The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft

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Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt Library of Congress Assistant Judge Advocate John A. Bingham Courtesy Edward Steers, Jr. Assistant Judge Advocate Henry L. Burnett Courtesy Roger D. Hunt Attorney General James Speed Courtesy Edward Steers, Jr. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton Courtesy Edward Steers, Jr. President Andrew Johnson Courtesy Edward Steers, Jr. Major General David Hunter, president of the military tribunal Courtesy Edward Steers, Jr. Major General Winfield S. Hancock, commander, Middle Military Division Library of Congress The cellblock of the old federal penitentiary in Washington, in a view published in Harper’s Weekly, July 8, 1865. The Lincoln conspirators were housed here on the upper third tier in cells formerly used for female prisoners. Courtesy Surratt House Museum The staff of Brevet Major General Hartranft on the day the conspirators were hanged. They pose seated in the chairs that were soon to be used on the scaffold by the condemned prisoners. Seated left to right: Captain Richard A. Watts, 17th Michigan Volunteers; Lieutenant Colonel William H. H. McCall, 200th Pennsylvania Volunteers; Brevet Major General John F. Hartranft; Colonel Levi A. Dodd, 211th Pennsylvania Volunteers; Captain Christian Rath, 17th Michigan Volunteers. Standing left to right: Lieutenant Colonel George W. Frederick, 209th Pennsylvania Volunteers; Second Lieutenant David H. Geissinger, 205th Pennsylvania Volunteers; Surgeon George L. Porter. Photograph by Alexander Gardner. Courtesy Hartranft Collection, Pennsylvania State Archives The nine-member military tribunal together with the prosecuting judge advocates. Seated left to right: Lieutenant Colonel David R. Clendenin, Brevet Colonel Charles H. Tomkins, Brigadier General Albion P. Howe, Brevet Brigadier General James A. Ekin, Major General David Hunter, President, Brigadier General Robert S. Foster, Assistant Judge Advocate John A. Bingham, Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt. Standing left to right: Brigadier General Thomas M. Harris, Major General Lew Wallace, Brevet Major General August V. Kautz, Brevet Colonel Henry L. Burnett. Library of Congress Engraving from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper showing the interior of the courtroom. The conspirators are depicted at the back of the room seated behind a railing, with the members of the tribunal seated at the table to the right. Library of Congress Reporters GUARD David Herold Mary Surratt Exit to prisoner’s cells Lewis Powell George Atzerodt Michael O’Laughlen Edman Spangler Samuel Arnold Samuel Mudd Judge Advocate GUARD GUARD GUARD GUARD GUARD Witness stand Court recorder Defense lawyers Evidence table Military Commission The floor plan of the courtroom based on sketches made by artists during the trial. Drawing by Kieran McAuliffe, reproduced by permission Samuel Bland Arnold Library of Congress George Andrew Atzerodt Library of Congress Samuel Alexander Mudd Courtesy Surratt House Museum David Edgar Herold Library of Congress Michael O’Laughlen Library of Congress Lewis Thornton Powell, alias Paine or Payne Courtesy Betty Ownsbey Edman Spangler Library of Congress William “Willie” Storke Jett Courtesy Surratt House Museum The padded hood worn by Lewis Powell Library of Congress Mary Elizabeth Surratt Courtesy Surratt House Museum Original clemency recommendation for Mary Surratt. After finding her guilty and sentencing her to death by hanging, five members of the tribunal wrote to President Johnson recommending clemency. (Ekin’s and Tomkins’s signatures are not reproduced here for lack of space.) Although Joseph Holt claimed he showed it to the president, Johnson insisted he never saw it. The Mary Surratt case became a cause célèbre among those who believed she was an innocent victim of what some defenders termed “judicial murder.” Others insisted and continued to believe that she was a conspirator with knowledge of John Wilkes Booth’s plot to capture Lincoln and carry him to Richmond . Records in the surviving Confederate archives list both her boardinghouse in Washington and her tavern in southern Maryland as “safe houses” for Confederate agents. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration Pencil sketch of Dr. Samuel Mudd by tribunal member Major General Lew Wallace Courtesy Indiana Historical Society Colonel Levi Axel Dodd, who was ordered to deliver the conspirators sentenced to prison terms to Fort Jefferson, located off the coast of Florida. Dodd (with Captain George Dutton and Navy paymaster William Keeler) later reported that while en route to Fort Jefferson , Mudd admitted knowing that it was John Wilkes Booth who came to his house...