"I am abandoned, with the curse of
Cain upon me, when, if the world knew my heart, that one blow would have
made me great."

On the night of April 25, he and Herold were surrounded by a party under
Lieutenant E.P. Doherty, as they lay sleeping in a barn belonging to one
Garrett, in Caroline County, Virginia, on the road to Bowling Green.
When called upon to surrender, Booth refused. A parley took place, after
which Doherty told him he would fire the barn. At this Herold came out
and surrendered. The barn was fired, and while it was burning, Booth,
clearly visible through the cracks in the building, was shot by Boston
Corbett, a sergeant of cavalry. He was hit in the back of the neck, not
far from the place where he had shot the President, lingered about three
hours in great pain, and died at seven in the morning.

The surviving conspirators, with the exception of John H. Surratt, were
tried by military commission sitting in Washington in the months of May
and June. The charges against them specified that they were "incited
and encouraged" to treason and murder by Jefferson Davis and the
Confederate emissaries in Canada. This was not proved on the trial;
though the evidence bearing on the case showed frequent communications
between Canada and Richmond and the Booth coterie in Washington, and
some transactions in drafts at the Montreal Bank, where Jacob Thompson
and Booth both kept accounts. Mrs. Surratt, Payne, Herold, and Atzerodt
were hanged on July 7; Mudd, Arnold, and O'Laughlin were imprisoned for
life at the Tortugas, the term being afterward shortened; and Spangler,
the scene-shifter at the theater, was sentenced to six years in jail.
John H. Surratt escaped to Canada, and from there to England. He
wandered over Europe, and finally was detected in Egypt and brought back
to Washington in 1867, where his trial lasted two months, and ended in a
disagreement of the jury.

Upon the hearts of a people glowing with the joy of victory, the news of
the President's assassination fell as a great shock. It was the first
time the telegraph had been called upon to spread over the world tidings
of such deep and mournful significance. In the stunning effect of the
unspeakable calamity the country lost sight of the national success of
the past week, and it thus came to pass that there was never any
organized expression of the general exultation or rejoicing in the North
over the downfall of the rebellion. It was unquestionably