18. John Wilkes Booth may have considered Abraham Lincoln a tyrant, but history generally does not agree with his assessment of the president, nor with his justification for assassinating him. What best describes Booth's violent death?
From Quiz "Sic Semper Tyrannis"
Answer:
He was shot by Union troops whilst hiding in a barn
After delivering his famous line about tyrants and shooting President Lincoln, who was attending a play at the Ford Theater, Booth did in fact jump down onto the stage, possibly breaking his leg in the process. He was still able to get out the back of the theater and escape on horseback, leaving the fatally wounded president, his horrified wife, and the stunned theater audience behind as he fled toward southern Maryland. There he hoped to find safety among fellow Confederate sympathizers. The date was April 14, 1865, five days after General Lee had surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.
Booth, with an accomplice named David Herold, was able to get his leg treated, row across the Potomac River to Virginia, and evade capture for twelve days. But Union military were swarming the area, further motivated by a reward which eventually rose to $100,000. With the help of a tip, they tracked him down at Richard Garrett's farm, where he was sleeping in the barn. With the barn surrounded, Herold gave himself up, but Booth refused to come out. The soldiers set the barn on fire, and Sergeant Boston Corbett, who had gone in the barn to flush Booth out, ended the suspense by shooting him in the neck. Although he claimed Booth had raised a pistol at him, Corbett was disciplined by his commanding officer for "acting without orders" and preventing the troops from taking Booth alive. The nation was in mourning, and even most southern news sources, who generally despised Lincoln, decried the assassination. History has definitively judged Booth harshly, as he clearly failed in his attempt to rally the Confederacy, and only exacerbated the deep divide in the country.