John Wilkes Booth was a pro-Confederate citizen who was tired of the North winning. The tide of the War was switching after the Battle of Gettysburg when the Union won, and the Northern states were feeling like they had a chance to win the Civil War. Booth was very much in rage as President Abraham Lincoln wanted to run for another four years and be re-elected. Booth was very torn within his mind. He promised his mother he would not enlist and become a soldier, however, he was thinking he was a coward for not taking up the fight against the Union.
Thus came a thought: He would try to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth would need help if his thought would become a success. In November 1864, John Wilkes Booth was pissed off. Lincoln just won the re-election with a 55% of the popular vote would be president for the next four years. With needing more people, John Wilkes Booth assembled a band of Confederate sympathizers:
- Samuel Arnold
- Michael O’Laughlen
- David Herold
- George Atzerodt
- Lewis Powell
- John Surratt
On March 4th, John Wilkes Booth attended the second inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln on the steps of the United States Capital. He was the guest of his fiancé Lucy Hale, who was still unaware of his hatred towards Lincoln. Two weeks later, Booth assembled the group to kidnap Lincoln as he traveled to the Soldiers House northwest of town. However, Abraham Lincoln changed his plans and attended a reception at a local hotel instead of relaxing at the Soldiers House.
In early April 1865, many things were in the works with President Abraham Lincoln and the mind sense of John Wilkes Booth. On April 11th, Lincoln was in favor of granting suffrage to the slaves during a speech at the White House.
General Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox
Booth was in the crowd and vowed to kill Lincoln and declared that this speech was his final speech that Lincoln would ever give. A day later, Booth learned that General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox to Ulysses S. Grant and the Civil War was won by the Union. In hearing this, Booth changed his mind from kidnaping the President to assassinating the President.