Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

“As Booth left the White House grounds and walked toward Lafayette Square, he spoke to another companion, Lewis Powell: ‘That is the last speech he will ever give.’”

Booth, Herold, and Lewis were in attendance when Lincoln addressed the crowd of celebrants on April 11 from the window of the North Portico of the White House. In the speech, Lincoln confirmed his commitment to extend suffrage to (some) Black men. Hearing this further incensed Booth and led him to make this prophetic statement to his coconspirator Lewis Powell.

“John Wilkes Booth awoke Good Friday morning, April 14, 1865, hungover and depressed. The Confederacy was dead. His cause was lost and his dreams of glory over.”

Swanson uses poetic, literary language to describe Booth’s feelings on the morning of the assassination. This insight into Booth’s probable state of mind helps inform the reader about his motivations for taking the actions he did on that day.

“Before wrapping the bullet with a small swatch of cloth wadding and ramming the round down the barrel, did he roll the ball between his fingertips, scrutinizing it for flaws in the casting and perhaps contemplating how this little round, dull gray one-ounce piece of metal would soon change history?”

In this quote, Swanson describes Booth’s actions when loading the gun he would use to assassinate President Lincoln. His description evokes the importance of The Role of Coincidence and Individual Agency in Historical Events. Booth’s decision to go through with his plan would indeed “soon change history,” and he seemed acutely aware of it at the time.

“The spontaneous homage, the band, the hissing gaslights, the packed house, the fresh, moist scent of spring in the air, the recent and joyous news from the front—all combined to create a singular and magical moment. ‘The President,’ remembered Clara Harris, ‘was received with the greatest enthusiasm.’”

Throughout Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, Swanson describes Lincoln’s popular reception at events. In this quote, he relies on the eyewitness account of Clara Harris who was in the box with President Lincoln to describe how the crowd in the theater felt. This first-hand account along with Swanson’s sensory language gives insight into what it might have felt like to be there.

“Legend has it that John Wilkes Booth was hiding outside in the shadows near the front door of Ford’s as the presidential carriage rocked down the uneven dirt street and slowed to a stop, but no one really knows where he was at that precise moment.”

Although the book is written in a narrative style akin to a crime thriller, it is nevertheless a history that relies on evidence. This becomes clear in this quote where Swanson differentiates between the thrilling “legend” and the lack of evidence about what really happened “at that precise moment.” Given the high-profile nature of the crime, Swanson routinely addresses the various myths and legends that sprung up around the assassination and its aftermath.

“Lincoln never knew what happened to him. His head dropped forward until his chin hit his chest, and his body lost all muscular control and sagged against the richly upholstered rocking chair. He did not fall to the floor. He looked as though he was bored with the play and had fallen asleep. It happened so fast that Lincoln lost consciousness before he heard the report of the pistol, smelled the burnt gunpowder, or was enveloped by the voluminous cloud of blue-gray smoke, the signature of all black-powder weapons.”

Swanson describes in vivid sensory detail the moment at which John Wilkes Booth shoots President Lincoln. Swanson includes descriptions of how Lincoln looked as well as the associated smells (“burnt gunpowder”) and what the scene looked like in that moment. Later in this same passage, he describes how it sounded, as well. These details give a visceral account of the scene.

“He knew that this was his last performance on the American stage, and for this he would be remembered for eternity. He must not blow his lines. All eyes were upon him. He stood motionless, paused momentarily for dramatic effect, and thrust his bloody dagger triumphantly into the air. The gas footlights danced on the shiny blade now speckled with red and exaggerated his wild countenance. ‘Sic semper tyrannis,’ he thundered. It was the state motto of Virginia—‘Thus always to tyrants.’ Then Booth shouted, ‘The South is avenged.’”

John Wilkes Booth saw himself as a star actor both on and off the stage. Throughout the book, Swanson emphasizes Booth’s grandiose sense of self-importance, as seen in this theatrical moment during his escape from the crime scene. His words onstage leave no doubt as to Booth’s motive for the crime: to support the Confederacy.

“Like Lot’s wife, who paused, turned, and dared look upon the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Booth could see the sleeping city from which he fled, and he knew it would awaken soon and hear of the destruction he had wrought. He had done it. And he had escaped.”

In his personal letters and diary, Booth frequently compares himself to great figures in theater and history. Here, Swanson utilizes a similar technique in comparing Booth to Lot’s wife. In this Biblical story, Lot’s wife turns around when leaving the ruined cities despite admonition not to and, upon their sight, turns into a pillar of salt. Similarly, Booth turns and looks back at Washington, DC, after escaping across the bridge.

