Lincoln's Last Day (2015) - full transcript

Oh, no!

A great man
is reduced to memory.

Objects that were kept warm
in his pockets,

just hours before,
are ownerless.

In the day that led
to his last moments

Abraham Lincoln
suspected nothing.

The Civil War was ending,
Robert E. Lee had surrendered,

and Lincoln was looking forward
to the rest of his life.

They started planning
the future.

They were happy.

But a band
of Confederate sympathizers



spent those same hours
activating a deadly plot...

Then fate steps in
and takes it all from them.

History was changed
in an instant.

They arrive late to the theatre,

and the play begins...

and then it was the story
that everybody knows.

But this story
goes inside the tragedy...

as the clock ticks down

the last 24 hours
of Lincoln's life.

What happened
on that fateful day?

And what can we learn
from the objects that survive?

Morning. April 14, 1865.

In just 24 hours

the country will be plunged
into unimaginable grief.



But the day dawned
bright and sunny.

The nation was emerging

from the bloody sacrifice
of Civil War.

The war hung over
Abraham Lincoln's presidency

like a cloud.

The problem of slavery

was threatening to tear
the country apart

before the ink was even dry
on the constitution.

On Lincoln's watch...
it happened.

If he succeeded

in soldering the Union back,

then he would obviously be
considered alongside Washington

as among the greatest
of American presidents.

On the other hand, if he faile,

he would be the last president
of the United States.

And there was really nothing
in between.

It had been just
five days before April 14th

that the southern surrender
at Appomattox

marked the beginning
of the end of the war.

There's just
this sense of this relief

after four years
of this incredible war,

and here's this moment

where it's like the clouds
are breaking,

the sun is coming out.

Lincoln starts the day

with a personal account
of the end of the war.

Tell Cornelia everything

was excellent this morning.

It's perfect.

He has
breakfast with his family,

including his son Robert,
who's home from the war.

Tell us about your adventure

with General Grant.

As an aide
to General Ulysses S. Grant,

Robert Todd Lincoln was witness
to the surrender.

Ordinary transaction.

President Lincoln
expressed a lot of interest

in details about the surrender
of General Lee,

what he looked like,

and expressed, you know,
his hope for a happy future.

We should go
for a drive this afternoon.

Mary Lincoln
talks about their plans

to attend the theatre
that evening.

There were two great theatres

in Washington at that time,

Ford's Theatre and Grover's.

All the Lincolns had to do was
express an interest in coming,

and believe me, the theatre
people knocked themselves silly

getting the tickets
to the White House.

Because if the President
is coming, you know,

that brought in extra patrons.

You wanted to see the President,

even if you didn't want
to see the play.

When I was
a boy, my mother would make...

For a modern president,

going to the theatre constituts
a security nightmare,

but Lincoln lived
in a different world.

He has this great thirst

for human contact
and relationships.

And so he works hard
at not isolating himself

within the world
of the White House.

Lincoln was seemingly determined

not to be a prisoner
of his office,

not to live in the bubble.

Because even in the 19th century
there was a bubble.

It was the Lincolns' habit

to see a play nearly every wee.

Their patronage was raising the
social profile of the theatre.

There were many people
who disliked the theatre.

It had a false reality to it,
for example.

There were extravagance,
emotionalism,

coarse audiences, late hours,

a historic association
with prostitution, for example.

A lot of these things led

kind of the moral element
of the country

to exclude or boycott
actors socially.

The evening's performance

stars the British actress
and director Laura Keene.

Known for her beautiful
dancing girls,

reviewers warned
polite audiences

of the "the hidden mysteries
of alabaster bosoms"

and the "finely shaped legs"
parading Ms. Keene's stage.

Keene's comedy
"Our American Cousin"

was her signature production.

But history will remember it
for one tragic event.

So how can I help you?

After breakfast,
in his White House office,

he meets with Nancy Bushrod,
a newly freed woman

seeking back pay
for her Union soldier husband.

Interestingly enough
we do know a little bit

about how Lincoln
might have reacted

to the newly freed people.

In the fall of '63,

he had issued a proclamation
of amnesty and reconstruction.

And what he seemed to be saying

was that freed people
should be educated.

They had to become a part
of American society.

They needed to be
treated fairly.

