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Framed Document Lincoln Reward
Parchment paper, unique in appearance, with crinkles and aging process characteristics
Approximately 14 X 14 inches
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This print on parchment paper of the War Department's broadside announcing the $100,000 reward for the capture of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin and conspirators is a faithful reproduction of the original broadsides, like the one in the holdings of the National Archives.
On April 14, 1865, at approximately 10:20 p.m., John Wilkes Booth, a prominent American actor, sneaked up behind President Abraham Lincoln as he watched a play at Ford's Theater and shot him in the back of the head at point-blank range. The President was carried across the street to a private home, where he died early the following morning. Booth, pursued by Union soldiers for 12 days through southern Maryland and Virginia, died of a gunshot wound on April 26 after refusing to surrender to Federal troops.
The murder of President Lincoln was part of a larger conspiracy that included a simultaneous attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward and the possible targeting of Vice President Andrew Johnson. Assuming the Presidency after Lincoln's death, Johnson considered the crime a military one, and he ordered that the eight accused conspirators be tried before a military commission. Dr. Robert King Stone, the Lincoln family physician, was one of 350 witnesses who testified during the course of the proceedings. His testimony is held in the National Archives.