“The scene was incredible, impossible. Shipwrecked, stranded in the middle of a muddy street with no place to go, the president of the United States was dying in the presence of hundreds, if not by now more than a thousand, frenzied witnesses.”

Swanson documents how the evolving popular reception of the assassination began immediately, with “hundreds, if not by now more than a thousand” people in the street to witness and hold vigil over President Lincoln’s dying body. Swanson emphasizes the absurdity of the moment and the initial hesitancy of the official response to the crime.

“While Booth slept the first cavalry patrol rode south from Washington, heading for Piscataway, Maryland. Soon this contingent from the Thirteenth New York Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant David Dana, would ride close to Dr. Mudd’s farm. Booth had about seven hours.”

The official response to the crisis began quickly and military units were sent for to start the manhunt for Booth, as documented in this quote. The book is written as a moment-to-moment narrative of the events. This mode of storytelling creates tension as the 13th New York Cavalry closes in on Booth’s location.

“The Daily Morning Chronicle, one of Washington’s major papers, described the frantic beginning of the manhunt:

“‘No sooner had the dreadful event been announced in the street, than Superintendent Richards and his assistants were at work to discover the assassins. In a few moments the telegraph had aroused the […] police force of the city. […] Every measure of precaution was taken to preserve order in the city, and every street was patrolled.’”

Swanson relies on the extensive contemporary newspaper coverage of the events to provide colorful details and illustrate the evolving popular reception of the assassination. This quote demonstrates how Swanson uses these sources within the narrative of the text.

“His heart stopped beating at 7:22 and 10 seconds. It was over.

“‘He is gone; he is dead,’ one of the doctors said. To the Reverend Dr. Gurley, the Lincoln family’s minister, it seemed that four or five minutes passed ‘without the slightest noise or movement’ by anyone in the room. ‘We all stood transfixed in our positions, speechless, around the dead body of that great and good man.’”

Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer includes a minute-by-minute account of the death of Abraham Lincoln after he was shot in the head by Booth. This quote describes the feeling in the room the morning he died as witnessed by Reverend Dr. Gurley. It illustrates the depth to which people felt shock about Lincoln’s passing and the attack itself.

“Yes, Mudd had agreed to facilitate the kidnapping of Abraham Lincoln, but no one had consulted him about murder. But now, by offering Booth his hospitality, he had unwittingly implicated himself in the most shocking crime of the Civil War, indeed, in all of American history—the murder of the president of the United States.”

Dr. Samuel Mudd was a Confederate sympathizer, but he was not aware of the extent to which he had helped a murder, John Wilkes Booth, until the morning after he had sheltered him at his farmhouse. Once he discovered the extent of Booth’s crimes, he encouraged Booth to leave. Later, he would seek to cover his tracks, but he was still arrested for helping Booth.

“With his simple plan, Jones confounded the whole manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. A lone Confederate agent, without resources and nearly penniless, had just checkmated the frantic pursuit by thousands of men being orchestrated from Washington by Secretary of War Stanton.”

As this quote shows, without the experienced Confederate secret service agent and riverman Thomas Jones’ support, Booth and Herold would have never been able to evade the authorities searching for them. Although Swanson characterizes Jones as “without resources,” he did in fact have a farmhouse, manservant, and spare boat that were essential components of Booth’s escape to Virginia.

“The procession rolled slowly forward, the beat of the march measured by muffled bass and tenor drums swathed in crepe. Lincoln’s funeral procession was the saddest, most profoundly moving spectacle ever staged in the history of the Republic.”

In this quote, Swanson uses a combination of sensorial detail and editorializing to emphasize the importance of Lincoln’s funeral procession. While Swanson is giving his opinion here, it is an informed opinion based on his assessment of a wealth of historical data including newspaper reports and academic histories cited in the Bibliography.

“Jones collected his wits and pretended that this was just another typical spring night at Huckleberry, and not the climactic hour of a day that saw him spying on Union troops, galloping to rescue Lincoln’s assassin and his companion, leading them on a perilous night ride, and posting them outside his farmhouse, not more than fifty yards from his kitchen table.”

In an allusion to the theme of The Role of Coincidence and Individual Agency in Historical Events, Thomas Jones was well aware of the historical importance of his actions in helping Booth escape to Virginia. Swanson uses details from Jones’s interviews and memoir to give the reader insight into his state of mind at that “climactic hour.”

