All language subtitles for The.Real.Abraham.Lincoln.2009.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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- [Voiceover] I have come a long way.

I was born in the Wild West

and worked my way to the top.

I am the new President of
the United States of America.

I have sworn to stop
the spread of slavery.

All men shall be free;

whether rich or poor, white or black.

- To do do all which
may achieve and cherish.

A just and a lasting peace.

- [Voiceover] It is a
cause worth dying for.

I am determined to see
this battle through.

(gun shot)

Even if I get caught in
the line of fire myself.

I am prepared to put my own life at stake,

for I know the dream of
freedom for every man

will outlive me.

(gun shot)

("Oh Captain" by George Kochbeck)

(theme music)

(gun shots)
(people shouting)

- [Voiceover] 1861.

A great divide threatens America.

Tensions between the
North and the South erupt

into a bloody civil war.

Seceding from the Union,

Southerners take up arms to
defend their independence

and their right to own slaves.

(gun shots)

- There was a real difference

in those two parts of the country.

And the issue of slavery

had been festering since the Constitution.

- [Voiceover] America is a ticking bomb.

- [Voiceover] Whenever I hear
anyone arguing for slavery,

I feel a strong impulse to see
it tried on him personally.

(rocking chair creaking)

- [Voiceover] As a young
man, Abraham Lincoln

saw people shackled and beaten

because of the color of their skin.

(whip cracking)
(man groaning)

- [Voiceover] America,
the land of the free,

is the only civilized, Christian country

where slavery still exists.

But beating the body of a
human destroys his soul.

I could hardly bear to watch it.

- [Voiceover] Their
ancestors were carried off

into slavery from Africa.

Now, four million blacks suffer

at the hands of Southern slave owners.

They are treated no
better than the animals

which they use to work
the cotton plantations.

Even their children are
sold at slave markets.

- He said later on

that there was never a time in his life

when slavery did not have the
power to make him miserable.

- [Voiceover] Those who
deny freedom to others

deserve it not for themselves,

and under a just God
can no longer retain it.

I was born on February
12th, 1809 in Kentucky,

a dangerous place to live with bears

and other wild animals in the woods.

My mother died when I was nine years old.

Soon afterwards my father married a widow

with three children.

She was a caring woman
and gave me books to read.

It was my task to cut down trees

with a heavy ax from
morning until evening.

I went to school for just 300 days.

- [Voiceover] 40 years later,

while campaigning for the Presidency,

Abraham Lincoln tells his
life story to a newspaper.

He is a young boy from the country,

poorly educated but full of ambition.

He is compassionate and determined

to fight against injustice.

He wants to make a difference.

("Lincoln Trainsong" by George Kochbeck)

At age 22, Abe works in a general store

but his mind is elsewhere.

- [Voiceover] I enjoyed
selling salt and tools

to the settlers and delivering newspapers.

But I wanted to do more in life.

(people chattering)

I stayed up late reading.

Legal texts and books on American
History were my favorites.

I even learnt some by heart.

("Lincoln Trainsong" by George Kochbeck)

- [Voiceover] He's fascinated
with the steam train,

a new technology that is
driving America's expansion

to the west.

(train horn)

He sees the railroad as a uniting force

that can bind together a vast nation

of immigrants in far flung regions.

- He looked upon the United States

as a single nation
committed to a single idea.

- [Voiceover] Workers lay
thousands of miles of track.

But it's mostly in the North.

The tracks don't extend as
far into the rural South.

- [Voiceover] The country was going

in two different directions.

You had an industrialized North

and you had a very agrarian South

that relied heavily on slavery.

("Lincoln Trainsong" by George Kochbeck)

(train horn)

("Lincoln Trainsong" by George Kochbeck)

- [Voiceover] At age 28,
Lincoln moves to Springfield,

Illinois' capital, to pursue a law career.

All his belongings fit
into two saddlebags.

He has taught himself all
he knows about the law

and earned a law license.

With barely a penny to his name

he shares a bed with a friend,

as was common in those days.

He gets a job in a law office

and will later represent
the railroad companies.

- Abraham Lincoln is all
about upward mobility.

- [Voiceover] And just being
a lawyer isn't enough for him.

- Lincoln loved politics.

He loved politics probably
more than anything.

- [Voiceover] He runs for
Congress and wins a seat,

driven by fierce ambition.

- "I am humble Abraham Lincoln," he said

in his first political campaign.

That's the first lie that Honest
Abe ever told on the stump.

There was nothing humble about him.

He was not a modest person.

- [Voiceover] I feel I've
already achieved a lot.

But I really want to make a difference

and make my mark in the world.

At the same time, I also
dream of having a family.

I want to have children
and set up a home for them.

- [Voiceover] At a ball,
he meets Mary Todd,

the daughter of a rich,
Kentucky slave owner.

The poor attorney from the prairie

is not welcomed as a suitor
by her distinguished family.

But Mary follows her heart.

She admires his ambition and
shares his love of politics.

- She was a political soul mate.

She was the Hillary Clinton of her day.

- [Voiceover] One of
Lincoln's gifts to Mary Todd

were political statistics
wrapped in a ribbon

instead of flowers.

But this seemed to work for her.

- [Voiceover] They marry in 1842

and will eventually have four children.

She is well educated and
speaks fluent French.

Through her, Lincoln is introduced
to higher social circles.

They are a loyal couple.

Yet, surprisingly, there
isn't a single photo

of them together.

In 1852, a novel is published
that stirs up the country

like no other book of its time.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" tells
the story of a Kentucky slave

who is sold from a kind
owner to a cruel owner.

The slave is brutally beaten to death.

The novel is a shocking
expose of the evil of slavery

and of the fugitive slave laws

that sent runaway slaves
back to their masters.

- [Voiceover] And it brought

into every Northern family's parlor

the story, the horror, of
the fugitive slave law.

- [Voiceover] It ignites
a firestorm of opinions

on both sides of the slavery issue

and unifies slave owners in indignation.

As slavery threatens to expand,

Lincoln resolves to use
all his powers to fight it.

He joins a new party,
called the Republicans,

committed to stopping
the spread of slavery.

But then some abolitionists take matters

into their own hands in
the Virginia railway town

of Harper's Ferry.

(train horn)

Led by John Brown,

they raid the armory
intending to use the weapons

in an insurrection to liberate the slaves.

But Brown's men are caught by the Army

and hanged soon afterwards.

The North wants peace, not provocation.

But the South sees the attack

as a Northern conspiracy
against it's freedom.

- Lincoln's reaction to Harper's Ferry

was horror, embarrassment,

and a little element of I told you so.

Because John Brown became a stick

that every apologist for slavery used

to beat anti-slavery people in the North.

And Lincoln had to go
to extraordinary lengths

to dissociate himself from John Brown.

