Rare carte-de-visite (CDV) photograph of the Lincoln Assassination trial commission, a military tribunal that presided over the most prominent criminal trial of the 19th century. Published by Brady in 1865, few copies of this image survive. All participants are shown “from life”, making the view more desirable. Present in this photograph are all nine members of the military commission, Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, and Assistant Judge Advocates Bingham & Burnett.

The group shown presided over a seven-week trial that included the testimony of 366 witnesses. All of the defendants were found guilty on June 30. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by hanging; Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison. Edmund Spangler was sentenced to six years. Presented with the heaviest of burdens, it is generally believed that the commission acted in a fair and competent manner while deciding the fates of the conspirators.


[Lincoln Assassination, Civil War, Confederate, Early Photography, CDV] [Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Tintype, CDV, Albumen, carte-de-visite, Salt print, Cabinet Card] [Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Abraham Lincoln, Abolition, Union, Confederate, Frederick Douglass, Robert E. Lee, Abolitionist, Slave, Slavery, 13th Amendment, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg, John Wilkes Booth]