The best account of Inauguration Day, 1865, is Ronald C. White Jr.’s Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002). Highly descriptive accounts of the day’s events appeared in the Washington newspapers, including those I consider the best “papers of record”—the Evening Star, Daily Morning Chronicle, and National Intelligencer. The four best Lincoln biographies also cover the event briefl y. See David Donald, Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), pages 565–568; Stephen B. Oates, With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), pages 410–412; Benjamin P. Thomas, Abraham Lincoln (New York: Knopf, 1952), pages 503–504; and Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1939), volume 4, pages 85–99. Some critics might question the inclusion of Sandburg’s six-volume Lincoln magnum opus, The Prairie Years (in two volumes) and The War Years (in four volumes) on any list of the “best” biographies. Indeed, Gore Vidal once wrote that Sandburg’s biography was the worst thing to happen to Lincoln since his assassination. Sandburg has also come into disfavor among professional historians. Despite certain faults of interpretation, and some inevitable errors, no book about Lincoln has ever been better written, or is more evocative of the spirit of Lincoln’s age. Sandburg’s treatment on pages 246 through 413 in volume four of The War Years, covering Lincoln’s last days, the assassination, the tumultuous response, and the funeral is still worth reading.
William Smith’s photograph was lost for almost a century until the discovery in 1962 of a single print, on its original mounting, bearing a letterpress identification of the artist and event. Smith took the photograph for Alexander Gardner who, working closer to the East Front with another camera, could not be in two places at once. This specimen was believed to be a unique survival until the discovery of a second example in the late 1990s. A full-page reproduction of Smith’s magnificent image can be found in Lloyd Osten-dorf’s Lincoln’s Photographs: A Complete Album (Dayton, Ohio: Rockywood Press, 1998), at page 206.
Gardner’s photographs appear in Ostendorf on pages 208–212.
Noah Brooks’s description of the bursting sun appears in his memoir Washington, D.C., in Lincoln’s Time (New York: The Century Company, 1895). I used the best edition, the 1971 Georgia University Press reprint, edited by the insightful journalist and Civil War historian Herbert Mitgang. The sunburst appears at page 213, and Brooks’s vision of the shadow of death at 215.
The complete text of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural can be read in a number of books, including Lincoln’s Greatest Speech by White, at pages 17–19 (White also illustrates Lincoln’s rarely seen handwritten draft); This Fiery Trial: The Speeches and Writings of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), pages 220–221, edited by William E. Gienapp; and The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, volume 8, pages 332–333 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1952), edited by Roy P. Basler.
The observations of Elizabeth Keckley, dressmaker and confidante to Mary Lincoln, appear on pages 176–177 of her memoir, Behind the Scenes. Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1868). For more on this fascinating and tumultuous relationship, see Jennifer Fleischner, Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly (New York: Broadway Books, 2003). Fleischner explains the variant spellings of Elizabeth’s last name.
Samuel Knapp Chester’s account of the House of Lords episode appears in Ben Perley Poore, The Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of the President (Boston: J. E. Tilton and Company, 1865), 3 volumes, volume 1, page 49; and in Benn Pitman’s The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators (Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1865), at page 45.
Arthur F. Loux has chronicled Booth’s lifetime schedule, as far as it can be ascertained, in John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day (privately printed, 1989).
Booth’s lament about “the blues” was taken from Henry B. Phillips at the Petersen house on the night of the assassination. See Maxwell Whiteman,
While Lincoln Lay Dying: A Facsimile Reproduction of the First Testimony Taken in Connection with the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln as Recorded by Corporal James Tanner (Philadelphia: Union League of Philadelphia, 1968), in “Statement of Mr. Henry B. Philips.” The book is unpaginated.
Lincoln’s April 10, 1865, remarks to the citizen-serenaders are published in Basler, Collected Works, volume 8, pages 393–394.
Brooks’s description of April 11 and the circumstances of Lincoln’s last speech appear on pages 225–227 of Washington, D.C., in Lincoln’s Time. Keckley’s account—including the Tad Lincoln quotation—appears on pages 176 and 177 of Behind the Scenes.
Lincoln’s last speech is published in Basler, Collected Works, volume 8, pages 399–405.
Keckley preserved her fears of assassination in Behind the Scenes at page 178.
Booth’s angry statement about black voting rights is discussed in Michael Kauffman, American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies (New York: Random House, 2004), at page 209; John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper, “Right or Wrong, God Judge Me”: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), at page 15; and William Hanchett, The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983), at page 37. Booth’s statement about the “last speech” was reported by Lewis Powell to Major Thomas Eckert of the War Department telegraph office. See Eckert’s testimony in House Report 40, at page 674.
Booth’s letter to his mother appears in John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper, “Right or Wrong,” at page 144.
April 1865 was a month like no other in our history. According to one account, “looking back on this rapid succession of events, it is clear that the American people had, in less than a month, lived through the most intensely dramatic series of events in the history of the United States.” See James L. Swanson and Daniel R. Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins: Their Trial and Execution (Santa Fe, New Mexico: Arena Editions, 2001), pages 9–11. The best account of those weeks is Jay Winik’s April 1865: The Month That Saved America (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), a splendid synthesis of matters civil, military, and political. James M. McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) remains the essential one-volume history of the war, and offers valuable insights on its end. Ernest B. Furgurson’s Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War (New York: Knopf, 2004) evokes the capital city that Lincoln and Booth knew, as does Margaret Leech’s incomparable classic, Reveille in Washington, 1860–1865 (New York: Harper & Bros., 1941). Any student of the Lincoln assassination should read Winik, McPherson, Furgurson, and Leech in order to understand the context of Booth’s crime. To see the streets and architecture of the wartime capital as Lincoln, Booth, the conspirators, and the MANHUNTERS saw them, there are no better time machines than two photographic histories, Richard M. Lee’s Mr. Lincoln’s City (McLean, Virginia: EPM Publications, 1981) and Stanley Kimmel’s Mr. Lincoln’s Washington (New York: Bramhall House, 1957).
