Edward Steers, Jr.. Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of . Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001. xv + 293 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8131-2217-5.

Reviewed by Thomas R. Turner

Published on H-Pol (May, 2002)

Southern Patriot, Not Southern Madman cals were behind the murder or that Booth did In Blood on the Moon, Edward Steers, Jr. takes not die in Garrett's Barn. a fresh look at the events surrounding the assassi‐ One of the reasons for the persistence of the nation of Abraham Lincoln. Those not totally fa‐ more sensational claims has been the fact that for miliar with the historiography of the president's a long time academically trained historians tend‐ death might well raise the question as to whether ed not to regard the assassination as a genuine we really need another book about Lincoln's mur‐ area of scholarly inquiry. It was not until the pub‐ der. Surely, among the thousands of books written lication of my own Beware the People Weeping about all aspects of Lincoln's life and career, there (1982), followed by Willam Hanchett's excellent cannot be much that has been left unsaid. The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies (1983) that aca‐ The truth is, however, that while Lincoln's as‐ demic historians began to probe Lincoln's death, sassination has been the subject of numerous attempting to place the events in their historical books and articles, the death of the sixteenth pres‐ context and to expose the absurdity of many of ident has remained mired in controversy. A sam‐ the more spurious claims. Prior to that time the pling of the issues debated reveals a wide range of assassination was left pretty much to the sensa‐ controversial questions: was a tionalists and popularizers who were free to spin madman; should civilians have been tried by a their conspiratorial tales.[1] military commission; were Mrs. and Among the most infuential recent works that Dr. Samuel Mudd the innocent victims of military have been published as part of this ongoing evalu‐ justice; did the radical Republicans use the assas‐ ation, and a book that has set the current frame‐ sination as a catalyst to wreak revenge on the work for debate, is William Tidwell, James Hall, South; coupled with even more esoteric charges and David Gaddy's Come Retribution: The Confed‐ that Secretary of War and the radi‐ erate Secret Service and the Death of Lincoln (1988). The authors try to demonstrate that con‐ H-Net Reviews trary to popular belief, there was a well-devel‐ troubles. If Lincoln and some of his cabinet could oped Confederate Secret Service in existence and be eliminated then perhaps the South still had a that the Confederate government was the organiz‐ chance of succeeding. In many respects Booth's ing force behind Booth's plan to capture Abraham views about Lincoln were typical of other South‐ Lincoln and exchange him for Confederate pris‐ erners. oners. Toward the end of the war and in response While Steers details Booth's involvement with to unconventional acts of warfare by the Union the Confederate Secret Service, to his credit, and government such as the Dahlgren raid on Rich‐ what makes this a much sounder and less contro‐ mond, which may have had as its objective versial work than that of Tidwell and his asso‐ Davis's murder, the Confederates decided to retal‐ ciates, is that he doesn't try to prove a case that is iate in kind. Thomas Harney was dispatched from not clearly supported by the evidence. For exam‐ the Confederate Torpedo Bureau to blow up the ple, in discussing Harney's mission, Steers notes White House, but when Harney failed, Booth who that while the timeframe could have coincided as a Confederate agent was privy to the plot, de‐ with an attack on Lincoln in the White House, it is cided to duplicate it as best he could. In efect, the equally possible that he was on some mission that many Northerners who in 1865 suspected Davis of was totally unrelated. Similarly, Booth's 1864 stay involvement in Lincoln's death had been right af‐ at the Parker House in Boston which Tidwell be‐ ter all.[2] lieves was to meet with Confederate agents, might The so-called Tidwell thesis has not been have been nothing more than a visit with his without controversy. Critics have argued that the teenage girlfriend Isabel Sumner. case is circumstantial and far from clearly Steers, as he did in his previous book His proven. Nonet heless, it is Tidwell's work that has Name Is Still Mudd (1997), again presents a strong become the focus of current debate. case that both Mary Surratt and Samuel Mudd Steers examines all of these controversial is‐ were a lot more fully involved with Booth than sues in his highly readable account of the assassi‐ previous defenders have believed. In a statement nation. Indeed, one of the strengths of this work is made by conspirator George Atzerodt and found that Steers manages to make an often-told tale by Joan Chaconas in the papers of his attorney come alive and seem fresh in the re-telling. Anoth‐ William E. Doster, Atzerodt admitted that Booth er strength of this book is that the author has had told him that Mary Surratt had been sent to done a tremendous amount of research in the pri‐ her Surratsville tavern to tell her tenant Lloyd to mary sources. Steers is intimately familiar with have the weapons ready that had been stored the major manuscript and archival materials and there. This confrms Lloyd's own testimony that his impeccable scholarship adds great strength to had previously been viewed as dubious. Atzerodt his analysis. also added that supplies had been sent to Dr. The Booth, who is portrayed here, is anything Mudd a few weeks before the assassination. but a crazy actor who came from a family of un‐ While it does not necessarily follow that Surratt stable actors. Whatever view one might take and Mudd were involved in the murder, they about the extent of Confederate involvement in clearly seem to have been involved in the capture Lincoln's death, there is no doubt that Booth was plot.[3] a Southern patriot. He attempted to capture Lin‐ In Mudd's case, he was also a strong Southern coln and fnally killed him not because he was in‐ sympathizer who had clandestinely aided the sane but because he believed that Lincoln was a Confederate cause and was a cruel master to his tyrant who was responsible for all of the South's slaves. Indeed, Booth frst met Mudd carrying a

