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

Cavalry are traditionally soldiers who attack on horseback rather than on foot, although the term has taken on a slightly different meaning in modern warfare where horses are no longer used. In Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, the 13th New York Cavalry and the 16th New York Cavalry regiments were key to the capture of Booth, with Boston Corbett of the 16th ultimately killing him. Many factions of the Union Army, including these cavalry units, contributed to the search for Booth, alongside local law enforcement.

A relic is an object that has particular historical or sentimental interest. In the aftermath of the assassination and the search for Booth, the public sought out relics as “bloody souvenirs of the great crime,” which included locks of hair or scraps of cloth from the dress upon which Lincoln had bled (344). In Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, Swanson documents many of these relics to give an insight into The Evolving Popular Reception of the Assassination.

The Confederacy was the collection of states that sought to secede or leave the United States over the issue of emancipation of enslaved people and the extension of suffrage to Black people. Booth, a supporter of the Confederacy, believed that “this country [the United States] was formed for the white, not for the black man” (264).