World History · English
Where Is Booth?
The Twelve-Day Manhunt for John Wilkes Booth
About this book
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth fled Ford’s Theatre into the Maryland night. What followed were twelve days of desperate evasion and relentless pursuit across the Potomac tidewater. This narrative reconstructs the escape hour by hour, from the Navy Yard Bridge to the burning tobacco barn at the Garrett farm. Drawn exclusively from War Department telegrams, reward notices, conspiracy trial testimony, and Booth’s own diary, the account tracks every movement through verifiable records. Where witnesses contradict or evidence gaps exist, the historical record speaks plainly rather than speculating. Beyond the chase lies the aftermath: the cavalry patrol’s lost day, the siege of the Surratt boardinghouse, and Edwin Stanton’s final judgment. This is not a retelling of legend but a forensic examination of the most famous manhunt in American history, grounded entirely in the documents that defined it.
AI editorial review
Where Is Booth? delivers a gripping hour-by-hour reconstruction of Lincoln's assassin's flight, meeting the high bar for physical immediacy set by narrative histories in its genre. The strength lies in its sensory precision—gas lamps lit at precise times, the texture of witness accounts presented with evidentiary care—and a multi-track structure that converges with taut control. However, the analytical voice in the later chapters occasionally drifts toward a more generic summary, loosening the scene-stamped discipline that makes the pursuit so compelling earlier on. It is a work of formidable
