DC Tour: Lincoln's Assassination

Earlier this week I had the chance to participate in a walking tour of Lincoln's assassination in downtown DC. I met up with several students from my New Media class to do the tour as an assignment, but it was certainly not a typical class activity! The tour was offered by Free Tours By Foot, which operates in several cities and offers a variety of activities (here's the link to the Lincoln Assassination tour).

~Tour began at Lafayette Park, across from the White House~

The tour began by the White House, with the tour guide walking us through the night of the assassination as we progressed to Ford's Theater. It included a ton of great information that I hadn't learned before. For instance, the tour guide explained that John Wilkes Booth was part of a group called the Confederate Secret Service whose mission was to cause havoc in the Union. Through this group, Booth planned to have Lincoln, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State killed on the same night (though they only succeeded in killing Lincoln).

~Tour guide outside of Ford's Theater~

The tour guide did a great job of telling the story, and the tour's two hours passed by quickly. At the end of the evening, the tour ended with the guide reciting a stanza of "O Captain! My Captain!" written by Walt Whitman after witnessing Lincoln's funeral procession. It was an appropriate and moving end to the tour.

I highly recommend this tour to anyone interested in history in DC! I plan to investigate some of the group's other tours in DC, too.

~Glimpse of the Capitol at the end of the night~