Photographs of John Wilkes Booth posing with unidentified men

chubachus

First Sergeant
Joined
Nov 27, 2014
Location
Virginia
PEdZQ0a.jpg

"Photograph of John Wilkes Booth and others from Otto Eisenschiml's book 'Why was Lincoln murdered.'"


bgGppuk.jpg

"A series of seven photographs of John Wilkes Booth with others."

Has anyone ever come across any of their identities? My best guess is that Booth is posing with other actors and that the two men in uniform wouldn't be actual officers.

Source 1.
Source 2.

This page which claims to have every known Booth photo has an additional one of Booth with two of the men: http://boothiebarn.com/picture-galleries/jwb-photos/
 
My hunch is that your hunch is correct--actors, rather than soldiers. It would be interesting to know if these photos sparked any particular conspiracy investigation among Union troops after the assassination.
 
You can read Eisenschiml's book here:

https://archive.org/stream/whywaslincolnmur00eise#page/n5/mode/2up

The picture in the OP doesn't appear in this edition of the book, so I'm not sure what significance the author may draw from it. Booth was well-known as an actor, but (AFAIK) not particularly suspected of actively working on behalf of the Confederacy prior to the assassination. So even if they are legitimately Union officers, I'm not sure that would mean anything.
 
Last edited:
You can read Eisenschiml's book here:

https://archive.org/stream/whywaslincolnmur00eise#page/n5/mode/2up

The picture in the OP doesn't appear in this edition of the book, so I'm not sure what significance the author may draw from it. Booth was well-known as an actor, but (AFAIK) not particularly suspected of actively working on behalf of the Confederacy prior to the assassination. So even if they are legitimately Union officers, I'm not sure that would mean anything.

Yeah, I recall now that I checked that version when I first found the photos to no avail so I assume the photos are either in other versions or else were axed from all of them.

Another source I have been trying to find more about too is "John Wilkes Booth Himself" which is said to have almost every photo of Booth but sells for astronomical sums online: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0960225609/?tag=civilwartalkc-20
 
Last edited:
Back
Top