Sonya's Blog - Day 150 - Ford Theatre

Sonya’s Blog - Day 150 - November 19th - Ford Theatre

We were going to do a walking day today around all of the Washington Monuments, but it was raining and was going to continue to rain for the whole day. We decided to head in to Washington and tour the Ford Theatre instead.

The Ford Theatre is where Lincoln was assassinated while he sat in his box and watched a performance, with his wife, Mary, by his side. John Wilkes Booth easily strode into the theatre and shot Lincoln at close range. Booth had easy access to the theatre because he was a well known actor at the time and had acted at that theatre more than once. The original plan was to kidnap Lincoln, but that didn’t work out. Then General Lee surrendered and things were not looking good for the Confederates (South). Booth was a hard line Confederate supporter and was desperate to save the Confederacy, so the plan moved to assassination. Lincoln, Andrew Johnson (VP) and William Seward (Secretary of State) were all to be killed simultaneously. Booth thought that if the President, as well as both of his successors were killed the government would be thrown into chaos and this would give the Confederates an advantage. It was strange that he thought this, since the Civil War had officially ended on April 9th. Nevertheless, this was what he wanted and Booth masterminded the plan. He was to kill Lincoln, George Azterodt was to kill the Vice-President, and Lewis Powell was to kill the Secretary of State. Only Booth and Powell went through with their plans and only Booth was successful. Azterodt lost his nerve and spent the night drinking in a bar instead. Powell severely injured Seward, he was stabbed in the face. He also injured Seward’s son and a bodyguard. Lincoln did not die right away, but he never regained consciousness. He was shot at 10:15 on April 14th and died at 7:22 AM on April 15, 1865.

The Ford Theatre has a Museum in the basement that outlines Lincoln’s Presidency right up to his assassination. You can then tour the theatre, which is still used today as a theatre. They have the booth where Lincoln was assassinated set up as a memorial. You can then go across the street and tour the house where Lincoln died. After he was shot he was taken to a house across the street, while they awaited medical attention. You can tour the house and then it takes you to another part of the museum that deals with the aftermath of the assassination. Booth thought that he would be revered as a hero for killing Lincoln, but he was not. The public was outraged and upset and there was a great outpouring of grief for Lincoln. A massive manhunt was launched to hunt Booth down. He was identified as the shooter almost immediately because people in the audience at the Ford Theatre recognized him.

This is a tower of books in the Museum and it goes all the way to the top (4 stories). Isaac is standing at the bottom. These are all books written about Lincoln.

It was time for lunch, but it was pouring rain outside. We wanted to head to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, but it was too far to walk. We ran the couple of blocks to a Smithsonian Museum and were soaked when we got there. We had lunch and then toured around the Museum of American History. We only had about an hour and a half to see the Museum. The kids took off on their own as did Blake and I. I had fun in the Hall of Inventions. I spent most of my time in there and then I took a quick tour around a few other galleries. I saw Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers and Archie and Edith Bunker’s chairs. I also saw the hat the Lincoln was wearing on the night he was assassinated. I also went into the Star Spangled Banner Hall where they have the original flag that inspired the National Anthem. It is too fragile to hang, so they built a full gallery and have it protected behind glass. There were many, many other things and it was quite a good museum. There are many galleries that I was not able to visit.

We decided that it was time to head out and back to camp. We just went back and had our supper and hung out for the night.

Sonya