Summary
âž¡ Confederate soldiers helped Booth and Harold hide in Richard Garrett’s barn. Union soldiers found them, set the barn on fire, and Booth was shot and died. Booth’s original plan was to kidnap President Lincoln, not kill him, to use as a bargaining chip for the Confederacy. However, after Lee’s surrender, Booth decided to assassinate Lincoln instead.
âž¡ The article discusses the negligence of John F. Parker, President Lincoln’s bodyguard, on the night of Lincoln’s assassination. Despite Parker’s history of misconduct, he was assigned to guard Lincoln and left his post during the play, possibly visiting a brothel. Despite initial charges, Parker was not dismissed until 1868 for sleeping on duty. The article also mentions the unjust punishment of Edmund Spengler, a theater worker who unknowingly held Booth’s horse, and was sentenced to six years of hard labor.
âž¡ After the Civil War, President Lincoln wanted national reconciliation and opposed punishing the South. However, the radical Republicans in his party disagreed, wanting to punish Southern leaders and limit their political power. After Lincoln’s death, the radical Republicans imposed harsh measures on the South, including martial law and heavy taxation. The text suggests that Lincoln’s death benefited the radical Republicans and the financiers who supported them, not the people of the North or South.
âž¡ The text discusses various theories and events surrounding the assassination of President Lincoln. It mentions potential assassination attempts on other officials like Secretary of War Stanton and General Grant, which were never carried out. The text also explores the role of George Azeroth, an accomplice in the plot, who was instructed to get close to Vice President Johnson, but not to kill him. The text further discusses the questionable actions of Stanton following the assassination, including his control over the nation’s telegraph service and the mysterious interruption of telegraph lines on the night of Lincoln’s murder.
âž¡ The article discusses the aftermath of President Lincoln’s assassination, focusing on the role of Eckert, who was in charge of the nation’s telegraph services. It suggests that the delay in communication about the assassination gave the murderer, John Wilkes Booth, a head start. The article also questions the sequence of troop deployments and the failure to guard the most likely escape route. Lastly, it discusses the pursuit of Booth, the large rewards offered for his capture, and the circumstances of his eventual death.
âž¡ The article discusses the mystery surrounding the fatal shooting of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Lincoln. There’s doubt about who fired the shot, with some suggesting it was Boston Corbett, while others believe it was Lieutenant Colonel Conger. The article also mentions a missing statement from Lieutenant Baker, which resurfaced but had key information redacted. Lastly, it talks about the division of the reward money for Booth’s capture, with Conger receiving a significantly larger share than Baker.
Transcript
I typically like to not read some of these before I’m. Or at least have not read it for a long time to. So that you guys can get the sense of, you know, my reaction when I. What I’m reading. The thing about this particular book is it’s brand new. It just. It hasn’t even. I don’t. I don’t know if it’s. I think it’s released to the public, but James Perloff actually sent me a copy for me to review before the interview. So I’m gonna be sharing that with you guys before I interview him on August 21.
Don’t exactly know what time that’s gonna be, but. But it will be live. So, anyhow, let’s. Let’s jump in here, and like I said, get this party started. So forgive me for being sleeveless today, but it is freaking hot, and I just. I don’t even want to deal with it. So. It’s the summer. All right, where are we here? Okay, so let me get to the top. And so here’s the COVID Official myths, uh, exploding official myths of the Lincoln assassination. All right. Introduction. Much has been said in an alternative media. In alternative media about the Kennedy assassination in recent years, but the Lincoln assassination seems to have gradually faded to lower rungs of historical interest.
Back in the mid 1990s, I was waiting to meet someone in Belmont, Massachusetts. Having some time to kill, I strolled over to the Belmont public library and browsed in history section. Browse its history. History section. A book caught my attention. Why was Lincoln murdered? Published in 1937 by Otto Eisen. Eisen Schimmel. I don’t know if I’m saying that right. It looked quite interesting, and I checked it out of the library. At that particular time, I was exploring Civil War history. The Internet was not in wide use yet, but I read a volume of Abraham Lincoln’s letters and speeches, Jefferson Davis’s rise and Fall of the confederate government, and quite a few memoirs and diaries written by those who’d experienced the war between the states.
I thought Eisenhower’s book the best analysis I’d ever seen of the Lincoln assassination. Not only did he do extensive primary research in government archives and read countless books pertaining to the assassination, especially memoirs and other writings by direct witnesses to the murder trial and other associated activities, but he proved to be a first class critical thinker, asking many logical questions that challenged the assassinations mainstream account. Cherry picking evidence is easy to do to support a particular theory. Eisenmeld didn’t do that. He considered all sides of a question and avoided broad speculation. He followed up with another outstanding book, in the shadow of Lincoln’s death in 1940.
My research into the Civil War culminated with my publishing an article about it in southern partisan magazine in 1997, after which I moved on to other things. That article didn’t address the Lincoln assassination, but Eisenhower’s piercing insights have always stayed with me, and I feel the time has come to bring them to this generation. Before beginning this book, I looked to see if any modern author had accomplished work comparable to Eisenhower, and I found one in Don Thomas, who had done monumental research accessing files that had been unavailable to Eisenhower. He has written the reason Lincoln had to die in 2013 and I the reason booth had to die in 2017.
His website is www. Reason lincoln.com. i noticed that Don Thomas never referenced Eisen Schimmel. I think it’s Eisen Schimmel. So when I first chatted with him, I asked if he didn’t like something about Isaac Schimmel. It turned out that Thomas hadn’t read the former 87 year old’s book. Yet extensive research and sound logic had led both men independently to much of the same conclusions. I am indebted to dawn for his analysis of the FBI’s forensic exam of John Wilkes Booth diary, his calling attention to the George Azeroth’s confession found in 1977, his citing the significance of James Donaldson, Booth, Whissel, and the New York crowd for directing me to valuable resources on the Lincoln assassination and for answering many questions I had in multiple conversations.
Eisen Schimmel and Thomas books are sold on Amazon. Kindle versions are available for all four of their books, except in the shadow of Lincoln’s death. Regarding the so called insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, many conservatives were upset by the infiltration of the crowd by federal agents, estimated at over 200 by Congressman Clay Higgins, the media’s mischaracterization mischaracterization of the event as ultraviolent and compared to Pearl harbor in 911 by Kamala Harris. Even though the only death on January 6 was an unarmed woman shot by a police officer, the government suppression of video evidence that contradicted the narrative, and the imprisonment of over 800 people, most of whose only crime was being there.
