1862, William Stewart, then US Secretary of State, solemnly pointed out: "Assassination is not an American tradition or habit. We will never allow such vicious and desperate people to appear in our political system. However, on the night of April 1865, John Vilks Booth, an American citizen, sneaked into President abraham lincoln's box in Ford Theater and finally shot President Lincoln. At the same time, Secretary of State Sward himself was at home, and his face was badly cut by another assassin. Although the knife didn't hurt Sward's life, it almost cut off half of Sward's face. Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, turned out to be a frustrated actor who wanted to make a splash on the stage. After the end of the civil war, he has been bitter about the failure of the southern government. In order to express his dissatisfaction with the Lincoln administration and become famous in one fell swoop, Booth decided to do an earth-shattering event-assassinate the president. So, on the night of April 1865, the bold Booth came to the Ford Theater with a Dellinger pistol that could only hold one bullet, sneaked into President Lincoln's box and shot him in the back of the head. The sudden gunfire stirred up the whole theater, and Booth enjoyed the climax of his creation: Lincoln was lying on the cold floor, and Booth flew up, trying to jump into the center of the stage to continue his "performance". However, at the moment he jumped up, the ornaments hanging in front of the president's box tripped Booth's feet and made his body out of balance. He wanted to appear in front of the audience in a graceful posture, so he had to fall on the floor of the stage in a very chaotic way. This mistake hurt Booth's left leg. However, regardless of the pain from his leg, he stood up, walked to the center of the stage and shouted his last line to the audience in the theater: "The tyrant deserved it! Revenge for the people of the south! "After that, Booth dragged his injured leg backstage and went to the theater. At the same time, a defected soldier named Levi Puwell was fighting with his family at the home of then US Secretary of State Sward: Booth had ordered Levi to assassinate Secretary of State Sward at the same time before assassinating the president. In the scuffle, Levi's knife hit Sward in the face, and then he thought he had succeeded. He took advantage of the chaos to escape. Fortunately, however, the knife hit Sward directly in the face, but it didn't hurt his life. In fact, there is an accomplice in this murder-George Ayzit, who has been biding his time. Booth assigned him to assassinate Vice President andrew johnson. But because George was timid, he kept hiding in the bar and drinking, and finally gave up the assassination. The accomplices Levi's and George were quickly captured, but Booth, who escaped from the Ford Theatre in the chaos, was not so easy to give in. Even though hundreds of people had seen the face of President Lincoln's assassination, Booth had some luck after all: with the help of a large group of southern sympathizers, he managed to escape anonymously for 12 days. Although he still can't escape the punishment of the law, the US government has definitely made a real effort to catch Booth: the US War Department offered a reward of $6,543,800 on April 20, 654.38+0865 to catch the fugitive (see the picture on the left, the reward order reads: the US War Department offered a reward of $6,543,800 to catch the murderer who assassinated our beloved President abraham lincoln but was still at large). Six days later, Booth was found in a barn on Richard Garrett Farm in Virginia. At about 2 am on the 26th, 26 soldiers led by Detective Luther Baker surrounded the barn. Although Booth was alone and faced with despair, he was still full of confidence. He even thought he would defeat those who came to arrest him. The cavalry tried to smoke Booth out. In the face of the fire, Booth first went to the fire, as if to "sacrifice heroically". However, suddenly he turned around and jumped at the barn door. At this moment, soldier Boston Cobbett's gun rang. Booth collapsed to the ground. What Booth did was not only to show his so-called patriotism, but also to satisfy his desire to become famous overnight. As American writer swanson wrote, "He was famous, but he paid the price of his life. However, after all, he lived to see his failure and was condemned by the public for his behavior. When he jumped onto the stage and shouted "The tyrant deserved it", he must have thought that his wish to become an immortal southern patriot had come true. However, the last two words he said when he fell down were a true portrayal of his life:' useless, useless'. "