The Lincoln Assassination Essay Example For Students

The Lincoln Assassination Essay On April, 14 1865 President Abraham Lincoln was shot while watching a performance of An AmericanCousin at Fords Theater. President Lincoln died the next morning. The person who had killed Lincolnwas John Wilkes Booth. A few days before he was killed, Lincoln had told his spouse about a dream he had, he saw apresident shrouded on a catafalque in the east room of the White House. Even after this dream he attendedAn American Cousin at Fords Theater. John Wilkes Booth thought the president was determined to destroy the constitution, set aside therights reserved to the states, crush civil liberties, and restore monarchy. He saw the confederacy was theonly means to of upholding the values of the founding fathers. He devoted much of late 1864 and early1865 to a series of plots to abduct Lincoln and use his capture to nullify the Unions war aims. Everyscheme ending in frustration. After Lee had surrendered to the Army of the Potomac, in the second weekof April, he saw that only the most desperate measures offered any hope of salvaging the Southern Cause. Shortly before he went into the theater, he stopped at tavern for a drink. While in the bar anacquaintance jokingly remarked that he would never be as great as his father, Booth replied by sayingWhen I leave the stage, I will be the most talked about man in America.The Atlanta Campaign of 1864In the spring of 1864, Gen. W. T. Sherman concentrated the Union armies of G. H. Thomas, J. B. McPherson, and J. M. Schofield around Chattanooga. On May 6 he began to move along the railroad fromChattanooga to Atlanta. Sherman had two objectives, one was to destroy the army of General J. E. Johnston and the other was to capture Atlanta. Johnston realizing that he was outnumbered started toretreat south. Sherman tried a direct assault on Johnstons forces and was repulsed. Johnston had retreatedback to the south bank of the Chattahoochee river. On July 17, John Bell Hood replaced Johnston asGeneral. He tried to continue with Johnstons plan, but failed to stop the advance of Union troops. Heretired to Atlanta, which Sherman soon had under bombardment. On September 1 Hood abandonedAtlanta, the next day Sherman moved in and burned it. The Maryland InvasionA year after the confederate defeat at Gettysburg. Robert E. Lee planned to invade the Northagain like he did in the campaigns of Antietam and Gettysburg. He hoped that this would be enough to getGrant to detach part of his army to protect Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington City, or to have Grantattach fortifications and risk heavy lose. MiscellaneousFort Pillow Massacre: An incident that took place in Fort Pillow, Tennessee, April 12, 1864. Confederate troops commanded by General N. B. Forrest, stormed and captured Fort Pillow on theMississippi River. The garrison of black soldiers and Tennessee Unionist held out beyond all possiblehope. The joint committee on the Conduct of War investigated and charged that the Confederatesindiscriminately slaughtered more than 300 black soldiers. General Sherman was ordered to investigate,but his report was never published. Battle of Franklin: November 30, 1864, a Civil War engagement in which the Confederate forceswere defeated. After abandoning Atlanta, General Hood reorganized the Confederate army at LovejoysStation. His hope was too cut off Shermans lines of communication.