As we will see in analyzing the Lincoln assassination, such tactics aren’t new, but have been occurring in America for more than a century and a half. And in this particular book, he actually. So he puts all of his notes at the end of every chapter. So let’s see here. Okay, chapter one, the mainstream narrative. And obviously, that’s John Wilkes Booth on the right and Abraham Lincoln. First, let’s refresh ourselves on the assassination’s official story. On April 9 of 1865, General Robert E. Lee, commanded commanding commander of the army of Northern Virginia, surrendered to Union General Ulysses S.
Grant, effectively ending the civil war. Some confederate forces had not surrendered yet, but most would soon. Five days later, on April 14, which was good Friday, President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd, attended a comedy, our american cousin, at Ford’s theater in Washington, DC. General Grant and his wife, Julia, were supposed to share the presidential box with Lincoln’s. But as Grant canceled out that day, the Lincolns were accompanied by their acquaintance since Major Henry Rathbone and his fiance, Clara Harris, daughter of US Senator Ira Harris. At approximately 10:15 p.m. shortly after the play’s third act began, famed actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box and fired a bullet into the back of Lincoln’s head.
At a moment, the audience was roaring with laughter. Major Brathone grappled with the assassin, but Booth stabbed him, inflicting a deep wound, and leaped from the box. Ironically, one of his spurs caught on the american flag, draping the ledge, and fell awkwardly to the stage below, breaking his leg. But this didn’t prevent him from running, shouting, sic semper tyrannis. Thus always to tyrants, and the south is avenged and escaping out the theater’s rear. Most of the stunned audience did not immediately understand what had happened. Booth often performed at Ford’s theater, and some thought he was even part of the act.
Booth and an accomplice, 22 year old David Herold, rode horses south out of Washington. Meanwhile, the fatally wounded president was carried to a house across the street and laid on a bed at the same time as Lincoln’s assassination. Another of Booth’s accomplishes, Lewis Powell, also called Payne, or Payn, or p a I n E. A hulking confederate veteran, entered the home of Secretary of State William Seward. Seward was bedridden, having been injured in a recent carriage accident. Powell ascended the stairs and was confronted by Seward’s son. Frederick Powell drew a revolver. It misfired, and he pistol whipped the son until the ladder collapsed.
He then attacked Seward in his bed, stabbing him in the face and neck. Powell was restrained by Seward’s male nurse, George Robinson, whom he stabbed. He also stabbed another of Seward’s sons while escaping. The bloodied secretary of state wasn’t expected to live, but he survived his wounds. It was alleged that Booth’s conspiracy had also planned to kill General Grant, Vice president Andrew Johnson, and other members of Lincoln’s cabinet. Indeed, two days after the assassination, the Washington newspaper the intelligence declared, or the intelligencer declared, we can state on the highest authority that it has been ascertained that there was a regular conspiracy to assassinate every member of the cabinet together with the vice president.
But only Lincoln and Seward were actually attacked. Abraham Lincoln breathed his last breath at 07:22 a.m. secretary of War Edwin Stetten had already taken complete charge of the hunt for the assassins. That morning, Vice President Johnson was sworn in as the nation’s chief executive in Maryland. Booth and Harold rode to the house of Doctor Samuel Mudd, a slight acquaintance of Booth. Mud, knowing nothing yet of the assassination treaty. Booth leg, and he made a makeshift cast for it. He had a neighbor construct accrued crutches. Both Booth and Harold continued their journey south. Booth’s broken leg was worsening.
After crossing into Virginia. They appealed to three confederate soldiers who assisted them to the farm of Richard Garrett, who let them, who let the pair sleep in his tobacco barn, not knowing their true identities. On April 26, at night, a Union cavalry detachment tracked them to the farm. The soldiers surrounded the barn. Harold surrendered, but Booth refused to come out. The barn was set ablaze. Although the troops were under strict orders to bring the assassin back alive. One of the soldiers, Boston Corbett, fired at Booth through an opening in the barn, mortally wounding him. Booth was dragged out and died after about 3 hours.
Corbett claimed he was guided by divine providence. As to Booth’s co conspirators, eight real or alleged, were tried by a military, by a military rather than civil court. Four, including Powell, Harold, George Azeroth, accused of planning to kill Vice President Johnson, and Mary Surratt, who owned a boarding house where Booth sometimes met his accomplices, were hung or hanged. Misses Surratt was the first woman to be executed by the United States. The other four accused men, including Doctor Mudd, were sentenced to prison at hard labor. It should be noted that Booth’s initial plan had been to kidnap Lincoln, not assassinate him.
Booth learned that on March 17, Lincoln was going to visit a hospital near the soldier’s home in Washington. Booth, Harold Powell, Azeroth, and three other conspirators, Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlin, and John Surratt, waited on a desert, waited on a deserted stretch of the road, planning to seize the president’s carriage, abduct him, and take him south. Their hope was to create a bargaining chip for the Confederacy, whose fortunes were rapidly sinking. Specifically, they hoped to gain release of a large number of southern pows. In exchange for Lincoln’s return. However, Lincoln canceled his plans to visit the hospital, and the plot failed.
Although it’s not a predominant feature of the mainstream narrative, I must interject that in March, Booth also proposed to his accomplices that they kidnap the president during a performance at Ford’s theater. Arnold, O’Laughlin, and Surratt considered this idea absurd and gradually abandoned Booth’s circle. Allegedly, Booth changed his scheme from kidnapping to assassination after Lee’s surrender, acting either out of vengeance or perhaps the belief that with Lincoln and his cabinet dead, the north would plunge into disarray and the remaining confederate forces in the south might rally again. That’s the official story. Now let’s examine the holes. All right.
Chapter two. Stanton’s behavior on April 14, before the assassination. One of the enduring questions is why, on the day of the assassination, Ulysses S. Grant decided to decline Lincoln’s invitation to have the general and misses Grant sit with him in the presidential box. Grant’s expected attendance was pre announced and is one reason Ford’s theater was packed that evening. Many people had observed Lincoln around Washington, but few had seen the general, who had just defeated Lee and were eager to catch a glimpse of him. Officially, Grant gave his. Officially, Grant gave as his reason his wish to visit family members in New Jersey, and, indeed, he and his wife were abroad or aboard a train for that purpose when Lincoln was shot.
However, as Eisen Schindel points out, there was no urgency to the family visit. No one in the family was ill. Grant could just as easily have taken the train the following morning rather than refusing an invitation from his commander, the president of the United States. Mainstream historians have claimed that Grant failed to attend because of pressure from his wife, who didn’t get along with Mary Todd Lincoln. Few would deny that the president’s wife was, uh, high strung and temperamental, but there is a but there’s little reason to believe that simply sitting with the Lincolns in a theater box and a full view of the public would result in a disagreeable encounter between the two women.
