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

The narrative in Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer follows two parallel timelines. One documents the actions of John Wilkes Booth and his coconspirators as they make their assassination attempts and later seek to evade authorities. The other documents the challenges and setbacks for the official response to the crisis as government, military, and police authorities attempt to track down the assassins and coconspirators. Challenges and setbacks for the official response to the crisis is manifold and demonstrates the logistical and technological challenges to be surmounted in the 19th century when attempting to locate the men on the run.

The official response to the crisis was spearheaded by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. After Lincoln was fatally wounded but before he passed, Stanton set up a field office in the Petersen boardinghouse to coordinate a search for Booth and his coconspirators as well as to prepare the succession. As portrayed by Swanson, this pressing responsibility meant that Stanton was largely obligated to set aside any emotional response, excepting a moment of weeping over Lincoln’s body after the president passed away. Swanson provides excerpts of the monumental number of telegraphs Stanton sent and received with which he contacted military and police authorities to share information about the assassination and requested assistance. This resulted in a speedy response by police authorities, such as an early search of the Surratt boardinghouse and Booth’s hotel room, which provided important clues in the investigation.

Despite Stanton’s quick actions, Swanson notes that the authority’s response was hindered by the difficulty in assessing the quality of tips. As in any high-profile case, even in contemporary times, many of the tips that the officials received were false. For example, there were “false reports […] that Booth was dressing as a woman” (257). Even the tip that ultimately leads to Booth’s arrest was incorrect; it was suggested he had crossed the Potomac April 14 when in reality he crossed several days later. Given the volume of information coming in, sometimes good information was overlooked, as when George Mudd reports to Lieutenant Dana that “two suspicious strangers” had visited his cousin Sam Mudd’s farmhouse the evening of April 14 (186). Dana ignores this lead in favor of others he found more credible, only circling back to it weeks later, after Booth and Herold had moved on.

The lack of discipline and the ad-hoc nature of the official response also created errors and challenges. For instance, detectives like Detective Pinkerton and Colonel Lafayette Baker sought to attach themselves to the investigation to get a part of the fame and publicity. In a more troubling instance, despite orders to take Booth alive so he could be interrogated, tried, and sentenced, Boston Corbett took it upon himself to shoot and ultimately kill Booth when Booth is cornered in the Garrett farmhouse. The official assessment noted that Corbett “had not been ordered to hold [his] fire” (340), a grave oversight by commanding officers. As a result, the full extent of Booth’s plans and motivations, including whether he had the support of Confederate leadership, remains a mystery.