The whole mess began when Lincoln was assassinated. At that time the writing was on the wall: the South was going to be ground into the dust in revenge by the Radical Republicans. Instead of sensible men like W.T. ("Total War and Total Peace") Sherman, the Radicals like Sen. Wade sent corrupt goons like "Spoons" Butler, and they came with the idea of punishing, not reconstructing. As Woodrow Wilson (for whom I certainly hold no brief) said in an article for the Atlantic Monthly in Jan. 1901, "Had Mr. Lincoln lived, perhaps the whole of the delicate business might have been carried through with dignity, good temper, and simplicity of method." Didn't happen. J. Wilkes Booth, the illegitimate son of an Englishman who had another family back home in Clerkenwell, didn't do the South any favors.
Guys like billbears and stand watie think Booth was a hero.