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America's transfer from civil war to peace was made more difficult on April 14, 1865, when Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed, just five days after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. A well-known actor, John Wilkes Booth, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, stepped into the president's box. Booth's decision to pull the trigger altered the nation's power to reconstruct after the war. Booth escaped into the night as Abraham Lincoln was carried to the Petersen boarding house across the street. It was there that President Lincoln died early the next morning, and became the first American president to be assassinated. Explore Ford's Theatre National Historic Site and discover some of the motivations behind this tragic act and its impact on a nation trying to heal. While this is an open forum, it is also a family friendly one, so please keep your comments and wall posts clean. In addition to keeping it family friendly, we ask that you follow our posting guidelines. We do not allow graphic, obscene, explicit or racist comments or submissions, nor do we allow comments that are abusive, hateful or intended to defame anyone or any organization. We do not allow solicitations or advertisements. This includes promotion or endorsement of any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency. Similarly, we do not allow attempts to defame or defraud any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency. We do not allow comments that suggest or encourage illegal activity. You participate at your own risk, taking personal responsibility for your comments, your username and any information provided. Finally, the appearance of external links on this site does not constitute an official endorsement on behalf of the U.S. National Park Service or the U.S. Department of the Interior.

For today’s German-American Heritage Day, we commemorate the Petersen Family, who opened their home to the dying Preside...
10/06/2026

For today’s German-American Heritage Day, we commemorate the Petersen Family, who opened their home to the dying President Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14th, 1865. William and Anna Petersen were German immigrants who had become American citizens in 1844. Their house was constructed in 1849, directly across the street from what would one day become Ford’s Theatre. They began renting rooms from their house as a boardinghouse for additional income. By April 1865, between 13 and 15 people lived in the Petersen House.

It was one of the Petersen’s boarders, Henry Safford, who invited the men carrying the dying President Abraham Lincoln into the house. Anna Petersen was visiting her and William’s daughters in New York. William Petersen left the house during the night to go to his shop on 8th Street. His 15-year-old son, Fred, stayed with the doctors and visitors to the dying President throughout the night.

After that night, the Petersen family’s fortunes soured. Boarders did not want to stay in the place President Lincoln had died and visitors frequented the house searching for souvenirs. In 1871, William Petersen was found unconscious on a park bench, dying of a laudanum overdose. Anna Petersen passed away a few months later. Their children sold the furniture of the house in 1872, before selling the house itself in 1878.

Visit our website to learn more about the Petersen House and the Petersen Family.

https://www.nps.gov/foth/the-petersen-house.htm

Image: NPS.

After shooting Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth escaped the President's Box by jumping about 12 feet down to the stage...
10/03/2026

After shooting Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth escaped the President's Box by jumping about 12 feet down to the stage. While getting his body over the wooden balustrade, the spur of his boot caught on one of the flags decorating the box. He fell from the box and onto the stage. Although John Wilkes Booth wrote in his journal that he broke his leg in the fall from the box, he told others a different story that night.

Booth rode out of Washington and met with David Herold, a co-conspirator. When they met, the left side of Booth's horse was injured. Booth told Herold he had an accident, and that the horse fell on him while he was riding, breaking his left fibula. Booth sought medical treatment from Dr. Samuel Mudd. Dr. Mudd had been part of Booth's original plan to kidnap President Lincoln, but he hadn't known about the assassination plot. Dr. Mudd sliced the boot off of the assassin's swollen leg and set the injury with a splint made from pieces of a hatbox. Then, Booth and Herold went on the run again. A few days later when detectives found the sliced boot under a bed at Dr. Mudd's home, they found an incriminating inscription on the upper inside: "J. Wilkes."



Image used courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Actor John Wilkes Booth scribbled a manifesto on the pages of an old pocket diary from 1864 while in hiding after assass...
09/30/2026

Actor John Wilkes Booth scribbled a manifesto on the pages of an old pocket diary from 1864 while in hiding after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln. Newspapers around the country had already condemned him as a traitor and a coward for shooting Lincoln in the back of the head. Seeking recognition as a heroic patriot, Booth used the empty calendar pages to explain his motives and describe his biased version of the deadly crime.

