A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865.

WEICHMANN, Louis J. Edited by Floyd E. Risvold.

Item Number: 110681

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975.

First edition of Weichmann’s firsthand account of the trial of the conspirators involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Octavo, bound in the publisher’s full red morocco with black spine labels lettered in gilt, top edge red, patterned endpapers, frontispiece portrait of Weichmann. One of 50 numbered copies signed by the editor and with a page from the second copy of Weichmann’s original typed manuscript tipped in at rear, this is number 33. Fine in the original slipcase which is in fine condition.

Louis J. Weichmann was one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution in the trial of the alleged conspirators involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, due his residence in the boarding house of Mary Surratt, where well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, Lewis Payne, George Atzerodt, and his close friend John Surratt regularly met. Lincoln assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the United States government. Conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson. Beyond Lincoln's death, the plot failed: Seward was only wounded and Johnson's would-be attacker lost his nerve. After a dramatic initial escape, Booth was killed at the climax of a 12-day manhunt. Powell, Herold, Atzerodt and Mary Surratt were later hanged for their roles in the conspiracy.