Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy
“The prisoners are to be supplied with nothing but the necessary food and water during their imprisonment unless by special orders…”(Hartranft, 86)
John Frederick Hartranaft was appointed by Andrew Johnson to be the Military Governor of the Military prison located in Washington D.C on May 1, 1865. His assignment was to watch over the 8 conspirators that assassinated President Lincoln.
Exactly two weeks earlier, on April 14, 1865 at approximately 10:20 P.M John Wilkes Booth walked into the Ford’s Theater and shot President Lincoln point blank in the back of his head. “I proceeded then to examine him, and instantly found that the President has received a gun shot wound in the back part of the left side of his head, into which I carried immediately my finger. I at once informed those around that the case was a hopeless one; that the president would die; that there was no positive limit to the duration of his life, that his vital tenacity was very strong, and he would resist as long as any man could, but that death certainly would soon close the scene.” – From Dr. Stone’s testimony. (Eyewitness) President Lincoln died early the next morning
Within two weeks 8 conspirators were captured and put in the Washington Arsenal Military prison. Everyone with a connection to the case was seized. “In some instances it was difficult to tell the accused from the witnesses from the conditions under which both were incarcerated pending trial.” (Hartranft, 29)
3 were given life in prison sentences, one was sentenced to 6 years and the others were hung.
“Each of the prisoners was seated in a chair on the platform while the ministers in attendance offered a prayer in their behalf. The prisoners were made to stand and everything in readiness. The drop fell at 1:30 P.M. Life was pronounced by the Board of Surgeons appointed for that purpose to be extinct in each of the bodies at 1:50 P.M” (Hartranft, 113)
Major General Hartranft wrote these letters to the person in charge above himself, as documents of what was happening to the inmates, such as meals, exercise, when visitors came, and expressed the needs of the inmates. The letters also included what was going on inside the prison itself. He recorded those who worked with him during the execution as well as what was happening to prepare for the execution itself. These letters were the line of communication and how information and orders were sent to one another.
Noted in the preface of the book, the editors say that Hartranft himself gave the letters to the Gettysburg College. They moved to the Pennsylvania state archives and soon found its way to the U.S National Archives and Records Administration in 1995. A few people wanted the letters to be more readily available for the public and that’s when this book came about and was finally published in 2009.
Daily life in prison back then was completely different from prison life today, but this is where our roots are. The rules and regulations we have today come from our past. We learned what to do and what not to do from things we’ve done before.
Today prisoners and people in general have more rights to pretty much everything. Witnesses are not captured as they were then. Now they are just subpoenaed. Communication is not as prohibited, the food and health care is much better. And the death penalty is more human today. We use lethal injection rather than the hanging that was done to those conspirators. The one thing that was better in the 1800’s is the cell searches. Hartranaft did daily inspections on the inmates and documented it in his letter book.
These eyewitness accounts are here to assist us in recreating events that happened years ago and we can look back and learn from our mistakes.
Works Cited
"Eyewitness." National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 28 Aug. 2011. <http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=13>.
Linder, Doug. "The Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators." UMKC School of Law. 2009. Web. 28 Aug. 2011. <http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/lincolnaccount.html>.
Hartranft, John F., Edward Steers, and Harold Holzer. The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2009. Print.
