Lincoln's assassination at Ford's
Theatre on April 14th, 1865.
Every event seems to be ordered perfectly so that the
assassination would go flawlessly. Most of the people that President Lincoln
asked to go turn down his invitations. John Parker, President Lincoln's only
body guard with a long history of terrible behaviors, leaves his post to have a
long drink with his drinking buddy Charles Forbes. John Wilkes Booth, knowing
the play that the Lincolns are watching by heart, creeps behind the President
when the punch line "you sockdologizing old man-trap" booms out,
causing the audience to explode in laughter. In his book Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America
Forever, Bill O'Reilly gives a very detailed account of the day when
America's beloved president Lincoln was assassinated in the Ford's Theatre in
the midst of the play Our American Cousin
by using vivid (graphic) descriptions.
O'Reilly takes his audience through history by describing
each scene, people, and actions with details so striking yet true so that the
readers could imagine the whole event as if it is a movie. At one point, the
author illustrate the whole action scene right after the crime is committed. Booth
hacks down President Lincoln's guest Major Rathbone and hurls his body over the
railing, attempting to land like a "conquering hero" but ends up
getting his foot hopelessly tangled in the flag's folds. Falling with his "left
foot and two hands braced in a bumbling attempt to catch his fall"
(O'Reilly 209) Booth breaks the fibula of his lower left leg two inches above
the ankle. Split second later, the chaos ensues. "The theater explodes in
confusion...men climb up and over the seats, some fleeing toward the exits
while others race to the stage, hoping to climb up into the box and be part of
the action. Women faint. Children are trapped in the panic" (O'Rielly 210).
In here the descriptions are used to vividly show the chaos in a fast paced
manner. The description of each action as the time passes by makes the whole
event more gripping for the readers.
However, once things start to settle, O'Reilly's descriptions
start to illustrate the scene and the people more than they illustrate the
actions in order to slow down the time as Lincoln's life slips away. Only when
Lincoln is stripped down to further examine the wounds does O'Reilly recall
that the president's upper body still possesses "the lean musculature of
the young wrestler renowned for feats of strength," the very appearance
that "is in marked contrast to that famously weathered face"
(O'Reilly 223). As people carry his body to a place where doctors could
properly examine him, O'Reilly describes the procession to be "lit by that
murky yellow light from the tar torches" (O'Reilly 224). The author
describes the room where the President spent his last moments to be "ten
feet wide and eighteen feet long, furnished with four-poster bed, table,
bureau, and chairs" (O'Reilly 226) and ironically, the exact room John
Wilkes Booth rented three weeks ago. Lincoln "draws his last breath at
seven twenty-one" and his heart "beats for another fifteen seconds,
then stops altogether at ten seconds past seven twenty-two A.M." (O'Reilly
231). Silver coins are placed on his black and blue eyes and his arms are
folded across his chest. Here, O'Reilly does a phenomenal job slowing down time
to illustrate Lincoln's dragged on battle with his death. Instead of quickly
summarizing the whole event, O'Reilly allows the readers to actually be in the
historical event through their minds by setting up all the vivid details.
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