John Wilkes Booth
John was born on a farm near Bel Air, Maryland, about
25 miles from Baltimore. His birth date was May 10.1838
He was the 9th of 10 children born to
Junius Bruutus Booth & Mary Ann Holmes Booth.
John's parents were British and had moved to America in 1821
Booth eventually
left school at 13 after his father died in 1852.
He spent several years working on the family farm
near Bel Air. However, according to his
sister, Asia Booth Clarke, Booth's dreams
went beyond being a farmer. "I must
have fame! fame! he cried" His goal was
to be a famous actor like his father had
been. Booths other plans, such as
kidnapping Lincoln Inside a Theater
and at The Soldiers Rest Home, fell
through. On April 9th 1865. General Robert E. Lee
surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox.the War was ending and John
felt cheated hat he had failed to be a hero to the South he loved so much.
The President
gave a speech from the White House balcony. two days later on the 11th.
Booth, Herold, and Paine, were in the
audience. standing less than 50 feet from him. Among other things,
Lincoln discussed possible new rights for certain
blacks. He suggested conferring voting
rights on the very intelligent, and on
those who had served the north’s cause as soldiers.
Booth was enraged! He said,
"Now, by God!
I'll put him through, that is the last
speech he will ever make I will make
sure of it!"
Three days later, in the early
morning hours of April 14, Booth was
informed by David Herold a poor feeble
minded boy, that he had learned of
President Lincoln's plans to attend the
evening performance of Our American
Cousin. The plot was hatched in Booths
tortured mind and he followed his
fanaticism to its bitter end. He shot President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head with a single shot 44cal derringer.
The president died the next morning at 7.22am
On themorning of Wednesday, April 26, 1865, when
Union cavalry finally caught up with them,
John Wilkes Booth and David Herold were
sleeping in a tobacco barn owned by
Richard Garrett.
Lt. Luther Baker (a detective and nephew of Lafayette Baker :the secret service chief appointed by Lincoln. the first "ever American secret service agency) yelled,
"Surrender, or we'll fire the barn and
smoke you out like rats". Booth asked for
time to decide. "We'll give you five
minutes to make up your mind", answered
Baker, but Booth would not come out,
although he did release Herold. Finally,
after some more give and take with the
soldiers, Booth yelled, "Well, my brave
boys, you can prepare a stretcher for me!
I will never surrender!" Using straw the
Cavalry set fire to the barn. Booth was
visible to the soldiers because the barn
was full of cracks and knotholes. They
could see him moving about the burning
barn holding his carbine and crutch (his
left fibula being broken). At this point allegedly
Boston Corbett an insane soldier, going
against orders, shot John through the
neck. Booth's body was dragged out of the
burning barn. The mortally injured man was
placed on the grass near a locust tree.
Although paralyzed and in agony. He was
determined to leave a message for his
beloved Mother and sister, Asia. With
difficulty Booth found the will to speak.
He said, "Tell Mother I died for my
Country" He asked the soldiers to move
his body to relieve the pain, but no
position proved to be comfortable. The
wound (which had punctured Booth's cervical spinal : cord) was fatal. Sometime around 7:00 am
Booth looked at his hands and moaned,
"Useless! Useless!" Those were the last
words Booth spoke before dying.
John Wilkes Booth's 3rd, 4th and 5th Cervical (Neck) Vertebrae 
On April 26, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, on the run from the law after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, was shot through the neck while holed up in Garrett's barn in Caroline County, Virginia. Booth was removed from the barn and brought to the front porch of the Garrett house, where he died three hours later. On April 28, his body arrived at the Washington Navy Yard where Surgeon General of the Army Joseph K. Barnes and Assistant Surgeon Joseph J. Woodward, both of the Army Medical Museum now known as the National Museum of Health and Medicine, performed the autopsy aboard the USS Montauk, a 1,335-ton Passaic class ironclad.