Lincoln promises Mrs. Bushrod

she will receive
the lost paychecks.

At 11 a.m., he leads
a cabinet meeting.

It was a good meeting.

Everyone said Lincoln seemed
light-hearted,

that like a burden
had been lifted off him

by the surrender
of the main Confederate Army.

Lincoln made it clear

that he wasn't interested
in any more blood-letting.

He didn't want to be party
to hanging Jeff Davis

or any other of the ringleaders
of the late rebellion.

Enough lives
have been sacrificed.

- Agreed, Mr. President.
- Healing must...

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

has a seat at the cabinet tabl.

Just days before, Lincoln
refused to let him resign,

pleading he needed
Stanton's help

through the war's final act.

Assistant Secretary of State
Frederick Seward

is filling in
for his injured father.

William Seward is bedridden
after a carriage accident.

Seward is really Lincoln's

closest confidant and advisor,

so in some sense
he's deputy president.

General, I'm delighted...

Fresh from the surrender,

General Grant is the celebrity
in the room.

Lincoln invites him
to the theatre,

but Grant and his wife
are leaving town

to visit their children.

At 3 p.m., Lincoln meets
with his vice president,

Andrew Johnson.

There probably couldn't
be two people more opposite

than Andrew Johnson
and Abraham Lincoln.

Johnson hated black people
in general.

He did not believe
that black people had any righs

that he had to recognize.

Almost all you need
to know about Andrew Johnson

is that he didn't call it
reconstruction.

He called it restoration.

Well, words matter.

And sometimes words matter
a great deal.

At 4 o'clock,

Lincoln set the complicated
affairs of the nation aside

for a rare outing with his wif.

It was unusual,
maybe exceptional,

that Lincoln would have asked
to join his wife

on her carriage ride
around the city.

He wanted to go alone,
just the two of them,

nobody trailing along.

It was a very sort
of intimate moment for them.

And it comes
out of this buoyancy

of, you know, the war is over.

We finally can look
to our future.

All of the self-doubt, you kno,
somehow is relieved.

A lovely day.

Oh, yes.
This is gonna be nice.

Lost in a moment of bliss,

Lincoln was unaware
of the nefarious conspiracy

organizing to take his life.

We need to talk.

You look like
you're feeling quite well.

Giddy, in fact.

She talks about
how he's in this giddy mood.

And in a sense
she's teasing him, you know...

seeing this individual

that she knew many years ago
in Springfield

seems to be emerging.

This burden is just
lifting off him.

I'm happy to be with you today.

Lincoln did have
a very hard time during the wa.

Not only the responsibilities,
the decisions

that led to the deaths
of thousands of people,

but he also lost
his son Willie in 1862.

That sent Mrs. Lincoln
into a spiraling depression.

Willie was just
11 years old when he died.

From what we hear,
he was Lincoln's favorite child

and the one that was
most like Lincoln.

A Smithsonian
treasure reveals a physical

reminder of the tragedy.

This is
Abraham Lincoln's silk top hat.

It has this wide band around it.

And this is a mourning band
that he added to it for his son

who died of typhoid fever
in the White House.

And he keeps this mourning band
on the hat

throughout much of the rest
of his presidency.

And I think what he's doing
is a very public recognition

that he's tying his mourning

with the loss of so many others
during the Civil War.

For Lincoln, the war
took an obvious physical toll.

Look at the photo.

A picture's worth 10,000 words.

You don't need 10,000 words

to see just what a cost
had been exacted.

But on this day, they
are putting it all behind them.

I consider this day

to be truly the end of this war.

They talk
about their travel plans,

and she says she wants to go
to the capitals of Europe,

and he wants to go see
the gold mines in California

and visit the Holy Land.

And he says, you know,

this is the beginning
of a new life for us.

We need to put aside our sorrows
and think about the future.

It was one of her
best memories of him.

And then fate steps in
and takes it all from them.

This is Abraham Lincoln's

fine gold pocket watch.

And it comes
with this incredible story.

When Lincoln took
his watch to have it cleaned,

jewelers left
secret engravings inside.

There's a message that says,

"On this day Fort Sumter
has been attacked.

Thank God we have a government"

Another watchmaker
who signs his name

and dates it
a couple years later.

