Execution of the conspirators in the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, 1865 (litho)

John Wilkes Booth and a group of co-conspirators originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln, but later planned to kill him, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward in a bid to help the Confederacy's cause. Although Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered four days earlier, Booth believed the war was not yet over because Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's army was still fighting the Union Army. Of the conspirators, only Booth was completely successful in carrying out his respective part of the plot. After Booth shot him once in the back of the head, Lincoln died the next morning. Seward was severely wounded but recovered. Vice-President Johnson was never attacked at all.