The description of Booth as Adonis is from the actor Sir Charles Wyndham, and appears in Swanson and Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins, page 147.
My account of the events of April 14, 1865—and of most of the events in the book—is based largely on contemporary newspaper accounts; testimony from the conspiracy trial of 1865; testimony from the John H. Surratt trial of 1867; letters and memoirs of the participants; original photographs, broadsides, and relics; various government documents; and the best books published on the assassination between 1865 and 2005. Although I attribute direct quotations, I do not cite sources for each and every fact in the book. That approach would have resulted in an exceedingly voluminous section of notes that would overburden most readers. Manhunt is meant to be not an encyclopedia of the assassination, but a dramatic account of the events of April 14 through 26 that unfolds, as much as possible, in real time. Where Lincoln scholars are in general agreement about certain facts (for example, that Booth had been drinking heavily, or that he usually stayed at the National Hotel, or that women were attracted to him), I refer the reader to the standard references listed in the introduction to the bibliography. In the notes that follow I do call attention to obscure or unusual facts, and I also discuss controversial events when scholars have disagreed about the facts, or their interpretation.
For a history of the play, and its script, see Welford Dunaway Taylor, Our American Cousin: The Play That Changed History (Washington, D.C.: Beacham Publishing, 1990).
Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles recorded Lincoln’s dream in his diary. Howard K. Beale, ed., Diary of Gideon Welles (New York: W.W. Norton, 1960), volume 2, pages 282–283.
For more on Lincoln’s last cabinet meeting, see Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), pages 731–732; Donald, Lincoln, at pages 590–592; and Oates, With Malice Toward None, at pages 427–428.
Lincoln’s telegram of June 9, 1863, appears in Basler, Collected Works, volume 6, at page 256; and the April 1848 letter in Collected Works, volume 1, at pages 465–466.
Henry Clay Ford’s suggestion to James Ferguson, and Ferguson’s response, appear in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, page 190. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln, at page 76.
Henry Clay Ford witnessed Booth’s laughter at noon, April 14: “He sat on the steps while reading his letter, every now and then looking up and laughing.” Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln, at page 101.
No one admitted to telling Booth that the president was coming to the theatre. Henry Clay Ford, testifying at the conspiracy trial, tried to blur the issue by saying he did not know, and that it could have been anyone: “It was while Booth was there I suppose he learned of the President’s visit to the Theatre that evening. There were several around Booth, talking to him.” Pitman, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, at page 100.
All quotations attributed to Dr. Charles Leale come from one source, his firsthand account of the night of April 14 and the morning of April 15, 1865, not published until many years after the assassination. See Charles A. Leale, Address Delivered Before the Commandery of the State of N.Y. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S., February, 1909.
Ferguson’s account of how Booth boasted about his rented horse, and the presence of Maddox, comes from Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, page 190. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln, page 76.
Booth’s conversation with Henry Merrick at the National Hotel, published in the April 17, 1865, New York Tribune, is reproduced in Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong” page 150.
Booth’s comment about “splendid acting” is reprinted in Kauffman, American Brutus, page 222.
John Matthews left behind at least two accounts of his conversation with Booth. See Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong” pages 151–153.
For an account of Julia Dent Grant’s sighting of Booth, see Steers, Blood on the Moon, page 112.
Booth’s note to Vice President Johnson appears in Rhodehamel and Taper “Right or Wrong,” page 146. There is some disagreement about whether Booth intended this note to be placed in Johnson’s mailbox, or in the one next to it, which belonged to Johnson’s private secretary, William A. Browning. For further discussion, see footnotes 1 and 2 on page 146 of Rhode-hamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong.”
Spangler described his occupation as “stage carpenter” during his interrogation by the authorities after the assassination. He also recounted his conversation with Booth.
For more on Booth’s pistol, see John E. Parsons, Henry Deringer’s Pocket Pistol (New York: William Morrow, 1952).
Mary Surratt’s comments about the “shooting irons” appear in Lloyd’s testimony in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 117, 118, 121, 122, 123, and 125. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln, pages 85–87. Lloyd’s account of his intoxication appears in Poore, volume 1, at page 132. Also see Pitman, page 87.
For background on the kidnapping conspiracy, see Edward Steers Jr., Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001), pages 71–78.
The alleged content of Booth’s letter to the National Intelligencer is highly controversial. Years after the assassination, Matthews claimed to have reconstructed the text from memory. It is more likely that he based his so-called recollections upon the text of Booth’s political manifesto discovered in the safe of the assassin’s sister. Despite the confusion about what Booth’s letter to the newspaper actually said, I am confident that Matthews was correct in remembering that Booth signed his coconspirators’ names to the incriminating document. For more on this, see Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong,” pages 147–153.
Lincoln’s note to General Grant appears in Basler, Collected Works, volume 8, page 411.
For more on Booth’s conspirators, see the following essays collected in Edward Steers Jr., ed., The Trial: The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators: Laurie Verge, “Mary Elizabeth Surratt,” at pages lii-lix; Joan L. Chaconas, “John H. Surratt Jr.,” at pages lx-lxv; Edward Steers Jr., “George Atzerodt,” at pages lxvi-lxxi; Betty Ownsbey, “Lewis Thornton Powell, alias Payne,” at pages lxxi-lxxvii; Edward Steers Jr., “Samuel Alexander Mudd,” pages lxxxvi-lxxxix; Percy E. Martin, “Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlen,” pages lxxxviii-xcvi.
For more on Lewis Powell, see Betty J. Ownsbey, Alias “Paine”: Lewis Thornton Powell, the Mystery Man of the Lincoln Conspiracy (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1993). For more on John Harrison Surratt Jr., see Alfred Isacsson, The Travels, Arrest and Trial of John H. Surratt (Middletown, New York: Vestigium Press, 2003); and Mark Wilson Seymour, The Pursuit & Arrest of John H. Surratt (Austin, Texas: Civil War Library, 2000).