And then a third individual

scratches in the name
"Jeff Davis."

The Smithsonian only
discovered the messages in 200.

A little frozen
moment in time, waiting,

you know, almost 150 years
until it was revealed.

On April 14, 1865,
the watch was counting down

the minutes
of Lincoln's last day.

They plan for the future

on an idyllic
private carriage ride.

And then they come back

and they get ready to go
to Ford's Theatre.

They try to bring a number
of people to come with.

Most people say no.

It's surprising, I know,
to modern people to hear that,

because today
a presidential invite

would almost be a requirement,
but apparently not in 1865.

In the end,
the Lincolns are accompanied

by a young couple...

Major Henry Rathbone, a survivr
of the battle of Antietam,

and his Fiancée, Clara Harris.

They arrived late
to the theatre.

The play was stopped,
there was cheering for him,

and laughter, and he waved
and acknowledged the crowd.

The Lincolns sit close together,

her hand on his arm.

Mary, during the play

when they're sitting down there,
is flirting with Lincoln.

And she turns to him and says,

"What will this other couple
think of me?"

She won't think anything at all.

On stage, an uncultured American

romances an aristocratic
Englishwoman.

For the Lincolns
it's a private joke,

bringing to mind
a certain lawyer,

born in a log cabin,

who courted the daughter of
a wealthy Kentucky businessman.

You are not used to
the manners of good society.

At the moment where
the play is full of laughter

and a big punch line
is coming up

and right as the whole theatre
bursts into laughter.

Turn you inside out, old gal.

You sockdologizing old man-trap.

In a blink, it is done.

Levity melts into horror.

No!

Lincoln's future
runs out onto the floor

with the blood from his wound.

Oh, no!

As astonishing
as it was horrible,

it was just one of several
attacks across the city...

An intended decapitation strike
on the U.S. Government.

Almost exactly 12 hours before,

one fateful moment
set it into motion.

At 11 o'clock in the morning,

the killer arrived
at the scene of the crime.

The President's murderer

wasn't a sniper, soldier
or professional assassin.

He was an actor.

John Wilkes Booth
was 26 years old

when he shot Abraham Lincoln.

Booth was a well-known figure

on the American stage...

Renowned as much
for his stage fighting

as his handsome face.

His father and brother were the
most famous actors in America.

The Booth family
was theatre royalty.

On the morning of April 14th,

Booth is picking up his mail
at Ford's Theatre,

which he occasionally did.

He was a frequent
performer there,

and the owner of the theatre
knew him.

The President is coming
tonight. Prepare the state box!

In an instant,

a nebulous plan
to avenge the South...

snaps into focus.

I don't think southerners

ever really anticipated a loss.

And so when the South did lose,

there were people
who were inconsolable,

and of course Lincoln was
at the center of that.

He believed that he had
one last chance

to save the South,

and that was to assassinate
Abraham Lincoln.

While Lincoln met
with his cabinet,

John Wilkes Booth cased
the Presidential box

at Ford's Theatre.

And of course
a clock was ticking

on the fate of the South.

If something was to be done
to help the South,

it needed to be done
immediately.

So this was a grand confluence
of moment and occasion.

He cannot take away
my way of life.

I will lose my boarding house.

More than a year earlier,

in the summer of 1864,

Booth was plotting
to kidnap the President.

We trade him for our brothers.

We take him.

He thought that
the South's chances of winning

would be improved if he could
capture the President

and take him as a hostage
to Richmond.

Perhaps Booth's bold plan

was an attempt
to assuage his guilt

for taking refuge in the safety
of the theatre

while half a million southernes
died on the battlefield.

He felt like a coward.

He personally said to his mothr
that, you know, I'm a coward,

I play a hero, you know,

but I just act one,
I'm not a real one.

And he sat there
watching history be made

by other young men his age.

It was a torment to him.

But by the time of
Lincoln's second inauguration,

kidnapping wouldn't have helped
the collapsing South.

Booth was in the crowd
to see Lincoln sworn in

on March 4, 1865.

In his speech, the President
condemned the evils of slavery.

Booth believed in slavery,

and he did not want
to see the world change,

and that infuriated him.

On the morning of April 14th,

Booth realizes he has
a perfect chance

to strike a last-ditch blow
for the Confederacy...

