Booth Killed Lincoln

DESCRIPTION: "Wiles Booth came to Washington, An actor great was he, He played at Ford's Theater And Lincoln went to see." Booth sneaks up on Lincoln and shoots him, then flees. The dying Lincoln says "'Of all the actors in this town, I loved Wilkes Booth the best'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: death Civilwar homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 14, 1865 - John Wilkes Booth shoots Abraham Lincoln.
Apr 15, 1865 - Lincoln dies
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 224-225, "(Booth Killed Lincoln)" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 111-112, "Booth Killed Lincoln" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 90-91, "Booth Killed Lincoln" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16990
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Booth Killed Lincoln" (LOC AAFS L29, 1949)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Booth Shot Lincoln
NOTES [145 words]: Five days after Robert E. Lee's surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia (an event that guaranteed that the Confederacy would not survive), John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) entered Abraham Lincoln's box at Ford's Theatre and shot the President. Booth fled across the stage and, despite breaking his leg, escaped. Eventually he and his fellow conspirators were caught; Booth died when the barn in which he was hiding took fire. Most of the other conspirators were sentenced to death or long imprisonment.
Had Booth killed Lincoln earlier, it might have made a difference. As it was, the only difference the assassination made was to cause Andrew Johnson to succeed as President. Johnson tried to protect the South from the vengeance of radicals in congress, but he was so inept that one suspects the South would have been better off if Lincoln had remained alive. - RBW, (PJS)
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SCW90

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