Lincoln's relentless pursuit led to the Confederate defeat, but it also painted a target on his back. His fervent opposition to slavery wasn't merely a moral conviction; it became a symbolic battleground for his adversaries. A plot to decapitate the Union government was hatched, with Lincoln at the epicenter. Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathiser, an actor at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., during a performance on April 14, 1865.