Not to kidnap, but to kill.

A probably
more rational-thinking person

would think, "Okay,

killing the President
isn't going to change things,"

but he believed that it would.

At Ford's he could
strike his blow for justice

on his own turf.

Booth after all was an actor,

he had performed
at Ford's Theatre.

O, Marco...

18 months before this day,

he came face to face with
Lincoln on this very stage.

Death is in thine eyes.

Mr. Lincoln,
he looked as though

he meant that for you.

It is an agony unbearable by...

Well, he does
look rather sharp at me,

doesn't he?

It is a grief that will kill me!

Booth has no intention

of sacrificing himself
for the President.

He plans to escape to the South
to bask in his newfound fame.

He secures the rental
of a fast horse for the evenin.

The stable master has no idea

that his horse
will never be returned.

But Booth is directing a tragey
with more than one antagonist..

We need to talk

and more than one victim.

This is
Abraham Lincoln's office suit.

It's also the suit that he was
wearing the day of April 14th,

before going to Ford's Theatre.

After the President's death,

an artist borrows the suit
to paint a portrait of Lincoln.

The White House doorman
delivers it.

The doorman
makes a point of telling them

about the frayed cuffs.

And he says you'll notice

that the cuffs on this suit
are frayed

from Abraham Lincoln writing
so many pardons

over the course of the war.

Just blocks away,

his killer is planning
the unforgiveable.

Booth calls on Confederate
veteran Lewis Powell.

- Wilkes?
- We need to talk.

He was six feet tall,
well built,

very impressive person
of bold purpose.

He had fought well and hard
during the war.

Someone who knew him said
in his personal manner

he was soft and gentle
as a kitten,

but at the same time, he would
have waded through blood,

if he had to, for his cause.

You get there at 10pm

One of his brothers
had been killed

during the Civil War.

Another brother
had been wounded.

So he also had probably had
this sense of vengeance.

Powell is to kill
Lincoln's right-hand man...

Secretary of State
William Seward.

Why take out Seward?

Well, perhaps in Booth's mind,

he's kind of the brains
behind Lincoln.

Lincoln is not thought
to be that smart,

by particularly Confederates,

but even lots of northerners

do not think of Lincoln
as a scholar.

And the pistol?

An invalid, Seward
should be easy pickings.

But Booth won't stop there.

John Wilkes Booth didn't
plan just to kill the Presiden.

At a minimum John Wilkes Booth
targeted the President,

Vice President Andrew Johnson,
Secretary of State Seward,

and General Ulysses Grant.

Booth is a natural leader

who commanded a Baltimore
street gang as a boy.

As a man, his fame provides
a willing cadre of accomplices.

In some ways they're a number

of just sad individuals;

bitter, desperate, acting out.

Not that different
than many of the figures

that we know
in more recent times

that have made
assassination attempts

of presidents
or other world leaders.

The South will
crumble if we lose our slaves.

They meet at a boarding house

owned by Mary Surratt.

Mary Surratt
believed wholeheartedly

in the southern cause.

She believed in slavery.

She believed
in that way of life.

The South
is very much interested

in retaining this institution
that is central to their lives.

The mark of freedom
in America was race.

And therefore, people took
a lot of pride in being white.

Mary Surratt knows
this collection of men

through her son,
John Surratt Jr.,

a Confederate courier who is
in Canada on April 14th.

Because it was a boarding house,

people were coming and going
from there.

The conspirators
were able to meet

and not raise any sort
of eyebrows or raise attention.

So it was a perfect sort
of spy lair.

Booth assigns
a second man to help Powell

carry out
the Seward assassination.

A mousey Clerk
by the name of Davy Herold

who's to hold the horses,
to guard the front door,

while Powell goes in
to kill Seward.

An avid bird hunter,

David Herold knows
the Maryland countryside.

He offers the promise
of a clean getaway.

At 2:30 p.m. on the 14th,

Booth brings Surratt
a pair of field glasses.

She promises to deliver them
to her tavern

15 miles south of Washington.

And she did her bidding
for John Wilkes Booth,

and she went back and waited
in her house

until the assassination
occurred.

Booth travels from
Surratt's to the Kirkwood hous,

the home of Vice President
Andrew Johnson

and conspirator George Atzerodt.

