Lincoln Wasn't the Only Target
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- I don’t know about you, but the impression I always got of Lincoln’s assassination was that John Wilkes Booth was an actor who really, really hated the president and so in the middle of his show he snuck into the president’s box and BANG! Zoom! Straight to the Moon. But John Wilkes Booth was actually the leader of a much larger conspiracy that started weeks, maybe months earlier with at least six other men.
Music (in order of appearance):
Kevin Macleod - Rollin at 5
Kevin Macleod - Fuzzball Parade
The fact Powell stabbed a bedridden man in the face and still somehow managed to fail in killing him is honestly pretty impressive
Jack left out the part that there was another man in the room who chased Powell off
@@calistoyew1313 I mean still, you would think a stab in the face would be lethal, especially in the 1800s… against a bedridden man no less.
He had a brace on his next for a injury and it deflected the knife
he stabbed him in the face. not the skull, not the throat but the face. probably not even all that deep. yeah the guy would need stitches to hell and probably wouldn't be able to smell anything ever again, but he'd most certainly live.
Considering what counted as hygene back then, even if he was chased off, failing to kill a bedridden man after stabbing him in the face is still impressive.
Funny thing about Grant: if he had attended, he would’ve been able to bring his bodyguards (due to being a high ranking General) who probably would’ve stopped Booth.
Would he have done that, though? I doubt president Lincoln would have had any trouble finding bodyguards if he wanted them. Clearly they just didn't think security was important at the time.
Lincoln actually had (at least one) bodyguard. I think he had 2 or three actually, but he officially had one in the theater. He was posted at the entrance to Lincoln’s special box, but had left to go watch the show. I think Lincoln had others too, but those I don’t remember what they were doing (although they were likely watching his carriage and the main entrance).
@@wingshad0w00982 it’s always strange how little protection was out in place for leaders at that time (Not much excuses you can really put)
@@Ttegegg People learn with bad experience. I am was pretty surprised when i learned that most of my country leaders have most of the time no protection personal with them. On the other hand, it is not a good thing then you think you need 24h protection.
Fun fact: Grant actually felt very, very, guilty about this
John Wilkes Booth's brother, Edwin Thomas, who was a more famous actor than John, actually saved the life of President Lincoln's son Robert when he almost fell onto the tracks of a busy train station in Jersey City.
Full on redemption arc of the Booth family..!
@@emilianohermosilla3996, true. It was supposedly a source of comfort to Edwin that he saved the President's son.
I also used to watch top 10 videos that taught me useless but interesting historical facts
@@seanm241, I first heard of it from Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story, which was a radio program full of odd and unusual coincidences.
@@emilianohermosilla3996 The Booth family as a whole were really good people. It was just John Wilkes who was the trouble child.
If i had a nickel for every dramatic history changing assassination
That where in reality just comical behind the scenes
I would have a concerning amount of nickels
Indeed!
Rasputin for exemple...
@@gcn7491 you aren't wrong
@@gcn7491 And Franz Ferdinand's
This guy has a lot of nickels, maybe we should assassinate him so WE could have all those nickels 🤔 Whos with me
Imagine being unable to kill a motionless man. That’s cringe.
that's not cring that's incompetent on higher level than Felix Yusupov and his friends attempt to assassinat Rasputin
@@or_gluzman561Peace_IL_PS To be fair, Felix and co were REALLY unlucky.
@@BenersantheBread yes
that's and they actually got the job done in the end unlike those numnuts here
To be fair to Powell, Seward was wearing a neck brace as a result of a riding accident. That probably saved his life, although he got his face cut up quite badly.
America owns Alaska because someone couldn't kill someone bed-ridden. The butterfly effect!
Fun fact: there is a photo of Lincoln giving his second inaugural address, where you can see booth and the other co-conspirators plainly in the crowd. And from where Booth was standing, he had a pretty clear shot.
I can only dream of a world where Johnson got killed and Lincoln survived
That would’ve been nice
@@rynemcgriffin1752 no, it would likely have a similar story to Johnson, as Lincoln's plans wouldn't punish the South. Though, if he _survived_ the assassination, he would probably be somewhat sympathetic to the Radical Republicans.
