How was President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination viewed by former Confederate officials and the general population of the Confederacy?

Short answer: It varied.

Longer answer:

Southern generals feared that the assassination would have dire consequences for the South due to harsh reactions from the North. “[Many ranking Confederate officials] believed that they had lost a generous foe and that Northern opinion would be inflamed against the Southern people.” Fear was widespread among both the Southern generals and the elite during this time. While many did not want to give up the fight for the Confederacy, they still feared Northern attachment to Lincoln. Southern military leaders were concerned that Lincoln’s death would serve as a lightening rod for Northern aggression toward the South. This belief coincides with many others in the South, who feared what Northern Reconstruction for the South would entail.

Jefferson Davis, Edward Pollard, and Alexander Stephens all published books after the war glorifying Lincoln’s personal character while also blaming him for the conflict. They agreed that Lincoln had, “No personal ill-will towards the South, [and he] wished [for] a speedy and peaceful reconciliation.” Despite any strong words promoting Lincoln and condemning his assassination, many leaders still harbored resentment against him for the war. Jefferson Davis later stated that, “For an enemy so relentless in the war for our subjugation, we could not be expected to mourn; yet, in view of its political consequences, it could not be regarded otherwise than as a great misfortune to the South.”

Jefferson Davis’s position was even more precarious after the assassination, as Edwin Stanton listed Davis as a member of a conspiracy group against Lincoln. Confederate leaders had to condemn outright the assassination because Edwin Stanton implicated them early on as members of a larger conspiracy against the President and the Union.

Within a matter of days, citizens of the South learned not only of the armistice after Appomattox, but of the assassination of their new leader, as well. As Mary Darby DeTreville wrote, “One day we were stunned by the news of General Lee’s surrender… The next day came the news of Lincoln’s assassination. Did ever any two days bring such unfortunate news for us?”

The initial reactions from Southern elites were that of disbelief. Many thought the news reports were plots to deceive them. In her memoir, Constance Cary Harrison states that, “I think nobody in my neighborhood believed the rumor of Mr. Lincoln’s assassination until it was confirmed by a Federal soldier….” Reliable news was hard to come by in the South after the destructiveness of total warfare brought on by the Union generals. Constance Harrison continued by saying that, “It is difficult to comprehend… the state of uncertainty in which we lived at this time. We were cut off almost wholly from trustworthy news…” Others believed that Northern newspapers were full of lies, and distrusted any news they gave.

As information that was more trustworthy came into the South, reactions changed from uncertainty to fear. Constance Harrison considered the news, “The worst news we had heard since the surrender.” She, and others, distrusted newly elected President Andrew Johnson, a man who had a differing opinion on how to reconstruct the South. Elites also feared a harsh reaction from both Northern leadership and soldiers. Shortly after the assassination, Eliza Frances Andrews felt unsafe in Georgia. She wrote in her memoir that, “…since Lincoln’s assassination the feeling against Southerners has grown so bitter that he [her friend] did not think it safe to stay there. Since the assassination the whole country is embittered against us.” These fears were justified, as there were reports of Northern troops who had become very angry with the South. One soldier even stated that, “We all became angry, and hated the South worse than ever.”

Sources: Bak, Richard. The Day Lincoln Was Shot. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1998.

Davis, Michael. The Image of Lincoln in the South. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1971.

Schwartz, Barry. “Mourning and the Making of a Sacred Symbol: Durkheim and the Lincoln Assassination.” Social Forces, 70, no. 2 (1991): 343-364.

Hardinge, Samuel Wylde Jr. Memoir of Samuel Wylde Hardinge, in Belle Boyd in Camp and in Prison. New York, NY: Blelock & Co., 1865.

Harrison, Constance Cary. Memoir of Constance Cary Harrison, in Recollections Grave and Gay. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911.

De Treville, Mary Darby. Letter from Mary Darby De Treville, April 14, 1865. In South Carolina Women in the Confederacy. Vol. 2. Edited by Mrs. James Conner. Columbia, SC: State Company, 1907.