The Killing of Lincoln

I read The Killing of Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. I loved the book and couldn’t put it down. While reading the book and even after I read it, all I could think was that this is the way history books should be written. This book makes history come alive in an interesting way. If kids would read history books written like this one, they would learn to love history.

This is a history book but reads more like a big sweeping book of “Who Done It.” There was a lot of information to digest, and I actually underlined it or highlighted it on my Kindle. (Yes, Kindle has this capability). I found out new facts and other facts that I had totally forgotten.

Some of those interesting facts were:

The history of the Ford Theater, and that it was originally known as First Baptist Church in Washington.

Lincoln was shot during the play Our American Cousins, but he really wanted to see the new popular play, Aladdin.

Lincoln dreamt of his death.

His body guard spent the evening in a bar drinking, instead of protecting Lincoln.
During Lincoln’s years in office during the Civil War, he aged dramatically.

Lincoln wanted the union saved and did his best to make it easier for the return of the South after the war.

Lincoln died on the same bed where John Wilkes Booth had laid on a few weeks earlier.
Lafayette Baker found and killed John Wilkes Booth.

Booth was killed by a bullet.

Four people were hung for their part in Lincoln’s death.

Four people served their punishment for their involvement in Lincoln’s conspiracy by serving time in a remote penitentiary at Ft. Jefferson in the Gulf of Mexico.

Robert E. Lee was reinstated as a citizen of the United States in 1975 by President Gerald Ford.

It has never been proven that Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, wasn’t involved in the conspiracy to kill Lincoln.

President Andrew Jackson (Lincoln’s Vice President) was the worst president in history.

I definitely re-learned a lot of history. Pick up and read The Killing of Lincoln and give your brain a much needed exercise. You won’t be disappointed. Bill O’ Reilly and Martin Dugard both did a meticulous job in presenting the facts in this well written book, The Killing of Lincoln.