America might have been better off had they taken out VP Johnson. Guy botched reconstruction.
Honestly one place i would have hoped they succeeded
Yep.
With no clear line of succession set yet, the presidency may have fallen to Seward, the Secretary of State, who would have been a demonstrably better leader than Johnson, though admittedly Reconstruction would be a near-impossible task for anyone
@Bulbus It may not have been set in the Constitution yet, but there had been two Presidents die in office before Lincoln (Harrison and Taylor), and both were succeeded by their VPs. Custom dictated that Johnson become President.
@@erraticonteuse but the original post was basically “what if they had taken out Johnson as well”. With Lincoln and Johnson gone, would the Speaker of the House taken over? Who knows…
Fun Fact, a big reason that General Grant and other important union leaders did not attend Ford Theater with Lincoln is because Mary Todd, Lincoln's wife was so combative and aggressive to other women that Grant's wife and several others all agreed and refused to go to the theater if she went, and persuaded this husbands not to go as well.
Andrew Johnson not dying was the second worst thing that happened to America that night.
As Puppet History once called him
"A Racist Coward" and I honestly think that will be my name for him forever now
"him" being who?
Who?
@@andrewbondarenko5849 Booth
Sadly I don't think it fits. Whatever else he was Boothe targeted the most powerful men in the country knowing it would lead him to be s hunted man who would be put to death if caught up to. I think we like to bandy the term coward around because courage isn't a quality we want to ascribe to those we consider bad people. The truth is courage is sadly all too often a quality terrible people have.
Seward was badly mutilated by the attack. The room had been darkened, Seward had a metal neck brace. Powell was quickly accosted by Seward's daughter, army nurse and other members of household. It's not like he was simply allowed to take as many stabs in the dark as he liked.
That military officer with Lincoln had a pretty tragic life afterwards. Simon Whistler covered him on one of his channels. Suffice to say Henry Rathbone ended up in a German asylum for nearly 30 years.
How’d he end up in Germany?
@@goldenfiberwheat238 Got involved with the diplomatic mission from the US to Germany.
@@westrim I see
Powell f*cked up Seward something fierce. When docs got to him his daughter thought he was dead and he had to explain through carved up lips he still lives. All photos only show the side without the massive ass scar.
Also his daughter was one tough girl, she held up Powell for a while. And Powell was a veteran of several battles. Sadly she died not long after from an accident, leaving poor old Seward with one less member of his beloved family
My 7th grade biology teacher was Mr. Seward, he was the grandson of Lincoln’s Secretary of State
Damn.. you old lol
@@TheJingles007 a little, 36, my teacher was old.
honestly, half of american history should have yakkaty sax as the soundtrack
There is also Mary Surratt, the owner of boarding house of Powell and Booth reside. She got executed for providing home for the conspirator, even tho the conspirator (Powell) at the gallow plea for her innocence, it is a sad story.
I read a book on the plotters way way way back in middle school. This may be a bit of a grisly tall tale but I distinctly remember one of them apparently having such a thick neck that when he was hung, his neck wasn’t broken and he ended up hanging there alive for two days
..he would have been choked to death long before two days had passed
Powell actually was stopped by Seward’s army nurse attacking Powell and then several other household members assaulting him.
@grlo5312 So Powell fought his way out of Seward’s house, John Wick style; yet still failed at killing Seward, the bedridden man that was his sole target?
Screaming: "I'm mad!" while commiting a crime must be the clumsiest appeal for insanity ever tried. Lol
We can still use them as clubs!
Louis Powell mastered the art of failing when all the odds should have been in your favor.
I'd laugh at the sheer incompetence going on if it weren't for the fact that Lincoln died anyway.
And Seward would've if several members of his household hadn't intervened by attacking Powell.
Its interesting to note that contrary to what movies would have you believe, most successful and wannabe assassins are pretty incompetent. the successful ones often pull it off with a healthy dose of luck.
I don't think assassins are pretty incompetent, especially since most movie assassins are trained in assassinations, while the most well-known assassins in history are common people angered at some aspect of the government.
