, he finally gallops. He reaches the bridge at 10:45, where military sentry Silas T. Cobb queries him. Riders aren’t allowed out at night, but Booth lies and says that he’s not from Washington. He’s been waiting for the moon to rise to navigate the darkened roads. Cobb eventually lets him pass, and later lets Herold pass after querying him too. Fletcher arrives, and though he can see Booth and Herold, Cobb tells him that he cannot re-enter until morning. Fletcher doesn’t want to risk spending the night in the lawless Maryland countryside so returns to town.

Lincoln is dying inside the state box. Rathbone is severely injured, though Booth barely missed a major artery that would’ve killed the major. Rathbone removes the music stand from the door and shouts for a doctor as people try and enter the box to see the shot president. Dr. Charles Leale is the first to arrive. He makes a preliminary examination and sees that Lincoln isn’t dead yet, but he cannot find a wound. He orders that no one else be allowed in and has Lincoln moved to the floor. His initial assessment is that Lincoln has been stabbed, but he can’t find an entry wound and there’s no blood. He notices an optic nerve in the right eye has been cut, and when he puts his hands in Lincoln’s hair, notices blood. He finds a blood clot behind his left ear and, when he takes his hand away, blood comes rushing out from the wound, thus taking pressure from Lincoln’s brain. The president begins breathing. The author notes that Leale has only been at his job for two months but works like a pro, knowing exactly what to do in the tense situation.

Leale attempts to resuscitate Lincoln, and two senior officers enter: Dr. Charles Sabin Taft and Dr. Albert King. Both men defer to Leale. Leale and the doctors attempt to stimulate his breathing, and Leale gives him C.P.R. His treatment works, and the president is soon able to breathe on his own. While the crowd is hopeful, Leale already notices that Lincoln’s brain isn’t functioning. He then announces that the president will not survive. People vomit, and men remove their caps. The theatre below is still in chaos, and Mary Lincoln is in a state of shock. Laura Keene then enters the room by force and asks to cradle Lincoln’s head. She is allowed to. The author notes that Keene, though not tacky per say in her actions, has an ulterior motive. She will be pictured in the papers as holding the dying president’s head, and her actions will live on in history.

It’s decided that Lincoln cannot die in the theatre and on a dirty floor, but the doctors do not know where to move him to. A bumpy carriage ride back to the White House would kill Lincoln before he arrives. Dr. Taft orders soldiers to carry him out in the rocking chair, but Leale says this, too, won’t work. Leale orders the soldiers to carry him, and the group makes their way out of the room and downstairs. People line the hallway and mourn the president. Leale stops the procession every few feet or so to stick his finger in the wound and remove the pressure from Lincoln’s brain. Lincoln is transferred to a pine board, and when Lincoln’s bodyguards, the Union Light Guard, arrive, Lincoln is ushered out of the theatre and into the street via a pathway made by the soldiers. The aim is to take him to a group of rowhouses across from the theatre, but there are people everywhere. One man, a War Department employee named Henry S. Safford, offers his lodging at the Peterson House. They take him to the cleanest room in the house, that of William Clark’s, and place him on the bedspread as the bed is too small for the president’s frame. Incidentally, Booth often used the very same room when he stayed in town. Everyone leaves the room but the doctors and Mary, until she too is asked to leave. As she goes, she begs her husband to “Live…You must live” (227).

The doctors work at keeping Lincoln’s body warm via artificial heat and mustard plaster. Dr. Taft then removes the ball from Lincoln’s wound. The doctor’s note that Lincoln is fighting to stay alive as any other person would be dead by now. Dr. Joseph Barnes, the surgeon general of the army, and his later replacement, Charles H. Crane, arrive and concur with Leale’s treatment. The doctors ascertain again that Lincoln, a man who had one of the most intelligent minds of his generation and had planned to do so much, is now brain dead. Even though Leale is no longer needed, he knows that Lincoln feels more comfortable when the wound is cleared of blood. He sits by Lincoln’s head and continues to poke his finger into the wound every few minutes.

Government officials arrive at the Peterson House, including Secretary of War Stanton who takes charge of the investigation. Andrew Johnson also arrives as the search for Lincoln’s killer takes shape. It is already assumed that Booth shot Lincoln, and many speculate that he attacked Seward too. By 3 a.m., Lincoln’s state is so bad that Mary Lincoln is no longer allowed in. Lincoln fights through the early morning, and dies at 7:21 a.m. Dr. Barnes places coins over Lincoln’s eyes which are now black and blue, while Secretary of War Stanton says, “Now he belongs to the ages” (232).