There is another reason Grant declined. He went to the War Department that day and met with sever, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. As is the general notes, all that is positively known is that Stanton immediately told him the presence of both the president and the lieutenant general at a public function would invite disaster. He urged Grant not to go to Ford’s theater that night and easily obtained his acquiescence. This sharply contrasts with Stanton’s conduct towards Lincoln, who also visited the War Department that day. In earlier times, the president had been careful about his safety, or, excuse me, carefree about his safety.
But recently he had received many death threats. William Crook, who served as Lincoln’s daytime bodyguard that day, wrote, I was surprised when, late on the afternoon of the 14th, I accompanied Mister Lincoln on a hurried visit to the War Department. I found that the president was more depressed than I had ever seen him. And his step usually slow. Unusually slow, rather, Mister Lincoln said to me, kirk, do you know I believe there are men who want to take my life? Then after a pause, he said half to himself, and I have no doubt they will do it.
The conviction with which he spoke dismayed me. I wanted to protest, but his tone had been so calm and so sure that I found myself saying instead, why do you think so, Mister president? Other men have been assassinated, was his reply. All I could say was, well, I hope you’re mistaken, mister president. Crook stood outside while Lincoln went into the War Department. David Homer Bates, his in his memoir, Lincoln in the telegraph office, says Stanton urged the president to. To give up the theater party. He obviously did not urge him as per persuasively as he did grant.
Bates put the onus on Lincoln, saying, Lincoln made light out of all these signs, assassination threats, et cetera. But this is clearly believed by the comments of the president made to crook. Lincoln wanted a reliable bodyguard to accompany him to Ford’s theater. He asked Stanton for the latter’s Aidan. Major Thomas. Thomas Eckert, who handled the cipher desk, to be his escort. Lincoln knew Eckert was a very strong officer, and he’d seen him break pokers over his. Over his arm. However, Stanton refused this request from his boss, saying he had important work for Eckert to do that evening.
And then this is Stanton and Eckert’s right here on the right. Lincoln even personally appealed to Eckert, suggesting that his work could wait until the morning. But Eckert also declined, citing his workload. It was quite unusual for a major to refuse a request from the nation’s commander in chief. Disappointed but accommodating, Lincoln said he would take Major Rathbone instead. But I should much rather. But I should much rather have you, major, since I know you can break a poker over your arm. Ajammel. In reviewing the government archives. Discovered that Stanton and Eckert were not busy with.
With evening work at the department. Apparently, neither Stanton nor Eckert, in spite of their assurances to Lincoln that they expected a busy evening, even put in an appearance at the War Department that night. Not a single wire went out from there signed by either of the men. And the only two were received that personally addressed to Stanton. But there is also direct evidence to show that Stanton, at least, did not even make a pretense of showing up in his office. According to the secretary’s own account of his experiences, on that evening of the 14th, he went home and.
And dined as usual. Now, as to Eckert, was. Was hedgesthem at his post during the hours when Lincoln had requested his protection against the possible assassin. He was not. The cipher department was left in charge of Mister Bates, his assistant. Eckert was not anywhere near there. Bates confirmed the report of a quiet evening, for he remembered nothing in particular that could that occurred prior to the assassination. William Crook accompanied the president back to the White House, resuming his narrative. He said that misses Lincoln and he with a party, were going to the theater to see our american cousin.
It had been advertised that we will be there, he said, and I cannot disappoint the people. Otherwise, I would not go. I do not want to go. I remember particularly that he said this because it surprised me. The president’s love for the theater was well known, so it seemed unusual to hear him say he did not want to go. When. When he. Excuse me. When we had reached the White House and he had climbed the steps, he turned and stood there for a moment before he went in. Then he said, goodbye, crook. It startled me. As far as I remember, I had never said anything but good night, crook before.
Mainstream historians have attempted to justify Stanton and Eckert’s lying. By claiming they did this to discourage Lincoln from going to Ford’s theater. But if so, why didn’t they relent once they saw Lincoln still plan to attend? It’s of interest that Bates and Crook clearly remembered Lincoln’s April 14 visit to the War Department in their memoirs, both of which were published more than 40 years later. But in 1867, just two years later, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Stanton had no recollection of it, he said, the order of Mister Lincoln on April 12 on is on file in the War Department and was the last order he ever made of which I have any knowledge.
It was made the last time he was in the War Department. Moments later, Stanton contradicted himself, saying, on the day preceding his death, Mister Lincoln came over to the War Department, but he still didn’t recall the critical April 14 visit. See here. Worst bodyguard ever. Replacing crook. The bodyguard assigned to Lincoln that evening was John E. John F. Parker, a member of Washington’s Metropolitan Police force. He had an unsavory record, having been charged with misconduct for multiple reasons, being drunk on duty, falling asleep on duty, visiting a brothel, and using abusive language. Not only did these charges not result in his dismissal, but he was one of four Metropolitan police officers assigned to serve on Lincoln’s bodyguard detail.
On the fateful 14th, he showed up for duty 3 hours late. Initially, he sat outside the president’s box as he was supposed to. However, during the play’s intermission, he left the theater and went to the tavern next door, the star saloon. He was not at his post when Lincoln was shot and did not show himself again until 06:00 the following morning. In a clumsy effort to salvage himself, he brought a street walker into police headquarters. But amidst the assassination turmoil, he was not charged. Or she was not charged. Although it isn’t proven, some suspect he actually spent the night with the prostitute, since she wouldn’t have likely been playing her trade on the street during the pandemonium.
Lincoln, Lincoln’s bodyguard, William Crook, stated that Parker should have been stationed at the rear of the president’s box, fully armed, and to permit no unauthorized person to pass. Incredible as it may seem, he quietly deserted his post of duty. It was through his guards amazing recklessness, to use no stronger words, that Booth accomplished his foul deed. One would think Parker would have been fired or even imprisoned for his conduct which led to the president’s murder. Although the Metropolitan Police initially charged Parker with with neglect of duty, the charge was dropped, and no records remain as to why this outcome must have required influence from someone with clout.
Not only did Parker keep his job with the Metropolitan police, he remained on the presidential bodyguard detail. On seeing him at the White House, Mary Todd Lincoln screamed that he was responsible for her husband’s death. Even allowing for her high strung personality, no one can deny that she was right. It has been suggested that he went to the saloon because Abraham Lincoln had excused him temporarily from his duties. However, this has no corroboration. Not no, no one in the presidential box misses Lincoln. Major Rathbone, or his fiance mentioned hearing Lincoln say this. Furthermore, the concern Lincoln had expressed over his own safety earlier that day seemingly precludes that he was comfortable leaving himself unprotected.
