Execution of the assassins of President Abraham Lincoln, Washington DC

Washington District of Columbia

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Execution of the assassins of President Abraham Lincoln

By : John Sharp ©

July 7, 1865 Matthew Brady image of the execution of the assassins of President Abraham Lincoln: George A. Atzerodt, David Herold, Lewis T. Powell, Mary E. Surratt at the old District of Columbia Penitentiary July 7, 1865 .

George Andreas Atzerodt

Born : June 12, 1835 in Thuringia, Germany
Atzerodt emmigrated from Germany in 1843.
As an adult, he opened his own carriage repair business in Port Tobacco, Maryland.
Conviction(s) : Conspiracy to assassinate the president
Penalty : Death by hanging
Died : July 7, 1865 in Washington, D.C.

David Edgar Herold
Herold at the Washington Navy Yard after his arrest

Born : June 16, 1842 in Maryland
Son of Adam and Mary Porter Herold
Occupation : Pharmacist
Conviction(s) : Conspiracy to assassinate the president
Penalty : Death by hanging
Died : July 7, 1865 in Washington, D.C.

After the hanging David Herold was buried in Congressional Cemetery R 46/44 in the Herold family plot

David Herold was originally buried with no grave marker but after the death of his sister Mary A. Herold in 1917 an inscription was added.

Lewis Thornton Powell
Powell in irons aboard the U.S. monitor Saugus, 1865

Born : April 22, 1844 in Randolph County, Alabama
Son of Reverend George and Patience Caroline Powell
Alias(es) : Lewis Paine Payne
Occupation : Soldier
Conviction(s) : Conspiracy to assassinate the president
Penalty : Death by hanging
Died : July 7, 1865 in Washington, D.C.

Mary Elizabeth Eugenia Jenkins Surratt

Born : May or June 1823 in Waterloo, Maryland
Daughter of Archibald and Elizabeth Anne Jenkins
Spouse : John Harrison Surratt
Occupation : Boardinghouse owner
Conviction(s) : Treason, conspiracy, plotting murder
Penalty : Death by hanging
Died : July 7, 1865 in Washington, D.C.

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John Wilkes Booth Born : May 10, 1838 in Bel Air, Maryland Son of Junius Brutus Booth & Mary Ann Holmes Occupation : Actor Known for : Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Religious beliefs : Episcopal Died : April 26, 1865 in Port Royal, Virginia

John Wilkes Booth

Born : May 10, 1838 in Bel Air, Maryland
Son of Junius Brutus Booth & Mary Ann Holmes
Occupation : Actor
Known for : Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Religious beliefs : Episcopal
Died : April 26, 1865 in Port Royal, Virginia

Capture and Death of John Wilkes Booth Assassin of President Abraham Lincoln at Richard H. Garrett's farm, just south of Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia.
A detachment oif soldiers including Lieutenant Colonel Everton Conger, an intelligence officer, learned of Booth's location at the Garrett farm. Before dawn on Wednesday, April 26, the soldiers caught up with the fugitives hiding in Garrett's tobacco barn. David Herold surrendered, but Booth refused Conger's demand to surrender, saying "I prefer to come out and fight", and the soldiers then set the barn on fire. As Booth moved about inside the blazing barn, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot him. According to Corbett's later account, he fired at Booth because the fugitive "raised his pistol to shoot" at them. Conger's report to Secretary Stanton, however, stated that Corbett shot Booth "without order, pretext or excuse', and recommended that Corbett be punished for disobeying orders to take Booth alive. Booth, fatally wounded in the neck, was dragged from the barn to the porch of Garrett's farmhouse, where he died three hours later, at the age of 26.

Capture and Death of John Wilkes Booth
Assassin of President Abraham Lincoln
at Richard H. Garrett's farm, just south of Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia.

A detachment oif soldiers including Lieutenant Colonel Everton Conger, an intelligence officer, learned of Booth's location at the Garrett farm. Before dawn on Wednesday, April 26, the soldiers caught up with the fugitives hiding in Garrett's tobacco barn. David Herold surrendered, but Booth refused Conger's demand to surrender, saying "I prefer to come out and fight", and the soldiers then set the barn on fire. As Booth moved about inside the blazing barn, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot him. According to Corbett's later account, he fired at Booth because the fugitive "raised his pistol to shoot" at them. Conger's report to Secretary Stanton, however, stated that Corbett shot Booth "without order, pretext or excuse', and recommended that Corbett be punished for disobeying orders to take Booth alive. Booth, fatally wounded in the neck, was dragged from the barn to the porch of Garrett's farmhouse, where he died three hours later, at the age of 26.

