Lincoln dies from an assassin’s bullet
President Abraham Lincoln the 16th president of the United States dies from an assassins bullet.Shot by John Wilkes Booth at Fords Theater in Washington the night before Lincoln lived for nine hours before succumbing to the severe head wound he sustained.Lincolns death came just after the surrender of Confederate General Robert E.Lees army at Appomattox Court House Virginia.
Lincoln had just served the most difficult presidency in history successfully leading the country through civil war.His job was exhausting and overwhelming at times.He had to manage a tremendous military effort deal with diverse opinions in his own Republican party counter his Democratic critics maintain morale on the northern home front and keep foreign countries such as France and Great Britain from recognizing the Confederacy.
He did all of this and changed American history when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation converting the war goal from reunion of the nation to a crusade to end slavery.Now the great man was dead.Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said Now he belongs to the ages.
Word spread quickly across the nation stunning a people who were still celebrating the Union victory.Troops in the field wept as did General Ulysses S.Grant the overall Union commander.
Perhaps no group was more grief stricken than the freed slaves.Although abolitionists considered Lincoln slow in moving against slavery many freedmen saw Father Abraham as their savior.They faced an uncertain world and now had lost their most powerful proponent.
Lincolns funeral was held on April 19 before a funeral train carried his body back to his hometown of Springfield Illinois.During the two-week journey hundreds of thousands gathered along the railroad tracks to pay their respects and the casket was unloaded for public viewing at several stops.He and his son Willie who died in the White House of typhoid fever in 1862 were interred on May 4.