The Metropolitan police finally dismissed John Parker in August of 1868. The charge? Sleeping on duty. Why was he discharged for this relatively minor violation but not for deserting his post as Lincoln’s bodyguard? Might it be because Edwin Stanton had fallen from power in May of 1868 and no longer had to be reckoned with? Interesting that he’s pointing the finger at Stanton. A contrast. Injustice. While John Parker got off scot free, others far less guilty were meted out and savage punishment. An example is a fable. Edmund. Ned Spengler, who worked at Ford’s theater as a carpenter and helped shift scenery between acts.
Spengler knew Booth, as the actor, often performed there. But there’s no evidence whatsoever that Spengler discussed, discussed assassinating the president with him or was ever in contact with any of Booth’s accomplices. Accomplices? So what was Spangler’s crime? On the evening of the 14th, behind Ford’s theater, Booth brought a horse he’d hired from a stable. The stables owner, John Pumphrey, had warned Booth that the horse was high spirited and might break away. Booth therefore asked Bangler to hold the horse for him. Spangler, having no clue that Booth was about to shoot the president, briefly held onto the horse, but having work to do inside the theater, asked another Ford employee, Joseph Peanut, John Burroughs, to hold the horse.
And that was it. That was the extent of Spangler’s proven involvement. He made no attempt to hide himself. After the assassination, Secretary of war Edwin Stanton ordered Spangler’s arrest, awaiting trial by military tribunal. He, like the other accused, was placed in handcuffs and leg irons, and a canvas bag was placed over his head and tied at the neck so. So that he couldn’t hear well or see. The bag was kept in place at virtually all times. It had one small hole for breathing and eating, but it was not taken off, even for meals. And with his arms shackled, Spengler couldn’t feed himself.
The guards, who were forbidden to speak to him, pitied him and fed him through the bag’s hole. All the other accused were forced to wear these bags except Mary Surratt, but she was still manic, manacled. I don’t know if I’m saying that word right. Every prisoner was confined to an isolated place, precluding communication with each other for or for anyone or anyone else. Stanton invented the wearing of these bags. And Washington, it was unprecedented in western criminal justice. And that’s, I guess this is the bag that goes over. And it essentially covers the entire face except for them, for the mouth.
Spengler was not hanged, but sentenced to six years of hard labor. After more than four years, President Andrew Johnson commuted his sentence. Upon release, Spengler issued a public statement extensively detailing his innocence, which can be read at tiny URL here. I’m not going to read it right now. As we will see, this was not the only time in Lincoln’s assassination annals that justice was stood on its head with the guilty going free while the innocent incurred merciless wrath. And that’s the. That’s the Derringer that Booth used when, you know, guys, I’m going to pause this for a second and I’ll be right back.
So set that. I’ll be. Gum, maybe 20 seconds. All right, I’m back. Sorry about that. I generally don’t like to do that, but I’m like, I’m dying right now. I think. I’m like, I haven’t. I just didn’t. I haven’t been sleeping well last couple night, so I actually. I never do this, so please don’t judge me. But I actually cracked open a monster today and I left it in my. I guess the yawning probably gave it away, though, right? And just checking the chat. Hello so far. And sde, and it was nice to chat with you today.
SD look forward to chat with you some more. All right, so here we go. Going back to Booth. Derringer Booth on Booth’s uncanny confidence in his plan. When John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box, he carried two weapons, a single shot Derringer pistol and a knife. Why was Booth so confident that he would only need one bullet to take out the president? All of Lincoln’s bodyguards carried 38 count 38 caliber Colt revolvers. Had John Parker or another of Lincoln’s more competent escorts been at his post, he could have drawn his revolver and prevented Booth’s entry. As a knife is no match for a gun, except in the movies.
Magnificent seven. Booth might have been forced to use one bullet to eliminate the bodyguard. Left with only a knife to dispose of Lincoln. He would have. He would have had to first contend with Major Rathbone. With screams of help coming from the presidential box, it would have likely swelled with the rescuers before Booth could have finished off the president. That doesn’t seem like much of a plan, but let’s say Booth intended to knife the bodyguard, preserving his single bullet. For Lincoln, the struggle with the bodyguard probably would have been time consuming, and he still would have had to battle Rathbone before reaching the president.
A better plan would have been approaching the box with a revolver. This would have been harder to conceal than the daring, than the little derringer. But wearing a coat with deep pockets should have accomplished it. Booth’s confidence that he only needed one bullet to dispose of the president strongly suggests that he had foreknowledge that no bodyguard would be there. It should be added that while bodyguard John F. Parker was in the star saloon, Booth entered and braced himself with his. With whiskey for the task ahead. Whether the men spoke to each other is unknown. Even if Booth spotted Parker, he knew who he was and realized Lincoln was without a bodyguard.
It wouldn’t have altered his strategy. Spur of the moment. Booth had planned carefully. He timed to shoot, uh, he timed his shot to occur at the precise moment in the play when the lone actor was on stage speaking a line that always drew roars of audience laughter, uh, which would. Which would help drown out the sound of Booth’s pistol. Uh, some have argued that Booth intended to deceive his way into the presidential box, showing his card and relying on his famous name, persuading anybody guard. That he only wanted to present his compliments to the president. But the time to present his compliments would have been during the intermission, not when the Lincolns were watching the ongoing performance.
What guarantee would Booth have that such a ruse would succeed? Booth’s selection of targets. One of the first questions detectives ask when solving a crime is who benefited from it. Abraham Lincoln believed that after the war, there should be national reconciliation. He opposed recriminations against the south. The southern states that had seceded were to maintain voting rights and their representatives restored to Congress in accordance in accord with the Constitution. This was Lincoln’s vision of a preserved union. However, the most hardcore members of his party, the radical Republicans, vehemently opposed Lincoln’s plan. They wanted ranking southern leaders hanged as traitors.
Although this wasn’t done, former confederate officials were not to hold office. The radical Republicans didn’t want southern states to regain representation in Congress. They knew that a combination of southern and northern Democrats would end the republican stranglehold on power. This is also primarily why radical Republicans gave blacks the right to vote. It was not from the simple humanitarianism. They knew that in return for this right, most blacks would vote republican, just as today’s Democrats favor illegal immigration because they anticipate the immigrants will vote overwhelmingly democrat. Regarding all this, it must be understood that the democrat and republican parties of the 1860s bore little resemblance to their counterparts today.
In those days, it was the Democrats who were conservative, and the radical Republicans were pro marxist, pro totalitarian, and readily abused and readily abused the constitution. They have been portrayed as heroic for opposing slavery. But if they truly favored freedom, they would not have pushed through the habeas Corpus Suspension act of 1863. Under this act, the government imprisoned between ten and 15,000 us citizens. Without due process. They were denied the right to trials and even to know the charges against them. Following Lincoln’s death, the radical republican plan of Reconstruction was imposed on the south. Its states were placed under martial law, run by appointed military officials, that is, the War Department.
