Lincoln Assassinations Other Conspirators, Targets

Around the time of Lincoln's re-election in November 1864, Booth began scheming against the president, whom he loathed for being anti-slavery and for making war against the South. At first, the well-known actor hoped to kidnap Lincoln, bring him to Richmond and exchange him for Confederate prisoners-of-war. However, the fall of Richmond on April 3, 1865, and the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee a few days later prompted him to consider even more drastic action. On the night of April 14, a mere two hours before heading inside Ford's Theatre, Booth met at a boardinghouse with three accomplices—Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt—and unveiled his new plan: assassination. Promising to take care of Lincoln himself, he allegedly assigned Secretary of State Seward to Powell and Herold and Vice President Johnson to Atzerodt. Booth may have also wanted to kill Ulysses S. Grant, but the top Union general had skipped town earlier in the day.