Atzerodt is the 19th century
equivalent of an auto mechanic.

He owns a carriage repair shop.

But he also moonlights
on the river,

bringing rebel spies
into Maryland.

Atzerodt isn't at home.

Booth leaves a note,
but not for George...

he writes a message
to Vice President Johnson.

I don't wish to disturb you.

Are you at home?

The note suggests
the unthinkable...

Collusion between
the Vice President

and the assassin.

Johnson was unpredictable.

He got drunk
at his own swearing-in.

And got up and made
an ass of himself.

And I had my reasons...

To the embarrassment
of everyone,

including the President.

Come from horrible...

from humble origins...

Mary Lincoln
believed Johnson and Booth

had a connection.

That miserable inebriate Johnson

had cognizance
of my husband's death.

Why was that card of Booth's
found in his box?

Some acquaintance
certainly existed.

They may have even
known one another well.

As the rumor goes, when Johnson
was governor of Tennessee,

he had a mistress

whose sister
was simultaneously seeing

none other
than John Wilkes Booth.

Two sisters,
two southern sympathizers

who communicate on the day
of the assassination...

but Mary Lincoln's suspicions
appear to be unfounded...

Booth was arranging
Johnson's murder.

While president and Mrs. Lincon
ride through town,

Booth walks the same streets
searching for George Atzerodt.

At 4:30 p.m., General Grant
and his wife Julia

pass Booth in their carriage
on their way out of town.

Their journey may have saved
Grant's life

and prevented the assassination
of a second U.S. president.

If, as he believed
earlier in the day,

General Grant had been
in the box that evening,

I think he might well
have killed Grant as well.

Atzerodt,
you're a hard man to find.

Booth locates Atzerot
and orders him to kill Johnson

as close to 10:15 p.m.
as possible.

Booth's plan
was to do all of this

kind of more or less
simultaneously

because he was concerned
that if for example

the President was killed
at 9 p.m.,

and then you tried to kill
Seward at 10 p.m.

and Johnson at 11 p.m.,

that guards
would have been placed.

But in assigning Atzerodt
to kill the Vice President,

Booth completely misjudged
his man.

Atzerodt was rather
a villainous-looking character,

but he wasn't a desperado.

He was in for the kidnapping,
but not for the murder.

You can do this.

But Booth could be convincing.

You gave your word.

On stage,
his brutal fight scenes

injured fellow players.

His distraught Romeo ripped
Juliet's hair out by the roots.

His violent Richard III knocked
an actor into the orchestra pi.

Off stage, he was
just as aggressive.

Do you give your word?

April 14, 1865.
7 p.m.

Inside room 228
at the Opulent National Hotel,

one of America's
most well-known actors

is about to become

one of America's
most well-known villains.

Many I know... the vulgar herd...

Will blame me for what
I am about to do,

but posterity, I am sure,
will justify me.

If tonight goes as planned,

John Wilkes Booth

will be leaving the north
behind forever.

He'll also abandon his Fiancée.

He was involved with Lucy Hale,

who was the daughter of
the Senator from New Hampshire.

Hale, it is so good
to see you, my friend.

Just hours before,
at the White House,

Lincoln met with his assassin's
future father-in-law,

John P. Hale.

Hale is considered
the first senator

to take a stand against slaver.

It is supremely ironic
that Booth,

who was essentially
a pro-southern fanatic,

would be engaged to the daughter

of a high-profile
abolitionist senator.

Booth and Lucy also
met on the morning of the 14th.

Clearly he had to keep
his sympathies to himself

and act in a certain way
around her and her father.

And clearly they had no idea

he was capable
of killing the President.

Booth's leather journal,

which exists to this day in the
collection at Ford's Theatre,

offers a clue to his
relationship with Lucy Hale.

Her photograph is just one face
in a stack of four other women.

Just three blocks away,

President Lincoln is also
preparing for the evening out.

As Abraham Lincoln
is getting ready

to go to Ford's Theatre,

he's drinking a cup of coffee,

and he leaves it behind
on the windowsill.

This is a coffee cup

from the Lincoln service
at the White House.

When word of his assassination
reaches the White House,

one of the servants
of the White House

sees that the coffee cup
was left behind

and preserves it.

