Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton Character Analysis in Chasing Lincoln’s Killer

The tough and practical Secretary of War, Stanton had a great organizational mind and was responsible for whipping the Union Army into shape. On the night that Lincoln was shot, Stanton took charge of the situation, securing the house where the president lay dying from the mobs outside and issuing orders to protect other important members of the government. He led the first phases of the manhunt, then recruited Lafayette Baker and others to help share this responsibility, while he continued to pursue the final battles of the war.

Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton Quotes in Chasing Lincoln’s Killer

The Chasing Lincoln’s Killer quotes below are all either spoken by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton or refer to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

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). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Scholastic Press edition of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer published in 2009.

Stanton knew that if any person in Washington deserved a precious lock of the martyr’s hair, it was Mary Jane Welles. She later framed the cherished relic with dried flowers that had decorated Abraham Lincoln’s coffin at the White House funeral. Stanton gazed down at his fallen chief and wept.

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Page Number and Citation: 105

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Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton Character Timeline in Chasing Lincoln’s Killer

The timeline below shows where the character Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton appears in Chasing Lincoln’s Killer. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...historic moment. Later, Lincoln conducted a meeting with his cabinet, including Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. Welles wrote in his diary that Lincoln had... (full context)

Planning, Conspiracy, and the Unexpected Theme Icon

The news reached Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a man Lincoln had entrusted through the war to shape the Union Army into an... (full context)

Welles and Stanton then rode a carriage towards Ford’s Theatre to learn whether the stories they were hearing... (full context)

Unable to move through the crowd in their carriage, Stanton and Welles, despite the possible danger, got out and walked through the crowd, pushing towards... (full context)

Stanton arrived at the Petersen house and took charge of the situation. He could see that... (full context)

Stanton then launched a criminal investigation into the attack. He would take the lead in this,... (full context)

...father again before his death, and then she fell on the floor in a faint. Stanton cruelly sent her from the room. (full context)

Stanton was gathering clues. Based on the letter found in Booth’s hotel room, he believed that... (full context)

...Lincoln died at 7:22 AM on April 15, 1865. Reverend Gurley said a prayer, and Stanton wrote a telegram to spread the news of the president’s death to all Americans. Lincoln’s... (full context)

Once the room where Lincoln had died emptied out, Stanton cut a lock of Lincoln’s hair as a memento. He put the lock of hair... (full context)

John Surratt, whom Stanton suspected of killing Seward, was in upstate New York on the day of the attacks.... (full context)

...of the government was still intact and no rebel army had stormed the capital. Now Stanton’s focus was on capturing Booth and his co-conspirators before they made it into the Deep... (full context)

Back at Ford’s Theatre, Stanton ordered one of Lincoln’s regular photographers to document the scene of the president’s assassination. That... (full context)

Edwin Stanton had already spent too much of his energy on the manhunt. After all, the war... (full context)

With two of the four central conspirators in captivity, Stanton issued a proclamation. He would pay $100,000 for Lincoln’s killers: Booth, Herold, and John Surratt.... (full context)

Meanwhile, the investigation was changing course. Lafayette Baker, a favorite of Stanton’s, was deceitful and egotistical in his approach to the manhunt. He wanted to capture the... (full context)

...his misery, but Conger told him they wanted him to get well. Back in Washington, Stanton wanted to interrogate Booth, whom he thought was only a pawn in a larger Confederate... (full context)

...for transfer back to Washington. Conger rode ahead, hoping to be the first to tell Stanton the news that Booth was dead. In Washington, Conger and Baker presented Stanton with Booth’s... (full context)

Stanton put eight defendants on trial: Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, Samuel Arnold,... (full context)