- [Voiceover] Personally,
Lincoln strongly opposes slavery.

But the Constitution itself
allows slavery in the South.

As a firm believer in the rule of law,

Lincoln knows he can't
fight the Constitution.

At least not yet.

If he wants to change things,

he'll need to be in a better position.

He decides to run for Senate.

("Lincoln Theme #1" by George Kochbeck)

In 1854, he makes a bid and fails.

Four years later he
makes a second attempt.

He loses once again.

But this time, making impassioned speeches

in front of giant crowds,
he leaves an impression.

- Politics was a form of
popular entertainment.

Lincoln understood that.

Lincoln was a performer.

He would invest enormous amounts of effort

in preparing his speeches.

- [Voiceover] A speech
he gives in Springfield

against the division of the Union

suddenly makes him a political star.

(people chattering)

"A house divided against
itself cannot stand,"

he proclaims to his fellow Republicans

on June 16th, 1858.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] I took these
words from the New Testament.

The Bible is a great source
of inspiration to me.

I'm convinced that slavery and democracy

cannot co-exist indefinitely.

We must make a choice.

- [Voiceover] Lincoln's
House Divided speech

paves his way to the White House.

Two years later he runs for President.

1860.

During his election campaign,

Lincoln is attacked by the
South as a friend of the slaves.

- Slavery becomes the
big issue for Lincoln.

The issue that overshadowed all others.

The issue on which he
conducts his political life.

And the issue on which he is
elected President in 1860.

- [Voiceover] Let us have faith.

And in that faith, let us dare to--

- [Voiceover] Lincoln barely
wins any votes in the South.

And he wins the North in part

because the opposing party is split.

Lincoln is elected President,

but it only pushes the country
closer to the brink of war.

- Reaction was visceral.

Particularly in the South

when many people believed if
it wasn't the end of the world,

it was certainly the end of the Union.

- [Voiceover] No matter how
difficult the decision might be,

we must not lose sight of our common goal.

- [Voiceover] President-elect
Lincoln travels to Washington

through a divided country.

A plot to assassinate him is
thwarted at the last minute.

Lincoln moves into the White House

but has no time to settle in.

- Lincoln was the divider.

He came into power and
the country fell apart.

- [Voiceover] The map of America shows

the battle lines being drawn.

The Northern states
have elected a President

who opposes slavery.

In response, seven Southern states

declare their independence.

- They created an alternative country.

They elected their own President.

They staged their own inauguration.

- [Voiceover] Lincoln
chooses not to recognize

this new Confederacy.

He knows he may have to
respond with military action.

In his first act as President,

he reaches out to the South.

- [Voiceover] In your hands,

my dissatisfied, fellow countrymen,

and not in mine is the
momentous issue of civil war.

- "In your hands, my
dissatisfied countrymen,

"and not in mine, rests the
momentous issue of civil war."

What Lincoln did, brilliantly,
was to turn the tables.

And to put the onus on the South

for initiating civil war.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] It's a cold, winter's day

in March 1861 as 30,000 people

come to hear Lincoln's inaugural address.

- There were sharpshooters on many roofs.

And the artillery drawn up
at the Capitol were there,

not to give a 21-gun salute,

but to mow down anyone
who tried to prevent

the President from being sworn in.

- [Voiceover] The new President
chooses his words carefully.

A pragmatist, he agrees to accept slavery

where it already exists,

if that's what it takes to
hold the nation together.

- [Voiceover] It was a message of peace.

But it was not received that way.

What the Southern states
wanted by that point

was not reconciliation or peace.

What they wanted was surrender.

What they wanted was
agreement to their demands.

- [Voiceover] The Southern
states ignore his appeals.

Five weeks later on April 12th, 1861,

Confederate soldiers fire on Fort Sumter,

a military garrison in South Carolina.

This severs the ties between
the North and the South.

Now the two sides will let
their weapons make their case.

- Not exactly the way to enjoy

your Presidential honeymoon period.

- [Voiceover] The Civil War has begun.

From the beginning, the
Civil War is a catastrophe.

- [Voiceover] The first
thing you have to understand

about the Civil War is
how totally, utterly,

how miserably unprepared
the United States was

for any kind of conflict.

This was a war of amateurs.

One German observer said
that the American Civil War

was like watching two armed mobs

chase each other around the countryside.

- [Voiceover] The Southern troops

are inspired to fight for their freedom.

The Northern battalions are
poorly trained and disorganized.

Lincoln's generals soon find it difficult

just recruiting enough soldiers.

(men shouting)

- What made it worse, from
Lincoln's point of view,

was that Lincoln himself
knew comparatively little

about military affairs.

He was a lawyer.

- [Voiceover] He looks for leadership

from his military commanders

but is sorely disappointed.

- He went through a series of generals

and each one promised him a victory

and each one failed him.

- [Voiceover] In forests and fields

across the country battles raged,

only to end in death and stalemate.

There are victims in almost every family.

Even Lincoln's own
family is deeply divided.

Two of Mary's brothers die
fighting for the South.

Lincoln has aged rapidly.

He has lost many friends.

- [Voiceover] The hammer
blows that landed on him

emotionally and politically,

were simply terrific.

And yet, he displayed
this incredible capacity

to absorb that kind of punishment.

- [Voiceover] He urgently needs a break.

Three miles from the White House

on a hill overlooking Washington,

next to the old Soldiers' Home Cemetary

lies his summer residence.

This is the house where
he can feel at home.

It is full of personal memories,

much different from his official
residence, the White House,

which he calls the Iron Cage.

Lincoln suffers from bouts of melancholy.

The longer the war goes on,

the more heavily it weighs.

- There wasn't a day
of Lincoln's presidency

that he was not consumed

by the prospect of war,
the reality of war,

or the after effects of war.

- [Voiceover] It's not just
the many victims of the war

that caused the President such distress.

The previous summer, his son Willie

died of typhoid fever at the age of 12.

- Willie was Mary's favorite.

And when Willie died,

she just got increasingly more eccentric.

And there was a real wedge
driven between the Lincolns.

- [Voiceover] Willie is the second child

that Abraham and Mary have lost.

Two sons remain, Robert and Tad.

("Winter's Eve" by Susan Cantey)

Robert is now 20 years old.

He's a student at Harvard
and rarely comes home.

Only Tad still lives with his
parents in the White House.

His presence is a light in
dark times for his mother.

Mary's grief over the
death of their two children

has estranged her from her husband.

She seems to occupy her own world

and her spending habits become
more and more of an issue.

("Winter's Eve" by Susan Cantey)

To the distress of the President,

she spends more money
than her husband earns.

She insists on keeping up
with the latest fashion

and spends lavishly on
dresses, hats, and fabric.

("Winter's Eve" by Susan Cantey)

- [Voiceover] This is where I made

my most important political
decision in the summer of 1862.