It's a tragedy that Powell didn't get Seward, honestly.
He of the secret police.
I feel like we live in the worst timeline where Lincoln died but Johnson lived to make a complete pigs ear of reconstruction.
Lincoln lived - best universe
Lincoln and Johnson died - worse universe
Lincoln dead, Johnson alive - worst (our) universe
What did they think would happen if it succeeded? Would they think a destroyed south would be able to fight a fully revenge filled north?
Brilliant, as always
"I'm madly inept at assassination !"
Nice to hear from you again Jack. I was thinking it would be a longtime before seeing another video from you again.
I always heard that the thing about Booth jumping on to the stage was a myth. I’m not sure the truth of the matter so I guess I’ll have to look into why my source thought it was a myth and if it actually happened. Awesome video though Jack!
Were I to guess, I would say that it was probably the same situation as the eye witnesses to the sinking of the Titanic never agreeing if it broke in half or if it sunk without breaking.
Nobody lied or misremembered, but the darkness, the waves as the ship sank and its sheer size meant that, depending on the angle from which one looked at it, it looked entirely different.
The same way as a dark theater around and over illuminated stage and the natural reaction of actors and expectators after hearing a sudden gunshot in an enclosed space would result in a lot of potentially different earnest testimonies.
Every source I've ever read from and I do mean every source says it happened and he broke his leg in the landing.
Then after breaking his leg or possibly his ankle in the jump to the stage, which probably looked much cooler in Booth's imagination than it did in reality, Booth limped out of the back door of Ford's Theater, grabbed his horse from a guy that he had paid to hold it and went to meet with David Herold. Booth and Herold had to bluff their way across a bridge out of DC, that was guarded by army sentries into Maryland ahead of the hue and cry after the Lincoln assassination and the Seward attack. Then they had to find Dr. Mudd's farm in the dark in Maryland back country, which later gave lie to the idea that they just happened to wander up by chance. That and the fact that Booth had been seen with Dr. Mudd earlier in the year and that Davie Herold was riding a horse that they had bought from Dr. Mudd. Dr. Mudd was NOT glad to see Booth and Herold. He treated Booth. Booth shaved off his distinctive mustache then Dr. Mudd got them both out of his house as quickly as possible. Booth tried to move through the Confederate spy network, but they were all planning on standing down since THE WAR WAS NOW OVER and none of them were eager to get caught up in being accessories after the fact to Booth's hairbrained scheme. Both Dr. Mudd and the guy who held Booth's horse were swept up in the arrests after the assassination. A really good book on the subject is "His Name is Still Mudd: The Case Against Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd" by Edward J. Spears.
Now I need to go do a deep dive into Charles Guiteau and Leon Czolgosz. Names I totally knew off the top of my head.
More like Charles Git-out
Sam O'Nella has the only Guiteau video anyone needs.
As a Brit who basically just knows the basics of American history, I found this video very interesting
I love your videos so much
Okay OSP’s Blue should do a history hijinks about this, this is gold!😂
Love your content! Keep them coming!
As a seward my family wouldnt ever shut up about this story
now the thing I heard (or read idk) was that Powell got into the bedroom and started stabbing wildly in the darkness at the mans torso but his large flowy nightclothes, plus the darkness meant he was basically stabbing the bed and only gave him minor stab wounds before being chased away.
Wish it was longer tho...
Someone should make a comedy movie about this. They're so clumsy...
How ironic, Johnson was saved by his assassin's alcohol consumption.
I’ll drink to that.
I don't know why but the fact he stabbed the mail man as well actually made me laugh. I mean why?! What did the mailman do to warrant getting stabbed?!
God I wish they'd gotten Andrew Johnson
Well considering what kind of a president Johnson became it is kinda sad that his assassin failed in his job...
WELCOME BACK JACK!!
Can u do a video trilogy on the league of nations/ Treaty of Versailles shenanigans the way you did the French revolution? Pleeeeease😁
(incase u already answered this question I'm heading to watch you're Q&A ASAP)
There's an old joke: Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? Make me wonder if anybody ever stages "My American Cousin" anymore.
