One Hundred Thousand Dollar Reward

Abraham Lincoln’s assassination caused confusion, widespread panic, and anger in the North as well as foreboding in the South, as it anticipated a violent reaction if it turned out that John Wilkes Booth (1838–1865) had been acting on orders from the Confederacy. Wholesale roundups of suspected conspirators and sympathizers occurred in the weeks after the assassination. Union authorities identified the conspirators fairly quickly, however. It is evidence of the ongoing nature of the investigation that this “Wanted” poster correctly identifies John Wilkes Booth as the conspiracy’s prime mover. It flanks him with two of the lesser actors in the plot. David E. Herold (c. 1842–1865)­—misspelled “Harold” here—who had failed to assist another conspirator, Lewis Powell, escaped from the city with Booth. Both men eluded pursuit until April 26, when Union troops cornered them in a Virginia farmhouse. Herold surrendered, but Booth resisted and was shot and killed. John Surratt (1844–1919) successfully escaped the country but was captured and returned to the United States in 1867. He was tried for his part in the conspiracy and freed after a mistrial.