The Day Lincoln Was Shot: An Illustrated Chronicle

This is an excellent book!! Richard Bak successfully brings the past to life in his natural and descriptive writing style, and in 'The Day Lincoln Was Shot,' he successfully takes the reader back to the events leading up to that fateful night at Ford's Theater. But that's not all - we're also privy to the final hours of Booth's life as well, and even to the horrid (and extremely biased) court proceedings and outcome that, in a number of unfortunate cases, brought death to innocent people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.Mr. Bak does not take sides in the text. He presents the facts as they were at the time combined with our discoveries over the last 140 years. This is what makes this book so thoroughly enjoyable and exciting.Being a relatively extensive but quick read, 'The Day Lincoln Was Shot' is highly recommended for anyone, be they high schoolers or older, who want to know the truth behind the conspiracy of the death of our 16th president.

April 14, 1865, Washington. During a performance of the play OUR AMERICAN COUSIN in Ford's theatre young actor John Wilkes BOOTH shoots Abraham LINCOLN, sixteenth president of the United States, with a .44 derringer in a desparate attempt to turn the tides of civil war. (The cause of the South was already lost, General LEE had already surrendered at Appomatox Court House.)At the same time BOOTH's co-conspirator Lewis POWELL tries to stab secretary of state William H. SEWARD, leaving the politician as well as his daughter, two sons and a male nurse severly injured. Another conspirator, George ATZERODT, decided to abandon his mission to kill vice president Andrew JOHNSON and got drunk instead.THE DAY LINCOLN WAS SHOT details the story of this infamous assassination, from the background of the characters, the scheming, the assassination and its aftermath to the fate of the conspirators inside a burning barn (BOOTH) and on the gallows (his accomplices), respectively.Author Richard BAK brings the persons involved in this tragedy vividly to life. I found this aspect of the book especially compelling. We learn about the war weary president, who also suffered from personal plight (an emotionally unstable wife and the death of his son Willie in 1862). We get to know assassin John Wilkes BOOTH, a famous actor and womanizer, bold, darring and sympathizing with the Confederacy's cause. The book points out how BOOTH's deed affected the American society and the life of all persons involved in this drama. Did you know that Major RATHBONE, an officer, who had accompanied LINCOLN at Ford's theatre, never forgave himself for having been incapable of stopping BOOTH and subsequently became insane due to his self-reproaches, resulting in the murder of his wife and a lifelong imprisonment in a mental institution? The book is full of such gripping details.Also of note is the way the book sets right some popular myths abouth the assassination. For instance, it is a wellknown belief that after having shot LINCOLN, BOOTH jumped from the presidential box to the stage below and disclaimed "Sic semper tyrannis!" (So perish all tyrannts!) According to eye witness accounts there was no agreement of what BOOTH did or did not say. Also BOOTH's broken leg seems to do not result from the leap on the stage. (He simply made it up in his diary to make his deed more "heroic".) According to author BAK there is good reason to believe that BOOTH broke his leg on his escape, when unheroically falling down from his horse.THE DAY LINCOLN WAS SHOT is very well written and not at all scholarly. It's written in a way that appeals to history buffs. The text is accompanied by dozens of contemporary photographs and pictures, which add much detail and information. Also included are various essays of contributing authors, the topics ranging from a portrait of Lewis POWELL, "mystery man" of the conspiracy, to the depiction of the assassination in movies.This history book is as exciting as a thriller

I was surprised by how much information was packed into this slim volume. The pictures are well chosen to complement the text. And the essays from other scholars help add light to this turning point in US history.

I bought this book at Ford's theatre gift shop after asking the giftshop supervisor which book has the best narrative and accurate summary of the events leading up to John Wilkes Booth assasination of President Abraham Lincoln, she recommended this book. I must say that she made an excellent choice. This is an excellent book that not only gives the details of the assasination of Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, but also gives the background of the mentally imbalanced actor John Wilkes Booth and his cohorts of assasins. This is the companion to the TNT original movie "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" which in itself is an excellent movie. But by itself this book stands on itself as giving the all around perspective both North and South to the views of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy. In this book the eyewitness accounts of the assasination are told by the people who were in the theatre box with the President and First Lady as well as by the people who were in the audience. The events after the shot was fired are given in first hand accounts, and narratives and perspectives years after Lincoln's death. There is a chapter that even gives focus on the rumor's of Booth's escape and living to an old age, but I agree with the book's analysis that this was just rumor. Booth did die by a soldier's bullet a couple of weeks after Lincoln's death. Overall, this is a great read that anyone could enjoy from early High School to a U.S. History Major college student, or any US History enthusiast who wants to know more about the death of President Lincoln.

Richard Bak has done an extraordinary job explaining in great detail all of the events that led up to the shooting and eventual death of President Lincoln. Out of the many books that I have read about Abraham Lincoln, this is one of the few that made me almost feel like I was there. He has gone to great lengths to find who was involved and just what took place in great detail in the hours prior to the shooting. I was amazed to read about just what some of the people that were there at the theater that night had experienced and how they felt at the time. It also told how unstable Mary Lincoln was and how one of her outbusts directed at Mrs. Grant days before the shooting had been the reason that the Grants didn't attend the play that evening with them. The book explains that Lincoln expected to be assassinated and that there was nothing that he or anyone else could do to prevent it from happening. I believe that this book would be must have book for any Abraham Lincoln fanatic like myself. After I read this book, I immediately bought the companion video. I highly recommend that anyone considering the purchase of this book also purchase the video. You will definately not be disappointed.