It's like my old writing
desk from Springfield.

Here I boldly declared
the liberation of slaves

as the new means for ending the war.

- [Voiceover] Emancipation for slaves

is something Lincoln
has intended to declare

since the first year of his presidency.

But he must wait until the time is right.

- But the big reason for delay

was that so many border states

were teetering between
Union and secession.

Kentucky.

He said, "I must have God on my side,

"but even more important,
I must have Kentucky."

- By the spring and summer of 1862,

the war was going so badly

that he threw caution overboard.

And to some degree decided
he had to roll the dice.

- [Voiceover] If my name
ever goes down in history,

it will be for this act.

And my whole soul is in it.

- [Voiceover] The
Emancipation Proclamation,

in which he delivers a
death blow to slavery,

becomes the most important
document of the Civil War.

Lincoln has learned to be firm,

but now compromise with
the South is impossible.

The document fans the
flames of the Civil War.

- [Voiceover] By
declaring the slaves free,

Lincoln was, in effect,
inviting them all to run away.

But attach to that, those
slaves who did run away,

who were now legally free,

could now be enrolled as
soldiers in the Federal Army.

- [Voiceover] 180,000 black men fight

in their own segregated regiments

for the cause of the Union
and for their own fate.

(train horn)

The North has an important
technological weapon,

the railroad.

On Union trains, soldiers and cannon

mobilize quickly throughout the country.

New railway lines are
built across America.

Battlefields are often
located close to the tracks,

near the newly built towns springing up

along these highly trafficked routes.

The railroad is critical in determining

the outcome of the war.

(train horn)

Gradually, the North gains the upper hand.

The Southern states are
forced on the defensive.

Their troops lose more and more ground.

In a risky military strategy,

the South attempts to overwhelm
the armies of the North

by using enormous deployments.

But they discover a more effective tactic,

sabotaging the trains.

Horrific battles take place.

In the summer of 1863,

the two sides square
off near the small town

of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

(men shouting)

Nearly 8,000 men die in three days.

About 30,000 are wounded.

- Gettysburg is the biggest battle

that's ever fought in this hemisphere.

- [Voiceover] The Battle of Gettysburg

is the turning point of the war.

Never before has so much blood been shed

in the war to save the
Union and end slavery.

- A few days after the
Battle of Gettysburg,

he gives an impromptu speech

to a crowd of well-wishers
who come to the White House

to serenade him.

And he begins this speech by saying,

"How long ago was it?

"80-odd years that our
fathers founded this country?"

- Do you hear that?

It's the beginnings of
the Gettysburg Address.

He just made it Biblical, four score.

- [Voiceover] Four months later,

the President visits Gettysburg

to dedicate a military cemetery.

He travels in a special
train to the hallowed site.

He describes his vision of a new America

and pays his respects to
the victims of the battle.

He uses only 10 sentences.

- [Voiceover] And Lincoln
stands up and gives this address

that lasts two minutes and sits down.

People didn't even understand
at first that he was done.

- And here in Lincoln
already trying to explain

to his countrymen why
this war is necessary.

- [Voiceover] That we highly
resolve that these dead

shall not have died in vain.

That this nation shall have
a new birth of freedom.

And that this government of the people,

by the people, for the people

shall not perish from the Earth.

- It is, I think, deservedly regarded

as the greatest speech
in American history.

- Lincoln proved that you could pack

an emotional, political, and
historical wallop in 270 words.

in 270 words.

- [Voiceover] Lincoln
has come to understand

the deeper meaning about this conflict.

That it is about removing the stain

that the founders had left
at the time of the founding

by compromising

on the issue of human slavery.

- [Voiceover] On the outside,
Lincoln is calm and composed.

Yet inside he is in turmoil.

Consumed by the unceasing
carnage of the war.

- [Voiceover] Four score
and seven years ago,

our fathers brought forth,

upon this continent, a new nation.

Conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition

that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged

in a great civil war,
testing whether that--

- [Voiceover] With the Gettysburg Address,

Lincoln has finally found his footing

as a Commander in Chief.

- Lincoln's vision, his oratory,

his public letters kept
the North fighting.

- [Voiceover] But there
is also a new factor

influencing the war.

For the first time,
it's brutal consequences

are documented on film
and seen by the public.

Added to the weaponry of
the war is the camera.

The new technology of the camera

now shows the ravages of battle.

The man behind many of these images

is Alexander Gardner,
who takes more portraits

of the President than
any other photographer.

- [Voiceover] He saw photography
as a way of capturing

and then publicizing his image.

Because Lincoln had a
real keen appreciation

of what we might today
call public relations.

- Lincoln once said, "Public
sentiment is everything.

"He who controls public
sentiment influcences

"more people than he who makes statues."

- [Voiceover] But not everyone

views the President favorably.

- [Voiceover] This man's appearance,

his pedigree, his coarse
jokes and anecdotes,

his vulgar similes, and
his policy are a disgrace

to the seat he holds.

- Booth hated Lincoln.

- [Voiceover] He is the tool of the North

to crush out, or try to crush out, slavery

by robbery, slaughter, and bought armies.

A false President yearning
for a kingly succession.

- [Voiceover] John Wilkes
Booth is a famous actor.

- He was the Leonardo DiCaprio of his day.

- Famous for his acrobatic,
kind of moves on stage.

Very graceful, very able to do

the elegant moves on stage.

- John Wilkes Booth?

Young and up and coming man in his 20's.

This was a man who was going to be a star

and everybody knew it.

- [Voiceover] He has performed

in the country's best theatres,

in both the North and South.

Yet for many months now,

he has been struggling to find work.

He is often drunk.

An actor desperately
searching for a starring role.

- How abhorred in my imagination it is.

My gorge rises at it.

- [Voiceover] And now with the
South facing imminent defeat,

Booth focuses his anger on one man,

Abraham Lincoln.

(gun shot)

- Booth was an out and
out virulent racist.

The notion that Abraham Lincoln

should liberate African Americans,

should end this, the
noble system of slavery

and cavalier white life in the South,

where he, by the way, was very popular

and had toured, was to him a horror.

- [Voiceover] Booth grew up in Maryland.

The son of a famous Shakespearean actor

who had emigrated from England.

The father was often drunk.

- Hey!

Put those down!

Get inside!

- [Voiceover] Against his will,

all three sons become
Shakespearean actors.

For John, the death of his
domineering father is liberating.

No longer in the shadow
of his famous father,

he intends to make a name for himself

and become a hero to
his fellow Southerners.

- And it had grown on him over time

that the way to permanent stardom

was to get rid of this man
who had destroyed the South.

- [Voiceover] On the
ride from the White House

to his summer residence,

President Lincoln often
travels without bodyguards,

and more than once he comes
close to grave danger.

- Well the prospect of assassination

haunted Lincoln from
the day of his election.

