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The Greatest Manhunt in American History

For 12 days after his brazen assassination of Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth was at large, and in Manhunt, historian James L. Swanson tells the vivid, fully documented tale of his escape and the wild, massive pursuit. Get a taste of the daily drama from this timeline of the desperate search.

April 14, 1865 Around noon, Booth learns that Lincoln is coming to Ford's Theatre that night. He has eight hours to prepare his plan. 10:15 pm: Booth shoots the president, leaps to the stage, and escapes on a waiting horse. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton orders the manhunt to begin. April 15 About 4:00 am: Booth seeks treatment for a broken leg at Dr. Samuel Mudd's farm near Beantown, Maryland. Cavalry patrol heads south toward Mudd farm. Confederate operative Thomas Jones hides Booth in a remote pine thicket for five days, frustrating the manhunters. April 19 Tens of thousands watch the procession to the U.S. Capitol, where President Lincoln lies in state. Wild rumors and stories of false sightings of Booth spread.
April 20 Stanton offers a $100,000 reward for the assassins, and threatens death to any citizen who helps them. After hiding Booth in Maryland, Jones puts him in a rowboat on the Potomac River, bound for Virginia. More than a thousand manhunters are still searching in Maryland. In the dark, Booth rows the wrong way and first ends up back in Maryland. April 20-24 Booth lands in the northern neck of Virginia, and Confederate agents and sympathizers guide him to Port Conway, Virginia. April 24 Booth befriends three Confederate soldiers who help him cross the Rappahannock River to Port Royal and then guide him further southwest to the Garrett farm. Union troops in Washington receive a report of a Booth sighting. They board a U.S. Navy tug and steam south, right past Booth's hideout at the Garrett farm. April 25 The 16th New York Calvary, realizing their error, turns around and surrounds the Garrett farm after midnight that night.
April 26 When Booth refuses to surrender, troops set the barn on fire, and Boston Corbett shoots the assassin. Booth dies a few hours later, at sunrise. April 26-27 Booth's body is brought back to Washington, where it is autopsied, photographed, and buried in a secret grave.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In the early days of April 1865, with the bloody war to preserve the union finished, Swanson tells us, Abraham Lincoln was "jubilant." Elsewhere in Washington, the other player in the coming drama of the president's assassination was miserable. Hearing Lincoln's April 10 victory speech, famed actor and Confederate die-hard John Wilkes Booth turned to a friend and remarked with seething hatred, "That means nigger citizenship. Now, by God, I'll put him through." On April 14, Booth did just that. With great power, passion and at a thrilling, breakneck pace, Swanson (Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution) conjures up an exhausted yet jubilant nation ruptured by grief, stunned by tragedy and hell-bent on revenge. For 12 days, assisted by family and some women smitten by his legendary physical beauty, Booth relied on smarts, stealth and luck to elude the best detectives, military officers and local police the federal government could muster. Taking the reader into the action, the story is shot through with breathless, vivid, even gory detail. With a deft, probing style and no small amount of swagger, Swanson, a member of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, has crafted pure narrative pleasure, sure to satisfy the casual reader and Civil War aficionado alike. 11 b&w photos not seen by PW. (Feb. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
James L. Swanson's Web site includes a glowing review quotation from Patricia Cornwell. The correlation is apt since critics find this nonfiction account of Booth's getaway as compelling as the best thrillers. Swanson, a legal scholar with the Cato Institute and a Lincoln historian, knows the assassination inside and out; he's been studying Lincoln since he was a child, and his previous book (with Daniel R. Weinberg), Lincoln's Assassins, was a photographic and archival study of Booth and his co-conspirators. With a surfeit of detail at his disposal, Swanson weaves an absorbing tale in unadorned prose that critics greeted with unanimous approval.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Relive the Chase for Lincoln's Assassin
James Swanson creates a moment by moment account of the chase for President Lincoln's assassin and his accomplices that is a tour de force. It is difficult to imagine a more compelling, thorough or historically accurate rendition of the period before and the 12 days after Booth's infamous crime. Swanson covers all the ground and answers all the questions, including the little details that history has largely forgotten, such as where Booth was initially interred following his execution and where he is buried today. This book is utterly fascinating and compelling. Through Swanson's captivating style, you can travel back in time and relive this historical event.

What They Don't Teach in History Class
I just read this book while cruising the Mexican Riviera. This is a book that I couldn't (didn't want to) put down. I have always had a love of history especially American history but sadly so much is missing in the first 12 years of school. I never fully realized the extensiveness of the plot to kidnap or to assassinate President Lincoln until reading this book. Extremely well written by a author who has done his homework. This is highly recommended as there are many books as well as programs on television who have many inaccuracies. Read this if you want to know the truth about the roll that Dr. Mudd played. Where was Mr. Booth for that missing week?

Truthful and fascinating tale
Mr. Swanson did an excellent job in telling the story of the 12-day chase of John Wilkes Booth. His account read like an action thriller, while being substantiated with true facts. I like how Mr. Swanson intelligently combined numerous sources and interestly told the story with first hand accounts. I literally could not put this book down. It's the book I've been waiting for.