Lincoln's assassins

This volume examines the twelve-day pursuit of John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Leveraging the extensive archival collection of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, the authors present a visual history centered on primary source materials. The text documents the mechanics of the conspiracy, the logistics of the escape through the Maryland countryside, and the military tribunal that followed. Specifically, it catalogs artifacts such as period photographs, newspaper broadsides, reward posters, and personal effects belonging to the conspirators and federal investigators to reconstruct the manhunt chronologically.

History students and collectors of Civil War ephemera use this book to examine the material evidence of the 1865 manhunt. Readers find a detailed inventory of the visual record that defined the public's perception of the crime and the subsequent executions. By studying the reproductions of original documents, the reader understands how the federal government coordinated the capture of the fugitives and how the press translated the chaos of the Lincoln murder into a national narrative.

Outward-looking and clear-cut; a moderate read.

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