Rather than elected governors, 200,000 federal troops occupied the south. Martial law continued until 1870. 718 77. The war ended in 1865. So it was twelve more years that the south had to deal with martial law. And I’m just going to throw in here a little bit of stuff. Here is what they did is they use the. They used the south, the state’s votes, to get the 14th Amendment passed. Even though they weren’t states, even though they had resigned or they had seceded, then they weren’t counted as states. They had to use the. They had to use them what they could to get the 14th amendment passed.
And the ones who hadn’t supported the 14th amendment were literally, it was forced on them to support the 14th Amendment. Otherwise they were going to be under military occupation until they did, until such time as they did. So it was blackmail. It’s. I mean, it’s really just, it’s just horrible. I mean, what, what, what the north did to the south was reprehensible. Every. I know so many people. I just, you know, they, they are laudatory of the north. Oh, well, there was, they were trying to free the slaves and some bullshit. That’s not, in my humble opinion, the south was right.
And, and, and, you know, our opinion of slavery is really given to us by virtue of Hollywood. And, you know, what we are taught about slavery is not the way that it happened. And, you know, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The 4% of Africans that got to the United States from Africa were probably the luckiest of all. Of the men, of the men and women who were put into bondage and sent over from Africa, the ones who got to the United States were the luckiest ones of all. Once the. And I’m just go a little bit deeper into this.
Once the constitution. The constitution was ratified, they allowed for the importation of slaves for 20 years. And after that 20 year mark came to an end, or after that date approached on the calendar, no more slaves. No more slaves from Africa were allowed to be imported into the United States. Done. And the reason for that was that if they had. If you had slaves in the United States, you had to treat them well so that they would reproduce, so that you could get more people, you know, to be slaves. Now, I’m not advocating slavery. I’m just saying the.
The black people that were in the United States were treated much better than the ones who were, you know, in the british colonies, in the. In the. In the Caribbean, who those guys were literally worked like 18 hours a day, worked to death. And they didn’t care because they. They had this. They had scores of ships coming in all the time with replacement. So they just worked until they were dead and then threw them away and then got new ones to come in and take over. So anyway, I’m. Get off that. I’m going to get off that.
That bandwagon. So, mouse here. Okay. So the war had destroyed the South’s economy. The cities touched, or the cities torched and crops destroyed. Although the south couldn’t even pay its own war debt, it was compelled to help pay off the north’s debt and even contribute to the pensions of Union soldiers. Thousands lost their homes due to onerous taxation. Cotton was confiscated. Exploitation by swarms of northern carpetbaggers was devastating. The radical Republicans needed Lincoln to win re election in November of 64 to keep their party in power. After that, he was expendable. In his second inaugural address, March 4 of 1865, Lincoln prescribed malice toward none and charity for all.
The last words radical Republicans wanted to hear. Interestingly, John Wilkes Booth attended that inauguration and heard Lincoln speak those words. There is even an inauguration photo that shows Booth, or shows both Lincoln speaking and Booth in the audience. And I think that’s right here. If you look, it’s kind of difficult to see, but this right here is Lincoln. Um, I don’t have my. I can’t use this on this. Uh, but this is Booth right here. And this is Lincoln right here. So, I mean, he’s was like, probably, what, 25, 30ft away at most. Um. Neither the people of the south nor the north benefited from Lincoln’s death.
Only the radical Republicans and financiers who backed them. Their foremost spokesperson in the cabinet was Stanton, who link, who called Lincoln a baboon, the original and the original gorilla. In an undisputed passage in his diary, radical Republican Congressman George Julian described a caucus that took place on April 15, just hours after Lincoln was declared dead. I like the radical. The radicalism of the members of this caucus, but I have, but have not in a long time heard so much profanity. It became intolerably disgusting. Their hostility towards Lincoln’s policy of conciliation and contempt for his weakness were undisguised.
And the universal feeling among radical men here is that his death is a godsend. It really seems so. For among the last acts of his official life was an invitation to some, to the chief rebel conspirators to meet in Richmond and confer with us on the subject of peace. Lincoln’s murder brought no outbursts of rejoicing in the South. Robert E. Lee condemned it. Confederate President Jefferson Davis said, it will be a disaster for our people. Virginia newspapers called Booth a scoundrel. Sarah Morgan Dawson’s 440 page, a confederate girls diary closed with these words, our confederacy has gone with one crash, the report of the pistol fired at Lincoln.
All across the south, most people seemed to comprehend what the murder meant. The end of Lincoln’s moderate plan of reconciliation to be replaced by the harsh dictatorship of Reconstruction, made even worse by the South’s being blamed for the assassination. Why did so many southern southerners understand this but not Booth? Also? As to William Seward, Eisenhower notes, the president and secretary of state were the two men in power whose program on Reconstruction chiefly stressed conciliation. David Christie writes, like Lincoln, Seward had the same view of how to treat the south following the Civil War. He frequently defended his moderate reconciliation policy towards southerners, enraging radical Republicans who once regarded him as an ally.
And Seward was the only man besides Lincoln against whom an actual assassination was tried on April 14 in 1865. Of course, mainstream historians have cited other attempts. Let’s check these. And these are just notes for the chapter. Okay, so chapter three. Alleged botched assassinations, secondary war. Edwin Stanton claimed he was saved by the bell. In this case, a broken doorbell. I was. I was tired out and went home early, and I was in the back room playing with the children when the man came to my steps. If the doorbell had rung, it would have been answered.
And the man admitted, but the bell wire was broken a day or two before, and though we had endeavored to have it repaired, the bell hanger had put it off because of a pressure of orders. Reportedly, this unidentified man shrank away into the darkness when the other people approached and was never seen again. And so ends the story of the attempt on Stanton’s life. However, according to some who reported Lincoln’s assassination to Stanton that night, the doorbell was in perfect working order. And as Eisenhower points out of would a repairman have kept an official as powerful as the secretary of war waiting? Due to the pressure of other orders, Stanton’s account was apparently just another me too story.
They tried to kill me too. Being an intended victim of the assassins would of course, deflect suspicion from Stanton himself. As to general Grant, the main substance of the claim of an assassination attempt is that his wife noticed a man staring at her while she was having lunch. And later that day, while the grants were en route to the train station, she said she saw the same man riding alongside their carriage, peering at them. When Booth’s picture appeared in the press, the Grants believed he was the man who followed their carriage. Later, Grant received an anonymous letter from someone who said he’d been hired to kill the general on the train but had been obstructed by a locked door.
This individual was never identified, and as with Stanton, no actual assassination attempt occurred. The Andrew Johnson story is more complicated. He was Lincoln’s new vice president, and having not yet established a Washington residence, was staying at a hotel, the Kirkwood house. George Azeroth, one of Booth’s accomplices in the Lincoln kidnapping plot, was instructed by Booth to take a. A room at the Kirkwood, which he did the day before Lincoln’s assassination. However, Booth had told Azeroth to get an audience with Johnson, not to kill him, but to obtain passes to Richmond, which was now under union control.