John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 - April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family the ninth of ten children Junius Brutus Booth (May 1, 1796 - November 30, 1852 and Mary Ann Holmes. His father Junius Booth was from a noted English family and rapidly became one of the most popular and successful actors of his day. Junius Booth and his young wife immigrated to America in 1821 settling at Bel Aire Maryland. There he and his family built Tudor Hall which they worked a large farm with slave labor. During the 1850's young John Wilkes Booth apparently became a Know-Nothing in politics and an ardent supporter of slavery. The Know-Nothing Party was formed by to preserve the country for native-born white citizens. By the 1860s, Booth often toured with his brothers Edwin and Junius. John Wilkes Booth was a popular actor, in his own right and made as much as $ 20, 000 per year, he was well known in both the Northern United States and the South. He was also a Confederate sympathizer vehement in his denunciation of the Lincoln Administration and outraged by the South's defeat in the American Civil War. He strongly opposed the abolition of slavery in the United States and Lincoln's proposal to extend voting rights to recently emancipated slaves. Booth and a group of co-conspirators including David E. Herold, Lewis Thorton Powell, George Andreas Atzerodt, and Mary E. Surratt whom he led planned to kill Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward in a desperate bid to help the Confederacy's cause. Although Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered four days earlier, Booth believed the war was not yet over because Confederate General Joseph Johnston's army was still fighting the Union Army. On 14 April 1865 Booth walked into Ford Theatre and That evening, at around 10 p.m., as the play progressed, John Wilkes Booth slipped into Lincoln's box and shot him in the back of the head with a .44 caliber Derringer. Of the conspirators, only Booth was completely successful in carrying out his part of the plot--Lincoln died the next morning from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, becoming the first American president to be assassinated. Following the shooting, Booth fled on horseback to southern Maryland. He eventually made his way to a farm in rural northern Virginia; he was tracked down and killed by Union soldiers twelve days later. Eight others were tried and convicted, and four were hanged shortly thereafter. John Wilkes Booth, David Herold George Atzerodt, and David Paine are thought to have attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865. Booth as the invited guest of his secret fiancée Lucy Hale, the daughter of John P. Hale, soon to be United States Ambassador to Spain. One source claimed Booth remarked afterwards, "What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration day". Some scholars believe John Wilkes Booth image is in the 1865 Matthew Brady studio photo of the inuaguration and that he top row right of center just under President Lincoln. Present that day also were large numbers of African Americans among them Diarist Michael Shiner who wrote: And on the fourth of march 1865 on Saturday the hon Abraham Lincoln taken his Seat Before he Came out on the porch to take his [seat] the wind blew and it rained with out inter mistion and as soon as Mr Lincoln came out the wind ceasis blowing an the rain ceased raining and the Sun Came out and it was near as clear as it could be and calm and at the mean time there was a Star made its apperence west rite over the Capitol and it Shined just as bright as it could be
Sources: John Wilkes Booth Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes_Booth Michael Kauffman, American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. Random House, 2004. Diary of Michael Shiner with an Transcribed with Introduction and Note by John G. Sharp http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/shinerdiary.htm see entry for April 4, 1865 page 182

John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 - April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family the ninth of ten children Junius Brutus Booth (May 1, 1796 - November 30, 1852 and Mary Ann Holmes. His father Junius Booth was from a noted English family and rapidly became one of the most popular and successful actors of his day. Junius Booth and his young wife immigrated to America in 1821 settling at Bel Aire Maryland. There he and his family built Tudor Hall which they worked a large farm with slave labor. During the 1850's young John Wilkes Booth apparently became a Know-Nothing in politics and an ardent supporter of slavery. The Know-Nothing Party was formed by to preserve the country for native-born white citizens. By the 1860s, Booth often toured with his brothers Edwin and Junius. John Wilkes Booth was a popular actor, in his own right and made as much as $ 20, 000 per year, he was well known in both the Northern United States and the South. He was also a Confederate sympathizer vehement in his denunciation of the Lincoln Administration and outraged by the South's defeat in the American Civil War. He strongly opposed the abolition of slavery in the United States and Lincoln's proposal to extend voting rights to recently emancipated slaves.

Booth and a group of co-conspirators including David E. Herold, Lewis Thorton Powell, George Andreas Atzerodt, and Mary E. Surratt whom he led planned to kill Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward in a desperate bid to help the Confederacy's cause. Although Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered four days earlier, Booth believed the war was not yet over because Confederate General Joseph Johnston's army was still fighting the Union Army. On 14 April 1865 Booth walked into Ford Theatre and That evening, at around 10 p.m., as the play progressed, John Wilkes Booth slipped into Lincoln's box and shot him in the back of the head with a .44 caliber Derringer. Of the conspirators, only Booth was completely successful in carrying out his part of the plot--Lincoln died the next morning from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, becoming the first American president to be assassinated.

Following the shooting, Booth fled on horseback to southern Maryland. He eventually made his way to a farm in rural northern Virginia; he was tracked down and killed by Union soldiers twelve days later. Eight others were tried and convicted, and four were hanged shortly thereafter.

John Wilkes Booth, David Herold George Atzerodt, and David Paine are thought to have attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865. Booth as the invited guest of his secret fiancée Lucy Hale, the daughter of John P. Hale, soon to be United States Ambassador to Spain. One source claimed Booth remarked afterwards, "What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration day".

Some scholars believe John Wilkes Booth image is in the 1865 Matthew Brady studio photo of the inuaguration and that he top row right of center just under President Lincoln.

Present that day also were large numbers of African Americans among them Diarist Michael Shiner who wrote:

And on the fourth of march 1865 on Saturday the hon Abraham
Lincoln taken his Seat Before he Came out on the porch to take his [seat]
the wind blew and it rained with out inter mistion and as soon as Mr
Lincoln came out the wind ceasis blowing an the rain ceased raining and
the Sun Came out and it was near as clear as it could be and calm and at
the mean time there was a Star made its apperence west rite over the
Capitol and it Shined just as bright as it could be

Sources:
John Wilkes Booth Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes_Booth

Michael Kauffman, American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. Random House, 2004.

Diary of Michael Shiner with an Transcribed with Introduction and Note by John G. Sharp
http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/shinerdiary.htm see entry for April 4, 1865 page 182

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