SURRATT. BOOTH. HEROLD.
WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington,
April 20, 1865.
$100,000 REWARD.
The murderer
Of our late beloved
President, Abraham Lincoln,
is still at large.
Fifty thousand dollars reward
will be paid by this
Department for his apprehension, in addition to any reward offered by municipal
authorities or State executives.
Twenty-five thousand dollars reward
will be paid for the
apprehension of John H. Surratt,
one of Booth's accomplices.
Twenty-five thousand dollars reward
will be paid for the
apprehension of David E. Herold, another
of Booth's accomplices.
Liberal rewards will be paid for any information that shall conduce arrest of either of the above-named criminals or their accomplices. All persons harboring or secreting the said persons, or either of them, or aiding or assisting their concealment or escape, will be treated as accomplices in the murder of the President and the attempted assassination of the Secretary of State, and shall be subject to trial before a military commission and the punishment of death.
Let the stain of innocent blood be removed from the land by
the arrest and punishment of the murderers.
All good citizens are exhorted to aid public justice on this
occasion. Every man should consider his own conscience charged with this solemn
duty, and rest neither night nor day until it be accomplished.
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary
of War.
Descriptions. — Booth is five feet seven or eight
inches high, slender build, high forehead, black hair, black eyes, and wore a
heavy black mustache, which there is some reason to believe has been shaved
off.
John H. Surratt is about five feet
nine inches. Hair rather thin and dark; eyes rather light; no beard. Would
weigh 145 or 150 pounds. Complexion rather pale and clear, with color in his
cheeks. Wore light clothes of fine quality. Shoulders square; cheek bones
rather prominent; chin narrow; ears projecting at the top; forehead rather low
and square, but broad. Parts his hair on the right side. Neck rather long. His
lips are firmly set. A slim man.
David E. Herold
is five feet six inches high, hair dark, eyes dark, eyebrows rather heavy, full
face, nose short, hand short and fleshy, feet small, instep high, round bodied,
naturally quick and active; slightly closes his eyes when looking at a person.
Notice. — In addition
to the above, State and other authorities have offered rewards amounting to
almost $100,000, making an aggregate of about $200,000.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume
46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 847-8
