The Conspiracy Between John Wilkes Booth and the Union Army to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln

April 26, 1865, 2:45 A.M.: Lt. Col. Everton Conger, United States Army, intently watched the man inside Richard Garrett s burning barn. He watched as the man threw down his weapon to surrender to the 16th New York Cavalry. A shot rang out and the unarmed man fell to the ground. Lt. Luther Baker and some enlisted men entered the barn and carried the man to the veranda of Richard Garrett s house. Col. Conger stayed there for ten minutes emptying the man s pockets before leaving for Washington. The man, in the meantime, had died. Lt. Edward Doherty, commanding officer of the Sixteenth United States Cavalry had a huge problem. The dead man did not look like John Wilkes Booth. Doherty had the task of getting the body to Washington for identification and then of disposing of it. The trick was to do so without arousing the suspicions of the citizens who were desperately awaiting news about the man who killed President Lincoln. This is the story of the assassination whose perpetrators were hidden for 150 years. The meticulous preparations of the conspirators are brought to light by the documents and evidence that was collected at the time, but obscured from public view in the national archives.