On the evening of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth fled from the back door of Ford’s Theatre, limped to a waiting horse, and dashed down the alley toward F Street after shooting President Lincoln during a performance of Our American Cousin. Twelve-year-old Henry Davis had gone to bed early, but his brother, watching from the back window of their Ninth Street home, saw Booth’s escape. Booth, a famous actor and Confederate supporter, had been trying to capture Lincoln for months, but only hours earlier he and his co-conspirators had agreed at the Herndon House that Booth would kill Lincoln, Lewis Powell would kill Secretary of State Seward, and George Azerodt would kill Vice President Johnson. Azerodt did not carry out his part, Powell severely wounded Seward, and Booth fatally shot Lincoln, who died at 7:22 the next morning in the Petersen House across from the theater. Booth was apprehended and killed in a Virginia tobacco shed 12 days later.