It's the last thing
that Lincoln drank from

before going to Ford's Theatre.

At 8 o'clock,

Lewis Powell is preparing
for his deadly errand.

He packs a revolver,

a Bowie knife
with an eight-inch blade,

and, perhaps anticipating
an escape, his toothbrush.

At the same time,
George Atzerodt,

the conspirator assigned to kil
Vice President Johnson,

is drinking heavily in
anticipation of his grisly tas.

I am ready to pour out
all over you

like apple sass over roast pork.

The Lincolns and their guests

arrive at Ford's
in high spirits.

The crowd
applauds the President.

They stop the play.

They sit down,
and the play begins.

They're barking up
the wrong tree...

About 10 minutes after 10,

Booth began to mount the stairs

leading up
to the second tier of boxes,

where you would find
President Lincoln.

Across town, Atzerodt
realizes the time has come...

and Powell arrives
at Seward's door.

He has a little package

which he says is medicine
from Seward's doctor.

Good evening, sir.

Sir, I have medicine
here for Mr. Seward.

I'm instructed
to give it to him personally.

So there's a little conversation

with the servant
at the front door.

"I'll take it up to him."

"No, no, I'm supposed to take t
to him personally."

Finally Powell
just ignores the servant

and goes up the stairs.

Excuse me.

And then there's
another conversation

at the top of the stairs
with Seward's son Frederick.

I'll take it to him.

I'm to take it
to him personally.

And Seward's daughter Fanny

opens the door
of Seward's sick room...

Is someone here to see father?

So now Powell knows
exactly where Seward is.

He's now found his victim.

Frederick?

Oh, oh!

He pulls out his pistol,

points it straight
at Frederick's head,

point blank range,
and pulls the trigger.

As Booth makes his wy
toward the Presidential box

he is seen,
but no one stops him.

He was well known to everyone...

A popular actor, of course.

And that let Booth get
right behind Lincoln.

- At Seward's...
- Frederick!

Powell's gun malfunctions.

But Powell clubs
Frederick on the head.

Frederick falls to the floor.

They later find holes
in his head

large enough
you can see his brain.

Booth is in position at Ford's.

Booth comes into the box

right as the whole theatre
bursts into laughter.

Powell bursts through the door.

Please, no!

He's basically broken
the gun in attacking Frederick.

But he has this Bowie knife,
it's about that big.

And he raises it up, pushing
Seward down onto the bed,

and slashes down
at Seward's face and neck.

As the crowd roars
with laughter, Booth takes aim.

Sockdologizing old man-trap!

So that moment
where the whole future looked

like it finally lifted,
the clouds had separated,

comes crashing down.

The bullet enters
the back of Lincoln's head.

Booth stepped up to him,

fired a shot
from perhaps 3, 4 inches,

not right against
Lincoln's head, but close.

And it hit Lincoln
in the back of the head

like a sledgehammer would.

This, this is the Derringer
that Booth used on April 14.

It's about six inches long,
weighs about eight ounces.

A part of
the Ford's Theatre collection,

this instrument of history
was Booth's personal weapon.

Booth probably had this weapon

for at least five or six years

before the assassination
took place.

It fires a single bullet,

so this is like we say,
one and done.

Booth dropped the pistol,

went to the front of the box,
intending to escape.

Major Rathbone jumped
from his seat,

he grabbed Booth from behind

and pulled him back
from the railing.

Booth twisted around
in the Major's grip

and for the first time
the men were face to face.

And Rathbone later said
he was absolutely horrified

by the look on Booth's face.

And Booth was
stronger than Rathbone was,

so he was able to free himself

and slash Rathbone
with the knife.

Booth leaps
from the box to the stage.

Sic Semper Tyrannis!

And makes his escape.

Powell also runs
from the scene of his crime.

It took only seconds

to leave both Seward men
barely clinging to life.

He leaves behind a house

described in the words
of all who saw it that night

as bathed in blood.

As I stood, my feet slipped

in a great pool of blood.

Father looked so ghastly,
I was sure he was dead.

But Seward opens his eyes,

calls for a doctor and orders
Fanny to close the house.

At Ford's, 23-year-old surgeon
Charles Leale

is the first person
to gain entry to the box

after the shooting.

