Lincoln's Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion after the Civil War

Rating:
Summary: Prelude to Reconstruction
Review: The shock and deep mourning our nation went into in April 1865 is something we have never really gotten over. The first presidential assassination, that of Abraham Lincoln, has prompted countless books ever since, and endless questions of what our nation would have been like had he lived. It might be thought that all the details have been covered, but Elizabeth D. Leonard, a professor of history at Colby College, has found a flawed hero who supervised the hunt and prosecution of the conspirators that killed Lincoln; his story is told in her book _Lincoln's Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion after the Civil War_ (Norton). Of course the plotters' dirty work is covered here, and their prosecution and sentencing; it may be familiar, but it is told with vivid detail. What is different in Leonard's book is that she shows how the political and national mood after the Civil War changed the outcome of those proceedings, which in turn had effects on Reconstruction itself.

Leonard tells this story by examining the life and work of Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, a former slaveholder who during the civil war was in charge of thousands of military commissions to prosecute both soldiers and civilians. The day after Lincoln's assassination, Holt took charge of the detection of the conspirators and their prosecution. It was only a matter of months before the military commission tried the conspirators, found all of them guilty, hanged four (including Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the federal government) and imprisoned the others. Many histories of these events end there, but Holt thought he was just getting started. He had concluded that the assassination plot was instigated by Confederate leaders, including Jefferson Davis, and he was eager to pursue military commissions against them as well. However, his support from President Johnson waned. Setting up conflicts that would eventually get him impeached, Johnson pardoned thousands of Confederate leaders, and having declared the war officially over, removed any possibility that military commissions could continue. He transferred Davis from military to civilian custody in Virginia, where he was released on bail. The Supreme Court, in the famous _Ex Parte Milligan_ decision, overturned the military commission's conviction of civilian Confederate sympathizers. Davis would never be brought before Holt's military commission.

There was the possibility that Davis might be tried in a civilian court, but Holt never got the hard evidence that would have been needed for a conviction. Holt was led to bad judgements such as reliance on dubious, venal witnesses. After a couple of years, Davis was completely free. In 1867, Holt had a chance for a conviction (in civilian court) of Mary Surratt's son who had been captured overseas, but the divided jury, reflecting the divisions of the nation, did not convict. Holt's further vengeance would never come, but his efforts, as written about by Leonard in this well-researched volume, will be satisfying reading for anyone interested in the Civil War and the troubling era of Reconstruction thereafter.

Rating:
Summary: Prelude to Reconstruction
Review: The shock and deep mourning our nation went into in April 1865 is something we have never really gotten over. The first presidential assassination, that of Abraham Lincoln, has prompted countless books ever since, and endless questions of what our nation would have been like had he lived. It might be thought that all the details have been covered, but Elizabeth D. Leonard, a professor of history at Colby College, has found a flawed hero who supervised the hunt and prosecution of the conspirators that killed Lincoln; his story is told in her book _Lincoln's Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion after the Civil War_ (Norton). Of course the plotters' dirty work is covered here, and their prosecution and sentencing; it may be familiar, but it is told with vivid detail. What is different in Leonard's book is that she shows how the political and national mood after the Civil War changed the outcome of those proceedings, which in turn had effects on Reconstruction itself.

Leonard tells this story by examining the life and work of Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, a former slaveholder who during the civil war was in charge of thousands of military commissions to prosecute both soldiers and civilians. The day after Lincoln's assassination, Holt took charge of the detection of the conspirators and their prosecution. It was only a matter of months before the military commission tried the conspirators, found all of them guilty, hanged four (including Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the federal government) and imprisoned the others. Many histories of these events end there, but Holt thought he was just getting started. He had concluded that the assassination plot was instigated by Confederate leaders, including Jefferson Davis, and he was eager to pursue military commissions against them as well. However, his support from President Johnson waned. Setting up conflicts that would eventually get him impeached, Johnson pardoned thousands of Confederate leaders, and having declared the war officially over, removed any possibility that military commissions could continue. He transferred Davis from military to civilian custody in Virginia, where he was released on bail. The Supreme Court, in the famous _Ex Parte Milligan_ decision, overturned the military commission's conviction of civilian Confederate sympathizers. Davis would never be brought before Holt's military commission.

There was the possibility that Davis might be tried in a civilian court, but Holt never got the hard evidence that would have been needed for a conviction. Holt was led to bad judgements such as reliance on dubious, venal witnesses. After a couple of years, Davis was completely free. In 1867, Holt had a chance for a conviction (in civilian court) of Mary Surratt's son who had been captured overseas, but the divided jury, reflecting the divisions of the nation, did not convict. Holt's further vengeance would never come, but his efforts, as written about by Leonard in this well-researched volume, will be satisfying reading for anyone interested in the Civil War and the troubling era of Reconstruction thereafter.