Continuing on page 73, Hanchett wrote, "How credible were the witnesses? Even while the trial was in progress a flood of letters and affidavits denouncing Merritt, Montgomery, and Conover as liars and imposters was published in Canadian newspapers and reprinted in the United States."
Moving on to page 81, Hanchett wrote:
In fall 1866 Conover was discovered and arrested and brought to Washington to stand trial under his real name, Charles A. Dunham, for perjury and the suborning of perjury. Sentenced to prison for ten years, he confessed that he had coached the lying witnesses in their stories in order to take revenge against Confederate President Davis, by whose order he had been imprisoned for six months in 1863 in Castle Thunder prison, Richmond. But he continued to insist that his testimony against Davis and the Confederate agents in Canada given at the 1865 conspiracy trial was strictly true, and on this point Holt supported him for the rest of his life.In a December 1866 letter to the president, Holt once again urged a military trial for Davis, despite the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Ex parte Milligan that such trials were illegal in areas where the civil courts were open and functioning. No part of the May 2nd proclamation, Holt assured Johnson, had been based on information supplied by Conover, whom he had not even known at that time. The proclamation had been based chiefly upon the testimony of Merritt and Montgomery, as corroborated by many other witnesses. Its validity, he reminded the president, had been confirmed by the military commission, which, "after a long and patient investigation," arrived at verdicts of guilty for each of the eight defendants. The guilt of Davis had "thus become [a] matter of solemn record, and this record stands unimpeached."
If Holt really believed that the record of the military commission stood unimpeached and that the Confederate leaders had been proved guilty as charged, he was doubtless the only member of the administration who did. In May 1867 Davis was released from prison on bail. He was never brought to trial.
And there was perjurer Henry Von Steineker, alias Hans H. Vonwinklestein. On September 2, 1864 Private Von Steineker was court-martialed for "desertion" from the U.S. Army and found guilty. He was dishonorably discharged and sentenced to three years at hard labor. On May 12, 1865 he winds up testifying as a witness for the prosecution in the Lincoln assassination tribunal. On May 30, 1865 General Edward Johnson, then a prisoner of war, testified of Von Steineker, "he belonged to the Second Virginia Infantry, of the Stonewall Brigade, which was one of the brigades of my division." Mr. Aiken asked, "Q. Was he the subject of a court-martial at any time in your camp, and, if so, for what?" Judge Advocate Bingham objected: "I object to the question. The record of such a court-martial would be the only competent evidence of conviction, and if the record were here, it would not impart any verity. I do not think there were any courts in Virginia in those days that could legally try a dog." Mr. Aiken: "Under the circumstances, parol testimony of the fact is the best that can be offered, and therefore I presume it will not be seriously objected to." Mr. Aiken was wrong. The Commission then sustained the objection. Quotations are from the Pitman record of the Trial.
Pitman Assassination Trial Transcript Page 38
Henry Von Steineker.
For the Prosecution. - May 12. [1865]
I was in the Confederate service as an engineer officer in the Topographical Department, with the pay of an engineer, and was on the staff of General Edward Johnson. Altogether I was in the service nearly three years. In the summer of '63, being at Swift Run Gap, near Harrisonburg, I was overtaken by three citizens, and rode with them some eighteen or twenty hours. The name of one was Booth and another Shepherd.
[A photograph of John Wilkes Booth being shown to the witness, he identified a resemblance between it and the person referred to. The photograph was offered in evidence.]
I was asked by Booth, and also by the others, what I thought of the probable success of the Confederacy. I told them, after such a chase as we had just had from Gettysburg, I thought it looked very gloomy. Booth replied, ''That is nonsense. If we only act our part, the Confederacy will gain its independence. Old Abe Lincoln must go up the spout, and the Confederacy will gain its independence any how." By this expression I understood he meant the President must be killed. He said that as soon as the Confederacy was nearly giving out, or as soon as they were nearly whipped, that this would be their final resource to gain their independence. The other two engaged in the conversation, and assented to Booth's sentiments.
They being splendidly mounted, and my horse being nearly broken down, they left me the next day. Three or four days afterward, when I came to the camp of the Second Virginia Regiment, I found there three citizens, and was formally introduced by Captain Randolph to Booth and Stevens. That evening there was a secret meeting of the officers, and the three citizens were also present. I was afterward informed of the purpose of the meeting by Lieutenant Cockrell of the Second Virginia Regiment, who was present. It was to send certain officers on "detached service" to Canada and the "borders " to release rebel prisoners, to lay Northern cities in ashes, and finally to get possession of the members of the Cabinet and kill the President. This "detached service" was a nickname in the Confederate army for this sort of warfare. I have heard these things spoken of, perhaps, a thousand times before I was informed it was the purpose discussed at this meeting, but I always considered it common braggadocio. I have freely heard it spoken of in the streets of Richmond among those connected with the rebel Government. Cockrell belonged, I believe, to the Second Virginia Regiment, and to the same company to which Captain Beall belonged, who was executed at Governor's Island. Cockrell told me that Beall was on "detached service," and that we would hear of him.
I have heard mention made of the existence of secret orders for certain purposes to assist the Confederacy. One I frequently heard of was called a Golden Circle, and several times I heard the name of the "Sons of Liberty."
[No cross-examination.]
And here is a document on Von Steinaker from the records of the Judge Advocate in charge of the prosecution.
This appears to be sort of a modus operandi with these cases. In the assassination conspiracy trial, Gen. Lew Wallace was a member of the panel. In theWirz trial, Gen. Lew Wallace was the head of the panel. In each case the U.S. government prosecutor used a U.S. Army deserter testifying under a false name to provide perjured testimony.
In the assassination conspiracy trial a copy of the General Court Martial Orders of September 2, 1864 was later found with the files of the judge advocate in charge. The document serves as proof that Von Steinaker was a convicted U.S. Army deserter who was dishonorably discharged and sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for three years.
From a General Court-Martial sentence of DD and 3 years imprisonment on 9/2/1864 we find Von Steinaker testifying on 5/12/1865.
Note: The photo purported to be of John Wilkes Booth, identified as trial exhibit #1, was actually a photo of his brother, Edwin Booth.
The trial exhibit list identifies the photo only as "Booth's Portrait," which was legally accurate whether the photo was of John Willkes Booth, Edwin Booth, or Shirley Booth.
In his closing argument, prosecutor John Bingham referred to "the photograph which is of record here." (Pitman trial transcript, page 400) Mr. Bingham was being legally accurate as well.