The assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln took place on Friday, April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the commanding .General of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee, and his battered Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated, though an unsuccessful attempt had been made on Andrew Jackson thirty years before in 1835.