Booth wanted the passes so that when Lincoln visited Richmond, they could kidnap him and friendly southern. Friendly southern surroundings. As we will see, the plot to assassinate Lincoln apparently did not originate until the day of the murderous. Both Powell, who tried to kill Secretary of state Seward, and Azeroth were told. Excuse me, were not told of any murder plot until about two to 3 hours before Lincoln’s assassination. Since the men weren’t permitted to communicate with each other during the trial, but told the same story to detectives and attorneys, it is presumably, presumably true Powell, the rugged confederate veteran, accepted the new mission of trying to assassinate Seward.
In most accounts attributed to Azeroth, he adamantly refused when Booth asked him to kill Vice President Johnson and Booth didn’t press the matter. Azeroth was. Wasn’t anyone’s idea of an assassin, which Booth surely knew. German born, he spoke broken English. He was known for a lack of physical courage. His only role in the original kidnapping plot had been to take the abductors and Lincoln through southern areas of Maryland, which he knew well, and help them cross the Potomac river into Virginia in his boat. Nevertheless, when detectives breach Azeroth’s room at the Kirkwood house, they found a loaded coat, revolver, a box of cartridges, a bowie knife, a bank book belonging to John Wilkes Booth, a handkerchief marked Mary Booth, Booth’s mother, a coat belonging to David Harold, Booth’s writing partner, a handkerchief marked HM Nelson Harold’s sister.
A war. A war map of the southern states. A spur. As Eisenhower notes, this was a detective’s dream come true. But whether Azeroth intended to assassinate Johnson or not, why would he leave behind a mountain of incriminating evidence in his hotel room? And if he was planning to kill the vice president, why did he sign the hotel register using his real name? This evidence, if we can truly call it that, was paramount in hand in hanging Azeroth. In my understanding, Azeroth wasn’t really. He didn’t have a very high iq. He was kind of like borderline dumb, if I.
If I remember correctly. He just. He just wasn’t. He wasn’t very sharp. He. I think he was strong, but he was very good at. And decent at, like, following orders, but he wasn’t a very good. He wasn’t like a thinking person. So anyway, no one seemed interested in inquiring if he might have been framed. As Eisenhower notes, the spur seems to have been left almost as a comic touch, indicating that the murderers plan to escape on horseback rather than by coach, train or boat. A controversial aspect of the Johnson case is that Booth himself attempted to call on the vice president late on the morning of April 14.
Johnson wasn’t in, and Booth left a card for him that said, don’t wish to disturb you. Are you home? J. Wilkes Booth. The card has been preserved to this day. And here it is. Don’t wish to disturb you. Are you at home? John Wicks Booth? Mainstream historians usually have two explanations for this card. One is that Booth planned to assassinate Johnson right then and there. But this cannot be. If Booth had killed Johnson that morning, Lincoln, the prime target, would not have gone to Ford’s theater that evening, but would have been kept under heavy guard. The second explanation advanced is that Booth and Johnson were colluding.
Indeed, when Johnson later fell out of favor with the radical Republicans because he was less harsh on the southeast of than they had hoped, they attempted to impeach him. Part of their strategy was to accuse Johnson of conspiring to kill Lincoln, and they used this card as proof. However, MB Ruggles, one of the three confederate soldiers who accompanied Booth to the Garrett farm rendered a much different explanation. He discussed the assassination with Booth at length. Booth told him there had never been a plan to kill Johnson and that Azeroth, who. Who was later hanged, knew nothing about the assassination.
Ruggles related that the Andrew Johnson, or that Andrew Johnson might appear to be implicated in the plot of assassination. Booth said that there had been. There had left that morning a note at the hotel where the vice president lived to. To compromise him. If this was Booth’s intent, it worked. Since the radical Republicans later used the card when attempting to impeach Johnson, Oz and smell observed, this is an astounding revelation. For what sense. For. For what sense was there in Booths trying to throw suspicion on a dead Johnson? That’s very interesting. All right. Chapter four. I think there’s.
I think I got. I had to. I’d actually make the PDF of this, and I only. I only created five pages or five chapters, the first five chapters. So I will. I will not be going past chapter five in this because I just don’t have it. So anyway, chapter four. Stanton’s behavior immediately following the assassination. On the evening of the 14th, Stanton proceeded to the dying president’s bedside and put himself in charge of the murder investigation. This was itself questionable. John Wilkes Booth was a civilian. He had shot a civilian president in a civilian environment. Normally, this would have fallen under the attorney general’s jurisdiction.
But Stanton advanced a theory, subsequently discredited, that the confederate government had ordered the assassination, that it was therefore an act of war, and came under the War Department, the equivalent of today’s defense Department. Stanton then became virtual dictator of the United States, while Andrew Johnson, who had a barely gotten his feet wet as Lincoln’s new vice president, uncomfortably assumed the role of chief executive. As secretary of war, Stanton had already placed the nation’s telegraph service under War Department control. This gave him a monopoly on what was then the country’s most advanced communication system. The man directly in charge of it was his assistant, Major Thomas Eckert.
Stanton and Eckert were the two men who, under false pretext, denied Lincoln the protection he wanted at Ford’s theater. Eckert’s loyalty to the Stanton to Stanton didn’t hurt his career. He subsequently became assistant secretary of war, and after leaving the government, experienced a meteoric rise in the telegraph industry, culminating with his becoming president and chairman of Western Union. One doesn’t usually attain such positions without powerful backing. As I shall note, a bizarre incident on the night of the April 14 was an interruption of all telegraphic services between Washington and the outside world lasting about 2 hours.
Two years later, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee asked Eckerd about this question. Did you have knowledge about the telegraph lines at or about the time of the assassination of President Lincoln? I did. Were there any in or was there any interruption of the lines that night? Yes, sir. Oh, what was it? It was my impression at the time they were cut, but we got circuit again very early the next morning. The manager of the commercial office reported the cause to have been crossing of wires and main batteries. Throwing a ground wire over the main wires would have caused the same trouble, and taking it off would have put it in ordinary working condition.
Was there an investigation into what was the real cause of the difficulty? No, sir, it did not. No, sir, it did not at the time seem to be sufficiently important at the interruption only. As the interruption only continued about 2 hours. I was so full of business of almost every character that I could not give it my personal attention. The interruption was only a portion of the lines between Washington and Baltimore. We worked our city point line at the time or all the time. Question, do you know whether the commercial lines were interrupted at that time? Yes, sir.