I'll do everything in my power.

He's been a doctor
for only 45 days.

Initially, the President
appears unwounded.

Dr. Charles Taft enters the box
the same way Booth left it.

Leale discovers
the President's dilated pupils,

signifying brain damage.

They find the wound
in the back of his skull.

Leale utters the words

that would reverberate
across the country.

His wound is mortal.

It is impossible for him
to recover.

In the theatre,
panic breaks out.

Laura Keene,
who is the star of the play,

comes forward
to try to quiet the crowd.

Have some presence of mind.

Remain in your places.

Order, gentlemen, order.

And somebody else yells,

"The President needs water."

She rushes to her dressing roo,

goes back into
the Presidential box

with a pitcher of water.

She's invited to hold Lincoln
and cradle his head in her lap.

Blood drips on her gown
and on her cuff.

Laura Keene's cuff,

still stained
with Lincoln's blood,

is one of the more
macabre objects

in the Smithsonian collection.

I mean, there's
something that's so amazing

about this simple object,
this linen cuff.

Why are people sort
of capturing and saving

these really horrific things?

But here is just
a piece of cloth

that held the blood from Lincon

that she wanted to pass on and
be sure that it was safely kep.

It's all about trying
to capture that moment

in some tangible way.

Lincoln's head wound

is creating pressure
on his brain.

To relieve it, Dr. Leale
puts his finger inside the hole

to break up the clot.

Blood is everywhere.

There was a young Navy sailmaker

who was one of the audience
that night.

He asked Major Rathbone
as they came out of the box,

"Is it serious?"

And Rathbone held out his hand
and Rathbone said,

"That's his brains.

Serious?
Yes, yes, it's serious.

That's Lincoln's brains
right there, on my hands."

Oh, no!

Fearing that Lincoln
won't survive

the journey to the White House,

the doctors move him

to the Petersen Boarding House
across the street.

It's all completely
ad-libbed at that point.

Here's Lincoln, he's been shot.
Where's the closest bed?

At 11 o'clock

Secretary of War Stanton
arrives at the Petersen House.

With Seward wounded

and Vice President Johnson
unaccounted for,

Stanton, in effect, is
the acting head of the nation.

It's clear, I think, frm
the moment Stanton sees Lincoln

that the President is dying.

Cabinet members are showing up,

family comes and goes.

Mary, who is in no shape at al,

is sort of removed from
her husband at that moment.

It was Stanton who said,
"Get that woman out of here."

"Out of here" being the bedroom
in which her husband was dying.

For her part,
Mary will never be the same.

So to have those
moments of incredible happines,

just when you think you're goig
to be relieved of your sorrow,

be snatched away again,

pulls her over the edge, and
it's certainly understandable.

While the President
lies dying, the assassins flee.

Booth makes it to Maryland
and meets up with David Herold

before the alarm is sounded.

Powell left Seward's home,

but failed to escape the city
and was forced to hide.

Stanton immediately begins
the investigation.

When Lincoln was shot
by Booth, that was bad enough.

But the attack on Secretary of
State Seward by Powell

indicated this wasn't
just one nut job.

There were multiple people
involved in this thing.

Was this a last desperate gasp
by the Confederacy

to do by murder what they hadn't
been able to do by battle?

Stanton blocks roads,
searches steamboats and trains,

and offers a reward of $10,000.

Mr. Vice President.

Around 1:30 a.m.,

Vice President Johnson
arrives, unharmed.

George Atzerodt
had lost his nerve.

The greatest tragedy
in 19th century America

was the success of Booth's plot
to assassinate Lincoln.

The second greatest
tragedy was arguably the failue

of the administration
that followed him.

With the end of slavery,

the future of America was
at a monumental turning point.

The tragedy of Lincoln's death

is not just that
he was assassinated,

but when he was assassinated...

when he has promised freedom
to enslaved people.

Instead of true freedom,

Johnson offered economic slavey
for African Americans

by allowing former slave states
to implement the black codes.

Under Lincoln,
the North won the Civil War,

and under Johnson, the resistat
South won the subsequent peace.

Seward also survives.

Though repeatedly stabbed,

miraculously no arteries
were severed.

But his face
is permanently scarred.

Frederick Seward's skull
was cracked in two places.

