Along with the Revolutionary War, the Civil war was thought to be a Gentlemen’s war. A war where some rules of civility were followed. High government and military officials were not targets. This as with many cases in history is simply not true. Each side in the Civil war perhaps provoked by their increasing frustration with this never-ending struggle, invoked so-called Black Flag war. By using a campaign of Black Flag war, each side offered license to target their civilian populations as well as their leaders. This culminated in an act that still shapes the essence of this country today.

In February 1864, a union plan was hatched to raid a confederate prison in Richmond. The purpose was three fold: 1) Release union soldiers held captive, 2) Burn Richmond to the ground, and 3) Capture and if necessary kill Jefferson Davis and his confederate cabinet. Due to advance warning the prison raid didn’t work and the raid was foiled. Unfortunately for history, an officer was captured with the written orders on his person. Upon learning of the willingness of the Union to murder the leaders of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis and many Southerners were now convinced that any chance for this to be a “moral” war had now evaporated.

The Confederate Secret Service operating from Montreal launched a scheme to infect Northern cities with clothing worn by Yellow Fever victims. The idea was to conduct germ warfare against the North to break their willingness to fight. Upon one of his visits to Montreal and the CSS, an actor by the name of John Wilkes Booth was given a letter of introduction to one Dr. Samuel Mudd of Maryland. But, more on that later…

Lincoln never took security very seriously. He felt that a determined assassin could not be stopped if he really wanted to kill the President. It was well known by the Confederate Secret Service that Lincoln rode from the White House to his Summer Home a few miles away sometimes alone and late at night. Many, including Booth, devised plans to capture Lincoln and use him as collateral for the return of Confederate soldiers. For various reasons, none of Booth’s plans to capture Lincoln came to fruition. His last attempt was to take place in Baltimore where Lincoln was visiting a hospital. The army had learned of a plot to capture Lincoln there and snuck him into Baltimore and onto Washington several hours earlier. Booth was yet again denied his chance.

When President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he in effect said all slaves were now free. Additionally, it was condemned by both the Confederacy and Great Britain as license for the slaves to rise up and murder their owners. Yet again, in the South’s mind, Lincoln had crossed the line of morality. With the Emancipation Proclamation, Booth realized that the Union as he knew it could never be put back again.

Booth was still looking for an opportunity to capture Lincoln, but a fateful speech given by Lincoln on April 12, 1865, changed his mind and our country forever. Booth attended a speech given by Lincoln at the Whitehouse. Booth was standing on the great lawn of the White House. Lincoln espoused in detail how the Emancipation Proclamation meant full citizenship for all the former slaves. This level of equality and deathblow to his way of life was more than Booth could take. He turned to his companion and said, “That is the last speech Lincoln will ever give”

On April 14^th, 1865, Lincoln and his wife decided to accept an invitation from John Ford to attend the play, “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s theater that night. Interestingly enough, U.S. Grant and his wife were invited but since Grant’s wife didn’t really like Mary Lincoln they graciously declined. How fortuitous?

Being a well-known actor at Ford’s Theater, Booth basically had the run of the place. He came and went with impunity to and fro the president’s box that evening. He was able to make sure he had a way to jam the outer door to keep people from coming upon him in the box. He was able to ensure a hole in the door so he could look for his perfect moment. Being able to hear the play while waiting in the vestibule, he could time his entrance to a particularly uproarious part of the play. Upon the audience bursting into laughter, Booth fired his .44 caliber Derringer into Lincoln’s skull. The ball went diagonally across Lincoln’s head and lodged behind his eye. With that Booth jumped the 12 feet from the box to the stage, ran across the stage slashing at anyone that should get in his way. He stopped and shouter, “Sic Semper Tyrannous” (Or So, Death to Tyrants). Booth then fled the back of the theater to a waiting horse, and galloped into the Washington night following a carefully laid out escape plan.

As Booth fled on horseback towards the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd, Lincoln was brought across the street to a boarding house owned by a German tailor. Lincoln was laid across the bed diagonally as his 6 foot 4 inch frame could not fit into the bed. Booth continued towards his accomplice, Dr. Mudd. There. Dr. Mudd set the leg Booth had broken with his leap from the President’s box. Dr. Mudd let Both stay at his house through the next night so he may avoid traveling during the daylight.

On the morning of April 15, 1865, President Lincoln was pronounced dead. With Lincoln’s death, the great manhunt continued for Booth and anyone involved in the murder. It would take a full 12 days until Booth was captured held up in the Tobacco barn of Richard Garrett on April 26^th, 1865.

While this was the end of Booth, it was certainly not the end of the case. For several years following, interrogations and trials were held with many of Booth’s co-conspirators being found guilt and hanged. It has been claimed that people like Dr. Mudd were simply innocents. In Dr. Mudd’s case, he was simply a victim of his Hippocratic oath. The historical record proved this otherwise. The plot to assassinate president Lincoln was a detailed and calculated plot carried out by people who thought they were carrying out a patriotic act of war. Black Flag or otherwise.