It was only the commercial lines that were interrupted. It was in the commercial office and not in the War Department office. I could not ascertain with certainty what the facts were without making a personal investigation, and I had not the time to do that. Eckert’s 19, 1867 testimony that only a portion of traffic to Baltimore was interrupted contradicted what the press had reported. In 1865, George A. Townsend wrote in the May 2, New New York World, within 15 minutes after the murder, the wires were severed entirely around the city, accepting only a secret wire for government uses which leads to old Point.
I am told that by this wire, the government reached the fortifications around Washington, first telegraphing all the way to old point and then back to the outlying forts. This information comes comes to me from so many credible channels that I must concede it. Although Eckerd attempted to dismiss at the issue as no big deal if the problem was as extensive as first reported, it was very important because it gave the murderers a two hour head start before news of the assassination was communicated. That the lines were not physically cut suggests that someone with professional expertise caused the disruption.
No one in Booth Circle had that expertise. Eckert did. Perhaps Stanton wasn’t entirely lying when he told Lincoln he had work for Eckert that night, which he couldn’t very well do at Ford’s theater. I have no proof against Eckert, but we’ll just leave it there. Eisenhower observes that Eckert pleaded that he couldn’t investigate the matter because he was too busy, the same excuse he had untruthfully given Lincoln when refusing to escort him at Ford’s theater. Yet Eckert was in charge of the nation’s telegraph services. What could have been more important than their proper functioning during the assassination’s aftermath? There was never any question that John Wilkes Booth, an extremely well known figure, was Lincoln’s assassin.
By midnight, 17 persons had already identified Booth as the killer at police headquarters, and several more identified him to investigators at the Peterson house. Hors ten was beside the dying Lincoln. Corporal James Tanner took shorthand notes of the witness statements at the Peterson house and a letter written two days later. He said, in 15 minutes, I had testimony enough to down to hang Wilkes Booth, the assassin, higher than ever. Haman Hung. Read that again in a letter written two days later. He said, in 15 minutes, I had testimony enough down to hang Wilkes Booth, the assassin, higher than ever.
Haman hung. Oh, he’s on my hanging Haman in the Bible. I get it. Although just side note that, you know, they talk about the gallows in the book of Esther. They talk about the gallows that Haman was hung on, and they didn’t really use gallows back then. The gallows that were they were referring to for Haman was impalement. He. He was impaled. And if you don’t know what that is, that’s basically, there’s a big old spear sticking up from the ground, and they drop you on it, and the weight of your body slowly sends you down into this spear.
And it’s kind of a painful way to go. Let’s leave it at that. Yet after telegraph services were restored around midnight, Stanton failed to reveal Booth’s name in dispatches until after 03:00 a.m. when newspapers had begun printing their morning editions. This gave Booth extra hours of escape time before his identification became widely known. Then there was the anomalous sequence of troop deployments to intercept the assassins. The War Department notified troops to the north first. This made little sense. Booth and any accomplices weren’t likely to ride north, where they would find no refuge. And Booth was very recognizable.
Canada was more than 400 miles away. Next deployed were soldiers west of Washington. This area was also a highly improbable direction for Booth as it was thick with federal troops. Last to the deployed, or, excuse me, last to be deployed were troops to the south. The conspirators obvious destination. At 04:00 a.m. stanton closed all southern exits leading out of Washington, but this accomplished nothing, as Booth was already 30 minutes 30 miles south and would have undoubtedly gotten further if uninjured. Eisenhower notes only one hole was left in the network that Stanton had spun around to the nation’s capital.
This was the road that pointed straight south from Washington to point Tobacco. It was the road booth was most likely to use, for it led toward the Confederacy, the only place where the assassin could hope to find protection and all the wires sent out from the War Department during the night of April 14. This route was not mentioned once, and no precautions were taken to guard it. The only road that Stanton failed to bar was the one by which Booth escaped from Washington. There were, and there never should have been the slightest doubt that he would use it.
That’s interesting. All right. Chapter five. And this is where I’ll probably end it. Kind of have to, actually. In pursuit of John Wilkes Booth, big money was offered for. For capturing the alleged assassins. $50,000 in 1865 is over a million dollars today. These rewards somewhat hampered the investigation because people were competing for the money and often didn’t wish to share information. As we’ll see, John Surratt, for whom $25,000 was offered, had nothing to do with the assassination and was proven to be in Elmira, New York, 300 miles away at the time. After having his broken leg attended to by doctor Mudd and spending a few hours at the doctor’s home to rest, Booth departed with Harold.
The two made their way to the farm of Samuel Cox, a southern sympathizer who lived near the Potomac River. Cox wouldn’t let go. Cox wouldn’t let them stay in his house but allowed them to remain in a nearby pine thicket for several days, bringing them food in newspapers until squadrons of Union cavalry had finished passing. With help from Cox’s stepbrother, Thomas Jones, they procured a small rowboat, eventually making their way across the Potomac into Virginia. There, Boo threw himself on the mercy of three young confederate officers who guided him. And this is a very interesting picture.
This is the. This is the war department, actually. I’m. Come back to this. Who guided him and Harold to Richard Garrett’s farm? They told Garrett that Booth was a wounded confederate soldier and. All right. And this right here is the picture. It’s a picture of the. Like, the wanted poster. So they’ve got. They got a picture of Surratt, of Booth and of Harold, and the War Department is giving $100,000 reward for the murder of our late president Abraham Lincoln is still at large. $50,000 reward for John Wilkes Booth, 25,000 for Surat, and 25,000 for John Herald Provost Marshal James Obeyn, or Barn.
Later a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient for valor during the Civil War, was commanding a squad of detectives pursuing Booth and Herold. Auburn reported that he was close to capturing the pair but was ordered to remain where he was. In remarks dated December 27, 1865, a burn stated with apparent irony in obedience to orders subsequently asked by me from the Secretary of war. I returned to Washington after Booth and Harold had been discovered a short distance beyond where I pursued them. I repaired at once in person to the honorable secretary of war. I was by him, warmly congratulated and complimented during my interview with him in the hallway of the first floor.
On the first floor word apartment building. He spoke in words and substance as follows. You have done your duty nobly, and you have. And you have the satisfaction of knowing that if you did not succeed in capturing Booth, it was, at all events, certainly the information which you gave that led to it. Why didn’t Stanton let Obirin complete his mission and capture Booth and Harold instead of at the cost of an extra day’s time? A cavalry detachment was sent from Washington, 26 soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Edward Dougherty. Two other officers were attached to that command.
One was Lieutenant Luther Baker, the cousin of Lafayette Baker, one of Stanton’s right hand men in the war Department and head of the national detective Bureau, later called the secret service, where he acquired a reputation for ruthlessness and personal corruption. The other officer was lieutenant Colonel Everton Conger, an ex serviceman, now a detective in Lafayette’s baker service, largely due to his rank, Conger was nominally in command of the cavalry detachment, though he was no longer on active military duty. As we’ve noted, on the final night of the Garrett barn farm, David Herald surrendered, but Booth refused.
