BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Archives -- Case: Search for Lincoln's Assassins

DC -- Natl Archives -- Case: Search for Lincoln's Assassins:

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Description of Pictures: The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth: While the movie National Treasure II: The Book of Secrets may stimulate our imagination about this notorious figure, the National Archives presents a selection of original documents from the 12-day manhunt for President Lincoln’s assassin.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] SEARCH_071212_08.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[2] SEARCH_071212_20.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[3] SEARCH_071212_25.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SEARCH_071212_08.JPG: The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth: While the movie National Treasure II: The Book of Secrets may stimulate our imagination about this notorious figure, the National Archives presents a selection of original documents from the 12-day manhunt for President Lincoln's assassin. Various signs: On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a prominent American actor, snuck up behind President Abraham Lincoln as he watched a play at Ford's Theatre and shot him in the back of the head at point-blank range. Booth then jumped to the stage, ran out of the theater, and fled into the night. The President was carried across the street to a private house where he died the following morning. The assassination led to one of the most intensive manhunts in U.S. history. For twelve days, civilians, police, detectives from the U.S. military, and other Army personnel joined in an investigation that pursued Booth through Washington, D.C., southern Maryland, and Virginia, where he was shot and died on April 26. Among the holdings of the National Archives are thousands of pages resulting from the investigation and trial of the assassination conspirators. While a popular movie draws attention to John Wilkes Booth, the National Archives presents original documents from the real hunt for President Lincoln's assassin. Poster announcing $100,000 Reward, April 20, 1865: The murder of President Lincoln was part of a larger conspiracy that included a simultaneous attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward and the targeting of Vice President Andrew Johnson. On the night of the assassination, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton offered a $10,000 reward for the arrest of the conspirators. Two days later, Lafayette C. Baker, Chief of the National Detective Police, offered $30,000. Five days into the investigation, with the conspirators still at large, Stanton issued this proclamation, offering the stupendous sum of $100,000 (roughly equivalent to $1.2 million today) -- $50,000 for the apprehension of John Wilkes Booth and $25,000 each for the apprehension of two of his alleged accomplices: John Surratt and David Herold. It also threatened anyone who gave them aid with prosecution in a military trial and the death penalty.
2. SEARCH_071212_20.JPG: "Appeal to the Colored People!" April 24, 1865: Four days after Stanton's proclamation offering $100,000, the War Department tried another strategy with this proclamation, appealing to the patriotism of African Americans. Soldiers posted and distributed these leaflets throughout the African American communities in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
3. SEARCH_071212_25.JPG: Telegram from Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton regarding the capture and death of John Wilkes Booth, April 27, 1865: On April 26, a detachment of the 16th New York Cavalry and two detectives caught up with Booth and Herold near Port Royal, Virginia, and surrounded the barn on Richard Garrett's farm where the two had hidden. When one of the detectives threatened to set the barn on fire, Herold surrendered. Booth refused and was shot as the building began to burn. He died a few hours later. In this telegram, Stanton reported these events to Maj. Gen. John A. Dix, whose superior telegraphic connections in New York made him the primary vehicle for official communications throughout the crisis. In 1866, the reward money was distributed to several people, including the civilian detectives who worked the investigation, the officer who led the detachment of the 16th New York Cavalry, and each of the soldiers under his command.
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2007 photos: Trips this year: Two weeks down south (including Graceland, Shiloh, VIcksburg, and New Orleans), a week at a time share in Costa Rica over my 50th birthday, a week off for a family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with sidetrips to Dayton, Springfield, and Madison), a week in San Diego for the Comic-Con with a side trip to Michigan for two family reunions, a drive up to Niagara Falls, a couple of weekend jaunts including the Civil War Preservation Trust Grand Review in Vicksburg, and a December journey to three state capitols (Richmond, Raleigh, and Columbia). I saw sites in 18 states and 3 other countries this year -- the first year I'd been to more than two other countries since we lived in Venezuela when I was a little toddler. Ego strokes: A photo that I took at the National Archives was used as the author photo on the book jacket for David A. Nichols' "A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution." I became a volunteer photographer at both Sixth and I Historic Synagogue and the Civil War Preservation Trust (later renamed "Civil War Trust").. Equipment this year: I used the Fuji S9000 almost exclusively except for the period when it broke and I had to send it back for repairs. In August, I bought a Canon Rebel Xti, my first digital SLR (vs regular digital) which I tried as well but I wasn't that excited by it. Number of photos taken this year: 225,000.
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