alternatehistory.com

The attempted assassination of Abraham Lincoln was one of the most shocking moments in American history. It was lucky that John Frederick Parker was able to intervene mere seconds before John Wilkes Booth had the opportunity to shoot the president. His vice president and secretary of state weren't as lucky; Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt succeeded in their mission of assassinating William H Seward and Andrew Johnson. The deaths of one of the most important members of Lincoln's cabinet and one of the few southern senators who sided with the Union to the end was a tragedy that cast a shadow for the rest of Lincoln's term.

But what if was the other way around? That Seward and Johnson weren't killed, but Abraham Lincoln was? How would Andrew Johnson have handled the presidency, and how might Reconstruction have been changed? What would Seward's career been like if he wasn't gunned down?
Top