{"id":34413,"date":"2024-03-15T17:27:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T16:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=263579"},"modified":"2024-03-16T05:11:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T04:11:40","slug":"the-abraham-lincoln-assassination-what-really-happened","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-abraham-lincoln-assassination-what-really-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"The Abraham Lincoln assassination: what really happened?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happened in Ford\u2019s Theatre the night that Abraham Lincoln was killed? Jonny Wilkes breaks down the moments before the assassination, and the grief that followed\u2026 <\/p>

By Jonny Wilkes\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 15 March 2024 at 16:27 PM<\/p>

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The American Civil War<\/a> was over: after four years of bloodshed and three-quarters of a million deaths, the United States had been preserved as a union. But the task of rebuilding \u2013 and establishing a nation without slavery \u2013 would not fall to the wartime president, Abraham Lincoln<\/a>. For on 14 April 1865, taking a night off to go to the theatre, he was gunned down by an assassin.<\/p>\n

Manhunt<\/em><\/a>, a seven-part historical drama streaming on Apple TV+ from 15 March, offers a new perspective on that infamous night and the ensuing hunt for Lincoln\u2019s killer, John Wilkes Booth<\/a>, and his conspirators. As an adaptation of the bestselling 2007 book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln\u2019s Killer<\/em> by James L Swanson, it blurs the boundary between fiction and reality, bridging the gap between what we do know, and what we don\u2019t. But what really happened?<\/p>\n

The background to the Lincoln assassination<\/h2>\n

On 9 April 1865, Ulysses S Grant, the top general in the Union army, accepted the surrender of his Confederate counterpart, Robert E Lee, at Appomattox Court House, signalling the effective end of the American Civil War.<\/p>\n

\"Robert\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Things came to a head after 9 April 1865, when Confederate commander Robert E Lee surrendered to Union general Ulysses S Grant at Appomattox. (Image by Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

At the core of those four bloody years of conflict was the issue of slavery, with the Confederacy in the South fighting to prevent the emancipation of enslaved people. They lost. And what\u2019s more, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation<\/a>, which freed more than three million slaves in the South, and preceded the 13th Amendment that would abolish slavery for good.<\/p>\n