Setting and Character

[GracieB4]

The book's setting in “Chasing Lincoln's Killer” is about where John Wilkes Booth goes to hide from people trying to find him for killing Abraham Lincoln and for him to pay for the consequences.

The setting starts by following Booth wherever he goes to prepare for attack. The event took place in Washington D.C. in Ford's theater where president Lincoln was sitting with his family in the president's box watching a play. Booth was an actor and had performed at that theater many times so he knew the place like it was his own house making this plan easier for Booth. During the story the setting goes from the theater to the home of the Secretary William H. Seward. After the attack, Booth was on the run. Booth and a man that was working for him named David Herold went to the home of Samuel A. Mudd and hid there for a few days. After they left Mudd house, they went house to house looking for a place to stay. After a family didn't let them stay there the men spent a few days hiding inside a pine thicket. Booth and Herold traveled from state to state and town to town trying to hide. Soon, the soldiers tracked him down and killed Booth where he was hiding in a tobacco barn at a farmhouse in Virginia.

The main character in this story is Abraham Lincoln. At the time he was the president of the United States who had led through the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was a husband, a leader, and a great public speaker. The start of his second term of being president the war was getting to the end. After winning the war Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth while watching a play performed at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. Lincoln died the next morning.

The other main character in this story is John Wilkes Booth. John Wilkes Booth was an amazing actor. He was a very handsome guy. He was also interested in the Confederate cause and hated Abraham Lincoln and all he did. He first wanted to kidnap the president to make Lincoln lose the war. After seeing the outcome of the war Booth had found out that the president would be visiting Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. He then asked other men if they would help murder the president, the vice president, and the secretary of state. After the shooting of Lincoln Booth was the only one to successfully kill his target. Booth hid in rural Maryland and Virginia with a guy who worked with him named David Herold for twelve days. Booth was found 12 day after the shooting at a farmhouse in a tobacco barn. He was then killed by sergeant Boston Corbett.