The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators (review)

106civil war history If faults are to be noted, one would be the author's lack of confidence in his reader's memory. The repetition of minor details is irritating. More serious, there is little discussion of the actions in which Custer's luck was good. The Battle of Washita is described at some length, but there is no mention of such encounters, for instance, as Woodstock, Cedar Creek, or even Waynesboro. Excellent as the book is, it might very well have benefited from a fuller treatment of its hero's earlier life. In addition to a bibliography and index, there are photographs of some of the participants and locales described, a map of the Yellowstone-Missouri River areas in 1876, and a map of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Curtis L. Johnson Chicago, Illinois The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators. Compiled and arranged by Benn Pitman, with an introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern. (New York: Funk and Wagnalls. 1954. Pp. 420. $7.50.) in 1865, soon after the conclusion of the trial of the Lincoln conspirators, four versions of the trial record found their way into print. Of the four, the one compiled by Benn Pitman, the official trial recorder, has remained as the best version for the student of the Civil War. Old and battered copies are to be found in the libraries of historians and writers. Now, however, a photographic reproduction of this work has been published for those collectors who have not been able to find a copy of the original edition. To this new edition has been added an excellent introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern, who sets the scene for the trial and clarifies some obscure points not covered in the testimony itself . Pitman, brother of the inventor of the shorthand system which bears his name, performed a valuable service for future historians in his arrangement of the trial testimony. The book is carefully indexed both by events and by names, and sketches and appendices fill out the picture of the trial of the eight conspirators . In its determination to obtain a conviction, the Federal Government first moved the trial from civil to military jurisdicton. Before the military commission which tried the conspirators, some 400 persons gave testimony, much of which had no direct relation to the crime. In addition to the actual assassination, witnesses testified concerning the attempted burning of New York City, the prison at Andersonville, the burning of steamboats on western rivers, and a long list of other subjects. If any complaint can be made of this new edition, it is that in reproducing it photographically the publisher has been forced to repeat the miserably small type face so popular in publishing circles during the last half of the nineteenth century. Aside from this unavoidable defect, Pitman's trial record stands as an excellent reference work which any student of the Civil War will welcome as an invaluable addition to his library. Irving Herschbein New York, New York ...