Summary Of Manhunt The 12 Day Chase For Lincoln's Killer

April 15, 1865, 7:22 AM, President Abraham Lincoln is presumed dead by one of the many doctors surrounding his deathbed in the Petersen house. John Wilkes Booth is running away from Ford’s Theatre where he had assassinated the 16th President of the United States of America. This book, Manhunt: The 12-day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, by James L. Swanson, highlights what happens before and after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It shows the perspective of both the people of America and John Wilkes Booth as he attempts to escape D.C. officials. It goes into detail on why Booth murdered Lincoln, and how he survived without being caught for twelve days. Booth had a gang full of southerners who were devastated by the outcome of the Civil War. Booth didn't take the loss of the Confederacy well. He rounded up three of his men, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, and David Herold. He said to his men that he would be the one to end the
Charles Leale, a United States Army surgeon, entered the president’s box and rushed over to the seemingly dead Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Leal looked for the wound that had caused the President a brain injury. He wove through the President’s hair; further probing led Leale to a hole, behind Lincoln’s left ear. Leale decided to revive Abraham Lincoln. To relieve the pressure on his head, Leale pulled a blood clot from the bullet hole, which allowed him to open Lincoln's larynx and breathe lungfuls of air into Lincoln's nose and mouth. Lincoln’s heart began to beat. Dr. Leale then said that the floor of Ford’s Theater was not a fit place for Abraham Lincoln to die, and many agreed with him. Bringing the President to The White House was too dangerous; the President would have died by the time they brought him there; so Leale told his fellow doctors to lift Lincoln up and lay him down on a bed at the Petersen house. Abraham Lincoln died the next