"April 14 Friday the Ides
Until today nothing was ever thought of sacrificing to our country's wrongs. For six months we had worked to capture. But our cause, being almost lost, something decisive & great must be done...Our country owed all her trouble to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment. The country is not—April 1865 what it was. This forced union is not what I have loved. I care not what becomes of me. I have no desire to out-live my country."

John Wilkes Booth considered the Confederate States of America to be his country more than the United States. He also fulfilled his desire not to out-live "his country". Booth was killed about 12 days after the assassination while hiding in a tabacco barn on the Garrett Farm in Virginia.

See more photos of the infamous journal and read more about it here.
https://www.nps.gov/foth/learn/historyculture/thoughts-from-an-assassin-the-journal-of-john-wilkes-booth.htm

Image used courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Happy National Public Lands Day!Historically, National Public Lands Day marks the United State’s largest single day volu...
09/26/2026

Happy National Public Lands Day!

Historically, National Public Lands Day marks the United State’s largest single day volunteer effort. Volunteers serve in parks and public lands across the country, including right here at Ford’s Theatre! Volunteers at Ford’s help guide visitors through the site, answer questions, and share their passion for Lincoln’s story with our visitors.

Even if you can’t make it to a park today, there are other ways to participate in National Public Lands Day! Use to share your favorite park activity on the social media platform of your choice. You can also share your volunteering sorties with . Thank you for your ongoing support of both the National Park Service and our public lands!

Photo of Ford’s Theater volunteers used courtesy of the NPS.

164 years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln released a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, establishing a timeline...
09/22/2026

164 years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln released a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, establishing a timeline for freeing over three million people enslaved in the United States and redefining the Civil War as a struggle to end slavery.

When the Civil War started in 1861, Lincoln aimed to preserve the Union rather than immediately end slavery. He waited to issue an anti-slavery proclamation until after a Union victory, which came to Antietam in September 1862. On September 22, he announced enslaved people in rebellious areas would be freed within 100 days.

Lincoln's final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declared slaves in rebel states free and called for Black military units in the Union forces; about 180,000 African Americans joined the army and 18,000 the navy. The proclamation made supporting the Confederacy synonymous with supporting slavery, discouraging involvement from anti-slavery nations like Britain and France and strengthening the Republican Party.

Since the proclamation was not a law, Lincoln pushed for a constitutional amendment. The 13th Amendment passed in 1865, abolishing slavery nationwide, though Black Americans continued to face inequality for another century.



Images used courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Major Henry Reed Rathbone was present for two of the United States’ greatest tragedies: the assassination of President A...
09/17/2026

Major Henry Reed Rathbone was present for two of the United States’ greatest tragedies: the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the Battle of Antietam.

That battle happened on this day 164 years ago. General George B. McClellan led the Army of the Potomac to intercept the Army of Northern Virginia at Antietam Creek. The Confederates hoped to convince Maryland to secede from the Union and to force the Union to negotiate. What happened instead was the bloodiest single day in American history.

At the time, Rathbone was a Captain in the 12th United States Infantry Regiment. His unit was ordered to hold the central bridge over Antietam Creek. The bridge was vital, as it let Union cavalry and artillery move across the water quickly. When Confederate forces directed artillery and sharpshooter fire at the bridge, Rathbone’s unit sent out skirmishers. The regiment spent much of the battle supporting Union artillery positions, suffering one killed and three wounded. A small number in comparison to the 12,000 casualties suffered by the United States Army that day.



Image of Major Henry Reed Rathbone used courtesy of the National Archives.

Image of the Middle Bridge at Antietam courtesy of the National Park Service.

Edwin Booth was considered by many to be the greatest American actor of the 19th Century. Edwin joined his older brother...
09/14/2026

Edwin Booth was considered by many to be the greatest American actor of the 19th Century.

