Why was Abraham Lincoln shot

Abraham Lincoln was shot on the 14th of April in the year 1865, by a retired actor called John Wilkes Booth. The shooting of the President was of course a planned assassination by the Confederates and it was carried out successfully. The idea was to keep the American Civil War going by murdering the leader of the American Union, because at that time, the war was slowly coming towards its end. Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln were watching a play called “Our American Cousin” at the Ford’s theatre, when the lethal bullet ended the life of President Lincoln. Although John Wilkes Booth was able to escape from the crime scene as well as the city of Washington itself, he was finally shot down in Port Royal, in the state of Virginia on the 26th of April. He was also accompanied by Herold at that time, but Herold was captured alive, only to be hanged later. Even Atzerodt, Mrs. Surratt and Powell were also hanged for being a part of the conspiracy to carry out the assassinations.

Originally, the Confederates had not planned on assassinating President Lincoln, but on capturing him. Dr. Mudd, Mary Surratt and her son John, Powell, Herold and many more confederates had planned together to use the President of the Union as a hostage to free some of the important confederate prisoners that were captured during the war by the Union Army. Unfortunately for them, the plan did not work out at all because Lincoln did not follow the routine that they thought he would and did not go through the road on which the confederate conspirators had set up a trap to capture him. The idea of assassinating the President became a decision in 1865 after the Confederate army lost two battles, one in Richmond 17th March) and the other was when Robert Lee had to surrender (9th April).

Booth’s plan was to refuel the American Civil War by killing the President himself, while Powell was tasked with murdering the Secretary of State and Atzerodt with shooting the Vice-President. Seward, the Secretary of State was stabbed, but not lethally, while Johnson was lucky enough to have his would be assassin escape without so much so as a proper attempt. The assassination plans remained incomplete and the plan of the Confederates to continue with the war failed.