Born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln will perpetually be known as the 15th president of the United States. In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator. He lost the election, but in debating with Douglas he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for President in 1860. On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth. Soon after his death questions arose immediately. Just who may or may not have been involved with Booth has been the subject of profound speculation among writers, historians, and others for over 130 years. .
On the night of his assassination Lincoln was accompanied by his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, a twenty-eight year-old officer named Major Henry R. Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancee, Clara Harris. Soon after the play had begun a figure drew out a pistol, stepped into the presidential box, aimed, and fired. The president wilted forward. The assassin dropped the pistol and waved a dagger. Officer Rathbone lunged the assassin, forcing him to the railing. Booth leapt from the balcony and caught the spur of his left boot on a flag draped over the rail, and shattered a bone in his leg on landing. Though injured, he rushed out the back door, and disappeared on horseback.
Hearing what had happened, a doctor from the audience immediately went upstairs to the box. The bullet had entered through Lincoln's left ear and lodged behind his right eye. He was paralyzed and barely breathing. He was carried across Tenth Street, to a boarding house opposite the theater, but the doctors' best efforts failed. Nine hours later, at 7:22 AM on April 15th, Lincoln died. .
At almost the same moment Booth fired the fatal shot, his accomplice, Lewis Paine attacked Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Henry Seward. Seward lay in bed, recovering from a carriage accident. Paine entered the mansion, claiming to have a delivery of medicine from the Secretary's doctor.