Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the country during the American Civil War and successfully abolished slavery. Some of his most notable achievements included the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and seeing the Union prevail in the Civil War with the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C., becoming the first American president to be assassinated.