For more on the kidnapping plot, see Steers, Blood on the Moon, at pages 71–78.
Mary Lincoln’s account of the carriage ride comes from her November 15, 1865, letter to the artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter, published in Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters (New York: Knopf, 1972), at page 283. Carpenter’s heroic oil painting of Lincoln reading the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet was the source for Ritchie’s famous engraving, one of the most beloved images in the Lincoln iconography. For the most recent use of Carpenter’s tableaux, see the dust jacket of Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. An account of the carriage ride also appeared in Francis B. Carpenter, Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln (New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1866), at pages 292–293.
Clara Harris’s memory of the carriage ride, and her comment on the arrival at Ford’s Theatre, come from her letter of April 29, 1865, describing the assassination. It can be found in Timothy S. Good, We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995), at pages 69–71.
Ferguson’s comments appear in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 189–194. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, at page 76.
Clara Harris’s letter appears in Good, We Saw Lincoln Shot, at pages 69–71.
For Booth’s Baptist Alley conversation with Ned Spangler, see Spangler’s statement after he was taken into custody. See John Debonay’s testimony in Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln, pages 105–106, and the statement of John Burroughs in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 225–228. Also see Pitman, page 75. There is some confusion about the proper spelling of Burroughs’s last name, and whether his nickname was “Peanut John” or “John Peanut.” Burroughs used the latter in his April 1865 statement to the authorities. Later, at the conspiracy trial, he said on May 16 that his nickname was “John Peanuts.” Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, page 230.
Booth’s visit to the Star Saloon, and his choice of beverage, appear in the testimony of Peter Taltavul in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, at pages 179–180. Also see Pitman, Assassination of the President, at page 72, and Trial of John H. Surratt, volume 1, pages 157–158.
Ferguson’s statement about Booth’s approach to the president’s box appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, page 190. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln, pages 76–77.
Mary Jane Anderson’s “right wishful” alley sighting of Booth on the afternoon of April 14 is in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, page 236. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of the President, page 75.
Assassination buffs will have surely noticed by now that, while I mention Lincoln’s valet or messenger Charles Forbes, I have omitted from the narrative one John Parker, the president’s so-called bodyguard. For three reasons, Parker does not appear in the narrative. First, he was not a “bodyguard” in the modern sense of the word. He was a police officer detailed to guard the Executive Mansion, as the White House was known during Lincoln’s administration, from theft and vandalism. Second, the Parker controversy detracts from the immediacy of the story. Many books on the assassination have concocted moments of high—and I argue false—drama by suggesting that if only Parker, who was at Ford’s Theatre, had not “abandoned” his post to get a drink, Booth would not have gained entry to the state box, and Lincoln would not have been murdered. Finally, the Parker issue is a red herring. Parker or no Parker, John Wilkes Booth would have been admitted to the box. Forbes admitted at least two people to Lincoln’s box that night, a messenger bearing military documents, and Booth. Had Parker been sitting near the entry to the box with Forbes, Parker would have done the same. For more on the Parker controversy, see Steers, Blood on the Moon, pages 103, 104, 116.
Ferguson’s observation of Booth entering the box appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 190–191. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln, page 76.
The last words that passed between Mary and Abraham Lincoln were preserved by Dr. Anson Henry, in a letter to his wife dated April 19, 1865, the same day as Lincoln’s White House funeral. The Henrys were old Illinois friends of the Lincolns living in Washington, and Mary Lincoln confided in a private conversation with the doctor the last words spoken by the president. Henry’s letter appears in Milton H. Shutes, Lincoln and the Doctors (New York: The Pioneer Press, 1933), page 132.
For the complete dialogue from act 3, scene 2, see Taylor, Our American Cousin, pages 80–85.
The exact time of Booth’s shot cannot be fixed, in part because no one knows the precise time that the performance began. Ford’s, like many theatres at the time, was somewhat casual about curtain time. Witnesses could not agree, and surviving testimony, letters, and oral history support multiple conclusions. Booth may have shot Lincoln as early as 10:13 or as late as 10:30 P.M. I suspect that the time was close to 10:15 P.M., but as late as 10:20 P.M. For a fuller discussion of this, and for a number of recollections from those at Ford’s Theatre, see Timothy S. Good, We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995). Good believes that Booth fired close to 10:30 P.M.
David Donald describes the tough, Clary’s Grove boys in Lincoln, at pages 40–41, and Donald confirms, on page 568, that in the spring of 1865 Lincoln “continued to be a physically powerful man.”
Ferguson’s description of Lincoln’s position at the moment he was shot appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 190–191.
Major Rathbone reported that Booth shouted “Freedom.” Rathbone’s account of the assassination and knife attack appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 195–198. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of the President, at pages 78–79. Clara Harris also described the stabbing in her April 29, 1865, letter. See Good, We Saw Lincoln Shot, at pages 69–71.
Witnesses disagreed about what Booth said, and where he said it. Booth later claimed that he cried “Sic semper” while standing in the box before he shot Lincoln, but Rathbone remembered only the word “Freedom.” During the manhunt Booth wrote in his makeshift diary: “I shouted Sic semper before I fired.” See Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong,” at page 154. Based on the available evidence, I believe that Booth said in the box and onstage the words I attribute to him in the narrative. For an extensive discussion, see Good, We Saw Lincoln Shot.
Rathbone’s testimony on the barred door is in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, at page 195.
Ferguson described Booth’s exultation to Stanton at the Petersen house on the night of the assassination, and James Tanner recorded his statement that Booth said “I have done it.” See Good, We Saw Lincoln Shot, at page 32. Later, at the trial, Ferguson neglected to mention “I have done it” in his testimony as published in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, page 197. The first words of Rathbone appear in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, page 197.
