ACGPUBLISHED FIVE DAYS AFTER ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S death, this broadside reflected popular outrage at the first successful attempt on the life of a U.S. president and the larger conspiracy surrounding the assassination. John Wilkes Booth and his accomplices had planned to decapitate the federal government by murdering not only President Lincoln but also Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward, all in one night. The attempt on Johnson was aborted. Seward was attacked at home along with his son Frederick and others, but they survived. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton took charge of the investigation and authorized the huge rewards offered here for the apprehension of Booth and two of his co-conspirators: John H. Surratt, a Confederate agent who had schemed with Booth and others to kidnap Lincoln before the assassination plot was hatched; and David E. Herold, who aided the attack on Seward and then escaped with Booth.
Pasted onto this hastily assembled wanted poster are photographic prints of the three fugitives. Booth, a popular actor famous for his handsome face, appears in a carte-de-visite designed for his admirers. Surratt and Herold were not well known to the public or to authorities, as indicated by the fact that a “t” is missing from Surratt’s name under his portrait and in the description of him at bottom and Herold’s name is misspelled throughout.
Surratt fled abroad, and when he was later brought back to the United States to stand trial, a divided jury failed to convict him. Booth and Herold sought safety among Confederate sympathizers, first in Maryland and then in Virginia, but they were vigorously pursued. The South had been defeated, and there was no lasting refuge for the assassin or his accomplice. ACG
A BROAD CONSPIRACY When the War Department issued this poster on April 20, 1865, the investigation into the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln and others in his administration was ongoing. Several more conspirators would be identified and apprehended in the days to come.