The barn was set ablaze, and again and against official orders, he was shot and mortally wounded. The tobacco barn had open slats, making it possible to see in and out. There are problems with this, with the scenario. I always thought it odd that a cavalry detachment was too timid to simply enter the barn and rush booth. He was injured and outnumbered nearly 30 or one. Granted, he might have gotten off a couple of shots before being overtaken, but surely Union cavalry had faced greater challenges during the civil war. Another option would have been to simply wait Booth out.
How long would he last without food or water? It’s also questionable if Boston Corbett really fired the fatal shot. Not one soldier in the detachment reported observing him shoot. The only witness ever to support it was RB Garrett, a son of the farm’s owner. Garrett, then twelve years old, told the story to a Baltimore newspaper more than 30 years later. Could have. Could a child have been mistaken about the shooter’s identity, especially in the dark? Did he hear Corbett’s name spoken that night? Or was he just repeating the name he’d read in the newspaper accounts? Lieutenant Baker.
Through thought, Lieutenant Colonel Conger shot Booth before the House Judiciary Committee. He testified, I supposed at the time that Congress or that Congress shot him. And I said, what on earth did you shoot him for? He said, I did not shoot him. Then the idea flashed in my mind that if he did, it had. It had better not be known. The lethal shot pierced Booth’s neck and paralyzed him, ensuring he would never talk. The further exchange occurred between Baker and the committee. Question, do you know any reason why you were not called as a witness on the conspiracy trial? Answer, I do.
Nothing. I expected to be. I was summoned as a witness, but was informed after I got here that I was not wanted. Question was there any reason assigned? Answer, none, and I was very surprised at it all. Baker accompanied Booth’s body back to Washington, where he made a full report to Joseph Joseph Holt, judge advocate general of the Union Army. Holt later became chief prosecutor at the computers at the conspiracy trial. Interestingly, Baker’s statement disappeared from the War Department’s files, a fate which, as we will see, befell many key documents pertaining to the Lincoln assassination. Here is more testimony Baker gave before the judiciary committee.
I gave my statement to Judge Holt on the gunboat before I gave up charge of the body. Question, were you sworn on the trial of misses Surratt? I was not. My testimony has never been taken except before Judge Holt, and that has been disposed of. What do you mean by that? I can. It cannot be found. I was the first who gave any evidence in the case. General Baker took me down into the cabin of the gunboat, and I gave my evidence to Judge Holt. Colonel Conger was president and assented to its truth. Was it sworn statement? It was.
When was it taken? The morning I came up with the body. Did Judge Holt keep your testimony? He did. I suppose it went on the files, but when the subject was up before the committee of claims in relation to the distribution of rewards, it could not be found. You do not know what’s become of that testimony? My opinion is that there has been some foul play about it. What do you mean by that? I think it’s been destroyed. My impression is that it was destroyed in order to suppress the facts, which it proved as to my having charge of the party, so that my claim to the chief share of the reward would not be so good question.
How much of the reward did you get? $3,000. How much did Congress get? Or how much did Conger get? $15,000. Baker was correct. Here. The $50,000 reward for Booths apprehension was divided among many individuals. But although it was originally announced that Baker and Conger would receive $4,000 each, their roles in the expedition having been quite comparable, Baker’s share was eventually reduced to $3,000, and Congress raised exponentially to $15,000. Baker’s lost statement to hold evidently resurfaced and can now be found on page 128 to 137 of the Lincoln assassination, the rewards file compiled by William C. Edwards.
But in interestingly, the SEQ, the section where Baker ran into the barn and viewed Booth’s body is crossed off, a polite way of saying redacted Boston. Corbett, who originally said that he’d been guided by divine providence, later changed his story, claiming Booth was aiming a carbine at him or at another of the soldiers, that is, Corbett said he shot Booth in self defense. This seems unlikely, however, since the lethal bullet traversed Booth’s neck from side to side. He was not facing whoever shot him. If Booth had actually started shooting, self defense might not have been justifiable motive.
But since he didn’t, violating the strict order to bring Booth back alive was inexcusable. Another issue, everyone who heard the shot described it as a pistol shot. As Don Thomas writes, according to a 1965 Civil War Times magazine article, album of the Lincoln murder, page 45, research consultant Colonel Julian E. Raymond uncovered evidence that Corbett had only a carbine when Booth was shot. The revolver Corbett is wearing in the Library of Congress photograph pictured on the magazine, page 45, is a pistol issued to him only after Booth died. Corbett was sent to Washington to be court martialed for disobeying orders.
However, Secretary of war Stanton simply dismissed the charges, saying, the rebel is dead. The patriot lives. He. He has saved us continued extent, excitement, delay and expense. The patriot is released. Stanton neglected to mention that canceling the court martial also prevented a meticulous investigation of what really happened at the Garrett farm. And that is that. That is the end of this particular video. So we got to about an hour and twelve minutes. Um, I’m going to try to upload the. I’m going to try to a little bit more, and then, uh, record it. And so I can play it tomorrow because I’m going to be gone most of the day.
Um, but if that doesn’t happen, then I’ll come back and I’ll. I’ll read the second portion on Friday before. Before we do the watch party. So, uh, anyway, guys, I hope you all have a wonderful evening. Um, and I look forward to seeing you in the very near future. Oh, actually, hold on. Let me do it. Let me. Let me just kind of check the chat. There’s a bunch of stuff here. Let’s see, let’s see. I see 100 people on the show. Where are all you guys watching from? I’m in Mexico, central California, so live in the Bay area.
Uh, weather is nice at the top. Wow. Um, yeah, uh, we again, we were propagandized. We were taught of, uh, the north was righteous. Yes, that’s true. Um, yeah, I. I want to do some. I want to do some interesting, interesting stuff with Mike. True story. They hung in the woods. Hit the like button. Thank you. When you say they hung in the woods. Stanton, with the knights of the golden circle. Wilkes and the other collateral damage. Other collateral damage. Can’t wait to listen to this. I know I’m mad. Love inspect for Perloff. I agree with you.
Yeah. And this is going to be. This is. When I get done with this, I feel like this is really going to be interesting, and it’s going to probably cause me to go find a couple of these other books. I. That’s typically what I do whenever I see stuff. That’s kind of cool. So, anyway, all right, guys, that is it for tonight. I hope. Like I said, hope you all have a great night, and I look forward to seeing you not tomorrow, but certainly Friday. But I will try to have something to be played for tomorrow.
So enjoy your evening, everybody chat soon. Bye.
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