The Lincoln Assassination Trial - The Court Transcripts PDF Download

Author: William C. Edwards
Publisher: William Edwards
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1470

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Book Description
This is a transcript of NARA M599 Reels 8-15. It contains the arguments and summaries as well as the full testimony of each witness. It also contains the testimony of the perjured witnesses. This along with "The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence" and The Lincoln Assassination: The Reward Files" constitute a large majority of the primary evidence of the assassination.

Author: James L. Swanson
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061237620
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This definitive illustrated history of Abraham Lincoln's assassination follows the shocking events from the tragic scene at Ford's Theatre to the trial and execution of John Wilkes Booth's coconspirators. Few remember them today, but once the names Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, Edman Spangler, Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlin, and Dr. Samuel Mudd were the most reviled and notorious in America. In Lincoln's Assassins, James L. Swanson and Daniel R. Weinberg present an unprecedented visual record of almost three hundred contemporary photographs, letters, documents, prints, woodcuts, newspapers, pamphlets, books, and artifacts, many hitherto unpublished. These rare materials evoke the popular culture of the time, record the origins of the Lincoln myth, take the reader into the courtroom and the cells of the accused, document the beginning of American photojournalism, and memorialize the fates of the eight conspirators.

Author: William C. Edwards
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252091078
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1490

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Book Description
On April 22, 1865, Brevet Colonel H. L. Burnett was assigned to head the investigation into the murder of President Abraham Lincoln and the attempted murder of Secretary of State William H. Seward. Burnett orchestrated the collection of thousands of documents for the Military Commission’s trial of the conspirators. This deep archive of documentary evidence--consisting of letters, depositions, eyewitness accounts, investigative reports, and other documents--provides invaluable insight into the historical, cultural, and judicial context of the investigation. Only a fraction of the information presented in these documents ever made its way into the trial, and most of it has never been readily accessible. By presenting an annotated and indexed transcription of these documents, this volume offers significant new access to information on the events surrounding the assassination and a vast new store of social and political history of the Civil War era. “With tears in my eyes I think it your duty to hang every rebel caught. I feel as bad as if was my own mother or father & will be one to volunteer to try & shoot every Southern man. May God have mercy on the man’s soul that done such a deed. With much Respect for our Country, I remain Weeping” --Anonymous letter, New York, April 15, 1865 “I know Booth. He was in the habit of coming to my place to shoot. . . . He shot well, and practiced to shoot with accuracy in every possible position. . . . He was a quick shot; always silent, reticent.” --Deposition of Benjamin Barker, Pistol Gallery proprietor

Author: Frederick Hatch
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 147661699X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
The eight people charged with conspiring to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln were tried by a military commission under military law. The author contends that this was illegal, since the civilian legal system was fully functioning. The many ways in which the defendants' rights were violated are described, as are the ways in which the trial testimony was either not accurate or not legally obtained. The trial is also compared with other incidents in which the U.S. military was used in police and judicial functions, with questionable results. The book is a warning against unchecked power by the executive branch of the government.

Author: Benn Pitman
Publisher: Franklin Classics
ISBN: 9780341849988
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Author: Edward SteersJr.
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813127246
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description
On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in what he envisioned part of a scheme to plunge the federal government into chaos and gain a reprieve for the struggling Confederacy. The plan failed. By April 26, Booth was killed resisting capture and eight of the nine conspirators eventually charged in Lincoln's murder were in custody. Their trial would become one of the most famous and most controversial in U.S. history. New president Andrew Johnson's executive order on May 1 directed that persons charged with Lincoln's murder stand trial before a military tribunal. The trial lasted more than fifty days, and 366 witnesses gave testimony. Benn Pitman, a recognized expert in phonography, an early form of shorthand, was awarded the government contract to produce a transcription of each day's testimony. Pitman made these transcripts available to the prosecution and the defense, as well as to select members of the press. Although three versions of the trial testimony were published, Pitman's edited collection was the most accessible. He skillfully winnowed the 4,300 pages of transcription into one volume, collated the testimony by defendant, indexed the testimony by name and date, and added summaries of the testimony. In The Trial, assassination scholars guide readers through all 421 pages of testimony, illuminating Pitman's record. By drawing together the evidence that resulted in the conspirators' convictions, The Trial leaves no doubt as to the events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, making this book a fascinating account of the trial as well as an essential resource.

Author: William C. Edwards
Publisher: William Edwards
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
After the trial of the conspirators was over, the Govt. called for claims to the rewards for the apprehension of John Wilkes Booth, Jefferson Davis, and other members of the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Many of the Detectives, Soldiers and citizens involved wrote detailed descriptions and sometimes submitted original reports to support their claims. This book is a summarization of the four reels of NARA microfilm of all submitted claims and official documents.

