Sibling Rivalry: John Wilkes Booth And Edwin Thomas Booth.

John Wilkes Booth and Edwin Thomas Booth were brothers born to actor Junius Brutus Booth, who was considered one of the great American Shakespearean actors of the 19th century. John and Edwin's mother was their father's mistress, Mary Ann Holmes.

As a boy, Booth was athletic and popular, and he became skilled at horsemanship and fencing. In school he was an indifferent student whom the headmaster described as "not deficient in intelligence, but disinclined to take advantage of the educational opportunities offered him. Each day he rode back and forth from farm to school, taking more interest in what happened along the way than in reaching his classes on time".

While attending the Milton Boarding School, John met a Gypsy fortune-teller who read his palm. She told him that he would have a grand but short life, doomed to die young and "meeting a bad end". 

Edwin was older than John and was Junius' favorite. In fact, Junius despised John so much that he wouldn't even let him be in photographs with the rest of the family. This established the brothers' rivalry, which Junius encouraged.

Edwin usually performed alongside his father and John aspired to follow in their footsteps.

By 1858, Edwin and John were the most famous actors in the world. Everyone loved Edwin. John, on the other hand, lacked Edwin's culture and grace and people had mixed feelings about him. Many people would say that he was the handsomest man in America and that he had an incredible memory. However, others would say that John was violent and a scene stealer.

When the civil war broke out, John was starring in Albany, New York. He was outspoken in his admiration for the South's secession, publicly calling it "heroic." Which infuriated local citizens who felt that John was committing treason and they wanted him banned from the theater. 

Abraham Lincoln was a big fan of Edwin and wanted him to perform at all government functions.

In 1863, Family friend John T. Ford opened 1,500-seat Ford's Theater on November 9th in Washington, D.C. John portrayed a Greek sculptor in costume, making marble statues come to life.  As Lincoln watched the play from his box John was said to have shaken his finger in Lincoln's direction as he delivered a line of dialogue. Lincoln's sister-in-law was sitting with him in the presidential box. She turned to him and said, "Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you." The President replied, "He does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?"

On November 25th, 1864, Booth performed for the only time with his brothers Edwin and Junius Jr. in a single engagement production of Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theater in New York. He played Mark Antony and his brother Edwin had the larger role of Brutus in a performance acclaimed as "the greatest theatrical event in New York history." This made John furious. Brutus was his favorite character. Not did Edwin take his role, everyone loved his brother's performance.

John abruptly decided to join the Richmond Grays, a volunteer militia of 1,500 men traveling to Charles Town for abolitionist leader John Brown's hanging, to guard against an attempt by abolitionists to rescue Brown from the gallows by force. 

Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860. On April 12th, 1861, the Civil War began, and eventually 11 Southern states seceded from the Union. 

In John's native Maryland, some of the slave holding portion of the population favored joining the Confederate States of America, but  Maryland legislature voted decisively against it. It also voted not to allow federal troops to pass south through the state by rail, and it requested that Lincoln remove the growing numbers of federal troops in Maryland. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and imposed martial law in Baltimore and other portions of the state, ordering the imprisonment of many Maryland political leaders at Ft. McHenry and the stationing of Federal troops in Baltimore.  

John saw Lincoln's actions as unconstitutional and formulated a plan to kidnap him. The plot was to abduct Lincoln, bring him to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and use him as a bargaining chip to secure the release of rebel prisoners.

On March 17th, 1865, John and his fellow conspirators hid along a country road in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was going to go to the matinee performance of a play at Campbell Hospital to benefit wounded soldiers. Lincoln had changed his plans and never showed. After the fall of Richmond and General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, John decided to kill Lincoln instead.

John and his conspirators plotted to not only kill Lincoln, but Grant, Secretary of State William Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson.

Ulysses S. Grant accepted Lincoln’s invitation to attend Ford’s Theater on the evening of April 14th, 1865. Grant backed out at the last minute, or he would have possibly been killed as well. George Atzerodt failed to follow through on his assignment to slay Johnson at his residence in the Kirkwood House hotel.

On the evening of April 14, 1865, five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army effectively ending the American Civil War, John entered the balcony at Ford's Theater and shot Lincoln in the head. In doing so, John broke his ankle. He then raised his knife in the air and yelled," Sic semper tyrannis". (Latin for "Thus always to tyrants," attributed to Brutus at Caesar's assassination.

Laura Keene, the actress, dashed into the Presidential box and had President’s head on her lap before the doctors arrived.

At the same time John shot Lincoln, Lewis Powell stormed Seward’s house and repeatedly stabbed him. Seward was already bedridden from a near fatal accident. Seward somehow survived the savage attack.

John escaped after shooting president. Lincoln did not immediately die from the gunshot wound and was brought to Peterson House, a house across the street from the theater. He passed away the next day in Peterson House. 

Within a few days of the assassination all the conspirators were arrested except John who was shot dead after he resisted arrest. In all, eight conspirators were tried for the assassination and four of them were sentenced to death by hanging. Three conspirators were handed life imprisonment and one was booked for six years.

Contrary to John Wilkes Booth’s expectations Lincoln's assassination did not trigger a confederate revival in war. After less than a month of Lincoln’s death, the civil war also reached its logical end with a thumping Union victory.

After Lincoln's assassination Edwin decided to write a letter to his friend John B. Murray. Addressed “To the People of the United States” and published in several major newspapers in June 1865, it consists of three somber, shame-laden paragraphs in which Edwin speaks of being “prostrated to the very earth by this dreadful event.” Also in the letter, Edwin announced his retirement from acting as a penance.

However, five months after Lincoln was assassinated Edwin returned to the stage and performed "Our American Cousin", which was the play during which Lincoln was murdered.