... was a well–known American actor, a member of a prominent US stage family. He was a Confederate sympathizer, vehement in his denunciation of Lincoln, and strongly opposed to the abolition of slavery. Following the assassination, he fled on horseback to southern Maryland, and was tracked down 12 days later at a farm in rural north Virginia. He refused to give himself up and was shot by a Union soldier after the barn in which he was hiding was set ablaze. Eight other conspirators or suspects were tried and convicted, and four were hanged shortly thereafter.
The play that Lincoln was watching at the time of his assassination was Our American Cousin.
© Haydn Thompson 2017