The President of the United States was shot in a theater box on 14 April 1865, and the police officer assigned to guard him had left the building for a drink during the intermission.
Abraham Lincoln, born in a log cabin in Kentucky in 1809, was President when he was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the night of 14 April 1865 [1].
He went to see the play Our American Cousin with his wife, Mary Lincoln, and two guests, Major Henry Rathbone, an army officer, and Clara Harris. John Wilkes Booth, an actor from Maryland, came into the box behind him and fired a small single-shot pistol into the back of his head.
The guard, a Washington policeman named John Frederick Parker, had gone to a nearby tavern with Lincoln's valet, Charles Forbes, and his coachman; it is not known whether Parker came back. Forbes let Booth in after Booth showed his calling card, and Booth jammed the outer door shut with a wooden brace he had placed in the box earlier that day. An army doctor in the audience, Charles Leale, got into the box, found the bullet wound behind the left ear, and had Lincoln moved to the nearest house, the Petersen House. Lincoln died there the next morning, at 7:20 by Leale's report and 7:22 by the telegram of Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War.
Ward Hill Lamon, a marshal who had once spent a night lying outside the President's door to guard him, was away in Richmond, Virginia, which had been the Confederate capital, on an errand for Lincoln. Before leaving he had begged Lincoln not to go out at night, especially to the theater. Lincoln had answered that if anybody really wished to kill him, "he can do it any day or night if he is ready to give his life for mine." That evening Lincoln sent his guard William Crook home. He had asked Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War (the cabinet member in charge of the Army), to let Major Thomas Eckert, chief of the War Department's telegraph office, go with him, and Stanton refused. The Secret Service, which today guards the President, did not protect him: it was only formed in July 1865, under the Treasury Department, and took on full-time protection of the President in 1902. Parker was later charged before the city's police board with neglect of duty; the charge was dropped, and no record of the hearing survives. He was never called to testify at the 1865 military trial of the people accused of helping Booth. The records also disagree on the exact time of the shot.
[Report #200] WHO. 'Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809, in a log cabin on a farm near Hodgenville, Hardin County, Kentucky.' (
history.army.mil) The man who shot him: 'John Wilkes Booth, a successful actor from Bel Air, Maryland' (
history.army.mil).
THAT NIGHT, 14 APRIL 1865. Dr. Charles Leale, in the audience: 'I saw the President, Mrs. Lincoln, Major Rathbone and Miss Harris enter' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org); the play was 'Our American Cousin' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org). Major Henry Rathbone, sworn 17 April: 'he heard the discharge of a pistol behind him, and looking around, saw, through the smoke, a man between the door and the President.' (
hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu) Then: 'his head was slightly bent forward, and his eyes were closed.' (
hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu) The weapons: 'He was armed with a single-shot .44 caliber Derringer pistol and a 7-inch hunting knife.' (
history.army.mil) Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, 15 April, 1.30 A.M.: 'was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President.' (
upload.wikimedia.org) 'The pistol ball entered the back of the head of the President and penetrated nearly through the head.' (
upload.wikimedia.org)
THE TIME OF THE SHOT. Stanton: 'This evening, about 9.30 P. M., at Ford's Theatre' (
upload.wikimedia.org). Leale, 1865: 'until about half past ten, when the report of a pistol was distinctly heard' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org). Army staff-ride guide: 'At approximately 2230, Booth shoots President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre.' (
history.army.mil) All held.
THE WOUND AND THE DEATH. 'The bullet entered the president's head just behind the left ear and came to rest behind his right eye.' (
history.army.mil) Leale: 'passed the little finger of my left hand through the perfectly smooth opening made by the ball and found that it had entered the encephalon.' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org) 'we agreed to have him removed to the nearest house' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org); 'they took Lincoln into the Petersen House' (
history.army.mil). Stanton: 'Abraham Lincoln died this morning at twenty-two minutes after 7 o'clock.' (
upload.wikimedia.org) Leale, 1865: 'At 7.20 A.M. he breathed his last' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org). Both held.
THE PROTECTION AROUND HIM. 'During the play's intermission, Lincoln's assigned bodyguard for the evening, a policeman named John Frederick Parker, had left the theater to get a drink at a nearby tavern with Lincoln's valet, Charles Forbes, and coachman Francis P. Burke.' (
history.army.mil) 'It is uncertain whether Parker returned to the theater, but Forbes certainly must have, because he met Booth at the door to Lincoln's box.' (
history.army.mil) 'Booth presented his calling card, and, after a short conversation, Forbes allowed Booth to enter the presidential box' (
history.army.mil). 'Booth then quietly used a wooden brace, which he had placed in the box earlier in the day, to barricade the outer door of the box.' (
history.army.mil) George S. Bryan (1940) on Parker: 'The vacancy thus made was filled by Parker, whose record was such that he ought never to have been assigned to this post.' (
archive.org) The National Park Service: 'Parker was not called to testify during the trial of the conspirators, and no full account of his actions that night exists.' (
nps.gov) Bryan on the guard William Crook: 'Crook said that he "almost begged" Lincoln not to go' (
archive.org); Lincoln: '"No, Crook, you've had a long, hard day's work, and must go home."' (
archive.org) The mounted Union Light Guard: 'Its duties were to guard the carriage gates of the Executive Mansion and to act as escort to the President when-ever he went out driving or on horseback.' (
archive.org) Ward Hill Lamon: 'Lamon was now away to Richmond on an errand for Lincoln' (
archive.org); before going: 'Promise me you will not go out at night while I am gone, particularly to the theater.' (
archive.org) Lincoln: 'If anybody really wishes to kill me, he now said to Lamon, "he can do it any day or night if he is ready to give his life for mine."' (
archive.org) The escort he asked for: 'Stanton, resolved not to countenance Lincoln's theatergoing, answered that Eckert could not be spared.' (
archive.org) A 1971 Lincoln Lore bulletin on Rathbone: 'the President no doubt relied upon him to act as a sort of bodyguard' (
upload.wikimedia.org). The protective service came later: 'The Secret Service Division was formed on July 5, 1865 as part of the Department of the Treasury.' (
secretservice.gov)
1848. On the Niagara fragment: 'Abraham Lincoln wrote these notes in their entirety.' (
papersofabrahamlincoln.org)
HELD. The minute of the shot (9.30 / half past ten / 2230) and of death (7.20 / 7.22): records differ, all held. Whether Parker came back to the theater: held. Who stood behind Booth: four accounts, none picked (lincoln_assassination_accounts). Not found (Oct 2026): any record of Lincoln arguing that armed guards alienated the citizenry; would settle: a Lincoln letter or a witness record saying so. Not found (Oct 2026): the reasons of the Metropolitan Police Board for dropping the Parker charge; 'no transcripts of the hearing survive' (
nps.gov).
THE OCTOBER 2026 RESEARCH REPORT SAID the Union Light Guard "occasionally escorted the presidential carriage"; its source (Bryan) says the guard was to escort the President whenever he went out driving or on horseback.