2 H-Net Reviews letter of introduction from Canadian Confederate century. All of these turn out to be the worst non‐ agent Patrick Martin. Steers believes that Mudd sense although they are hardly unique regarding lied about his numerous meeting with Booth and American assassinations. The remains of John F. that not only did he know who Booth was when Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald were actu‐ he came calling on April 15 but also actively aided ally exhumed amid rumors that a double was the assassin in his fight. Mudd avoided hanging buried in Arlington Texas while similar unsuc‐ by the slimmest of margins, one vote, and his cessful legal battles have been waged to dig up four-year incarceration is about what he de‐ Booth. served. While there is much to admire here, one area Another area that Steers tackles head on is that critics might take exception to is Steers's the military trial. Many authors citing the 1866 strong defense of military tribunals. While it is Supreme Court decision Ex parte Milligan, which certainly easy to understand why a military trial stated that military tribunals were illegal if the was held and the outcome probably difered very civil courts were open and functioning, have ar‐ little from a civil trial, there are many historians gued that all of the defendants were unjustly who will undoubtedly debate Steers as to their le‐ tried. However, Steers is one of the few historians gality. to vigorously argue that the military tribunal was Even if the military trials were legal, the ques‐ legal. tion can still be raised whether they were wise? A Steers believes that rather than being a uni‐ great deal of ink has been spilled on this subject versal condemnation of military trials, the Milli‐ that might have been avoided had the conspira‐ gan decision was much more limited in its appli‐ tors simply been tried in the civil courts, although cation. In his view, the conspirators were civilians Steers argues that a civil trial in Washington, D.C., who were aiding the enemy in time of war in the might have encountered the same type of alleged nation's capital and in making an attack on the jury nullifcation that has been witnessed in sen‐ commander-in-chief they were opening them‐ sational trials like that of O.J. Simpson. In any selves to the possibility of military justice. Steers case, George Bush and John Aschroft might be backs his position by citing a similar opinion from well advised to study the Lincoln assassination Attorney General James Speed, an 1868 decision trials before embarking on their own proposed by Judge Thomas Boynton where he denied military tribunals for terrorists, as one would sus‐ Mudd's request for a writ of habeas corpus ruling pect that such trials will once again engender a explicitly that the Milligan decision did not apply heated historical debate. to Mudd, and the trial of German saboteurs dur‐ This issue aside, Blood on the Moon is an im‐ ing World War II which was reviewed by the portant work and adds a great deal to our under‐ Supreme Court in the case Ex parte Quirin. The standing of Lincoln's assassination. There is a Quirin trial, held before a secret military court, in‐ very small shelf of books that are absolutely es‐ volved the trial of eight German nationals, six of sential to the understanding of Lincoln's murder whom were hanged. and this is one of them. Although debate on the Finally, Steers also tackles some of the assassination will probably continue, since this mythology surrounding the assassination, particu‐ book incorporates all of the recent controversies larly the claims that Booth survived Garrett's it will undoubtedly be the frst place that re‐ Barn. There are many variations on this theme, searchers will turn to in the future to begin their one of them involving an alleged Booth mummy investigation. that toured the carnival circuit in the twentieth Notes

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[1]. Thomas R. Turner, Beware the People Weeping (Baton Rouge, 1982); and, William Hanchett, The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies (Ur‐ bana and Chicago, 1983). For examples of conspir‐ atorial literature see Otto Eisenschiml, Why Was Lincoln Murdered? (Boston, 1937); and, David Bal‐ siger and Charles Sellier, Jr., The Lincoln Conspir‐ acy (Los Angeles, 1977). [2]. William Tidwell, James Hall, and David Gaddy, Come Retribution: the Confederate Secret Service and the Death of Lincoln (Jackson, 1988). [3]. Edward Steers, Jr., His Name Is Still Mudd (Gettysburg, 1997).

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Citation: Thomas R. Turner. Review of Steers, Edward, Jr. Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. H-Pol, H-Net Reviews. May, 2002.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6319

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