Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

After Booth’s death, Lucinda Holloway, a relative of the Garretts who had tended to the dying man, took a lock of his hair and his field glasses. Conger, Baker, and Doherty confirm the dead man was John Wilkes Booth by comparing him to his photograph. They then put the body in a wagon to Port Royal where they put it on the ferry to Port Conway. Baker and Ned Freeman take the body from Port Conway to a ship, the John S. Ide. Detective Conger rides ahead and informs Colonel Baker of the news of Booth’s death. The detectives inform Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and present Booth’s effects as proof of the news. Stanton “decided to convene an inquest aboard the Montauk as soon as Booth’s body arrived in Washington” (350). Stanton confirms the dead man is Booth and informs the nation. When Booth’s sister, Asia, hears the news, she collapses. An autopsy is performed and the bullet preserved. The body is photographed along with the coconspirators imprisoned on the Montauk and Saugus.

Lafayette Baker tells the reporter George Alfred Townsend that Booth’s body had been buried at sea, but in fact the sea burial was faked and the body was buried at the Old Arsenal down the Potomac.