He slept for 60 hours,
but recovered.

Through the night,
Stanton interviews witnesses.

We looked up probably
at them more than the play.

Almost from the first
person that Stanton talks to

in his investigation,

people are telling him
the assassin in Ford's Theatre

looked like
or was John Wilkes Booth.

John Wilkes Booth
is a well-known figure.

Imagine that a famous
current actor murdered someone

in a crowded theatre
in Washington,

it would be pretty easy to say,
"look for famous current actor"

Just feet away
from Stanton's headquarters,

Lincoln's long frame
barely fits on the small bed.

A month before
the assassination,

this room was rented
by a young actor

named Charles Warwick.

In an ironic twist of history,

a visiting friend fell asleep
upon this same narrow bed...

Lincoln's killer,
John Wilkes Booth.

But Booth will never
meet a soft bed again.

Booth was injured,

and there's a controversy
over when he was injured.

When he jumped off the balcony

after he had assassinated
the President,

he may have broken his leg then,

or on their ride
through southern Maryland

his horse stumbled and fell
on top of him,

and he may have
broken his leg then.

But getting through
the countryside

with a swelling leg,
and he was very weak,

was very difficult.

At 7:22 a.m.
Lincoln takes his last breath.

And Edwin Stanton
famously eulogized...

Now he belongs to the ages.

Though it offers
only cold comfort,

the race is on to bring
the masterminds to justice.

We will follow him
to the end of the Earth...

Stanton is certain
he will find a link

between John Wilkes Booth
and Jefferson Davis.

Stanton was very keen to show

that this was not merely
a deranged actor

and a couple of his Confederates

but was actually
the Confederacy.

But a tie to
the Confederacy was never foun.

And many southerners felt
Booth's crime crossed a line.

It's clear from his journal

that he expected to be praised

and that people would be excitd
and happy that he had done thi.

He was receiving
southern newspapers

from some of the people
that were helping him hide,

and he was deeply wounded

that he was not being celebrated
as a hero.

A country groaned
beneath this tyranny

and prayed for this end.

Yet now behold the cold hand
they extend to me.

While Booth fled,
Surratt, Powell and Atzerodt

were caught in Washington
and sentenced to be hanged.

Awaiting their fate
in stifling jail cells,

the prisoners were hooded to
prevent them from communicatin.

I think that they
were quite convinced

that their conspiracy and their
plot to assassinate Lincoln

would be successful and that
they would not be caught.

You just look at this material

and you can see
the incredible vengeance,

the hatred towards
these conspirators.

These prison hoods were
driving them literally crazy.

There was a practical purpose,

but I think underlying
all of that really

was an intent to make them
as uncomfortable as possible.

And it bordered on torture,
certainly.

I'm sure that they never
imagined this.

Booth was never imprisoned.

Private, burn that barn!

The Union Army closes in.

They've been following his trail
for days and days and days,

and they trap him in this barn.

Set fire.

The troops set fire
to the barn to smoke them out.

And Herold surrenders
and comes out,

but Booth won't surrender.

And he has a rifle with him.

One of the soldiers believes,

as he's peering through
the slats in the barn,

that he sees Booth
raise his gun to fire it.

So he shot Booth instead.

They pull Booth out,
and they lay him on the porch.

And he dies there.

He dies there on the ground.

One of the things
that makes the assassination

difficult to accept

is that one person,

who's not really that important
in American life,

can bring down someone
so important to everyone else.

It seems almost
out of proportion, right,

that a somebody can be killed
by a nobody.

But Lincoln's legacy lives on.

He's one
of these incredible figures,

he's a creature
from the American frontier,

he is imbued with this notion
of the American promise,

before there was even
such a defined sense

of what the American promise i.

Lincoln's presidency is unique.

It was fated to be uniquely
significant historically.

He was confronting something

no president before him
had confronted:

a disintegrating Union.

You know,
the greatness of Lincoln

and restoring the unity
of the country.

The humanity of Lincoln
in freeing the slaves.

If these things had not happened

in the 1860s during the war,

then I wouldn't be here
talking to you today.

That hard-won,
inalienable right of freedom...

and a nation reborn.

150 years after he was struck
down in a moment of triumph,

Abraham Lincoln still inspires.