Almost everyone in the country-anyone who owned property anyway-was legally required to keep weapons in their house so that in times of war, the king could call on them to fight.

But he survived, spending the rest of the war training for battle and hiding arms in his house.

One of the popular plays of the time, called "Our American Cousin, " was being performed at Ford's Theater, not far from the White House. The Secretary of War did not want the Lincolns to go alone.