Description

The Lincoln Assassination — LINCOLN: The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth and Trial of Davy Herold (Lincoln Assassination Series, Book 2)

"History is written by the victors." Yet in the shadow of Ford's Theatre, history still argues with itself.

Twelve days after Abraham Lincoln was shot, soldiers cornered a limping fugitive in a Virginia tobacco barn. A volley of gunfire ended the chase—or did it? Drawing on diaries, court records, memoirs suppressed for decades, and government files unsealed long after the Civil War, this riveting narrative follows the manhunt across swamps and safe houses, then steps into the courtroom where Davy Herold faces the law and a nation demands answers.

From Robert E. Lee's grim premonition of war to Lincoln's own eerie dream of a funeral in the Executive Mansion, the book weaves the chase with its haunting prelude and controversial aftermath. It examines the red diary pages found on the body at Garrett's farm, Dr. Samuel Mudd's treatment of a broken leg and the shaving of a mustache, Asia Booth's long-buried account of her brother, and the contradictions between military reports and newspaper headlines. Why did some eyewitnesses swear the dead man's features didn't match Booth's? Why did key documents lie dormant until the mid-20th century? And why did federal investigators revisit Booth's trail a century later?

Part true-crime thriller, part historical investigation, Book 2 of the Lincoln Assassination Series blends pace and proof: night rides, river crossings, coded sympathizers, and a courtroom drama where reputations and lives hang in the balance. Rather than preach a verdict, it lays out the evidence—official and overlooked—so readers can weigh the possibilities for themselves: Was justice done at Garrett's farm, or did the most famous fugitive in America slip the noose of history?

Meticulous, provocative, and deeply human, LINCOLN: The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth and Trial of Davy Herold invites you to reopen the case you thought was closed.