Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, Assassination]. Autograph letter of a Union soldier ("Jes Co.B, 1st Regt. U.S.Vols.") to his sister, containing an account of the hanging of the Lincoln conspirators, Baltimore, Md., 30 July 1866. 4 pages, 4to, worn and weak at folds, edges ragged, two repairs to margin. AN EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE EXECUTION OF THE LINCOLN ASSASSINATION CONSPIRATORS A first-hand account by a soldier present on 7 July 1865 at the hanging of David E. Herold, Mrs. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell (alias Payne, who stabbed William Seward) and George A. Atzerodt (who was to have assassinated Vice-President Johnson). "...Well, you wanted the history of the hanging of the conspirators. They were executed inside of the old Penitentiary [in Baltimore]...Our Regt. surrounded the scaffold... about 20 ft. distant, making a complete wall of bayonets through which nothing but the President's pardon could have reached them ...Mrs. Surratt is rather fleshy and a very good size, was once handsome. When she came out of prison she looked as though she was to be hung in half an hour, which eventually proved to be the case. She was assisted on the stage by a priest. She evidently had not learned her part very well as she performed very poorly. Payne [Powell] was a very powerful man and a regular bull-dog. He walked alone on the stage and was apparently as unconcerned as if only going to supper. He was once a soldier, and never forgot his training, for when he stood up to have the rope adjusted he came to 'attention.' Harrold [ sic ] was a little sallow complected snakey looking individual and very scary, he looked often at the rope and then at the soldiers, but [saw] no sign of pity for the wretched criminals. His sentence was first, and there were no eyes to shed tears for any of them. Atzerodt, the German, looked as though he had been eating hot pudding and got choked, and was looking for some one to help him out of a bad job. About 1 1/2 p.m. the drop fell and so did they. Mrs. Surratt & Atzerodt died immediately. Payne died very hard, as did Harrold [ sic ]. We let them hang half an hour and then cut them down and put them into square rough pine boxes, and buried them beside the scaffold, where they will stay. The old penitentiary is to be torn down and the grave obliterated...."