This book is a historical narrative of the events that surrounded the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The book recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history, how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally came to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased. In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John Wilkes Booth, charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist, murdered Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. A furious manhunt ensued and Booth immediately became the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unraveled the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces tracked his accomplices. The chase ended in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions, including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt.