On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his wife
Mary Todd were attending a performance of
Our American Cousin when
John Wilkes Booth, an actor and
Southern sympathizer, entered the box and shot the President in the back of the head.
Henry Rathbone and
Clara Harris were also in the box with the Lincolns, and Rathbone suffered serious stab wounds while trying to prevent Booth's escape. Doctors including
Charles Leale and
Charles Sabin Taft examined Lincoln in the box before having him carried across the street to the Petersen House, where boarder Henry Safford directed them inside. Upon re-examining Lincoln, only to discover that his extremities were cold, physicians continually removed blood clots which formed over the wound and poured out the excess
cerebral fluid and brain matter from where the bullet had entered Lincoln's head in order to relieve pressure on the brain. However, the external and internal hemorrhaging continued throughout the night. During the night and early morning, guards patrolled outside to prevent onlookers from coming inside the house. Lincoln's
Cabinet members, generals, and various members of Congress were allowed to see the President, except
Secretary of State William Seward, who was nearly killed in an assassination attempt by
Lewis Powell, one of John Wilkes Booth's henchmen, on the same night as the assassination of Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln died in the house on April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m., aged 56. Individuals in the room when he died included his son
Robert Todd Lincoln;
Senator Charles Sumner; generals
Henry Wager Halleck,
Richard James Oglesby,
Corporal James Tanner, and
Montgomery C. Meigs; and
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Booth was located in Virginia two weeks later and was shot by one of the Union soldiers, Sergeant
Boston Corbett, dying less than three hours later. ==Today==