Albion
Howe
was born in 1818. He joined the United States
Army and fought in the Mexican War.
In 1859 he served under Robert E. Lee during
the suppression of John Brown at Harper's
Ferry.
On the outbreak of the American Civil War
Howe served with General George McClellan.
Promoted to brigadier general in June, 1862, and took part in the
battle at Antietam and Gettysburg.
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated
in April, 1865, Holt joined Edwin M. Stanton,
Secretary of War and James Speed, the
Attorney General, in calling for the conspirators to be tried by the
military commission. The new president, Andrew
Johnson, agreed and ordered the formation of a nine-man military
commission. This included Howe, David Hunter,
Robert Foster, August
Kautz,, Lewis Wallace and Thomas
Harris. The Attorney General, James Speed,
selected Joseph Holt and John
Bingham as the government's chief prosecutors.
Mary Surratt, Lewis Paine, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel
Mudd, Michael O'Laughlin, Edman
Spangler and Samuel Arnold were
all charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln. During the trial the
chief prosecutor, Joseph Holt, attempted
to persuade the military commission that Jefferson
Davis and the Confederate government had been involved in conspiracy.
Holt attempted to obscure the fact that there were two plots: the
first to kidnap and the second to assassinate. It was important for
the prosecution not to reveal the existence of a diary taken from
the body of John Wilkes Booth. The diary
made it clear that the assassination plan dated from 14th April. The
defence surprisingly did not call for Booth's diary to be produced
in court.
On 29th June, 1865 Mary Surratt, Lewis
Paine, George Atzerodt, David
Herold, Samuel Mudd, Michael
O'Laughlin, Edman Spangler and
Samuel Arnold were found guilty of being
involved in the conspiracy to murder Abraham
Lincoln. Surratt, Paine, Atzerodt and Herold were hanged at Washington
Penitentiary on 7th July, 1865.
After the was Howe became Colonel of the 4th
United States Army. Albion Howe died in 1897.
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