Abraham Lincoln’s Wife Heard The Six Words He Whispered Before He Died

It’s the evening of April 14, 1865. President Abraham Lincoln is sitting with his beloved wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, in their private box at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. The happy couple are engrossed in the performance of Our American Cousin – but fate has other plans. At 10:15 p.m., a gunman named John Wilkes Booth will creep up behind the president and shoot him in the back of his skull. This much most of us know, of course, but what did Lincoln say right before he died? His final words to Mary have been fiercely contested throughout the years, and the truth is astonishing.

On the heels of victory

Lincoln’s assassination actually came hot on the heels of a great victory. The devastating American Civil War had ended only five days earlier. After the Battle of Appomattox Court House, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. And Booth — the gunman — was a known Confederate sympathizer. So his assassination of Lincoln was part of a three-pronged attack on the U.S. government and was seemingly intended to resuscitate the cause.

Conspiring

Booth had stayed in the north during the conflict, despite the fact that the Confederacy was based in the south. He’d actually pursued his acting career while the war raged for four bloody years. But after Lee surrendered his army, Booth — who’d previously hatched a failed plan to kidnap Lincoln — conspired to commit a far more devastating act.

It didn't go as planned

So when Booth discovered that the Lincolns would be attending the theater that fateful night, he put his plan into action. He also enlisted co-conspirators to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson — and these two assassinations should have happened as the actor pulled the trigger on Lincoln. See, Booth apparently believed that the murders of the president and his two potential successors would likely throw the country into chaos.

He had a locational advantage

Booth felt that Lincoln’s presence in the theater gave him a unique opportunity to get close to him. He had actually performed there several times himself and was therefore familiar with the layout of the building. The actor was also known to the staff and apparently used his connections to gain easier access to Lincoln’s private box.