When dawn broke on Thursday, April 13, 1865, Washington, D.C., was four days into a celebration without equal. What a thrill it must have been to walk those streets during that week leading up to Easter. Nearly every building displayed bunting, American flags, or boughs of evergreen. Bands played, joyous revelers sang, and by evening the streets of the city were rivers of light. At the Capitol, five tiers of gas lights “made the noble structure appear to be in flames from base to dome, giving the ‘Lady of the Capitol’ a fiery pedestal visible for miles” (Searcher, 1965, p. 24). Cannons boomed and fireworks proclaimed an end to four long and brutal years of civil war.
Imagine being among the throngs of well-wishers crowding the White House lawn earlier that week to catch a glimpse of Abraham Lincoln and hear him give a short speech. Would you have recognized the most famous actor in America? He was there in the crowd, but John Wilkes Booth probably didn’t join in the cheers for Lincoln, or in those the president requested for General Grant and “his skillful officers and brave men” (Searcher, 1965, p. 25).
Booth made no secret of his seething hatred for Lincoln. HIs 1864 plan to kidnap the president was fueled by a desire to use Lincoln as ransom in order to free Confederate prisoners of war so they could return to battle. By the spring of 1865 that plan had collapsed, doubtless increasing Booth’s frustration since the failure was partly due to Lincoln’s last-minute schedule changes and partly the result of tepid response from his co-conspirators. The speech Lincoln gave from the White House on April 11 further incensed Booth, and when he learned on the afternoon of April 14 that Lincoln and Grant were to attend a performance that evening at Ford’s Theatre, he saw an opportunity to implement an even darker scheme. Those who had stood near him to hear Lincoln’s remarks a few days before could not have imagined the role Booth cast for himself in what would be his final appearance on stage.
Debates persist about timing and the scope of Booth’s premeditation to murder Abraham Lincoln, but by the evening of April 14 the countenance of the city–and of the nation–would forever be altered. Nearby in Alexandria, Virginia, sat the newly completed rail car that was built to convey President Lincoln around the country during his second term in office. Its appearance and purpose would soon change as well.