Military Commissioners Who Tried the Lincoln Conspirators

On this and the following page are shown the members of the Military Commission appointed by President Johnson who tried the Lincoln conspirators. All except John Wilkes Booth (who was shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett) and John H. Surratt were tried by this body in Washington. The charges included the allegation that they were incited to their crime by Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy's emissaries in Canada. No proof of encouragement from high officers in the Confederate Government was forthcoming. The assumption of Davis' guilt was widespread, but evidence pointing in that direction was found to be untrustworthy, and the inquiry of a Congressional Committee in the following year was so convincing that the Confederate President was never brought to trial on the conspiracy charge. The commission was composed of officers of high rank and distinction, The members in this photograph, from left to right, are Generals Thomas M. Harris, David Hunter, August V. Kautz, James A. Elkins, Lew Wallace; and the man in civilian costume is the Honorable John A. Brigham, who assisted Judge Advocate Joseph Holt.