The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick HartranftEdward Steers, Jr., Harold Holzer LSU Press, 2009 M03 15 - 208 pages On May 1, 1865, two weeks after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, recently inaugurated president Andrew Johnson appointed John Frederick Hartranft to command the military prison at the Washington Arsenal, where the U.S. government had just incarcerated the seven men and one woman accused of complicity in the shooting. From that day through the execution of four of the accomplices, the Pennsylvania-born general held responsibility for the most notorious prisoners in American history. A strict adherent to protocol, Hartranft kept a meticulously detailed account of his experiences in the form of a letterbook. In The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators, noted Lincoln scholars Edward Steers, Jr., and Harold Holzer, in partnership with the National Archives, present this fascinating historical record for the first time with contextual materials and expert annotations, providing a remarkable glimpse behind the scenes of the assassination's aftermath. |
Contents
John Frederick Hartranft | 3 |
The Conspirators Are Cornered | 13 |
Abandon All Hope | 21 |
Inter Arma Silent Leges | 33 |
Let the Stain of Innocent Blood Be Removed from the Land | 48 |
hartranfts postwar life | 56 |
THE LETTERBOOK Transcribed and Annotated | 61 |
Editors Note | 63 |
The Letterbook | 71 |
Reproductions from the Letterbook | 161 |
Hartranfts Appointment and the Rules of the Prison | 162 |
A Typical TwoPage Spread from the Letterbook | 164 |
Hartranfts Response on Charges Mudd Was Given Special Treatment | 166 |
The Execution Order from Major General Hancock | 167 |
Hartranfts Report of the Execution | 168 |
171 | |
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The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, as ... Edward Steers, Jr.,Harold Holzer No preview available - 2009 |