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DiscountDelight - Manhunt : The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
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List Price: $26.95
Our Price: $12.00
Your Save: $ 14.95 ( 55% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: William Morrow
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780060518493
ISBN: 0060518499
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2006-02-01
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: 2006-02-07
Studio: William Morrow
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended
Comment: The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was an epochal event. Was it the act of a sole, vain celebrity intent on spoiling Union victory? Was it a conspiracy? How was it achieved? How did it end?
This work is as compelling as the best fiction, yet is true.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A find of what had long ago been lost to history...
Comment: For the reader sometimes torn between a work of fiction or one of non-fiction as his next endeavor, I recommend this book as an illustration of the strengths of each. Seamlessly constructed to satisfy both the "read as an alternative to the movies" thrill-seeker and the "take notes in the margins" historian, Swanson's book reads as a rare exhibit of a man with profound command over his subject matter and an effective style for portraying it.
The narrative flows with a quality of authenticity and a confidence that the subject is, of its own accord, interesting enough to not require phony sensationalism. I marvel not that it took more than a century to piece so many details together but rather that after a century it could still be pieced together at all... and so eloquently.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not the same old Licoln Assassination Story
Comment: James Swanson has written a very detailed and thoroughly researched account of the assassination of Lincoln and the ensuing hunt for his killer. I learned quite a few things which I had never heard before about Booth and his attempts to elude capture. This book has the elements of a true crime thriller but every detail is historical fact. The only cricism I have is that there were some parts which seemed a bit repetitious to me. Photos of some of the key players in the plot are included.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lincoln Tragedy
Comment: I received Manhunt as a birthday gift. I also read Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald. I thought Manhunt was thrilling. I spent much of my childhood vacationing in Maryland, and could picture myself in places in Maryland that Mr. Swanson was describing. Some people say J. W. Booth was blessed-he was born into a famous American theatrical family, he had derring do athletic ability, had keen intelligence, and awe-inspiring physical beauty. I don't think he was blessed: his Shakespearian father and overly-emotional mother inspired him to be a revolutionary and a romantic. I don't think it was fair that he wasn't going to be allowed to have a trial. Apparently, our country wasn't a Democracy in the times in which J. W. Booth and Abraham Lincoln were living.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Comment: A riveting book. It reads like you're there when this all took place. I couldn't put it down.
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Greatest Manhunt in American History For 12 days after his brazen assassination of Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth was at large, and in Manhunt, historian James L. Swanson tells the vivid, fully documented tale of his escape and the wild, massive pursuit. Get a taste of the daily drama from this timeline of the desperate search. | April 14, 1865 | Around noon, Booth learns that Lincoln is coming to Ford's Theatre that night. He has eight hours to prepare his plan.
10:15 pm: Booth shoots the president, leaps to the stage, and escapes on a waiting horse.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton orders the manhunt to begin. | | April 15 | About 4:00 am: Booth seeks treatment for a broken leg at Dr. Samuel Mudd's farm near Beantown, Maryland. Cavalry patrol heads south toward Mudd farm.
Confederate operative Thomas Jones hides Booth in a remote pine thicket for five days, frustrating the manhunters. | | April 19 | Tens of thousands watch the procession to the U.S. Capitol, where President Lincoln lies in state. Wild rumors and stories of false sightings of Booth spread. | | | | April 20 | Stanton offers a $100,000 reward for the assassins, and threatens death to any citizen who helps them.
After hiding Booth in Maryland, Jones puts him in a rowboat on the Potomac River, bound for Virginia. More than a thousand manhunters are still searching in Maryland. In the dark, Booth rows the wrong way and first ends up back in Maryland. | | April 20-24 | Booth lands in the northern neck of Virginia, and Confederate agents and sympathizers guide him to Port Conway, Virginia. | | April 24 | Booth befriends three Confederate soldiers who help him cross the Rappahannock River to Port Royal and then guide him further southwest to the Garrett farm.
Union troops in Washington receive a report of a Booth sighting. They board a U.S. Navy tug and steam south, right past Booth's hideout at the Garrett farm. | | April 25 | The 16th New York Calvary, realizing their error, turns around and surrounds the Garrett farm after midnight that night. | | | | April 26 | When Booth refuses to surrender, troops set the barn on fire, and Boston Corbett shoots the assassin. Booth dies a few hours later, at sunrise. | | April 26-27 | Booth's body is brought back to Washington, where it is autopsied, photographed, and buried in a secret grave. | | |
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