 As the 1864 Presidential election drew near , the Confederacy 's prospects for victory were ebbing , and the tide of war increasingly favored the North . The likelihood of Lincoln 's re @-@ election filled Booth with rage towards the President , whom Booth blamed for the war and all of the South 's troubles . Booth , who had promised his mother at the outbreak of war that he would not enlist as a soldier , increasingly chafed at not fighting for the South , writing in a letter to her , " I have begun to deem myself a coward and to despise my own existence . " He began to formulate plans to kidnap Lincoln from his summer residence at the Old Soldiers Home , three miles ( 5 km ) from the White House , and to smuggle him across the Potomac River into Richmond . Once in Confederate hands , Lincoln would be exchanged for the release of Confederate Army prisoners of war held captive in Northern prisons and , Booth reasoned , bring the war to an end by emboldening opposition to the war in the North or forcing Union recognition of the Confederate government . 
