In the meantime the war was being industriously prosecuted. Important victories, with some reverses, came to the North from time to time. The rebellion finally collapsed in the fall of Richmond, Virginia, April 3, and the surrender of General Lee to General Grant at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865. Mr. Nichols, in his "Life of Abraham Lincoln," says: "The spontaneous and universal rejoicings of the people of the country at the complete overthrow of the rebellion were such as had never been witnessed before on any continent. Men laughed, cried, shouted, shook hands with each other; there were parades by day and at night. America was illuminated by discharge of fireworks and thousands of torchlight processions. The war was over. Peace stretched her white wings over our beloved land." CHAPTER XIII. Death of President Lincoln Personal Recollections—The Tragic Event—Mr. Stanton—A Nation in Sorrow—The Funeral—The Interment at Springfield, Illinois—The House in Which President Lincoln Died—Changed Conditions—The South Honors Lincoln—A United People—A Rich Inheritance. On the 15th of April, 1865, my father came hurriedly into the house with the exclamatory interrogation, addressed to mother, "Guess who's dead!" Mother at once thought of her old father, and asked if it were he. Then came the startling news, "Lincoln is killed!" What a shock it was to our family, as it was to thousands of others. We looked at the little two-year-old boy of the household who bore the President's name, and, with childish superstition, wondered if he would suffer any disadvantages because of the murder of President Lincoln. On Friday evening, April 14, the President was in attendance at Ford's Theater, on Tenth Street, in Washington, D. C. The proceeds of the entertainment were to be given to a charity benefit, and it was widely advertised that the President and wife, with General Grant and others would be present. John Wilkes Booth, a fanatic and Southern sympathizer, shot the President in the head at 10:15. He at once became unconscious, and never regained consciousness. He was carried across the street to a house, where he died the next morning at 7:23. Mrs. Lincoln, the son Robert T., Private Secretary John Hay, several members of the cabinet, surgeons, Rev. Dr. Gurley, Senator Charles Sumner, and others were present when the end came. No one, outside of the family, was so deeply moved at the striking down of the President as was Mr. Stanton. It will be remembered that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton first met in 1857, at the trial of the McCormick Reaper Patent case, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and that at the trial Stanton slighted Mr. Lincoln and made uncomplimentary remarks about him. Four years later, President Lincoln chose Mr. Stanton a member of his cabinet, making him Secretary of War. Their relations were very close during the war period up to the time of Mr. Lincoln's death.