Who was responsible for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln?

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was carried out by John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer. Booth believed that by killing Lincoln, he would aid the Southern cause and inspire a resurgence of the Confederate spirit during a critical time when the Civil War had just concluded. His actions were planned and executed on April 14, 1865, when he shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Booth's assassination of Lincoln had profound repercussions, leading to increased tensions in the post-war period and deeply impacting the Reconstruction era.

The other individuals mentioned had notable connections to Lincoln and the Civil War, but they were not involved in the assassination. Robert E. Lee was the commanding general of the Confederate Army and played a significant role in the Civil War, while Frederick Douglass was an influential abolitionist and advocate for African American rights. Ulysses S. Grant, a Union general and later president, was an important figure in defeating the Confederacy but was not connected to the assassination. Thus, John Wilkes Booth is definitively identified as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.