Booth’s broken bone has become the subject of minor controversy. A handful of assassination buffs insist that Booth was not injured when he fell to the stage at Ford’s Theatre. Instead, they argue, not long after he crossed the Navy Yard Bridge, his horse slipped and fell on the roads outside Washington, breaking a bone in the actor’s left leg. Although a fascinating diversion, the issue of where Booth was injured, onstage at Ford’s between 10:15 and 10:30 P.M., or on the roads between the Navy Yard Bridge and Surrattsville sometime before midnight, is a tempest in a teapot in the story of the manhunt. However it happened, Booth’s broken leg made a visit to Dr. Mudd essential. I agree with Edward Steers that in this matter we should accept, along with other evidence, Booth’s own account of his injury, when he wrote: “In jumping broke my leg.” Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong,” at page 154.
Seward’s carriage accident is covered in Glyndon G. Van Deusen, William Henry Seward (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), at page 411.
A number of accounts describe the events at the home of Secretary of State Seward. See Glyndon G. Van Deusen, William Henry Seward (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), pages 412–415; and Benjamin Thomas and Harold M. Hyman, Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln’s Secretary of War (New York: Knopf, 1962), pages 396, 397. For Fanny Seward’s account of the attempted assassination of her father, I relied primarily upon her diary as featured in Patricia Carley Johnson, “I Have Supped Full of Horrors,” American Heritage, October 1959, volume 10, number 6, pages 59–65 and 96–101. An account by Sergeant Robinson appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 479–480. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of the President, pages 155–156. William Bell’s testimony appears in Poore, volume 2, page 130, and in Pitman, pages 154–155; Augustus Seward’s testimony is in Poore, volume 2, page 5, and in Pitman, pages 156–157; Dr. Tullio S. Verdi’s testimony appears in Poore, volume 2, page 100, and in Pitman, pages 157–158; and the testimony of Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes appears in Poore, volume 2, at pages 21 and 60, and in Pitman at page 157.
Other valuable sources for the Seward attack include Dr. Tullio S. Verdi’s article, “The Assassination of the Sewards,” published in Republic magazine in July 1873 and reprinted in Frederick Hatch, ed., Journal of the Lincoln Assassination, volume 16, number 3, December 2003, page 46; Frederick Hatch, “I’m Mad! I’m Mad,” Journal of the Lincoln Assassination, volume 3, number 3, December 1989, pages 34–38; and Dr. John K. Lattimer, “The Stabbing of Lincoln’s Secretary of State on the Night the President Was Shot,” Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 192, number 2, April 12, 1965, pages 99–106. Dr. Lattimer also covers the Seward attack in his book, Kennedy and Lincoln: Medical and Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980).
Joseph B. Stewart’s account appears in Trial of John H. Surratt (Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1867), volume 1, pages 125–127, and in volume 2, pages 984–987. Mary Anderson’s description of the knife appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, page 237; and her account of Booth galloping away is on page 239. Mary Ann Turner’s account of the hoofbeats is in Poore, volume 1, at page 234.
Booth’s command to John Peanut comes from Peanut’s statement, as does the description of the assassin’s blow to the head and kick.
Sergeant Cobb’s account of his encounter with Booth at the bridge appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 251–252. Also see Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln, pages 84–85. That Booth disclosed his real name, and his destination, the vicinity of Beantown, remains inexplicable.
For this continuation of the events at the Seward house, see the Seward source notes in chapter 2.
Sergeant Robinson’s letter requesting Powell’s knife is illustrated in Swanson and Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins, page 44. A period bronze casting of Robinson’s medal appears on the same page.
Clara Harris’s description of the stabbing is in Good, We Saw Lincoln Shot.
Dr. Leale’s account appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1909.
The description of Laura Keene claiming center stage and beseeching the audience appears in John Creahan, The Life of Laura Keene (Philadelphia: The Rodgers Publishing Company, 1897), at page 27.
Fletcher’s testimony about Atzerodt’s promise of a present is in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, at pages 328, 331. Also see Trial of John H. Surratt, volume 1, at page 229. Fletcher’s pursuit of Herold and the horse is in Poore, volume 1, at pages 328–334. Also see Pitman, pages 83–84, and Trial of John H Surratt, pages 227–229. The exchange between Fletcher and Sergeant Cobb appears in Poore, volume 1, at page 329. Also see Pitman, page 84. Fletcher’s description of the horse is in Poore, volume 1, at page 332. Also see Pitman, at page 84.
The Mrs. Ord episode is discussed in Donald, Lincoln, at pages 572–573.
For more on Laura Keene, see Creahan, The Life of Laura Keene; Vernanne Bryan, Laura Keene A British Actress on the American Stage,1826–1873 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1997); and Ben Graf Henneke, Laura Keene: A Biography (Tulsa: Council Oaks, 1990).
George Alfred Townsend’s description of Lincoln on the floor of the president’s box appears in his book The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth (New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1865), at page 10.
Asia Booth Clarke’s derogatory comments about Lincoln’s choice of Good Friday entertainment appear in her memoirs, at page 99.
John Lee’s testimony about the search of Atzerodt’s hotel room is in Poore, volume 1, at pages 63–66. Also see Pitman, Assassination of the President, page 144.
Seaton Munroe’s comments appear in Creahan, The Life of Laura Keene, at page 28, and in Seaton Munroe, “Recollections of Lincoln’s Assassination,” North American Review, April 1896, pages 424–434.
Bersch did paint his scene of Lincoln being carried across Tenth Street to the Petersen house. It is now in the collection of the National Park Service, and is illustrated in Victoria Grieve, Ford’s Theatre and the Lincoln Assassination (Alexandria, Virginia: Parks & History Association, 2001), at page 60. Sadly, at the time Manhunt went to press, the Park Service had removed the painting from display at Ford’s Theatre, where it had hung for years.
For more on Safford, see Steers, Blood on the Moon, at page 123, and Kauffman, American Brutus, at page 19.
For a description, based on period newspaper accounts, of how news raced through Washington by word of mouth after the fall of Richmond and Lee’s surrender, see Swanson and Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins, pages 9–11.
Lincoln described his reliance upon Stanton with a magnificent tribute: “He is the rock on the beach of our national ocean against which the breakers dash and roar, dash and roar without ceasing. He fights back the angry waters and prevents them from undermining and overwhelming the land. Gentlemen, I do not see how he survives, why he is not crushed and torn to pieces. Without him I should be destroyed.”
