Friday night, April 14, 1865. The audience gathered at Ford’s Theater at Washingtonwatching the satirical play “Our American Cousin”. In this, an agitated and unspeakable American named Aza Trentsard goes to England To claim some legacy and ends up saving his English aristocratic relatives from a greedy businessman.
That night reserved various surprises for the spectators. Shortly after the show started, they were perceived four high guests: The President of the United States Abraham LincolnMary’s wife and a friendly couple found their positions in the presidential theory. With the president’s entrance, the show was interrupted and the orchestra played the presidential anthem, Hail to the Chief, while about 1,700 spectators applauded the man who held the highest office in the country and had come to celebrate the end of the civil war, which had just been ends.
Lincoln sat in a rocking armchair and began watching the comedy, holding his wife’s hand. During the show, Mary often laughed at the work of the project and “teased” her husband. At some point he was joking to him “what will Miss Harris think [μία από τους καλεσμένους του προεδρικού ζεύγους] Seeing me hold you so much? ” “He won’t think anything,” Lincoln replied. Based on later testimonies, these were supposed to be the last words of the 16th President of the United States.
***
April 14 had begun completely differently for a well -known actor of the time, John Wilks Buth. “Our struggle is almost lost, something decisive and great must be done,” he wrote in his diary that day. O Bith was Strong supporter of the Confederation of Southern States And she saw her collapse day by day. On April 3, Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederation, fell into the hands of the Union army. A few days later, General Robert E. Lee and the northern Virginia army surrendered to General Odysseus S. Grand and the army of Potomak after the battle of the Apartox court. Meanwhile, Confederation President Jefferson Davies and other officials had escaped. Nevertheless, Bith refused to give up. He believed that the Confederation could be saved by the assassination of President Lincoln – and not only.
Bith arrested a complicated conspiracy, which As a goals he had Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Jackson and Foreign Minister William Sured. He would take over Lincoln, and his associates George Atchdeod and Lewis Powell would kill the other two men, at a Washington hotel and everyone’s home, respectively. Indeed, it was not the first time these three worked together, conspiring against Lincoln. In March of the same year, Bith had devised a Plan of the President’s abductionwhich would serve as a lever for the liberation of southern prisoners of war. The conspirators tried to ambush Lincoln, as he would go to a country house. However, the plan was canceled when the president changed his program at the last minute.
After General Lee’s surrender to the distant and the substantive end of the war, Bith realized that the abduction no longer had any meaning. Then decided to proceed to a plan murderhoping that with the deadly attack on the leadership of the Union, he could overthrow the post -war class.
***
On that fateful day, Buth visited the Ford’s Theater around noon to get his mail. He was then informed that Lincoln and General Grand were going to watch the upload of “our American cousin” that night. That was the Ideal opportunity for the aspiring killerfor many reasons. Initially, having starred in many performances that went up in the theater, he knew his places very well and could easily gain access to the theories. On the other hand, precisely because he was a well -known actor, he could approach the president without any suspicion or stopping him.
Shortly after 10pm, the work reached about the middle of his third and last act with a attack that usually caused a lot of laughter at the spectators. John Wilks Buth chose at the moment to shoot Abraham Lincolnbelieving that the laughter of attendees would cover the noise of the shot. Having entered the presidential theory (at that time the president of the United States did not have his own guard and the guard rules were more relaxed) and Having clogged with a pole the door, Bith shot the American president. The bullet entered the Lincoln skull behind his left ear, passed through his brain and was immobilized in the frontal bone. The president stuck in his chair and fell backwards.
The scenes that followed were dramatic. President Lincoln’s guest tried to stop Bith, who jumped out of the theory after first injuring him. People thought that Bith was a factor in the show. Prevailed complete confusion and finally The killer managed to get out of a side exit. Meanwhile, Charles Lille, a union’s military doctor, hastened to help the injured president. Shortly afterwards, Lincoln was taken to the nearest house, where doctors tried to deal with his trauma. Despite their efforts, President Lincoln left his last breath in the small bed early in the morning – which they had been dumped, as he was particularly tall – on the ground floor of the house of Rafter William Petersen.
Vice President Andrew Jackson, whose murder plan had been abandoned by ATSDRO was sworn in. But Foreign Minister Siyard was not so lucky. As he recovered from injury caused by a carriage fall, at the same time that Bith was entering Lincoln’s theory, Powell entered Siyard’s house and attacked him with a knifemaking him significant injuries, but eventually did not get fatal.
Following the murder of Lincoln, John Wilks Buth began an agonizing escape attempt that lasted twelve days as he was trying to escape to the south, with the help of the Confederation. Injured in foot from the jump he made during his escape, from the theater theater, he was able to cross the Potomak River and hide in rural areas of Virginia. Finally, Twelve days after Lincoln’s murder, he was found in a barn on a farm near Port Royalwhere he had found a temporary shelter with a collaborator. As he refused to surrender, the soldiers who surrounded the building set fire to the barn to force him to come out. During the operation, Bith was shot by a soldier – in one version while trying to escape; on another, while standing with the gun raised. Died a few hours later than his woundand according to eyewitnesses, his last words were: “In vain … futile”. The rest of the conspirators were arrested and most of them were hanged.
The whole American nation sank into mourning for the death of the charismatic Lincoln. The poet Walt Whitman wrote in honor of the murdered President various poems, with perhaps better known to them “Oh, Captain! Captain!“:
Oh, Captain! Captain!
Ended our awesome journey,
The ship clashed with every danger and won.
Won the prize we sought,
The port is near, I hear the copper bells,
People, deceitful, celebrate,
While the eyes follow the steady keel,
the compact and risky shock ∙
But, oh heart! heart! heart!
Oh, the blood drops of purple,
On the deck,
Where my Captain lies,
Fallen, frozen and dead. […]
(Translation: Takis P. Pierrakos).
Column: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poumenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
