John Wilkes Booth was born near Bel Air, Maryland on May 10,
1838, to a prominent acting family. He began his acting career
when he was about seventeen years old and was involved in that
career at the outbreak of the Civil War. Booth did not enlist in
the Confederate Army, but he did harbor strong Southern
sympathies. From the beginning of the war Booth hatched many
schemes to kidnap President Lincoln and use him as a pawn for
prisoner exchange, but his plans were usually spoiled for one
reason or another. Finally, after the fall of Richmond and the
surrender of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
in April 1865, Booth changed his plans from kidnapping to
assassination. On the night of April 14, 1865, while President
Lincoln, his wife Mary, and Major Henry Rathbone were enjoying a
play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., Booth slipped into
their box and shot the President in the back of the head and
stabbed Major Rathbone. In his escape, Booth jumped from the box
onto the stage, breaking his a