Author:
Publisher: Library of America
ISBN: 1598534025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
For the 150th anniversary, Harold Holzer (The Civil War in 150 Objects) presents an unprecedented firsthand chronicle of one of the most pivotal moments in American history. On April 14, 1865, Good Friday, the Civil War claimed its ultimate sacrifice. President Lincoln Assassinated!! recaptures the dramatic immediacy of Lincoln’s assassination, the hunt for the conspirators and their military trial, and the nation’s mourning for the martyred president. The fateful story is told in more than eighty original documents—eyewitness reports, medical records, trial transcripts, newspaper articles, speeches, letters, diary entries, and poems—by more than seventy-five participants and observers, including the assassin John Wilkes Booth and Boston Corbett, the soldier who shot him. Courtroom testimony exposes the intricacies of the plot to kill the president; eulogies by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Phillips, and Benjamin Disraeli and poetry by Walt Whitman, Herman Melville and Julia Ward Howe give eloquent voice to grief; two emotional speeches by Frederick Douglass—one of them never before published—reveal his evolving perspective on Lincoln’s legacy. Together these voices combine to reveal the full panorama of one the most shocking and tragic events in our history.

Author: Thomas J. Reed
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611478286
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Avenging Lincoln’s Death: The Trial of John Wilkes Booth’s Accomplices is an examination of the 1865 military commission trial of eight alleged accomplices of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin who murdered President Abraham Lincoln. The book analyzes the trial transcript and other relevant evidence relating to the guilt of Booth’s alleged accomplices, as well as a careful application of basic constitutional law principles to the jurisdiction of the military commission and the fundamental fairness of the trial. The author found that the military commission trial was unconstitutional and unfair because Congress never authorized trial by military commission for these eight civilians. President Johnson exceeded the scope of his authority as commander in chief by ordering the accomplices to be tried by military commission. He failed to follow the Habeas Corpus Act of 1863 that required him to turn over the alleged accomplices to civilian authorities for prosecution. The accomplices were convicted on perjured testimony and the Government was allowed to drag in unrelated evidence of Confederate atrocities to poison the minds of the panel of officers.

Author: Sean Jacobs
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781514362921
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
When beginning to write the six novels covering the Abraham Lincoln Assassination Trial of the Century in 1865, I learned more about "history" than I could ever have imagined. In one of my novels written in 2014, Sisters of Mercy - The Runaway Scrape, a story about how brave Sam Houston was on the battlefield and how Texas won their independence is written in textbooks by the victors, the Texians. You might ask yourself, what history did my story come from...from the writings of Dilue Rose Harris and the Runaway Scrape, of course. The Texians won, so history was written by the victors. Can you read or speak Spanish? If so, pick up the history books written by historians from Mexico City. It tells a complete different story, but, of course, there is no truth to what they say, right? In the Lincoln Assassination, the history we have been taught is that which was written by the Northern newspapers...ones such as Harper's Weekly, The New York Tribune or the Washington Evening Star. Their narratives of events and how the North either won or lost different battles have a complete different version from those written by Southern newspapers. Look in textbooks and you will find most of what the Northern journalists wrote got transitioned into these books of education. During World War II, Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, "History is written by the victors!" I have been told that the North's only real claim to victory is that, because the North won, might tell fewer lies about their adversaries, the South. The North has put its stake in the ground and claims to control the past as well as the future. Take a look at President Jimmy Carter and President Gerald Ford...they gave amnesty to General Robert E. Lee and President Jefferson Davis, but it was over 125 years after the War Between the States. Can you believe that? Now, take Book 2, The Pursuit and Capture of John Wilkes Booth and the Trial of David Herold. The Northern newspapers and the Northern generals and colonels decided the fate of eight individuals. You tell me this was a fair trial! You tell me David Herold with the mind of an eleven year old should have died on the gallows! This novel, as well as the next three in the series, will take the reader through the capture and killing of John Wilkes Booth. You will have front row seats to all of the witnesses and testimony, including circumstantial evidence and material evidence in the trial. You will be able to determine if the Northern officers of the military tribune made the right choice when it came time to vote on the death penalty for the four conspirators being tried. In the writing of this novel, every effort has been presented by actual trial transcripts, just the way it happened in 1865. As the author, no decision are made on the truth or falsity of any statements, they are only presented word for word from the transcripts. You decide! I leave you from my era in history, the Vietnam War. Although this can be considered an example of history written by the losers and not the victors, its accounts in history books can be debatable whether the United States lost the war, but surely we did not win it? But, still the majority of historical documentation for the War comes from us right here in America. Following up on Book 2 will be the third in this series which will cover another conspirator, Lewis Thornton Payne, or some may call him Paine, Woods, or even Mosby? Its scheduled release is August 15, 2015. George Orwell said once while writing 1984..."We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right."