Summary

In Chapter 5, Booth and Herold arrived at Surratt's tavern. No one this far from Washington, D.C., yet knew about the assassination. In Washington, news was spreading through the streets. At first, everyone was saying that Seward and Lincoln had both been killed. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton had declined to attend the play with the Lincolns. He visited Seward and then went home. At 10 o'clock, he was preparing for bed. His wife answered the doorbell and a messenger related that Seward was dead. Stanton initially doubted the story because he'd been at Seward's house just an hour earlier. He rushed to the Seward house and found that Seward was alive but that the story of the attack was real. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles arrived at the Seward home and the two men heard that Lincoln had been shot. Stanton...