Booth hoped to revive the Confederate cause by killing Lincoln. He shot Lincoln in the back of the head, then fled the theater. He was shot during his eventual capture and died from his wounds. The wounded and unconscious president was carried to a boardinghouse across the street, where he died the next morning, April 15, Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt. All rights reserved. Personality Quizzes.
Funny Fill-In. Amazing Animals. Weird But True! Party Animals. Try This! Explore More. Fast Facts. Personality Quiz U. Booth was discovered in a barn in rural Virginia ten days after Lincoln's assassination after frantic searching by the Army and the Secret Service.
As they attempted to capture Booth, the barn was set on fire, and Booth either shot himself or was killed in a shoot-out. Lincoln's death stunned the country and muted its joy over the end of the Civil War.
After seven days of official mourning in the Capitol, Lincoln's coffin was carried on a slow-moving funeral train back to Springfield, Illinois. As the procession traveled through the country, people in small towns and villages, in big cities, and throughout the countryside gathered to see the train pass and offer their last respects to Lincoln.
Thousands of Americans remembered the sight of the passing funeral train as one of the most deeply emotional events of their lives. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W.
Help inform the discussion Support the Miller Center. University of Virginia Miller Center. Breadcrumb U. February 7, Confederate States of America organized. March 4, Abraham Lincoln inaugurated. March 11, Confederate Congress adopts Confederate Constitution.
April 12, April 13, Major Anderson surrendors. April 15, Lincoln calls for end of rebellion. April 17, April 19, Lincoln orders blockage. May 6, Arkansas secedes from the Union. May 10, May 20, North Carolina secedes. North Carolina secedes from the Union. May 21, Confederate capital moves to Richmond. June 8, Tennessee secedes from the Union. July 21, July 25, The Union endorses volunteers. September 14, Naval engagement at Pensacola. October 31, General Winfield Scott retires.
General Winfield Scott retires as commander in chief of the Union army at age November 1, McClellan named commander. February 20, William Wallace Willie Lincoln dies. March 9, April 16, Slavery abolished in D. Slavery is abolished in District of Columbia. June 1, Lee appointed commander. July 1, Organizing black troops.
July 22, Lincoln's intentions. August 29, Second Battle of Bull Run. September 17, Battle of Antietam Creek. September 22, Emancipation Proclamation. Midterm congressional elections. December 13, Battle of Fredericksburg. December 31, The Union ironclad Monitor sinks.
January 1, Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect. January 2, Battle of Murfreesboro. The Battle of Murfreesboro occurs. February 24, Territory of Arizona formed. The territory of Arizona is formed from the Territory of New Mexico. February 25, May 1, Battle of Chancellorsville. May 2, General Stonewall Jackson wounded. May 3, Territory of Idaho created. June 20, West Virginia becomes a state.
West Virginia is admitted to Union as the thirty-fifth state. July 4, July 13, Rioters protest the conscription act. November 19, December 8, View some little known facts about Lincoln as well as frequently asked questions about the 16th President of the United States. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of rank as one of the most famous debates in history.
Though vying for a Senate seat, the debates, which centered around the institution of slavery, had a great effect on the future presidency for Lincoln. Mary Todd Lincoln, the spouse of Abraham Lincoln, is one of the most prominent first ladies in history.
Following his assassination, she remained in mourning until her death in In , a court judged her insane for a time. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, , freed all slaves in areas still in rebellion against the federal government. Delivered soon after the Union victory at the battle of Antietam, it motivated the Northern war effort and gave the war a higher purpose.
The Gettysburg Address, written and delivered by Abraham Lincoln after the battle of Gettysburg, is one of the most famous speeches in American History. A skilled statesman and orator, Abraham Lincoln gave many memorable speeches, including his most famous, the Gettysburg Address, which is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history.
Few figures in American History are as significant and memorable as Abraham Lincoln. Robert Todd Lincoln. Picture of John Wilkes Booth. Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated. Abraham Lincoln spent only four of his 56 years as president of the United States. But there were other facets to the career of this man who led the nation through the Civil War years.
Prior to his presidency, Lincoln honed his political skills and aspirations through the practice of law. In , while serving in the Illinois state legislature, Lincoln completed his legal training and joined the office of John Todd Stuart in the new Illinois capital at Springfield. Except for a sojourn in Washington, D. In his book Life of Lincoln , William H. I doubt if he ever read a single elementary law book through in his life.
In fact, I may truthfully say, I never knew him to read through a law book of any kind. But whether or not Lincoln lost some cases due to a lack of technical expertise on certain points of law, the fact remains that he was a successful trial attorney.
He knew, everyone agrees, how to win over a jury. Since most of those who served on the juries in these small towns were farmers and other country folk, Lincoln—himself a product of a rural environment and by nature a slow talker—recognized the need to argue his cases in the simplest and most straightforward manner. His wit and humor and inexhaustible store of anecdotes, always to the point, added immensely to his powers as a jury advocate. A medical malpractice suit— Fleming vs.
