Book Review: Lincoln's Last Days

Lincoln’s Last Days: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, Bill O’Reilly and Dwight Jon Zimmerman, Henry Hold and Company, New York, 2012.

 

This book is very interesting.  It focused more on Lincoln, the end of the war and his activities until his assassination.  It also focuses on the planning and the coordination it took to carry out this attack on our government and Abraham Lincoln.  There were three attacks planned, one which was not carried out.  However John Wilkes Booth was successful in killing the president.  Lewis Powell failed in his murder attempt again Secretary of State William Seward.  However he did injure several household members with his knife.  The third attack intended against the vice president did not materialize.  George Atzerodt was too drunk, and did not take kindly to the idea of murdering, and so wondered into the night rather than make the attempt. 

The capture of Booth ended rather quickly, with only a cursory review of his capture.  This book has left me interested enough to get the adult version; “Killing Lincoln.”