- [Voiceover] Nothing will prevent me

from living as long as it
takes to complete my work.

God will protect me.

He keeps watch over me.

(gun shot)

Probably the stray bullet of a hunter.

Not worth mentioning.

It would only worry Mary.

- [Voiceover] The bullet has
made a hole in his top hat,

the trademark of the People's
President, Abe Lincoln.

- [Voiceover] When the war is over,

I will finally get around
to reading once again.

And we'll go over to
the theatre with Mary.

Something by Shakespeare,
my favorite playwright.

He's always been good for my speeches.

- Shakespeare was his emotional resource.

He knew the plays backwards and forwards,

particularly the tragedies.

- [Voiceover] Cowards die many
times before their deaths.

The valiant never taste a death but once.

Such powerful words, and so true.

- [Voiceover] The people in the North

are tired of the unexpectedly
long and bloody war.

There will soon be elections again.

- [Voiceover] We must win this war.

Otherwise the people will
vote in a different president

and all this work and
bloodshed will be in vain.

- [Voiceover] Little does Lincoln know

that he is faced with
a far greater concern.

(gun shot)

- [Voiceover] By God, I'll show him.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Skulking about saloons,

John Wilkes Booth boasts of a performance

he is planning to stage.

- Joe. I'm the new guy.

- [John] You know,
Caesar, Brutus, all that.

- Ah. Sure.

- My performance will be
Shakespeare, but bigger.

- Booth, like Lincoln...

It's one thing they had in common.

They were both determined
to be very famous

and to be remembered by history.

- How about another drink, John?

- You must have one with me, yeah?

- [Voiceover] He goes on
about the tyrant Caesar.

His heroic murderer, Brutus,

and a show America will not soon forget.

(men chattering)

- [John] To my performance, boys.

- [Voiceover] He can hardly bear

the Yankee soldiers
marching around the South.

- You're a credit to this country.

- [Bar Patron] Thank you.
- Don't you.

- [Voiceover] During the
election year of 1864,

prospects do not look good for Lincoln.

His generals fail to deal
the fatal blow to the South.

- He almost believed that he wasn't

going to be re-elected because of the war.

- [Voiceover] But at the last minute,

the Union Army rallies,

winning several decisive battles.

From a stumbling start,

a lawyer with almost
no military experience,

Abraham Lincoln has now
become a commanding leader.

- [Voiceover] How did he do it?

He did it the way he did everything else.

He read about it.

He learned from experience.

He learned tactics, he learned strategy.

He borrowed books from
the Library of Congress.

The idea was to destroy
armies, not to capture cities.

That was a sea change in
American military policy.

Lincoln advocated that.

- [Voiceover] In November, Abraham Lincoln

is elected to a second
term in the White House.

It is sweet vindication for him.

Finally, there's hope
that the war may soon end.

He pays a visit to
Alexander Gardner's studio.

- [Alexander] Mr. President,
if you could please.

Over here toward my
hand just a little bit.

Wonderful, wonderful.

- [Voiceover] Through the lens,

the image of the President
appears upside down.

Photography is a relatively new invention.

It works by exposing light
to a delicate, glass plate

which is attached to
the back of the camera.

- [Alexander] Mr. President,
if you could please

hold still for just one minute.

- [Voiceover] Lincoln must
sit still for several seconds

so the photo doesn't blur.

- Well the great thing
about this camera is

it doesn't take very long--

- Ah, here we are Mr. President.

- Thank you, Charles.

- [Voiceover] After the photo is taken,

the plate must lie in a developing bath

before the picture appears.

- [Alexander] We should
have something ready for you

by the end of the day.

- [Voiceover] While drying the plate,

Gardner slips and the glass plate breaks.

A crack across an exhausted face.

This is one of the last
photos of Abraham Lincoln.

And in it can be seen the
signs of the epic battle.

- There is clearly, along
with great weariness,

there is great relief.

And there you get

this very sweet smile.

- [Voiceover] And yet, the President

is tormented by nightmares.

He describes one in a diary
entry from March 1865.

- [Voiceover] I heard muffled sobbing,

as if several people were crying.

I went downstairs, but the
mourners were invisible.

In front of me there was a coffin

in which there lay a
body wrapped in shrouds.

It was surrounded by guards.

Who died at the White House,
I asked one of the soldiers.

The President, was his reply.

He was assassinated.

- [Voiceover] Abraham Lincoln starts

his second term as President.

In his inaugural address,
he uses words of unity.

- [Voiceover] He wanted reconciliation.

He wanted truth.

He wanted healing,

and he wanted the nation
to have its wounds bound up

and to go forward as
a united people again.

- [Voiceover] Photographer
Alexander Gardner

documents the occasion.

- [Voiceover] To bind
up the nation's wounds.

To care for him who shall
have borne the battle

and for his widow and his orphan.

To do all which may achieve and cherish

a just and a lasting peace

among ourselves and with all nations.

(applause)

- Lincoln, in the midst of
the most uncivil of wars,

practiced a civility that I think

would do modern Presidents
well to emulate.

- [Voiceover] Yet among the
crowd assembled before him

are some who want revenge,
not reconciliation.

There, captured by chance,

in a photograph by Alexander Gardner

are John Wilkes Booth and his accomplices.

They have been meeting secretly

at a house in Washington
belonging to Mary Surratt.

Booth's gang includes David Herold,

who knows the South like
the back of his hand,

Ford's Theatre employee Edmund Spangler,

Lewis Powell, a hulk of a
man feared for his brutality,

and George Atzerodt, who
rounded out the group.

The men devise a plan
to kidnap the President

and save the South from certain defeat.

What Booth does not tell his comrades

is that he intends to assassinate,

not kidnap, the President.

Now Richmond, the capital of
the Confederacy lies in ruins.

On April 9th, 1865 the South surrenders.

The war is over.

But victory has come at a horrific price.

More than 600,000 soldiers
and over 50,000 civilians

have paid for it with their lives.

Lincoln is eager to
announce that black soldiers

will soon be granted civil rights.

Surrounded by the dead,

he hopes for the day when all Americans

will live in freedom.

- [Voiceover] There
are a number of factors

contributing to Northern victory;

you can look at economic factors,

you can look at the generals, ultimately,

but I think probably the
single biggest factor

in the Northern victory

was the leadership of Abraham Lincoln.

- [Voiceover] Two days after the war ends,

Lincoln gives a speech from
the balcony of the White House.

- In the crowd was John Wilkes Booth

and his co-conspirator Lewis Payne.

- And Lincoln talks about black suffrage.

He talks about giving African Americans,

particularly those who had
fought for the Union the vote.

It's the first time he
ever said that in public.

- Booth said to the man he was with,

"That's the last speech Abraham Lincoln

"will ever give."

