died on April 26, 1865, near Port Royal, Virginia. Booth's death occurred 12 days after he assassinated President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865.
Booth's death came during a manhunt led by Union troops and federal agents to capture him and his accomplices. Booth, along with his co-conspirator David Herold, had fled from Washington, D.C., and traveled south into Virginia.
On April 26, 1865, Union soldiers and federal agents located Booth and Herold hiding in a tobacco barn on the property of Richard H. Garrett in Port Royal, Virginia. The authorities set fire to the barn in an attempt to flush out the fugitives.
During the standoff, Herold surrendered to the authorities, but Booth remained inside the burning barn. Union soldier Sergeant Boston Corbett, a member of the 16th New York Cavalry Regiment, spotted Booth inside the barn and fired his weapon, aiming for Booth's throat.
Corbett's shot struck Booth in the neck, severing his spinal cord and causing paralysis. Booth was dragged out of the burning barn and died a few hours later on the porch of the Garrett farmhouse. He was 26 years old at the time of his death.
John Wilkes Booth's death brought an end to the largest manhunt in U.S. history at that time and marked the conclusion of one of the most infamous episodes in American history. Booth's body was later identified and buried in an unmarked grave at the Old Penitentiary Cemetery in Washington, D.C.