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John Wilkes Booth
"Sic Semper Tyrannis" - Assassin of Lincoln

John Wilkes Booth, at the start of the war, was just a few months shy of his 23rd birthday. Born in Maryland in 1838, he was the 9th of 10 children. Booth followed his father and brothers onto the stage. He began earning a living at acting by the age of 17. He was successful; earning more than $20,000 per year by the start of the war. He was considered perhaps not as talented as his brothers, but was immensely popular due to his charm and good looks.

Booth’s sympathies were always with the South. When John Brown had been tried for his failed raid on Harpers Ferry, Booth volunteered for the Richmond Grays that had been sent to guard against any potential attempt to rescue Brown. Booth was in Uniform for his beloved South 18 months prior to the start of any fighting. When the war did break out, he made a promise to his mother not to enlist. Booth spent the war receiving public acclaim on stage and condemning both the North and Lincoln off stage.

Maryland, as a slave holding state, had many residents that wished to secede. It was, however, one of four slave states that remained in the Union. The other remaining states were Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri. Many people in Maryland were outraged when Lincoln suspended habeas corpus (requiring a person to be charged with a crime to be held in prison) and subsequently imprisoned many local and state officials that opposed the Union. This action kept Maryland from seceding. But Booth, along with many people in Maryland, as well as some judges on the Supreme Court, felt this action was unconstitutional.

In November 1863, Booth performed at Ford’s theatre with Lincoln in attendance. During the play he delivered an accusatory line of dialogue, by pointing at Lincoln, who was just a few feet away in the presidential box, which was at the edge of the stage. During another performance, Lincoln’s son Tad, who was 10 or 11 at the time, saw Booth perform and was thrilled when Booth presented him with a rose.

By the time of Lincoln’s re-election, Booth could see that there was no hope for the South and blamed everything on Lincoln. Booth attended the 2nd inauguration and reported that he had an excellent chance to kill the President if he had wished. Originally, Booth planned to kidnap Lincoln and use him as exchange for Confederate prisoners being held in the North. He felt that this act would result in the North bringing the war to an end and recognizing the Confederacy. On March 17th, 1865 he heard of Lincoln’s intention to attend a play near the Soldiers Home. His plans were thwarted when Lincoln’s schedule changed at the last minute.

With Lee’s surrender on April 12th, Booth proclaimed that he was done with the stage. He considered himself a failure and coward for not having served in the Confederacy. Booth increasingly focused his outrage on Lincoln. Booth was blaming Lincoln for all manner of things. He was envisioning Lincoln becoming some type of 19th Century American Monarch. Within a week, he saw his answer. That Friday, John Ford told him that the Lincolns and Grants were to attend the theatre that night. While Grant would later change his schedule, Lincoln did not. Booth quickly gathered his conspirators from his failed kidnap attempt. They planned to kill President Lincoln, Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward.

Booth believed by causing the death of the President, along with the two officials next in line of succession, he would overcome his self-stigmatized role of coward and the South would take advantage of the ensuing chaos to rise up again. In the end, however, only he succeeded in killing his target. Seward was severely wounded but survived and the attack on Johnson was abandoned. Booth managed to escape. He became the focus of the largest manhunt in U.S. history until he was killed on April 26th, just 11 days after Lincoln. While much admired in the South today for his courage, he was shunned and hated at the time, for fear of Northern retribution.

Note: Only one side of the image exists. 3D Simulation software was used to create a stereo image.

What others are saying:

Bob Zeller: (Author of Lincoln in 3D, Blue & Gray and Black and White, Civil War In Depth I & II) From the dawn of the photograph until the advent of practical color photography, images were hand-painted to add the color that was missing in the early photographic processes. This lost art has been admirably revived by Civil War In 3d in their meticulous tinting of stereo views of the Civil War. Following in the time-honored tradition of the anonymous artists who added color to Gardner's legendary wartime photographs and the Anthony War for the Union stereo series, Civil War In 3D reminds us with their work that the Civil War was not fought in a black-and-white world.

Stephen M. Cobaugh: "I just received my order of stereoviews in the mail. All I can say is WOW! As you know, I'm a Civil War reenactor, but also a professional photographer and graphic designer. The quality of your products is extraordinary and is superior to anything I've seen, especially the color enhancements. It's a interesting reminder of the fact that the war was in color for those who experienced it. It's only modern people who picture it in the sense of black and white or sepia tone."

Stephen M. Cobaugh is a writer, director and documentary film producer. Currently he is working on the story of the Ninety Third Pennsylvania Regiment with his film: “Brothers Ever Shall We Be”

Awards: Civilwarin3d.com was awarded September 2010 "Must See 3D" by 3-D Review Online Magazine "for their outstanding restoration work in bringing these cards to the collecting world.” “CivilWarIn3D.com provided 3-D Review with several sample cards. We were amazed at the quality. Using magnifying glasses, we expected to find halftone dots when we inspected the details of the stereoviews. The cards are truly photographic in quality and extremely sharp in detail.” We are sure that you will be equally impressed!

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Background of the collection:

Civil War In 3D images' were obtained from the Library of Congress, National Archives and other quality sources. Each image has been carefully restored to remove 150 years of wear, scratches, cracks and imperfections. Then each image has spent numerous hours being hand colored to recreate, as close as possible, the original scene as it may have appeared on the day it was taken. Due to the quality of work and loving restoration that has been done, Civil War In 3D images have been accepted into the collections of photography and historical museums.

Hand coloring of images is a technique that dates to the very beginning of photography. There are many examples of period stereo view cards that were colored. With modern digital technology, the ability to color a photograph allows the image to move from a black and white photo with splashes of color, to photographs that duplicate as near as possible, life-like full color images.

Each image was created from a scan of the original negative producing a brilliant digital image up to 100Mb in size for each half (total of up to 200 Mb for both images) of the image. After restoration and coloring, the size of the combined images grew to a staggering 1Gb in size before being commercially printed. By using commercial printing and mounting, we have produced a quality image that will last and become a valued part of your collection.

After printing, each image is professionally mounted onto standard 'Holmes' size stereo card measuring 3 1/2" x 7". Each card uses a matte board to produce a durable card nearly identical to the original cards. Other reproduction cards are printed on a slightly heavy paper on a home printer and do not have the image quality of professional photo paper, or the "feel" of a commercially mounted card. A one inch stack of these other cards would hold 97 images, while ours, with our superior mount, would only hold 16! We pride ourselves in trying to recreate the original card with the best modern technology.

Restoration and coloring copyright 2009-2013 by Civil War In 3D. Printed card does not contain watermark (text on image). Please indicate your preference of Color, Sepia or Black and White when ordering. Unless a preference is given, the color image with a Matte Finish will be shipped.