An account of how Stanton received the news of the assassination appears in Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, at page 396. For a discussion of the friendship between Lincoln and his Secretary of War, and how it grew at the president’s summer retreat, see Matthew Pinsker, Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). Also see Elizabeth Smith Brownstein, Lincoln’s Other White House: The Untold Story of the Man and His Presidency (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2005). Thomas and Hyman give an account of Stanton’s evening prior to the assassination on pages 395–396.
Seward’s boast, which Lewis Powell proved to the secretary to be tragically wrong, is from a July 15, 1862, letter to John Bigelow, and was published in Bigelow’s Retrospectives of an Active Life (New York: Baker and Taylor, 1909), volume 1, page 505. More conveniently for modern readers, the relevant passage is quoted in Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong,” at page 1.
Thomas and Hyman describe how Stanton and Welles rushed to the Seward house, then to Ford’s Theatre: Stanton, pages 396–397. The navy secretary also described the events in his diary: Beale, Diary of Gideon Welles, volume 2, pages 283–286. Brief accounts can also be found in J. E. Buckingham, Reminiscences and Souvenirs of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Washington: Press of Rufus H. Darby, 1894), at pages 21–22, and, for details not available elsewhere, Moorefield Storey, “Dickens, Stanton, Sumner, and Storey,” Atlantic Monthly, April 1930, pages 463–465. The article recounts a long ago dinner attended by the four men during which Stanton described the wild night of April 14, 1865.
Mary Surratt’s country tavern in Surrattsville (now Clinton), Maryland, still stands, and is a splendid museum and research center maintained by the Surratt Society.
The language from John H. Surratt’s postal commission comes from a reading of the original document, now in a private collection.
My account of the visit of Booth and Herold to the Surrattsville tavern, and their direct quotations, come from the testimony of John Lloyd. See Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 118–126; and Pitman, The Assassination, pages 86–87.
The primary source for Dr. Leale’s actions is his own account, published, among other places, in Charles Leale, Lincoln’s Last Hours (n.p.: privately printed, 1909).
Maunsell Field’s abbreviated recollections were published in an article and in his memoirs, Memories of Many Men and of Some Women (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), pages 321–329.
For another account of what happened inside the Petersen house, this one by George Francis, one of the boarders, see Ralph G. Newman, “The Mystery Occupant’s Eyewitness Account of the Death of Abraham Lincoln,” Chicago History, Spring 1975, pages 32–33. Francis’s May 5, 1865 letter is the source for two of Mary Lincoln’s statements: “Where is my husband! Where is my husband!” and “How can it be so? Do speak to me!”
Rathbone described his fainting in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, at page 197. Also see Pitman, Assassination of the President, at page 79.
For more on the doctors, see Harry Read, “‘A Hand to Hold While Dying’: Dr. Charles A. Leale at Lincoln’s Side,” Lincoln Herald, Spring 1977, pages 21–25, and Charles Sabin Taft, “Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours: From the Note-Book of an Army Surgeon Present at the Assassination, Death, and Autopsy,” Century Magazine, February 1895, pages 634–636.
Dr. Taft’s recollections were also published in Abraham Lincoln’s Last Hours: From the Notebooks of Charles Sabin Taft,M.D., an Army Surgeon Present at the Assassination, Death and Autopsy (Chicago: privately printed, 1934).
Welles’s account appears in his diary, volume 2, at pages 283–290.
The midnight telegram to General Grant, and all other telegrams in this chapter, appear in The War of the Rebellion:A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901; Official Records). The telegrams are collected in series 1, volume 46, part 3, and appear in chronological order at pages 752–989.
For more on Corporal Tanner, see Howard H. Peckham, “James Tanner’s Account of Lincoln’s Death,” Abraham Lincoln Quarterly, March 1942, pages 176–183. Tanner is the source of Mary Lincoln’s statement, “Oh, my God, and have I given my husband to die?”
The quotations from Walker, Greenawalt, and Keim about George Atzerodt come from Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, at, respectively, pages 391–395, 341–352, and 400–402. Hezekiah Metz’s testimony appears at pages 353–357, and Sergeant Gemmill’s at pages 357–361.
Dr. Abbott’s statistics on the stricken president’s pulse and respiration were published in all the major newspapers, including the New York Times, New York Tribune,Philadelphia Inquirer, and, in Washington, D.C., the Daily Morning Chronicle and National Intelligencer. They also appeared in contemporary books about the assassination, including The Terrible Tragedy at Washington: Assassination of President Lincoln (Philadelphia: Barclay & Co., 1865), at page 28.
The account of the first raid on Mary Surratt’s Washington, D.C., boardinghouse is drawn from Floyd E. Risvold, ed., A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865,by Louis J. Weichmann, Chief Witness for the Government of the United States in the Prosecution of the Conspirators (New York: Knopf, 1975), at pages 174–179. Also see Steers, Blood on the Moon, pages 173–174.
The sources on Dr. Mudd include his three written statements, based on interrogations of him by Lieutenant Lovett and Colonel Wells, and on the testimony of those officers at the conspiracy trial. Lovett’s testimony appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, pages 258–272, and in Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln, pages 87–88. Wells’s testimony appears in Poore at volume 1, pages 281–293, and in Pitman at pages 168–169. Joshua Lloyd’s testimony appears in Poore, volume 1, at pages 273–281, and in Pitman at page 90; William Williams’s testimony appears in Poore, volume 1, at pages 294–301, and in Pitman at pages 88–89; and Simon Gavacan’s testimony appears in Poore, volume 1, at pages 301–304, and in Pitman at pages 89–90.
The best account of Dr. Mudd is Edward Steers Jr., His Name Is Still Mudd: The Case Against Doctor Samuel Alexander Mudd (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Thomas Publications, 1997). Steers’s Blood on the Moon includes updated coverage on Mudd at pages 144–154. Also see Edward Steers Jr., “Dr. Mudd and the ‘Colored’ Witnesses,” Civil War History, volume 46, December 2000, pages 324–336.
