Killing Lincoln

General Grant is Lincoln’s right-hand man and is instrumental in defeating General Lee. Grant also shares Lincoln’s vision of reuniting the country and showing leniency toward the South. Grant is described as a quiet man who loves cigars, a vice that will later kill him. He loves his wife, Julia, and his family, and he shuns the limelight in favor of a night in. Confederate General Robert E. Lee once disciplined him during the Mexican War for looking slovenly, a slight he never forgot. Grant is supposed to attend the play at Ford’s Theatre with Lincoln on the night of his assassination but leaves town at his wife’s behest. Grant, too, is a target of Booth’s. Grant will later become the 18th president of the United States.

General Lee is the commander of Confederate forces for the South. He is a tried and proven general and soldier, and he constantly outmaneuvers the North in his retreat to Richmond. He intends to outsmart Grant and rally Confederate forces, and he makes effective use of his smaller army in fending off attacks from the North. Finally outmaneuvered, he considers the plight of his men. Contrary to his character, he eventually surrenders to General Grant in exchange for safe conduct for his soldiers. Lee is described as the exact opposite of Grant, with trademark Southern charm and a penchant for decorum. He knows that his confidence and smooth demeanor will instill confidence in his men. Because of this, even when he’s tired and dejected, he attempts to efface calm.

John Wilkes Booth is a famous actor who was raised in the theatre. He has a chip on his shoulder because his brother and father are considered better actors than him. Booth is also considered a lady’s man, dashing and prone to dramatics. Moreover, Booth is a Confederate sympathizer and a white supremacist. He develops contacts that connect him to Jefferson Davis’s Confederate government after becoming incensed from Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Booth doesn’t want freed slaves to have the same rights as whites. He conspires against the president, beginning with a plot to kidnap Lincoln and ending with the president’s assassination. Booth flees, with the intent to hide out in Mexico. He is killed on a farm in Virginia, however, after refusing to surrender.

David Herold is one of Booth’s co-conspirators. He’s a former pharmacy clerk who is also described as rugged and goodlooking. He was introduced to Booth via John Surratt, and he becomes instrumental in Booth’s plans. Herold is tasked with assisting Lewis Powell’s escape after Powell murders Secretary of State Seward. Herold flees the scene of the crime, however, and later meets up with Booth, fleeing into the Maryland countryside. He goes into hiding with Booth, until the two are found at Garrett’s Farm in Virginia. Herold surrenders and is later hung for his part in the conspiracy.

Lewis Powell is another of Booth’s co-conspirators. He also goes by the name Lewis Payne. He was a Confederate soldier and spy before he became an accomplice to Booth. Powell is described as mentally unhinged due to an earlier mule kick to the head. He is tasked with killing Secretary of State Seward. Powell attacks Seward, his two sons, a bodyguard, Seward’s daughter, and a State Department employee yet manages to kill no one. He flees to Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse, where he is apprehended and later hung for his crimes.

George Atzerodt is a German carriage repairer who is recruited by Booth because of his knowledge of smuggling routes from Washington, D.C. into the deep South. Atzerodt believes until the near end that the plan is to kidnap Lincoln. When he tries to back out after realizing the plan is murder, Booth blackmails him into compliance. He is tasked with assassinating Vice President Andrew Johnson, though he becomes so inebriated the night of Lincoln’s assassination that he does not go through with the plot. He later slinks away and, though trying to flee, makes himself noticed by his erratic behavior and anti-Lincoln sentiments. He is arrested and later sentenced to death by hanging.

Dr. Samuel Mudd is a renowned physician and Confederate sympathizer who provides shelter for Booth and Herold, and he also mends Booth’s broken leg. He lies to officials and is arrested for harboring Booth after lying about knowing who Booth and Herold are. He escapes execution for the lighter punishment of imprisonment.