When he shot President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth was 26 years
old, and one of the nation’s most famous actors. (Charles
DeForest Fredericks/National Portrait Gallery) John Wilkes
Booth, a Maryland native, spent the war performing in theatrical
productions. But the conflict was never far from his mind. In a
letter to his mother, he expressed chagrin that he hadn’t joined
the Confederate army, writing, “I have … begun to deem myself a
coward, and to despise my own existence.” He was outraged by the
reelection of Lincoln, whom he viewed as the instigator of all
the country’s woes. The month after the inauguration, Booth
learned that Lincoln would be attending a performance at Ford’s
Theatre on April 14. That night, he crept into Lincoln’s theater
box and shot him in the back of the head. It was the first time
a president had been murdered. “Wanted” posters were issued for
Booth, and on April 26, he was cornered in a tobacco barn and
shot by a federal sergeant, acting against orders to bring him
in alive. Severa