The material on Mudd’s treatment of Booth’s leg comes from the doctor’s three statements, and all Mudd quotations come either from his three written statements or from the testimony of Lovett and Wells. Mudd’s statements are collected in From War Department Files: Statements Made by the Lincoln Conspirators Under Examination, 1865 (Clinton, Maryland: The Surratt Society, 1980) at pages 29 and 34.
The “Sam” letter, originally published in newspapers all over the country within a few days of its discovery in Booth’s hotel room, can be found in Kauffman, American Brutus, at pages 66–67.
Stanton’s telegram to General Dix, revealing some of the content of the Sam letter, appears in the Official Records, as do all other telegrams quoted in this chapter.
The lock of Lincoln’s hair cut by Stanton and presented by him to Mary Jane Welles, the envelope addressed by Stanton, and the dried flowers from the president’s White House funeral were examined in a private collection. Most accounts of Lincoln’s death quote Stanton as saying that Lincoln belongs to the “ages,” not the “angels.” In my view, shared by Jay Winik, the most persuasive interpretation supports “angels” and is also more consistent with Stanton’s character and faith.
For an account of the removal of Lincoln’s remains from the Petersen house, and the names of the men who carried him out, see Steers, Blood on the Moon, at pages 268–269. I obtained a typescript of William Clark’s letter from the archives of the Surratt Society. For more on Clark, see W. Emerson Reck, “The Riddle of William Clark,” Lincoln Herald, Winter 1982, pages 218–221.
Matthews’s account of his reading of Booth’s letter to the National Intelligencer is in Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong,” pages 150–153.
Townsend’s description of Booth’s young seductress is from The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth (New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1865), page 24.
The breakfast conversation at Dr. Mudd’s comes from Mrs. Mudd’s statement taken during her interrogation. The account of the crutches comes from Dr. Mudd’s three statements.
Caldwell’s testimony on Atzerodt pawning his pistol is in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 1, page 148. Also see Pitman, Assassination of the President, at page 148.
The story of Dr. Mudd is one of the major controversies that has long bedeviled students of the Lincoln assassination. I agree with Steers and other historians on the nature and extent of Mudd’s knowledge and culpability. Despite the claims of Mudd’s defenders, he was not an innocent country physician who merely performed his Hippocratic oath, and treated an injured man he believed was a stranger. Based on a review of the evidence, I am certain that Mudd recognized Booth the moment the assassin walked through his door, and I am convinced that Mudd delayed reporting Booth’s visit, thus allowing the assassin a head start from the troops at nearby Bryantown. I have chosen not to bog down the narrative by writing an analytical, legal brief arguing the pros and cons of Mudd’s case. That discussion is available in other texts, and I do not rehearse it here. Instead, I have written, in real time as much as possible, what I believe happened.
My account of Thomas Jones comes primarily from his memoirs, J.Wilkes Booth:An Account of His Sojourn in Southern Maryland After the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, His Passage Across the Potomac, and His Death in Virginia (Chicago: Laird & Lee, 1893). All direct quotations come from him. Booth did not live long enough to write about Jones, and David Herold, after his capture, did not reveal how the Confederate agent had helped them.
For additional material on Jones, see John M. and Roberta J. Wearmouth, Thomas A Jones: Chief Agent of the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland (Port Tobacco, Maryland: Stones Throw Publishing, 2000).
Much of the material for this chapter, and all direct quotations from Thomas Jones, come from his short memoir. Booth, Herold, and Jones were the only witnesses to their interactions, just as Jones had planned.
Somerset and James Leaman’s testimony about their conversations with Azterodt are in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 2, page 504. Also see Pitman, Assassination of the President, at page 150. Asia Booth Clarke’s story about John’s love of nature is from her memoir, The Unlocked Book, pages 54 (“burrowing”) and 69 (“good men’s bones”).
The dialogue from the second raid on Mary Surratt’s Washington boardinghouse appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 2, pages 15–19 and pages 33–34, and in Pitman, The Assassination, pages 121–124.
The dialogue with Lewis Powell appears in Poore, volume 2, pages 9–11, and in Pitman, pages 122–123.
The letters of Madlock and Severs are in a private collection.
A number of examples of postassassination artwork, including “The Assassin’s Vision” carte-de-visite, are illustrated in Swanson and Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins, page 54.
Booth’s notebook entry appears in Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong” at pages 154–155.
Townsend’s vicious descriptions of Port Tobacco and of the Brawner Hotel come from his Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth, page 52. All telegrams are from the Official Records.
Booth’s letter to his mother is in Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong,” pages 130–131; and his “To Whom it May Concern” manifesto is on pages 124–127.
Asia Booth Clarke revealed her husband’s betrayal in The Unlocked Book, page 91.
Richter’s comment about George Atzerodt appears in Poore, The Conspiracy Trial, volume 2, pages 515–517. Also see Pitman, The Assassination, page 153. The story of Atzerodt’s arrest appears in Steers, Blood on the Moon, at pages 169–170. Atzerodt’s confessions are published in “‘Lost Confession’ of George A. Atzerodt,” in Steers, ed., The Trial, pages civ–cvi, and in From War Department Files.
The narrative of April 20 in the pine thicket, and all direct quotations, are drawn, as before, from the memoir of Thomas Jones, the only surviving witness to the events that happened there.
For a thorough analysis of the river crossing, see William A. Tidwell, “Booth Crosses the Potomac: An Exercise in Historical Research,” Civil War History 36, April 1990, pages 325–333.
Townsend’s research appeared in George Alfred Townsend, “How Booth Crossed the Potomac,” Century Magazine, April 1884, and is reprinted in John M. and Roberta J. Wearmouth, Thomas A. Jones: Chief Agent of the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland (Port Tobacco, Maryland: Stones Throw Publishing, 2000), at page 56. Wearmouth covers Townsend’s correspondence with Jones at pages 45–54, and Jones’s “reunion” with Captain Williams at pages 154–159.