Just after midnight, on the morning of October 17, , the sleeping residents of Bloomington, Illinois, awoke to the sound of fire bells ringing throughout the community. Before long a crowd of more than 4, had congregated to watch firemen struggle to contain the blaze that had begun in the livery stable behind the Morgan House and had spread to neighboring buildings.
By the time the fire was extinguished, most of the buildings on the block, including those housing the newspaper offices of the Central Illinois Times and Bloomington Pantagraph , had been destroyed; only the bank and a hardware store remained.
There was one fatality—William Green, a local drayman—and among those injured was Samuel G. Fleming, a carpenter from Bloomington who suffered two broken thighs when a Morgan House chimney collapsed on him.
Fleming was carried to the home of his brother John, where he was treated by Drs. Thomas P. Rogers, Jacob R. Freese, and Eli K. At least one of the doctors visited Fleming daily for the next two weeks and each was satisfied with his progress. In fact, Dr. A few days later, Dr. Crothers told Fleming that his pain was a symptom of pleurisy, not anything to do with his leg. Twenty-four days after the fire, Dr. Rogers, who had been out of town for some time, visited Fleming and removed the bandages.
They redressed the legs, this time changing the arrangement of the splints. Eight days later, the trio again removed the bandages and found, Dr. The fracture was originally oblique, and now we found the lower Sharp point of the upper Portion of the thigh bone bending outward from a proper line of the bone—when in sound condition. After careful discussions with the three doctors, the patient and his family agreed to this procedure.
Freese administered chloroform to Fleming. He was assisted by Isaac M. Small, a cabinet maker and medical student who was present on this occasion only out of curiosity. Once Fleming was thought to be unconscious, Small stated, Dr. Rogers took hold of the foot with a view to produce the proper amount of extension. As it happened, however, Fleming had not felt the full effects of the chloroform and soon began to scream in pain, ordering the doctors to stop.
Crothers, explained to the patient that if they did not continue, his leg would always be deformed and he would suffer permanent damage, with the possibility of continuing pain and discomfort. By spring, the leg had healed, but, as Dr. Crothers had expected, it was badly misshapen, causing Fleming to have limited mobility and to walk with a limp.
Fleming blamed the doctors for the condition of his leg and, after securing the services of a team of six lawyers, filed suit on March 28, , in the McLean Circuit Court against Drs. Crothers and Rogers. Strain, and Andrew W. Rogers, all of Bloomington. They requested a continuance from Judge David Davis on the grounds that Dr.
Judge Davis and Lincoln enjoyed a close working relationship, as well as a personal friendship. Younger attorneys on the trial circuit often sought the services of Lincoln, whose experience and presence in the courtroom had earned their respect. When the Fleming case was called before Judge Davis in September, the defendants again requested a postponement.
Freese, it seemed, had moved to Cincinnati on short notice and had not been able to give his deposition to the attorneys before leaving Bloomington. He not only went to the root of the question, but dug up the root, and separated and analyzed every fiber of it. Before Fleming vs. Rogers and Crothers finally came to trial in the spring of , Lincoln had sought instruction from Dr. Crothers in the more technical medical aspects of the case.
Using chicken bones to demonstrate his points, Crothers described the chemistry of bone growth and the organic changes that take place in bones during the aging process.
It would not be the only time that the frontier-bred Lincoln would use farm-related metaphors to make his points to a jury or, as president, to Congress and the American people. During the well-attended, week-long trial, 15 doctors and 21 other witnesses testified on behalf of the plaintiff. The defendants also called upon a bevy of medical men to buttress their claims.
Many years after the trial, Dr. What I would advise you is to get down on your knees and thank your Heavenly Father, and also these two Doctors that you have any legs to stand on at all! Lincoln saved his lesson on how bones heal for his summation to the jury. Then, holding up two chicken-leg bones—one from an old chicken and the other from a young one—he demonstrated to the jury their respective texture and resilience.
The bones of the young bird were supple, while those of the old chicken were brittle and broke easily. Fleming, being in middle age, Lincoln pointed out, would have bones more closely resembling the latter than the former. This graphic demonstration had the desired effect on some of the jurors, a majority of whom probably entered the courtroom predisposed toward Fleming and prejudiced against the more affluent defendants. After 18 hours of deliberation, the jurors failed to reach a decision.
Judge Davis put the case over to the fall term of court. By September, the doctors had suffered the loss of another vital witness from the Bloomington area. Isaac Small, who had helped to administer the chloroform to Fleming at the time the attempt was made to re-break his right thigh bone, had moved to Nashville, Tennessee. The retrial of the case never took place, both sides having agreed to a settlement before the March court term began.
The doctors named in the suit agreed to pay the fees incurred by Fleming, whose expense probably totaled less than a thousand dollars. Soon after the Fleming suit was settled, Lincoln became preoccupied with the race for U. Douglas, that propelled him onto the national political stage. Although Lincoln lost that election, the campaign was an important step on his road to the White House.
