- Booth woke up on April 14, 1865 (Good Friday), depressed like all of the other mornings after Richmond had fallen to the Union. He got up and ate breakfast at the hotel and went to get his mail at Ford's Theater (the place of his employment). The reason his mail was at the theater was because he lived at The National Hotel in Washington DC, and did not have an address, so he made all of his mail go to the Ford's Theater. When Booth arrived their was a letter waiting for him. The same morning a letter had arrived for someone else that worked in the theater. It was from Mary Todd Lincoln, since there was no time to mail it she sent the Presidents messenger to hand deliver it to the theater. The mere arrival of the messenger told them the President was coming tonight! The President and Mrs. Lincoln would attend the popular and adult comedy Our American Cousin. The big news though was that the famous General Ulysses S. Grant was going to be joining them that night. The Lincolns had given the Fords just enough notice in advance for the proprietors to decorate and combine the 7 and 8 theater boxes to create the President's box at the theater. To make the Presidents box all they had to do was remove a partition between the two boxes. The President's messenger had already come and gone by the time Booth had arrived at the theater. Booth was sitting on the front steps of the theater reading his letter when he had heard the big news. Booth thought that the subject of all of his hatred and anger would be standing where he now sits in just 8 hours. Booth thought of his intense knowledge of the theater. Where Lincoln would step out of his carriage, the route the President and his guests would take to get to the box, where the President would sit in his box, the dark underground passage way under the stage, the long narrow hallway behind the stage, the door that opened to the alley behind the theater, and how the Presidents box hung above the stage. Although he never acted in the play he knew the length, the scenes, its players, and the number of actors on the stage st any given time during the performance. He thought it was perfect the President coming to him he would not have to hunt him down. But he only had 8 hours to prepare for the Assassination of the President.
- He would have just enough time to carry out his plan if luck was on his side. Whoever told Booth that the President was coming that night unknowingly had set off an imaginary clock that began ticking down minute by minute until he had killed the President. His afternoon would be come busy. Henry Clay Ford had wrote out an advertisement for the Evening Star newspaper to be put out that afternoon. It read "LIEUT. GENERAL GRANT, PRESIDENT and Mrs. Lincoln have secured the State Box at Ford's Theater TO NIGHT, to witness Miss Laura Keene's American Cousin." James Ford walked over to the Treasury Department to borrow several flags to decorate the presidents box with. While he was walking back with the silk flags in his arms he bumped into Booth he talked to him for a moment and went on his way. The flags where a confirmation that the President's vist tonight. A 23 year old U.S. Army surgeon, Dr. Charles A. Leale, was on duty at the Armory Square Hospital in Washington DC when he heard the news that President Lincoln and General Grant would be at the performance that night. Leale wanted , like most others, to see the now famous General who had won the Civil War. Booth rode over to the Kirkwood House, where he would do the most perplexing task of his afternoon. Booth dis-mounted his horse went to the front desk wrote a brief note that read "Don't wish to disturb you. Are you home? J. Wilkes Booth" handed the note to the clerk, whom put it in Johnson's mail slot. Booth next visited a boardinghouse on H street, this boardinghouse was run by Mary Surratt (to read more about this house got to places and things, if you want to read more about Mary Surratt go to people). This visit looked like an innocent social call, but it was a part of Booths plot. Mary was just about to leave to leave to go to her country tavern in Maryland, several miles south of DC. Booth asked if she would deliver a small package wrapped in newspaper to her tavern. Luckily Booth had the package with him. He also told Mary that he would be leaving Dc tonight and would stop by her tavern to pick up the package, guns, ammunition and other supplies that her son had hidden there for him. He asked Mary to tell the tavern keeper to get all of the supplies ready for the actor to pick up when he arrived. She agreed and she left for Maryland by carriage. At some point in the afternoon Booth made the final arrangements. He had to make 2 kinds of preparations, mental and practical. First his weapons, Booth chose the .44 caliber , single shot, muzzle loading pistol. This gun could only be shot once before reloading, but reloading was a time consuming process that took 2 hands and about 20 seconds. Booth knew that his first shot would be his last. If he missed he would have no time to reload and fire again. Booth also never left an explanation for using this gun. Pistols misfire often, either the copper percussion cap might fail to spark, or the black powder might fail to ignite because of dampness. Booth was a thrill seeker so he might have wanted to increase the excitement by risking the use of a one shot pistol, or did he belive it was more heroic or more gentlemanly to take his prey with one bullet? Maybe he preferred a more stylish gun. Then if he missed or failed to kill the president he would use his backup weapon , A Rio Grande camp knife, a handsome and extramly sharp type of bowie knife. Before leaving the National he slid the knife and gun into his pockets and gathered the rest of his stuff. He planned to travel light that night.
- At the Herndon Hotel, around the corner from Fords, at about 8:00pm, Booth was at meeting with some of the conspirators he had recruited over months to strike against President Lincoln. Booth Proposed that they should kill the president he said that it would be the greatist thing in the world. That night at 10:00pm Booth and his hitch men would kill the governments top leaders. By doing this they thought that the Confederacy would continue the war against the Union George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell and John Wilkes Booth would strike simultaneously and murder Vice President Johnson, Secretary of State Seward, and President Lincoln. Adzerodt's assignment was to assassinate the Vice President in his room at the Kirkwood House. "You must kill Johnson" Booth told him. Lewis Powell would murder Seward. Seward was sure to be in bed recovering from a carriage accident. David Herold was to take Powell to Seward's home. Booth would take the bigist job for himeself, killing Lincoln. Powell and Herold agreed to the task but Atzerodt did not want to be apart of their plot and be hanged. Booth told him that he should just kill Johnson, because if he did not he Booth would kill him and blame Atzerodt for the crime and he would be hanged. None of Booths followers knew it but he had already told on all of them because he gave an envolope to a friend with all of the names inside and told his friend to put it in the paper the next morning. Atzerodt still did not want to kill the Vice President though.
- The Lincolns had arrived late to the play that night, but they started with out them. When the arrived the orrcastra played Hail To The Chief and the aduiance rose from their seats and clapped. Leale was about 40 feet from the Presidents box but had a perfect view of the president. To coninue go to The Assassination.