On April 14, 1865, five days after Lee surrendered at Appomattox ending the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and southern sympathizer (supporter) shot President Lincoln during a play at Ford's Theater. Lincoln was carried across the street to a boarding house where he died of his wounds the next morning. The country mourned greatly at the assassination of President Lincoln as a 12-day manhunt would be underway to search and capture his killer. John Wilkes Booth would eventually be caught and killed by Union soldiers on April 26.

Lincoln's death would mean his Vice President, Andrew Johnson would now be President. Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans would soon be fighting their own war; a political one to determine how to rebuild the nation after the war.

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