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Lincoln conspirator hood
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This is one of the canvas hoods Secretary of War Edwin
M. Stanton ordered to be made and placed over the heads
of the eight Lincoln conspirators during their confinement
in the Old Penitentiary. The hood covered the entire head,
except for a small opening at the mouth to allow for eating.
It was tied securely around the neck and was all the more
stifling given the sultriness of Washington’s early
summer weather. Mrs. Surratt was not made to wear a hood
for fear of public indignation.
In addition to being confined in separate cells, each
prisoner was placed in wrist irons and anklets connected
to a seventy-five-pound ball. These medieval-like measures
were all taken on the orders of Secretary Stanton, who
believed at the time that Lincoln’s assassination
was the result of a Confederate plot. |
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Division of Social History, Political History
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Behring Center
Transfer from the U.S. War Department
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