Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse

New York: William Morrow; HarperCollinsPublishers, 2004. Pictorial boards, xiv, 464 pages, illustrations, maps: 24 cm. Tight, clean copy. Stated First Edition. Fine DJ. A fine copy of the first printing. "'New York Times'-bestselling author of 'Manhunt' returns to the Civil War era to tell the epic story of the search for Jefferson Davis and the eventful funeral procession for assassinated president Abraham Lincoln. On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, received a telegram from General Robert E. Lee. There is no more time the Yankees are coming, it warned. Shortly before midnight, Davis boarded a train from Richmond and fled the capital, setting off an intense chase as Union cavalry hunted the Confederate president. Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the conspiracy. To the Union, Davis was no longer merely a traitor, but a murderer. Lincoln's murder, autopsy, and White House funeral transfixed the nation. Millions watched the funeral train roll by on its way to Illinois, in the largest and most magnificent funeral pageant in American history. Meanwhile, Davis was hunted down and placed in captivity, the beginning of an intense and dramatic odyssey that would transform him into a martyr of the South's Lost Cause." - Publisher.. 1st. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 8vo. Collectible.