Lead Thrown at Ford Theater

On the night of April 15, President Abraham Lincoln was shot at the Ford theater and died of wounds the next morning in the home of William Peterson. The killer, John Wilkes Booth, A brilliant actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln with a six inch single-shot Derringer pistol while he and the First Lady were watching Our American Cousin.  Booth shot Lincoln from point blank in the back of the head just above Lincoln's left ear. Also in the presidential box were invites Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancee Clara Harris.  During the assassination, a knife was also used to stab the guard that was guarding the presidental box. Booth fled on a waiting horse to southern Maryland and was chased until found south of Port Royal, Virginia on April 26th and shot in a tobacco barn were he died three hours later.                                             By Charlie Ingram and Hogan Barnes