(fireworks booming)

- [Voiceover] On April 13th, 1865,

Washington celebrates the end of the war.

It seems like a new beginning.

(fireworks booming)

The following day,
Lincoln and his wife Mary

have been invited to Ford's Theatre.

He calls a Cabinet
meeting to start planning

the reconstruction of the South.

("Oh Captain" by George Kochbeck)

It is good to have something to celebrate.

Although he doesn't show it publicly,

Lincoln is still consumed with grief

over the death of his son Willie.

He often looks fondly over his son's toys.

It was just over four years ago

that he left Springfield
with his suitcases

to take office in Washington.

That morning a messenger
from the White House

arrives at Ford's Theatre
to spread the news

that the Lincolns will attend
the evening's performance.

A box is decorated for
the illustrious guests

with flags, a portrait
of George Washington,

and a comfortable rocking
chair for the President.

The theatre's manager
hopes for a full house.

As a frequent actor at Ford's Theatre,

Booth knows the theatre well

and has kept a pigeon hole there,

a mailbox that he checks regularly.

- [Voiceover] Oh! The
President will be here tonight!

- [Voiceover] When he
learned that Lincoln would be

at Ford's Theatre that evening

for a special benefit performance

of "Our American Cousin,"
featuring Laura Keene,

Booth resolved at once to
put his plan into action.

- [Voiceover] Booth knows
the theatre inside and out.

The rear stage entrance
leads to the lower stalls.

For the moment, the stage is empty.

One of America's most famous actresses,

Laura Keene, will be performing tonight.

(slow, dramatic violin music)

Booth knows that the Presidental
box is in the dress circle.

He had acted in a comedy in front

of President Lincoln a few years before.

With a knife, he prepares
the door to suit his plans.

Today, Lincoln hopes to leave work early.

But first, he personally
answers a few letters.

He wants to ride down
to the port with Mary

to welcome the warships returning

to the Navy Yard on the Potomac River.

They have a few hours to spare

before the theatre performance begins.

During the past few years,

they have had little time for each other.

Lincoln knows things have to change.

Not far from the White House,

John Wilkes Booth and his
accomplices meet again.

He tells them the plan has changed

from kidnapping to assassination.

And he wants to target not just Lincoln,

but other top officials, too.

His aim?

To decapitate the top
layer of the government

and inspire the South to rise again.

- [Voiceover] Many will condemn me

for what I am about to do.

But future generations
will thank me for it.

- [Voiceover] That
afternoon, they hire horses

for their escape from Washington.

- [Livery Owner] You said 10 days?

- [John] 10 days. 10, 15.

- [Voiceover] The new plan.

While Booth guns down Lincoln,

Lewis Powell will assassinate
the Secretary of State,

and George Atzerodt will
kill the Vice President.

Booth does not tell them
he has sent a letter

to the newspaper naming
them as accomplices.

Mary and Abe are late.

When they arrive at Ford's Theatre,

the performance has already started.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Sir, your vulgarity
renders you intolerable--

- [Voiceover] The comedy is about

a rich, but rather foolish American,

who is visiting his aristocratic
relatives in England.

The play is a crowd pleaser

and the Lincolns settle
in to enjoy the show.

- But surely a villain
of Coyle's stability

would have destroyed the note.

(audience laughter)
(clock ticking)

- [Voiceover] Just before 10pm,

Booth arrives at the rear stage entrance.

An accomplice takes care of his horse.

The bodyguard leaves his post,

heading down to the stage

to catch a glimpse of Laura Keene.

(audience cheers)

Just as booth had hoped, a full house.

- Oh, that accounts for what I've heard

so many young ladies say.

Florence, dear, don't
you find Mr. Dundreary?

I never knew what they meant before!

- [Voiceover] Booth uses his knowledge

of the theatre to make his way to the box.

He knows the play well,

including the exact moments

when the audience will laugh and applaud.

Only five scenes left until the end.

His play is about to begin.

- [Voiceover] I know enough

to turn you inside out, old gal.

You sockdologizing old man-trap!

(gun shot)
(gasping)

- [Voiceover] Oh my god!

Mr. Lincoln! Mr. Lincoln!

Mr. Lincoln, please!

- Help! Help!

- Sic semper tyrannis!

(screaming)

- [Voiceover] Shouting,
"Sic semper tyrannis,"

thus always to tyrants,

Booth races through the theatre,

fending off with a knife
anyone who stands in his way.

- Get back!

- [Voiceover] And then, ran off the stage,

out the back door, onto a horse

that he had had waiting there

and galloped off into
the Washington night.

All of this had taken no more than

20 to 30 seconds to happen.

- Bring him in here!

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Severely wounded,

he is carried to a
house across the street.

Abraham Lincoln, who
fought to save the Union

now has to fight for his own life.

- [Doctor] He's bleeding.

OK, hold that light right down there.

- Excuse me, gentlemen. Excuse me.

- [Voiceover] Doctors struggle
to save the President's life.

- [Doctor] Big wound behind the ear.

I don't see a...

I don't see the bullet
lodged there at all.

- [Voiceover] They do what they can

to stabilize his pulse and breathing.

- [Doctor] This is not
looking good at all.

Keep that light right there.

- [Voiceover] With each passing moment,

their battle grows more
and more desperate.

- [Doctor] Right behind the...

Right behind the lobe.

(groaning)

- I feel something, Doctor,
but it's so deep I don't know--

- [Voiceover] Then the plot thickens.

Lincoln's Secretary of State
has also been targeted.

- It seems there's also been
an attempt on Mr. Seward.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Booth's evil
plan seems to have succeeded.

Now he is on the run,

and his conspirators have
also vanished into the night.

- That's not good, not good at all.

- If we can't stop that bleeding,

I don't know know that there's
anything we can do for him.

- [Voiceover] As the night wears on,

the President's doctors
begin to lose hope.

- Continues to grow weaker, Doctor.

- [Doctor] Very shallow breathing.

I'm worried about him.

- [Voiceover] Though Lincoln's doctors

know that he is dying,

they say nothing to Mary

for fear that she will break down.

- Mr. Lincoln!

Mr. Lincoln you must live!

- She became so hysterical and dramatic

that they actually tried to keep her

out of the room with Lincoln.

(crying)

- [Voiceover] John
Wilkes Booth, meanwhile,

galloped off into the night,

rendezvoused with one of
the other conspirators,

David Herold, crossed out of Washington DC

and into southern Maryland
where he hoped to pick up

the posting trail used by
Confederate Secret Service agents.

- [Voiceover] They are
able to pass unnoticed

through the military blockades.

Now they hope to go into
hiding in the South.

Booth has planned his escape
down to the last detail.

Just a few weeks earlier,

he had rifles put in
a secret hiding place.

- Hand them out.
- Hurry!