“It was in the pines where Booth confronted the nation’s reaction to him and his crime, where news of Powell’s mad attack shocked his conscience, where he learned his manifesto would not be published and his voice would be silenced, where he realized that, although he performed the great crime magnificently, he failed to plan properly for the next act, the denouement of a successful, untroubled escape, and where he learned that he had made Abraham Lincoln a martyred hero greater than the living president had ever been in life.”

Throughout the book, Swanson portrays Booth as a fame-hungry actor. Booth, in his delusions of grandeur, assumed that the country would support his action to assassinate President Lincoln. He is shocked to learn from the newspapers brought to him by Jones that not only did the nation not support him but that President Lincoln had been made into “a martyred hero.” This newspaper coverage also gives insight into the evolving popular reception of the assassination.

“Only a fool wouldn’t suspect that John Wilkes Booth was heading for the state. If he had not already crossed the Potomac, he would try soon, and his likely landing spot was somewhere nearby. And here, in Mrs. Quesenberry’s front yard, stood a suspicious young stranger, offering to give away his boat, and asking for horses. As an experienced Confederate agent, she knew what to do: summon help at once.”

One of the minor motifs that comes through in the book is the extent to which Booth was part of a larger network of Confederate agents who operated in Union states and even in Canada. Although many of their names are lost to history, some of those Confederate agents were women, like Mrs. Quesenberry, whose actions are described in this quote.

“Conceivably every minute might count, and even a slight delay might make the difference between freedom and death. Incredibly, foolishly, with his life at stake, Booth took time to indulge his undisciplined, theatrical impulses.”

This quote describes the moment when Booth has arrived at the ferry in Port Conway while fleeing deeper into Virginia and decides to write a letter to Dr. Stuart for his lack of hospitality. Even at moments of peril, such as when fleeing Ford’s Theatre or here, Booth acts with a sense of self-importance, as if his celebrity makes him invincible to the authorities.

“It had taken Booth ten days to travel from downtown Washington to the Port Conway ferry. It would take the Sixteenth New York, alerted by telegraph and transported by steamboat, just one day to close the gap between Washington and Port Conway. The same superior technology that the Union had used to defeat the Confederacy was now employed against Booth.”

In this quote, Swanson alludes to an argument many historians make about why the Confederacy lost the Civil War: They did not have access to advanced technology because many industrial centers were located in the North, in the Union states. Steamboats, better weaponry, and more extensive telegraph networks all gave the Union technological superiority over the Confederacy and aided them in the war effort. Here, Swanson argues that this technology gap contributed to Booth’s capture.

“Finally, after several attempts, Lincoln’s assassin spoke: ‘Tell mother, I die for my country.’ It was hard to hear his faint voice above the roar of the crackling fire, the shouts of the men, and the neighing, snorting horses. Conger wanted desperately to confirm the accuracy of what Booth had said. These might be the assassin’s historic last words, and they must be reported to the nation exactly as Booth said them.”

The men present at Booth’s capture and injury were all aware that they were present at an important moment in history. Booth himself was aware of this, which is why he attempted to ensure that his last words would be the grandiose “I die for my country.” However, he is thwarted in this attempt as his real last words ended up being “Useless, useless.”

“The stage grew dark. His body shuddered. Then, no more. John Wilkes Booth was dead. The twelve-day chase for Abraham Lincoln’s assassin was over.”

Swanson’s description of Booth’s death makes an allusion to Booth’s career as an actor when he mentions that “the stage grew dark,” as would happen at the end of a play. However, as this quote also makes clear, ultimately Booth would not be remembered by history as a great star of the theater but rather with the far more ignoble title of “Abraham Lincoln’s assassin.”

“On June 26, 1869, John Wilkes Booth was buried quietly in the family plot at Green Mount. No headstone marks his grave. He lies there still, his epitaph carved not on cold stone or marble, but in his sister’s forgiving heart. Asia Booth’s loving memoir to her brother closes with a graveside elegy:

“‘But, granting that he died in vain, yet he gave his all on earth, youth, beauty, manhood, a great human love, the certainty of excellence in his profession, a powerful brain, the strength of an athlete, health and great wealth, for “his cause.”’”

Booth is buried in an unmarked grave to avoid his gravesite becoming a point of pilgrimage for those who still believe in the lost cause and support his actions. Swanson gives the last word on his life to his sister, who wrote a memoir about her brother in secret that was published after her death. It shows how, despite being reviled by most of the country and scorned by history, his sister still thought highly of him even though he “died in vain.”