Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 42855-h.htm or 42855-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42855/42855-h/42855-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42855/42855-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/assassinationof02harr [Illustration: T. M. Harris] ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN A History of the Great Conspiracy Trial of the Conspirators by a Military Commission and a Review of the Trial of John H. Surratt by T. M. HARRIS Late Brigadier-General U. S. V. and Major-General By Brevet A Member of the Commission Boston, Mass. American Citizen Company 7 Bromfield Street Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, By T. M. HARRIS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. All Rights Reserved. Typography by Fish & Sancton, 198 Washington St., Boston. EXPLANATION. It is perhaps necessary that the author should explain the sense in which the term, "Great Conspiracy," in the title of his book, is used. It is not at all in the same sense in which it is used by General Logan in his book. In that it is used as the equivalent of the Great Rebellion, only that it broadly covers all that led to and culminated in the war against the government, designated as "The Rebellion." It is only here used to designate the conspiracy that resorted to the policy of assassination as a means to give aid to the rebellion; and the reader who follows the author through will then be able to perceive why he designates this a "Great Conspiracy." PREFACE. It is now more than twenty-seven years since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,--an event of the greatest importance at the time, not only to the people of the United States, but to the civilized world. The trial of the conspirators by a military commission created the greatest possible interest; and the proceedings and testimony were published from day to day by all of the great newspapers of the country, and read with avidity. The judgment of those who carefully studied the testimony at the time was formed upon a competent knowledge of the facts. And yet, even then, the fate of the prisoners on trial before the Commission, to be found innocent or guilty according to the evidence, constituted the great point of interest, and thus tended to divert attention from the evidence against the other parties charged not only with being co-conspirators, but as being the instigators of the plot. Since that time a new generation has come on to the stage of action, and as the official report of the trial by Ben Pittman, published at the time, is in the hands of but comparatively few people, a concise history of this great event, in popular form, but founded on the evidence, seemed to the writer to be due and called for at the present time.