Osborn H. Oldroyd’s firsthand but frustratingly brief account of Jones’s visit to his Petersen House museum is found in Oldroyd’s The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Washington, D.C.: Osborn H. Oldroyd, 1901), at page 101.
Herold’s remarks about partridge shooting, Davis, and Hughes all come from his statement while in custody, which is published in Hall, On the Way, page 8.
Booth’s journal entry on being “hunted like a dog,” the low point of his despair since the manhunt began, appears in Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong,” page 7.
All the telegrams are from the Official Records.
Herold’s remark about the gunboat comes from his statement while in custody on April 27, 1865, published in Hall, On the Way, page 7.
All the telegrams are in the Official Records.
Herold’s encounter with the Quesenberrys was described in her May 16, 1865, statement to Colonel Wells, and is published in Hall, On the Way, at page 108.
The fugitives’ visit to Dr. Stuart was described in his statement of May 6, 1865, and published in Hall, On the Way, page 114.
Bryant’s statement of May 6, 1865, is published in Hall, On the Way, at page 116.
Lucas’s statement of May 6, 1865, is published in Hall, On the Way, at page 122.
Both drafts of Booth’s letter of complaint are in Rhodehamel and Taper, “Right or Wrong,” at pages 157–159.
The translation of Shakespeare’s passage from Macbeth that Booth quoted in his note to Dr. Stuart comes from the definitive volume of the collected works, David Bevington’s The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Fifth Edition (New York: Pearson, 2004), at page 1277.
Rollins’s two statements of April 25, 1865, and May 20, 1865, are published in Hall, On the Way, at pages 126 and 127.
William Jett gave a statement on May 6, 1865, and also testified at the conspiracy trial on May 17, 1865. Both of his accounts are published in Hall, On the Way, at pages 135 and 139.
The Beckwith telegram, and all the other telegrams in this chapter, appear in the Official Records.
The narrative of Booth’s time at Garrett’s farm, and all direct quotations, are drawn from several accounts. This collection of sources includes statements, reports, and testimony, and covers the pursuit to Bowling Green, the arrival at Garrett’s farm, the parley with Booth, Herold’s surrender, and the shooting and death of the assassin.
Captain Edward P. Doherty’s major accounts can be found in his report of April 29, 1865; his testimony at the conspiracy trial of May 22, 1865; and in his March 21, 1866, letter to Secretary of War Stanton. See Hall, On the Way, pages 27–36.
Colonel Everton J. Conger’s accounts can be found in his statement at the inquest aboard the Montauk on April 27, 1865; his testimony at the conspiracy trial on May 17, 1865; at the impeachment investigation of Andrew Johnson on May 13 and 14, 1867; and at the trial of John H. Surratt on June 25, 1867. See Hall, On the Way, pages 40–63.
Luther Byron Baker’s accounts can be found in his April 27, 1865, statement at the inquest aboard the Montauk; his testimony at the impeachment investigation of Andrew Johnson on May 22, 1867; and his testimony at the trial of John H. Surratt on June 25, 1867. See Hall, On the Way, pages 74–98.
In general, the accounts of Doherty, Conger, and Baker agree on what happened at Garrett’s farm. They vary in minor details, of course, a reflection not only of the frailty of memory, but of the competition for reward money. For example, the parties disagreed about who really “captured” David Herold, pulled him from the barn door, and ordered him bound. Their accounts of Booth’s dialogue vary somewhat in the actor’s choice of particular words, or the sequence of some of his sentences. But they all agree on the substance of the parley with Booth, on all of the sentiments that he expressed, and on their dealings with the Garrett family.
I have not included every possible variation from their accounts. Instead, I used my best judgment and the major accounts left by the principals to construct what I believe is the most reasonable account of the climax of the manhunt.
For ease of reference for the reader, I do not cite to every page of microfilm at the National Archives, to every document, and to every report where this material can be found. Instead, I refer the reader to James O. Hall’s On the Way to Garrett’s Farm: John Wilkes Booth and David E. Herold in the Northern Neck of Virginia, April 22–26, 1865 (Clinton, Maryland: The Surratt Society), an indispensable volume that collects in one place much of the significant evidence, and which refers readers interested in more to the specific microfilm reels and pages
Boston Corbett’s major accounts can be found in his report of April 29, 1865; his May 17, 1865 testimony at the conspiracy trial; and an April 14, 1877 newspaper article in the Philadelphia Weekly Times. See Hall, On the Way, pages 155–162.
Members of the Garrett family left behind considerable commentary about their visitors. John M. Garrett’s statement was taken at Colonel Lafayette Baker’s office on May 20, 1865, and Garrett testified on June 25, 1867, at the trial of John H. Surratt. His recollections are reprinted in Hall, On the Way, pages 140–146. Richard H. Garrett’s revealing letter of April 4, 1866, to Grandison Manning appears in Hall, On the Way, at page 170, and Rev. Richard Baynham Garrett’s letter of October 24, 1907, appears at page 174.
Also see William H. Garrett, “True Story of the Capture of John Wilkes Booth,” Confederate Veteran, volume xxix, number 4, April 1921, pages 129–130, and Betsy Fleet, ed., “A Chapter of Unwritten History: Richard Baynham Garrett’s Account of the Flight and Death of John Wilkes Boothe,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, volume 71, number 4, October 1963, pages 387–404. This article includes Edwin Booth’s letter of thanks to the Garretts and the story about John Wilkes Booth amazing the Garrett children with his pocket compass.
For a little-known but important—and eerie—retrospective based on interviews with some of the Garrett survivors, see F. A. Burr, “John Wilkes Booth: The Scene of the Assassin’s Death Visited,” Boston Herald, December 11, 1881, page 9.
Lucinda Holloway’s description of Booth’s death appears in Francis Wilson, John Wilkes Booth: Fact and Fiction of Lincoln’s Assassination (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929), at pages 209–217. It is reprinted in Hall, On the Way, page 178.