From what I've heard, the play wasn't that good and Lincoln didn't even want to go see it that day.
Ford's Theater is still standing and operational in Washington DC. I don't know if they still stage our American cousin there, but the tradition is that on the day and hour of the assassination, there is a moment of silence and the lights are dimmed.
I'll do better next time
And thanks to Powell’s terrible knife-wielding skills, we now have Alaska ... purchased from a country we would face a long conflict with 80 years later.
Hey, I just scored a video for CZcams with "Fuzzball Parade" by Kevin MacLeod! Nice music choice.
I mean... Johnsons guy going through with it would've been luckier
Oh! So the teaser at the end of the Q&A was not a mistake in the video order!
Jack I will get my revenge
It's impressive how much of a failure Powell was in that he couldn't kill an ailing bed-ridden Seward. Good thing he failed because without Seward, Alaska would still be Russian. 🤣🤣🤣
I sometimes wonder if Lincoln would be half as well regarded today if he hadn’t been killed and had been dragged through the quagmire of reconstruction.
I have faith that he would have pulled off Reconstruction quite competently. Not as successfully as it actually needed to be, but far, far more successful than it was. Lincoln really was a cunning politician, but people don't talk about that as much.
We could have been so lucky.
No
Can you do Favor Ben next, he was victorious at the battle of Halidzor despite being outnumbered 231 to 1
AM MAD AAM MAD
This is what the other video should have been, all the way through.
Dude is it cool if I use one of your videos for my storyboard practices?
Short videos....NOOOOOOOOO
Tired of only having the incompetent people answer your want-ads? Have a fool proof plan only to have it ruined by fools? Don't find your help in bars and taverns use [insert name of any employment web sight] You deserve better. you deserve [insert name of any employment web sight} for regime change when it matters most.
Booth wasn't so much competent as he was lucky
At least it wasn't the CIA. That would be scandalous.
Jesus fuck imagine if Johnson died and Lincoln lived. We’d be way better off I think.
Wait, what about the fourth conspirator?
He's in the other video! He was Booth's getaway driver, the two of them met up and fled D.C.
Feds caught them in a barn in Virginia, Herold handed himself in but Booth tried to fight and got shot
@@JackRackam Ah, right. I forgot.
For the future, you should include things like that in your videos to refresh viewers' memory. Also, because new viewers may watch your stuff out of order or this could be their first of your videos they watched.
Charles Elliot
Can u do a Shia history or different narration in Muslim history
Why couldn't they have gotten Johnson. 😢
Jack rackam can please do a vedio on Peter the Great
maybe he was too ambitious
Yes I have heard the the sssination of Lincoln was only the tip of the ice burg only one art of the plan the only part that successed
tbf to atzreod those were real men back in the day
Booth lucky that he wasn't able to kill grant because I think sherman would have made his death more painful
Charles Elliot plz
Why not a video on Lord Nelson
Should have gotten Johnson instead of Lincoln.
Grant canceled because his wife Julia wasn’t a big fan of Mary Todd Lincoln
True
00:09 and black people
Damn these guys are even less competent than Young Bosnia (though I find one’s goals much more noble than the other’s).
if i remember correctly from a documentary i saw many years ago, booth go drunk the night before and wrote a letter to jackson saying "hey big fan of yours btw someone is gonna come kill you later sorry not sorry", but I can't remember if this actually happened or not.
There was something like that! Booth left Johnson a note asking if he was home, either to double check that Johnson was really there or potentially to implicate him in the conspiracy if he wasn't killed
have u ever laughed at the videos jokes when making it?
FAIL!!! 2:37
Wish they got Sherman and Grant. Terrible evil men
No
Neither were even in the area
I wish they got Johnson, he fucked reconstruction
:-D
Democrats being Democrats I guess.
I never had the impression that Booth acted alone. I guess that's because my history teachers insisted on giving me the correct information. Maybe you should look into your poor education.
Maybe you could not be a dick.
I love a little supllamental video, this is great. There must be so many little things that won't fit into the main video that could be shown off like this