- [Voiceover] The one
thing he didn't plan for

was that he would break his leg

while jumping from Lincoln's
box to the stage below.

Now riding across the Maryland countryside

he is in agonizing pain.

- That broken leg slowed him down.

- [Voiceover] It's a 10-mile journey

to the home of a Southern sympathizer

by the name of Dr. Samuel Mudd.

Lincoln's Secretary of War

has dispatched troops
to pursue the assassin.

Witnesses recognized the actor immediately

and authorities assume he
will hide out in Virginia.

Booth was introduced to
Dr. Mudd during the war.

The doctor is a Southern sympathizer.

He fixes Booth's leg.

- All right, I know
it's not gonna be easy.

- Hold! Watch it, there's a hole!

- [Voiceover] Early
morning, April 15th, 1865.

The President who changed history,

who reunited the nation,

never regains consciousness.

At 7:22am the President
draws his last breath.

- [Voiceover] Lincoln's pulse finally gave

its last irregular flutters.

And the Surgeon General, Joseph Barnes,

pronounced him dead.

With tears streaming down his face,

Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton,

a man not much given to crying,

said, "Now he belongs to the ages."

And indeed he did.

- [Voiceover] And now,

the manhunt is on for the assassin.

Just days after the Civil War ends,

a single bullet from a
pistol has taken the life

of Abraham Lincoln at the age of 56.

In keeping with custom,
coins are placed on his eyes

so that he can pay the ferryman

who will bring him into the next world.

News of Lincoln's death
spreads like wildfire.

Thousands come to the
Capitol in Washington

where flags fly at half mast.

- [Voiceover] This was the first time

that an American President
had been murdered.

And stop and think, this was in some ways,

the last...

The ultimate war casualty.

- [Voiceover] Newspapers
publish special editions.

Victory celebrations in
Washington are called off.

Shock and disbelief are everywhere.

The captain brought the ship

into the port safely, it is said,

and now he himself is lying dead on deck.

Wall Street closes to mourn
the President's death.

- He becomes glorified.

He becomes more than a man.

Europe is in mourning,

South America is in mourning,

the country is in mourning.

- [Voiceover] Five months before,

he had been re-elected as President.

With the war over, he had
hoped to reunite the country.

But his moment of triumph
was all too brief.

The White House has become a dark house.

(sobbing)

- After Lincoln's death,

Mary really lost

some of her reason,

I guess is the kindest way to say it.

- [Voiceover] Mary Lincoln
has faced much grief.

First the loss of two sons,
and now her beloved husband.

12-year-old Tad Lincoln is largely left

to deal with his grief alone.

(people shouting)

The public craves the latest
news about the assassination.

The papers are all too happy to oblige.

Reporters interview eye witnesses

and describe the ordeal in all its detail.

Shakespeare himself
could hardly have written

a more tragic drama.

A detachment of soldiers from
the 13th New York Cavalry

arrives in the small town of Bryantown

in search of the assassin

and begins to question the locals.

While out buying groceries,
Dr. Mudd hears Union soldiers

say the President is dead

and they are looking for his assassin.

- Listen, if I knew where he was,

believe me, y'all would be
the first people I would tell.

- John Wilkes Booth. You
better tell us if you see him.

- I have not.

- [Voiceover] Only one man in town

knows about the fugitives.

No sooner does he return
home than they leave.

Booth had told him little
about their destination.

Only that they were bound for Virginia.

- [Voiceover] I walked with a firm step

through a thousand of his friends.

I shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis,"

the same to all tyrants after I fired.

I can never repent it,
though we hated to kill.

- [Voiceover] For Booth,
freedom lies to the South.

- [Voiceover] Trying to
get across the Potomac

and into Virginia where Booth thinks

he's going to be greeted as a hero.

- [Voiceover] He is
certain that Southerners

will understand his act
and admire him for it.

- [Voiceover] He was hoping that chaos

would re-inspire the South,

but there was no more will in the South.

There was absolutely no more will.

Lincoln's death was a
moment of huge catharsis

and any thought that a war
would continue was over.

- [Voiceover] After his death,

Lincoln's body is brought
back to the White House.

The bullet was lodged
deep inside his head,

behind his left eye socket.

(melancholy music)

On April 19th, his body is laid out

for an elaborate funeral.

- In the East Room of the White House,

where Lincoln had once dreamt
of a funeral taking place.

- [Voiceover] Afterwards, 30,000 people

escort the coffin to the Capitol.

Many in the North blame
Southern conspirators

for the assassination

and demand swift and severe punishment.

Their Abe has become a martyr,

giving his life for his great dream.

(sobbing)

Mary Lincoln does not
attend the funeral service.

She shuts herself away for
days in the private quarters.

- She was beside herself with grief.

She wouldn't vacate the White House.

So weeks went by and Johnson

was trying to move into the White House.

He was then President
and Mary wouldn't leave.

- [Voiceover] Ford's Theatre is adorned

with black ribbons as a sign of mourning.

It remains closed after the assassination.

The President's walking
stick is found by his chair.

Relics such as this are
sold at a high price.

Outside Washington,
the assassins' pursuers

are hot on his trail,

though they don't yet realize it.

For several days, Booth and
his accomplice, David Herold,

have been hiding on the
edge of the Potomac River.

- Think they're coming?

- Just tend to the horses.

Our chance will be in Virginia.

- [Voiceover] The searchers
suspect Booth is heading south

and try to intercept him in Virginia.

- [Voiceover] What idiots!

They write that Lincoln's assassination

was the toughest blow the
South ever had to bear.

How can they write that?

Lincoln was our enemy.

I only did it for the sake of our country.

- [Voiceover] Booth had
not expected the South

to mourn for Lincoln or to
condemn him for his act.

- He was appalled to discover
that the act he thought

was the assassination of a tyrant

was being talked about across the country,

not just in the North, but in the South

as a base and vile act
of political murder.

- [Voiceover] Booth lost a fortune

in the bankruptcy of a
Pennsylvania oil company.

It only adds to his
resentment of the North

and his hatred of its leader.

- [Voiceover] He truly
believed that Lincoln was wrong

and that what Lincoln
had done to the South

was immoral wrong.

By this time the whole
country is after him.

There's a bounty on his head.

- [Voiceover] The reward for the capture

of John Wilkes Booth, $100,000.

The largest sum ever at that time

for the apprehension of a murderer.

- [Voiceover] I do not
care what becomes of me.

I have no desire to outlive my country.

I have started writing a diary

to gather my thoughts or I'll go insane.

- [Voiceover] John
Wilkes Booth kept a diary

because, I think, he believed he would die

on that escape route.

Part of him said, if I don't make it,

I want my act consecrated and explained

in my own terms.

- [Voiceover] Why do they chase me

like a runaway slave?

I am not a common criminal.

All I want is justice for this country.

- Go, go.

- Quietly, quietly.

