If Lincoln's assassination was the final shot of the Civil War, the
punishment of those responsible was a decisive step in casting the
course of Reconstruction. So argues Leonard (History/Colby Coll.;
All the Daring of the Soldier, 1999, etc.), who focuses on Joseph
Holt, head of the Union's Bureau of Military Justice. In early
1865, the 58-year-old Holt, a staunch Union man despite his
southern origins, gave thanks for Lee's surrender and the end of
the Confederacy. John Wilkes Booth's murder of the president came
as a complete shock. The machinery of law enforcement went into
high gear in search of the assassins; within days, Booth was shot
to death in a burning barn near Port Royal, Virginia. His demise
meant that questions would forever linger about the fates of his
eight alleged co-conspirators, whose military trial was
orchestrated by Holt. Leonard carefully and impartially summarizes
the tribunal, pointing out the dubious nature of testimony from
several key witnesses-notably Louis J. Weichmann, who may have been
as guilty as any of the accused-and the exceptional zeal with which
Holt prosecuted his case. Four of the defendants were hanged, the
rest imprisoned. John Surratt Jr., whose mother was one of those
executed, stayed at large for more than a year before being
captured, but his trial ended with a hung jury. Meanwhile,
President Andrew Johnson pardoned numerous Confederate officials
and military officers, vetoed laws meant to expedite full
citizenship for ex-slaves, and attempted to fire Holt and his
superior, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Outraged, the radical
Republican Congress responded by impeaching Johnson, falling one
vote short of conviction in the Senate. With the election of
Ulysses S. Grant to succeed Johnson, the Reconstruction effort
faded into a familiar story of apathy, ineptitude, and corruption.
Competent and detailed, yet a curiously bloodless account of an era
whose events can still stir violent passions. (Kirkus Reviews)
Did the federal government mete out justice or revenge in response to Lincoln's assassination?
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was murdered by John Wilkes Booth, and Secretary of State William H. Seward was brutally stabbed. Clearly a conspiracy was afoot. Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt was put in charge of the investigation and trial. He first set out to punish all of Booth's accomplices and then wanted to go after Jefferson Davis, whom he felt had instigated the assassination—despite stern opposition, not least of all from Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson.
Elizabeth D. Leonard tells for the first time the full story of the two assassination trials. She explores the questions that made these trials pivotal in American history: Were they to be used to make the South pay for secession? Were they to be fair trials based on the evidence? Or were they to be points of reconciliation, with the South forgiven at all costs to create a solid union? 12 illustrations.
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