The Trial Today: May 23

Here’s a sample of what occurred on this day in the Lincoln conspiracy trial:

• The Grand Review of the Armies started on this day, preventing the expected witnesses from appearing.
• The defense attorneys signaled their agreement to start their cases during the next session so long as the future prosecution witnesses had no bearing on their individual clients’s cases.
• David Herold spent additional time in the courtroom after the proceedings ended in order to complete some writing. Sadly, we do not know what his written statement consisted of.

The May 23, 1865 entry for the trial of the Lincoln assassination conspirators is now released and has more information. Please click here to access it. You can also access it through The Trial homepage.

Throughout May and June of 2020, I am publishing a day by day chronology of the trial of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. This includes almost daily posts announcing the release of what happened at the conspiracy trial 155 years ago. For more information about the creation of this project please click here.