And to a great extent, he used the talents that he had honed as an Illinois circuit lawyer to maintain popular support in the North for the war effort and to develop a political constituency that sustained the army in the field.
Logan, again as a junior partner. In , Lincoln teamed up with William H. Herndon, this time as a senior partner.
Charles M. This article was originally published in the August issue of American History magazine. More out of necessity than inclination, Abraham Lincoln became one of the most active commanders in chief in American history, directly influencing and managing events and generals in every field of operations during the Civil War.
Never before had a president been able to communicate his desires to far-off commanders as quickly as Lincoln was able to. He could do this because of recent inventions that speeded communication, most notably the telegraph. At the beginning of that year, the Union was poised on all fronts to take the offensive. When this was done, the Confederacy would be cut in two.
In Tennessee, a Northern army had fought the Confederates to a draw at Stones River and was preparing to push the Southerners out of middle and eastern Tennessee. In the East, after suffering many defeats in , Union forces had a new commander and were preparing to take the war deeper into Virginia. As promising as the Union outlook was at the beginning of the year, there would be many problems and disappointments before ended.
Lincoln would be forced to deal with numerous commanders who failed to understand that the main objective of the Union military machine should be defeating the Confederate armies, not merely occupying enemy territory. Lincoln often had to beg his commanders to take action, or relieve and replace a general when he failed to prosecute the war in an aggressive manner. The stage had been set in July , when Maj. Henry W. Halleck had replaced Maj.
George B. McClellan as general in chief of the Union Army. Lincoln hoped that he had found a competent leader to aggressively prosecute the war without much direction from the White House, and at first glance Halleck appeared to be a fine choice.
Events, however, soon showed that Halleck was not the aggressive general Lincoln believed him to be. After the Union defeat at the Second Battle of Manassas in August , Halleck seemed to lose confidence in both himself and his generals, and adopted a style of giving suggestions and advice to his subordinates rather than direct orders. If a general is unwilling to fight, he is not likely to gain victory. Although Lincoln continued to work through Halleck, he also often communicated directly with his field commanders by telegraph.
Earlier in , Lincoln had made a wise move by establishing governmental control of the U. Initially, telegraph operations were under the Signal Corps but by , they were placed under a separate entity known as the U. Military Telegraph Service. Initially, each of these areas had a main field commander with whom Lincoln would have many dealings over the course of the year. In the West, the campaign to capture the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River was under the direction of Maj.
Ulysses S. Grant had proved to be an aggressive general, winning several important victories in that helped to clear the Confederate presence from western Tennessee. Promoted to head the Department of the Tennessee when Halleck left to become general in chief, in November , Grant launched a campaign to capture Vicksburg by an overland route through the state of Mississippi. Confederate cavalry raids on his supply lines forced Grant to cancel this operation and return his army to its initial starting point near Memphis, Tenn.
The persistent commander then determined that his next attempt to capture Vicksburg would be via the Mississippi River itself. In central Tennessee, Maj. William S. Rosecrans was in command of the Army of the Cumberland. In October , he had relieved Maj. Don Carlos Buell as head of the army. Rosecrans was then poised to begin a campaign to drive the Confederates from the eastern half of the state.
In northern Virginia, Maj. Ambrose Burnside led the Union Army of the Potomac at the start of Joseph Hooker. Lincoln had his doubts about Hooker, too, mainly due to his vocal criticism of Burnside, but he had performed well as a corps commander and talked aggressively about what he intended to do in the spring campaign.
In , a politically appointed general named John A. Stanton to raise troops in several northwestern states as an expeditionary force for use in capturing Vicksburg. The wording of the order made it appear that McClernand would be in command of the operation.
But after McClernand had raised the troops and sent them to Memphis, Grant simply took control of the soldiers for his operations down the Mississippi. Although he disliked and distrusted McClernand, Grant wisely retained him as a corps commander, knowing that Lincoln wished to keep the Illinois Democrat in an important capacity for political reasons.
McClernand was not satisfied by the arrangements, and he appealed directly to Lincoln. You are now doing well—much better than you could possibly be if engaged in open war with Gen. Lincoln also let Grant know when he thought a particular project was especially important. In order to keep his men occupied and make them feel they were making some headway against the Confederates, Grant had his soldiers work on cutting a canal that would bypass the Vicksburg defenses.
Although Grant had little hope of success for the effort, Lincoln felt the project was important. The President attaches much attention to this. As weeks dragged by, Rosecrans continued to request more supplies from the government while making no effort to move.
The government tried many different tactics to get Rosecrans to advance, but to no avail. Finally, in an apparent attempt to infuse some spirit of competition between Rosecrans and Grant, Halleck sent each a telegram that offered what could fairly be interpreted as a bribe. He let his superiors know that he was offended, further worsening relations between himself and Washington.
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