All George Alfred Townsend material in this chapter comes from his The Life Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth. The dialogue between Asia Booth Clarke and T. J. Hemphill comes from her memoir, The Unlocked Book, at pages 92–93. The complete collection of Gardner’s photos of the captive conspirators was published for the first time in Swanson and Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins, pages 58 to 76.
The Clark Mills story was reported in the May 2, 1865, Chicago Tribune.
Townsend’s dialogue with Lafayette Baker, and his account of the faux burial at sea, are in The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth, pages 38–39.
Important information appears in L. B. Baker, “An Eyewitness Account of the Death and Burial of J. Wilkes Booth,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, December 1946, pages 425–446.
The U.S. Treasury warrants paid to Corbett, Doherty, Baker, and all the other recipients of reward money were uncovered recently at the National Archives and photographed for the first time.
Boston Corbett’s letters repose in private collections.
Asia Booth Clarke’s account of Corbett appears in her memoirs at pages 99–100.
For the most detailed modern account of the execution of the conspirators, and for the complete collection of Gardner’s photographs of the hanging, see Swanson and Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins, pages 98–121.
Edwin Booth’s letter appealing for the return of his brother’s body is in Johnson’s papers. See Paul H. Bergeron, ed., The Papers of Andrew Johnson, volume 15, September 1868–April 1869 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999), at pages 431–432.
Asia Booth Clarke’s book of memories concludes with this elegy. Like her assassin-brother, she could not resist quoting Shakespeare. The last line of her book, “So runs the world away,” comes, unsurprisingly, from Hamlet, act III, scene 2: “For some must watch, while some must sleep; Thus runs the world away.”
The Asia Booth Clarke letters quoted here come from the reprinted and retitled edition of her memoirs, John Wilkes Booth: A Sister’s Memoir by Asia Booth Clarke (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996), edited by Terry Alford, at page 21.
The strange and unhappy tale of Rathbone and Harris was the subject of Thomas Mallon’s eerie and compelling novel, Henry and Clara (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1994).
Luther Baker’s promotional brochure, his “combination picture,” and his horse Buckskin’s first-hoof account all appear in Swanson and Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins, at page 37.
For John H. Surratt’s lecture, see Clara E. Laughlin, The Death of Lincoln: The Story of Booth’s Plot, His Deed and the Penalty (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1909), pages 222–249. Also see “A Remarkable Lecture—John H. Surratt Tells His Story,” Lincoln Herald, December 1949, pages 20–33, 39. The rare broadside for Surratt’s never-delivered December 30, 1870, Washington, D.C., lecture appears in Swanson and Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins, page 124.
The death of Frances Seward is discussed in Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, at pages 415–416. Seward’s words about Fanny’s death and his “unspeakable sorrow” and broken dreams are in Van Deusen, at page 417.
Samuel Arnold’s memoirs did not appear in book form until the posthumous publication of Defense and Prison Experiences of a Lincoln Conspirator (Hat-tiesburg, Mississippi: The Book Farm, 1940).
Dr. Mudd has been the subject of several books, some quite sympathetic. The Mudd shelf includes Nettie Mudd, The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (New York: Neale Publishing Company, 1909); Hal Higdon, The Union vs. Doctor Mudd (Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1964); Samuel Carter III, The Riddle of Dr. Mudd (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974); Elden C. Weckesser, His Name Was Mudd (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 1991); John Paul Jones, ed., Dr. Mudd and the Lincoln Assassination: The Case Reopened (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Combined Books, 1995); and, finally, the best and most truthful account, Edward Steers Jr., His Name Is Still Mudd: The Case Against Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd (Gettysburg: Thomas Publications, 1997).
The tale of Stanton’s rapid decline and sad last days is told in Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, at pages 627–640. Robert Lincoln’s condolence letter appears on page 638.
The bizarre, and in many ways disturbing, story of Powell’s skull and funeral honors is noted in Kauffman’s American Brutus, at page 391.
A brief, postassassination history of Ford’s Theatre appears in Victoria Grieve, Ford’s Theatre and the Lincoln Assassination (Alexandria, Virginia: Parks & History Association, 2001), pages 84–91. George F. Olszewski’s Restoration of Ford’s Theatre (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1963), an essential and fascinating account of how the dead playhouse was restored to life, belongs in the library of anyone interested in the assassination or the history of American theatre.
Asia Booth Clarke’s conciliatory but hagiographic comments come from her memoir, The Unlocked Book, page 100.
The narrative about the assassination oil paintings and wax figures draws from original advertising posters for Terry’s Panorama and Colonel Orr’s Museum.
The myth of the Booth who got away is worthy of a book itself, but that story is, unfortunately, beyond the scope of this one. For an introduction to the myth, and for photos of Bates’s book, for oil paintings he commissioned to further his scheme, and for a letter in which he claims “I had John Wilkes Booth as my client in Western Texas from about 1875 to 1877,” see Swanson and Weinberg, Lincoln’s Assassins, pages 130–136. Also see Lloyd Lewis, Myths After Lincoln (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1929); George S. Bryan, The Great American Myth (New York: Carrick & Evans, 1940); C. Wyatt Evans, The Legend of John Wilkes Booth: Myth, Memory, and a Mummy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004); and Steers, Blood on the Moon, at pages 245–267. Sarah Vowell’s marvelous and irreverent A brief, postassassination history (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005) covers the Booth escape and mummy legends in her tour of the popular culture of the Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley assassinations.
The absurd book by Booth’s imposter “granddaughter” is Izola Forrester’s This One Mad Act: The Unknown Story of John Wilkes Booth and His Family (Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1937).
My assertion that many tourists who come to Ford’s Theatre overlook Booth’s pocket compass is based on many hours of personal observations I conducted in the museum on a number of days. Likewise, my assertion about the popularity of Booth’s Deringer pistol is based on many personal observations of museum visitors while they viewed, and talked about, the murder weapon, and also Booth’s other firearms and knives.