Edwin joined his older brother, Junius Jr., and his younger brother, John Wilkes, in becoming an actor. Edwin enjoyed far greater success than either of his siblings, embarking on a tour of Australia and England in 1852. He joined both brothers in 1864 for a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in New York City, a fundraiser that paid for the statue of Shakespeare that stands in Central Park to this day.

About a year later, Edwin’s younger brother John Wilkes assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre.

Edwin knew nothing of John Wilkes Booth’s plot. He had been a firm supporter of the federal government throughout the Civil War. After the assassination, Edwin was forced off the stage for several months. Edwin disowned his brother and is rumored to have even forbidden John Wilkes’ name from being spoken in his house. However, two years after the assassination and Booth’s death, Edwin wrote to President Andrew Johnson to get John Wilkes’s body returned. Edwin had his infamous brother’s remains buried in an unmarked grave.

1865 Portrait of Edwin Booth used courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Image of John Wilkes Booth, Edwin Booth, and Junius Brutus Booth Jr. in the performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in New York. Taken from "The Life and Times of Joseph Haworth".

On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln met with the leader of another American nation whose people had been divi...
09/12/2026

On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln met with the leader of another American nation whose people had been divided by the Civil War: Principal Chief John Ross of the Cherokee.

It was not Principal Chief Ross’s first time in Washington D.C. He had served the Cherokee as Principal Chief since 1828. He served through the Trail of Tears, where he lost his first wife, Quatie Ross, and now faced navigating the politics of the Civil War.

Chief Ross had argued for neutrality for the Cherokee. However, as the states around his people seceded and the Federal government withdrew troops from his nation, Ross felt forced to sign a treaty with the Confederacy. The Confederacy broke the treaty less than a year later.

During his meeting with President Lincoln, Ross explained the situation his people faced. Although most of the Cherokee supported the United States, factions within them did not. Ross pointed out that “a large majority of [Cherokee] warriors are now engaged fighting under their flag.” A majority that included three of Ross’s own sons. Lincoln replied that the Cherokee would “receive all the protection which can be given them consistently with the duty of the government to the whole country.”



Image courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Happy Labor Day!President Abraham Lincoln was famous for being a laborer before he was President. One of the most common...
09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day!

President Abraham Lincoln was famous for being a laborer before he was President. One of the most common depictions of him was as a rail-splitter. During his first Presidential Campaign, Lincoln talked about the work, saying “I am not ashamed to confess that twenty five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat -- just what might happen to any poor man's son!”

His humble origins partially inspired Lincoln’s opposition to slavery. Lincoln viewed paid labor as a right. A right that enslaved Black workers were denied. He argued “I want every man to have the chance -- and I believe a black man is entitled to it -- in which he can better his condition -- when he may look forward and hope to be a hired laborer this year and the next, work for himself afterward, and finally to hire men to work for him! That is the true system.”



Painting of “Lincoln the Rail-Splitter” from the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection.

On this day 164 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln reinstated General George B. McClellan as full commander following ...
09/02/2026

On this day 164 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln reinstated General George B. McClellan as full commander following General John Pope’s failure at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Virginia. Previously, McClellan had served as commander of the Army of the Potomac, but after his unsuccessful attempt to capture Richmond during the Seven Days Battles in June 1862, his army was transferred to Pope's newly formed Army of Virginia.

At the Second Battle of Bull Run, Confederate General Robert E. Lee overwhelmed Pope, who failed to demonstrate effective leadership and ultimately retreated to Washington, D.C. While McClellan observed the battle, he chose not to assist Pope, even though he was nearby. As a result of this defeat, Union morale plummeted.

President Lincoln believed that McClellan was the best available general to restore the spirits of the Union forces. McClellan’s strengths lay in his ability to prepare and organize an army for combat, and Lincoln recognized these talents as essential for raising morale after the Union’s setback.

Image used courtesy of the Library of Congress

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