Planning the Capture of Booth

Alexander Gardner’s long-term relationship with the federal government and the Army of the Potomac gave him unparalleled access to subjects other photographers could not attain, especially in the days following John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of the president. Here, Secret Service Director Colonel Lafayette Baker sits and studies maps of the area where Booth was believed to be hiding in Maryland or Virginia. The portrait, in wood-engraving form, illustrates a long article published by Harper’s Weekly on May 13, 1865. According to the news story, government agents found Booth in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia, and demanded that he surrender. He refused, and when they warned him that soldiers would set fire to the barn, Booth responded: “Well then, my brave boys, prepare a stretcher for me.” Booth was shot as he attempted to escape the conflagration and died three hours later.