- [Voiceover] But the biggest manhunt

ever launched to date is
closing in on the fugitives.

John Wilkes Booth is on the run,

but several of his co-conspirators

have not managed to evade
the long arm of the law.

They have been found in
and around Washington,

arrested and imprisoned.

Mary Surratt, who opened her
home to the conspirators.

- In the words of
President Andrew Johnson,

"She was the mistress of the nest

"where the vipers
planned their ugly deed."

- [Voiceover] Lewis Powell,

who had brutally attacked
Secretary of State Seward,

leaving him severely wounded.

Edmund Spangler.

During the assassination,
he had held Booth's horse

in back of the theatre.

And George Atzerodt.

He was supposed to kill the Vice President

but backed out at the last minute.

("Oh Captain" by George Kochbeck)

Six days after the assassination,

a train is decorated in Washington.

As many people as possible

will be given the opportunity

to pay their last respects
to Abraham Lincoln.

From Washington to New York,

to Chicago to Springfield,

on the 13-day, 1,700 mile journey

the funeral train will stop
in cities along the way

before reaching Lincoln's hometown.

The coffin is made out of walnut wood

with heavy silver plating.

The cost, $1,500.

An ordinary coffin costs a mere $10.

Lincoln's body has been
embalmed with zinc chloride

to preserve it on the long journey.

- [Voiceover] And then
there was a lengthy,

almost macabre funeral procession

through the states, through the cities

that he had traveled on his
inaugural trip to Washington.

(train bell)

("Lincoln Trainsong" by George Kochbeck)

- [Voiceover] At every stop,

the coffin is laid out in state.

Along the way hundreds of thousands

tearfully bid farewell to their Abe.

("Lincoln Trainsong" by George Kochbeck)

After another narrow escape,

Booth and his accomplice

are hiding deep in the woods

by the Potomac River.

- Aww, it's all I have.

- [Voiceover] Harold has
turned to the bottle.

- [John] You're a drunken pig.

- [Voiceover] Booth fills his
time writing in his diary.

- Hand me my diary book.
- What?

- Hand me my diary book.

- [Voiceover] But his leg is
causing him terrible pain.

Along the banks of the Potomac,

the assassins' pursuers
search for signs of a boat.

The river is wide.

Too wide for the fugitives
to cross by swimming.

It appears that the assassin

is still on the Maryland
side of the river.

("Lincoln Theme #1" by George Kochbeck)

At the White House,

Tad Lincoln dearly misses his father.

He has no one to share his pain with.

- Mommy.

Mommy.

- [Voiceover] Mary has retreated

into her own spiritual world

and lays tarot cards all day.

("Lincoln Theme #1" by George Kochbeck)

("Lincoln Trainsong" by George Kochbeck)

Wherever the funeral train passes,

onlookers pause to pay their respects.

Many are moved to tears.

Many different engines take turns

pulling the train.

People line the route to watch it pass.

In the cities, tens of thousands come out.

("Lincoln Trainsong" by George Kochbeck)

The train is preceded by
a so-called pilot engine

which announces the
funeral train's arrival.

People gather to see the train
called The Lincoln Special.

On April 20th, Booth and his accomplice,

David Herold, finally secure a boat.

- [David] It's on the other side.

- [John] Are you sure you can row?

- [David] Oh yeah.

- [Voiceover] They will use
it to cross the Potomac.

Herold has never rowed a
boat before in his life.

Swept along by the current,

they encounter an unpleasant surprise

in the early morning mist,

nearly hitting a navy cannon boat.

They row on unnoticed,

but lose their bearings

and end up on the same side of the river

as where they started.

They make a second attempt.

- Finally he managed to
slip across the Potomac,

moving into Virginia,

hoping to find Southern sympathizers.

- [Voiceover] They are now among friends,

or so they think.

("Booth Theme #1" by George Kochbeck)

Herold heads off to round
up a horse and cart.

- Wilkes, wait here.

I'll go get a wagon.

- [John] Yeah, hurry.

- [Voiceover] As they make their way

deeper into Virginia,

they discover that their accomplices

have been arrested in Washington.

The Lincoln Special
approaches New York City.

In the largest city in America,

the financial metropolis of the new world,

the funeral train has
stirred up controversy.

The city's mayor has
forbidden the participation

of blacks in the procession
through the city.

It's a slap in the face for the thousands

of black soldiers who fought
for Lincoln during the war,

and stark proof that racism is rife,

even in the North.

Though the 400,000 blacks
living in the Northern states

may not be slaves,

they still do not have the
same civil rights as whites.

A telegram from the War
Secretary in Washington

reprimands the New Yorkers.

Blacks are allowed to join
the procession after all,

but only 300 are brave enough to do so.

They fear being attacked by whites.

600,000 people gather in the
wide avenues of New York.

(applause)

A window seat costs up to $100.

Lincoln's body is laid out in state.

For two days, a steady stream of people

moves past the President's
coffin in New York.

Photography is strictly forbidden.

There is only one real picture

of the dead President in the open coffin.

But photos of Lincoln
look-alikes circulate.

They are sold by the hundreds.

Booth and Herold have now
been on the run for 10 days.

Booth cannot understand
why his fellow Southerners

have so suddenly changed their tune.

More than anything else,

Lincoln's death appears to have
brought the nation together.

- It was a time of unity.

Maybe the modern
counterpart would be 9/11.

- Is this Garrett's farm?

- This is it. This is
Garrett's farm. We're here.

- [Voiceover] They reach
a remote tobacco farm,

Garrett's farm.

("Booth Theme #1" by George Kochbeck)

The owners do not realize the identity

of the men they have taken in.

Booth's leg is now so badly inflamed

that he can hardly stand on it.

- Garrett said we could sleep here.

(grunting)

Here. Lay down.

(grunting)

- [Voiceover] Herold intends to go out

and find him a doctor.

- Have a little bit of this.

- The train's coming.

- [Voiceover] Day and night

the funeral train rolls through America.

Buffalo, Cleveland, and now Chicago.

("Lincoln Trainsong" by George Kochbeck)

The Chicago reception rivals
the spectacle in New York.

Hundreds of thousands gather.

Never before in American History

has a man been honored with so much glory,

even if only after his death.

In Chicago, the coffin is opened again.

The funeral director
applies another thick layer

of chalk and rouge to Lincoln's face.

And back in Virginia,

investigators finally get a break.

Witnesses have spotted the fugitives.

The soldiers close in on their prey.

John Wilkes Booth has been
on the run for 11 days.

- Finally Booth was cornered

in a tobacco barn near
Port Royal, Virginia.

- [Voiceover] My soul, my life,

everything I own belongs to the South!

For so long I have invested all my energy

in fulfilling my goal.

Now I have been so bitterly disappointed.

I know that I don't have much time left,

but I'm not going to
make it easy for them.

