Students will expand their understanding of one of the pivotal moments of our nation's history beyond the many "fakenews" perpetuated in history books. That broken ankle? Happened when a horse fell on Booth's leg in the swamp outside town, not on the stage. It's the details in the story that show why it happened and what it meant.

The story is often told through Lincoln's perspective. I tell it via the assassin's. Maybe it's because I'm a distant relative of John Wilkes Booth and co-conspirator Mary Surratt and even live a few miles from the Mudd House in Southern Maryland. Booth's reasons provides a fuller understanding of the Civil War. 

I'm a lifelong storyteller as a newspaper journalist of 42 years and a tour guide for 10 years. I often take students on a walking tour of the day's events so I'm used to make it fun to hear.