The assassination of Abraham Lincoln occurred on April 14, 1865, just days after the end of the American Civil War. John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer and actor, shot Lincoln while he was attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. Lincoln died the following day, making him the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Booth's motive was to avenge the South's defeat and to inspire a resurgence of the Confederate cause. After the assassination, Booth fled and was pursued by Union soldiers. He was eventually found and killed on April 26, 1865, in a barn in Virginia.