Booknotes: The Million-Dollar Man Who Helped Kill a President

New Arrival:
• The Million-Dollar Man Who Helped Kill a President: George Washington Gayle and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Christopher Lyle McIlwain, Sr. (Savas Beatie, 2018).

I don't have a great sense of when the modern peak period was (perhaps the years surrounding the publication of Blood on the Moon), but it does seem like Lincoln assassination books appear with lesser frequency these days. The spigot is never turned off, though.

Christopher McIlwain is one of those many lawyers drawn to writing serious Civil War history. The author of a companion pair of well-received Alabama state histories—Civil War Alabama (2016) and 1865 Alabama: From Civil War to Uncivil Peace (2017)—he now turns his attention to a lesser-known figure in Lincoln assassination studies. His new book The Million-Dollar Man Who Helped Kill a President argues that the true motivating force behind John Wilkes Booth's determination to kill the president was money raised by radical secessionist lawyer George Washington Gayle.

From the description: "The deadly scheme to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward was Gayle’s brainchild. The assassins were motivated by money Gayle raised. Lots of money. $20,000,000 in today’s value. Gayle, a prominent South Carolina-born Alabama lawyer, had been a Unionist and Jacksonian Democrat before walking the road of radicalization following the admission of California as a free state in 1850. Thereafter, he became Alabama’s most earnest secessionist, though he would never hold any position within the Confederate government or serve in its military. After the slaying of the president, Gayle was arrested and taken to Washington, DC in chains to be tried by a military tribunal for conspiracy in connection with the horrendous crimes."

Apparently, Gayle became pretty widely known across the country for soliciting funds for an assassin's bounty (thus the "Million-Dollar Man" sobriquet) after publicly advertising his intentions in a newspaper. According to McIlwain, historians generally dismiss Gayle's direct involvement with the plot, but the author attempts in the book to demonstrate otherwise, though he readily admits that his case is based only on circumstantial evidence. It might have the greatest bibliography size (50+ packed pages) to page length (140 pages of narrative) ratio of any study I've come across.

More from the description: "There is little doubt that if Gayle had been tried, he would have been convicted and executed. However, he not only avoided trial, but ultimately escaped punishment of any kind for reasons that will surprise readers." You'll have to read the book to find out.