Authors: James L. Swanson
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 209â217. 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 92â93. 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 38â39.
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 425â446.
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 99â100.
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 98â121.
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 1868âApril 1869 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999), at pages 431â432.
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 222â249. Also see “A Remarkable LectureâJohn H. Surratt Tells His Story,”
Lincoln Herald
, December 1949, pages 20â33, 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 415â416. 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 627â640. 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 84â91. 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 130â136. 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 245â267. 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.
“The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.”
Abbott, Ezra, 118, 136
Acres (shoemaker), 290, 292
Aladdin
!
or His Wonderful Lamp
, 10â12, 27, 96
Anderson, Mary Jane, 36â37, 38, 63â64
Apostate, The
, 12
Army and Navy Journal
, 381
Army of Northern Virginia, Confederate, 4, 9, 168, 294, 322
Arnold, Samuel, 24, 29, 80, 174, 231, 339, 349, 353, 356, 363, 378
arrest of, 197, 220
Johnson's pardon of, 366
Artman, E. R., 358
Assassinator, The
(Haco), 383â84
Assassin's Vision, The
, 201, 201
“Assassin's Vision Ballad, The” (Turner), 201â2
Atwood, Andrew,
see
Atzerodt, George Atzerodt, George, 24, 25, 28, 68, 80, 118, 132, 149, 194, 195, 196, 208, 215, 231, 349, 353, 356, 358, 379
arrest of, 219â20
confession of, 220â21
execution of, 364â66
failed mission of, 78â79
as fugitive, 88â90, 114â15, 146, 153â54, 180â81
hotel room of, 89â90, 183, 294
incriminating remark of, 180â81, 219
trial and conviction of, 362â63
Atzerodt, John, 220
Augur, Christopher Columbus, 112, 113, 117, 123â24, 135, 190, 193, 253, 254, 284
Baden, Joseph, 258
Bagley, Sergeant, 257
Bainbridge, Absalom R., 272â73, 275â79, 296, 301â4
Baker, Lafayette C., 147, 186, 284, 349, 354â55
fate of, 374â75
joins manhunt, 281â85
reward money awarded to, 357, 358
Baker, Luther Byron, 282, 284, 285, 303, 315, 317â20, 322â31, 334, 335, 337, 338, 340â42, 344, 346, 348, 349, 355, 362
fate of, 374â75
Garrett Farm revisited by, 356â57
Jett arrested by, 311â14
reward money awarded to, 357â58
Rollins questioned by, 298â302
Baltimore American
, 378
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 257
Baltimore Sun
, 205
Barnes, James, 257
Barnes, Joseph K., 50, 68â69, 110, 137, 352â53
Barnum, P. T., 276
Bates, Edward, 363
Bates, Finis, 385
Bean, Carrie, 10
Beckwith, S. H., 282, 315
Bell, William, 53, 82, 194
Benjamin, Judah, 27
Benton, Major, 355
Bersch, Carl, 93
Best, John, 153, 162
Bigley, Daniel R., 120
Black Easter, 163, 164â65
Blair, Montgomery, 104
Bliss, Willard, 110
Booth, Asia,
see
Clarke, Asia Booth Booth, Edwin, 10, 156, 218â19, 345, 367â69, 371
Booth, John Wilkes, vii, 2, 9, 11, 15, 79, 80, 92, 109, 112, 116, 117, 118, 121â22, 146, 147â48, 179, 181, 193, 194, 196, 198, 214, 235, 241, 242, 271â72, 281, 285, 286, 297, 298, 299â301, 345, 357, 359, 366, 372, 374, 375, 379, 382
autopsy of, 352â53, 384
Boyd as alias of, 273
broken leg of, 47, 87, 103, 106, 129â31, 155, 158, 164, 172, 185, 203, 226, 228, 229, 259, 260, 271, 275, 288â89, 291, 330
Clarke's betrayal of, 215â18
coconspirators of, 23â25
at Cox's farm, 163â66
in crossing to Port Royal, 275â77
death of, 342â43, 344, 346, 380â81
deteriorating condition of, 185, 204, 275
diary and manifestos of, 206â7, 216â17, 231, 249â52
disaffection of, 3â4, 6, 7
in encounter with Confederate soldiers, 272â75
in escape from Ford's, 46â49, 62â66
escape strategy of, 203â4
failure of, 385â87
fatal wound of, 334â39, 341â42
in flight from Washington, 66â68, 86â88, 95â96, 121â24
in Ford's Theatre, 39â42
funeral procession of, 347â48
Gardner's photograph of, 353
in Garrett barn, 308â11, 316â24, 326â28
Garrett's hospitality toward, 278â80, 287â95
Garrett's suspicion of, 295, 303â4, 306â8
Grant encountered by, 18
grapples with Rathbone, 46â47
horse in alley episode and, 36â38
in Indiantown stopover, 247â53
inquest into death of, 349â51
interment of, 354â56
Jett's betrayal of, 311â14, 341
Jones's visits to, 171â74, 176â78, 204â5, 224â26
kidnap scheme of, 23â26, 125â28, 197, 217â18, 240, 258, 378
and knowledge of
Our American Cousin
, 35â36, 41â42
Lincoln shot by, 42â46
love letters and manuscripts of, 149â51
Lucas's horses confiscated by, 262â67
in Mudd's cover story, 211â13
at Mudd's farm, 123â25, 129â32, 152â58
in Mudd's interrogation, 234â39
mythologizing of, 199â202, 382â85, 386
National Intelligencer
letter of, 17, 29, 135, 148â49, 206
news of death of, 348â49, 351
at Peyton farm, 277â78
pine thicket encampment of, 165, 166â67, 171â72, 176â78, 184â85, 187â89, 204â8, 224â26, 230â32
in Potomac crossing attempts, 232â33, 245â48, 255â58
pre-assassination movements, 16â20, 22, 26â30, 36â38
press accounts of, 170â71, 186, 205â6