Post by dustdevil28 on Jul 19, 2012 13:42:37 GMT -8
by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.
A very well written book. It is written as though in a first person account as the events around President Lincoln's assasination unfold. The sights and the smells, the accents, the clothing, the inner thoughts of the individuals are discussed during each event giving the reader an intimate feel for each scene as though they were there.
One oddity that I did not realise before was the conspiracy theory's around Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's supposed involvement in the plot. The theory follows the fact that Stanton at one point employed an individual named Lafayette Baker as a spy against the Confederacy. Baker was known as a man with no loyalties except to those that paid him the most money. Following an incident where he was caught tapping into Stanton's personnel telegraph line, Stanton let him go. Baker than when to New York where he remained. Following Lincoln's assassination Stanton requested Baker come down to DC and assist in the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. Baker does this, and despite many other military and police forces on the scene Baker is able to correctly deduce where Booth will likely be in Virginia and sends in the police forces which eventually surround and kill Booth.
This oddity, along with Baker's connection with a bank in Canada which also served as a front for the Confederacy to pay Booth for espionage during the Civil War brings an unusual connection. Baker himself would later die, the victim of poisoning from an still unknown assailant.
Despite these events, I find the idea of a conspriacy involving Stanton doubtful. For all their differences Lincoln and Stanton got along just fine and while Stanton was a powerful person in Washington, he would have gained little through Lincolns assisination.
-DD
A very well written book. It is written as though in a first person account as the events around President Lincoln's assasination unfold. The sights and the smells, the accents, the clothing, the inner thoughts of the individuals are discussed during each event giving the reader an intimate feel for each scene as though they were there.
One oddity that I did not realise before was the conspiracy theory's around Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's supposed involvement in the plot. The theory follows the fact that Stanton at one point employed an individual named Lafayette Baker as a spy against the Confederacy. Baker was known as a man with no loyalties except to those that paid him the most money. Following an incident where he was caught tapping into Stanton's personnel telegraph line, Stanton let him go. Baker than when to New York where he remained. Following Lincoln's assassination Stanton requested Baker come down to DC and assist in the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. Baker does this, and despite many other military and police forces on the scene Baker is able to correctly deduce where Booth will likely be in Virginia and sends in the police forces which eventually surround and kill Booth.
This oddity, along with Baker's connection with a bank in Canada which also served as a front for the Confederacy to pay Booth for espionage during the Civil War brings an unusual connection. Baker himself would later die, the victim of poisoning from an still unknown assailant.
Despite these events, I find the idea of a conspriacy involving Stanton doubtful. For all their differences Lincoln and Stanton got along just fine and while Stanton was a powerful person in Washington, he would have gained little through Lincolns assisination.
-DD