John Wilkes Booth

A detailed Summary of John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth was born on May 10, 1838 on a farm near Bel Air, Maryland. He was the 9th of 10 children and one of the more remembered ones (John Asia and Edwin). His family was of British origins, they had moved there in 1821. John Wilkes Booth attended private schools all his life as a child and was enrolled in a Quaker boarding school. When he got older he went to St. Timothy's Hall, an Episcopal military academy in Cantonsville, Maryland.

When Booth's father died in 1852 he went back to the family farm to help out, but according to his sister (Asia Booth Clarke) he did not want to be there. He would often talk of fame and how he wanted to be like his father, Star of the Stage. Booth's first stage debut was at the age of 17 in the role of The Earl of Richmond in Shakespeare's Richard III, it would be two years before he would be on the stage again. He played stock in Philadelphia but wasn't very good at it. He forgot his lines often and missed his cues all the time. But determined, he eventually became a member of the Richmond Theater. It was there in Richmond that he became enamored with the southern way of life. It was also there that his career gained momentum they called him the handsomest man in America.

At 4.00 a.m. Booth and Herold arrived at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd who treated Booth's broken leg. With the help of other sympathizers they reached Port Royal, Virginia, on the morning of 26th April. They hid in a barn owned by Richard Garrett. However, federal troops arrived soon afterwards and the men were ordered to surrender. David Herold came out of the barn but Booth refused and so the barn was set on fire. While this was happening one of the soldiers, Sergeant Boston Corbett, found a large crack in the barn and was able to shoot Booth in the back. His body was dragged from the barn and after being searched the soldiers recovered his leather bound diary. The bullet had punctured his spinal cord and he died in great agony two hours later. On June 29, 1865 Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel Mudd, Michael O'Laughlin, Edman Spangler and Samuel Arnold were found guilty of being involved in the conspiracy to murder Lincoln. Surratt, Powell, Atzerodt and Herold were hanged at Washington Penitentiary on 7th July, 1865. Surratt, who was expected to be reprieved, was the first woman in American history to be executed.

Booth, armed with a derringer pistol and a hunting knife, arrived at the theatre at about 9.30 p.m. John Burroughs, a boy who worked at the theatre, was asked to hold his horse while he went to a nearby saloon for a drink. He entered Ford's Theatre soon after 10.00 p.m. and made his way to the State Box. John Parker, Lincoln's bodyguard from the Metropolitan Police

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Approximate Word count = 1024
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People