I can only walk on one leg,

but I have the brain of 20 men.

- [Voiceover] He has
changed his appearance

to avoid being recognized.

- [Voiceover] I, John Wilkes Booth,

have earned my ticket to immortality.

- [Voiceover] But local townspeople

have already figured out

that John Wilkes Booth is in their midst.

A military tribunal is assembled.

They regard Lincoln's
assassination as an act of war.

A hostile attack by rebels

on the Commander in Chief
of the United States.

Hundreds of witnesses are interrogated.

During the trial, the
press have a field day.

Battling for readers
with the latest stories

and portraying the
conspirators as monsters.

Four of them are sentenced
to death by hanging.

At Washington's Old Arsenal,

carpenters prepare the gallows
for a multiple execution.

It will be a historic event

carried out in front of a camera.

David Herold has returned

to Booth's hideaway at Garrett's farm.

But the soldiers have
found them and converged.

The dramatic chase has
reached its grand finale.

- Herold, wake up! They're here!

Someone's here.

- Come out! We know you're in there Booth!

Come out!

- It's over.

- Who do you take me for?

- It doesn't matter anymore. It's over.

- No, you stay! You stay!

- It's over!
- Fine!

Leave the rifle!

- Take the damn rifle.
- You're a coward.

- [David] I'm coming out!

I'm unarmed!

- [Voiceover] Tonight, I will
direct my own performance.

Caesar is gone once and for all.

- [Soldier] Come out!

We'll give you 10 seconds more!

- [Voiceover] Brutus, your hour has come.

New tyrants will make your greatness

shine in a new splendor!

- [Soldier] Torches! Fire
the barn! Fire the barn!

Come out!

- I will not come out this evening!

(gun shot)
(groaning)

- Come on, get his legs!

(grunting)

- [Voiceover] He was instantly paralyzed

and carried out of the barn.

- Use my hands.

- [Voiceover] He was in agonizing pain.

- Useless, useless.

- [Voiceover] John Wilkes Booth
died a very painful death.

And, you know, it calls
to mind the Latin words

that he used when she shot Lincoln,

"Sic semper tyrannis,"

thus ever be it to tyrants.

- [Voiceover] Booth's body

is carried by boat to Washington.

It is brought to an armored naval vessel

where an autopsy is performed.

The body is buried on the grounds

of the Washington Penitentiary.

Booth's accomplice, David Herold,

is jailed with the other conspirators

at the military prison.

He, too, is put on trial.

His sentence is soon declared,

death by hanging.

On May 3rd, 1865, the Lincoln Special

arrives in Springfield.

A staggering 7 million people

have viewed the martyred President

as he passed through the
country on his final journey.

- There had never been a funeral like it.

There has never been
anything like it since.

- [Voiceover] At the State
Capitol in Springfield,

where Lincoln gave his
first great speeches,

he is laid out one last time.

He has come home.

(melancholy piano music)

Under a portrait of George Washington

the coffin now rests, closed forever.

One by one, his friends and colleagues

say their last goodbyes.

The long journey has taken
its toll on Lincoln's remains.

They are no longer presentable.

Lincoln is buried next to his son Willie

in the family tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetary.

(somber music)

The only relatives present at the ceremony

are his son, Robert, and
his cousin, John Hanks.

After the heavy doors
of the tomb are closed

guards are stationed
to keep out the curious

and to prevent vandalism
by angry Southerners.

In Washington, Mary Surratt's appeals

to the new President for clemency
have fallen on deaf ears.

She knows that she will die today.

- Madam, it's time to go now.

- She was the first woman to
be hanged under federal law.

- [Voiceover] At the old
prison, everything is ready.

Next to the gallows, graves
have already been dug

for the conspirators' bodies.

The military tribunal reads out
the sentences one last time.

Photographer Alexander
Gardner readies his camera

to photograph the execution.

- [Voiceover] Soldier, do your duty.

- [Voiceover] Yes, sir.

- [Voiceover] Four conspirators

in the death of a president

meet their agonizing deaths.

Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell,

George Atzerodt, and David Herold.

An image captured as a warning to all.

- [Voiceover] Edwin Stanton,
the Secretary of War,

who authorized this thought circulating

a photograph of four conspirators

dangling from the end
of a rope was proper.

Because, I suspect, he
wanted the lesson out there.

- [Voiceover] At the
cemetery in Springfield,

an obelisk is erected in
memory of Abraham Lincoln.

- All right now, Sergeant Corbett,

you need to look the hero, okay?

Stand just a little bit more like that.

There you go, okay?

- [Voiceover] In Washington,

Alexander Gardner is again
at work in his studio.

- Tad bit more.
- Mmm-hmm.

- And here we go.

- [Voiceover] He is
photographing a new hero,

Boston Corbett, the soldier
who shot John Wilkes Booth

in the burning barn.

Newspapers continue to print stories

about Booth at the tobacco farm

and descriptions of the
conspirators' hanging.

("Lincoln Finale" by George Kochbeck)

In the end, the actor achieves
the immortality he sought.

His final performance
will never be forgotten.

The first assassination of a
president in American History.

Booth's diary disappears for a long time.

When it is later found
at the Department of War,

18 pages are missing.

It leaves some to question,

were some high ranking figures
involved in the murder?

Was Booth the spearhead of
a much larger conspiracy?

Mary Lincoln never overcomes
the death of her husband.

- [Voiceover] Mary
continued her wild spending.

She and Tad lived in Europe for a while.

She found it much more amiable there

for her than the US was.

And then sadly and
tragically, Tad died as well.

- [Voiceover] Tad dies of
tuberculosis at the age of 18.

His mother who has lost three of four sons

is shut away in a mental hospital.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th
President of the United States.

To his admirers, he becomes
known as the Liberator.

His legacy is immediate and everlasting.

- If there was ever a president

who answered positively the question,

does character count,
it's Abraham Lincoln.

- [Voiceover] He saved
the Union and democracy.

He ended slavery and he created

a new way of speaking to Americans.

- [Voiceover] What we do know

is Lincoln had really strong ideas

about how to reconstruct the South.

And probably, if he had lived,

things would have gone
so much more smoothly.

- We might say that Abraham Lincoln

was the first victim, the first casualty,

the first martyr of the
Civil Rights Movement.

- [Voiceover] In 1869,
four years after his death,

blacks are allowed to
vote for the first time.

In 1922, a memorial is erected

in his honor in Washington DC.

And ever since then, pioneers
of each new generation

climb these steps to demand,
declare, and celebrate

the dream of freedom in America.

Marian Anderson,

♫ My country tis of thee

Martin Luther King, Jr,

Barack Obama.

("Oh Captain" by George Kochbeck)

They are the spiritual sons and daughters

of the original champion
of American freedom,

Abraham Lincoln.