James W. Pumphrey - Temporary Imprisonment

Temporary Imprisonment

In the turmoil that followed Lincoln's assassination, scores of suspected accomplices were arrested and thrown into prison by the United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton vigorously pursued the apprehension and prosecution of the conspirators involved in Lincoln's assassination. All the people who were discovered to have had anything to do with the assassination or anyone with the slightest contact with Booth or Herold on their flight were put behind bars. Pumphrey, having supplied the get away horse, was jailed. Ultimately, the suspects were narrowed down to a group of eight prisoners—seven men and one woman—and, along with many others, Pumphrey was released.

On May 15, 1865, Pumphrey testified for the Prosecution and described the horse he provided to Booth and the details of how that transaction came about.

Pumphrey's last part in the events surrounding the assassination was to wait mounted on his horse for hours outside the Old Arsenal Penitentiary. He waited in the hope of having the privilege of carrying President Andrew Johnson's reprieve to Mary Surratt. While Pumphrey regarded Mrs. Surratt as wholly innocent and exhibited the deepest sympathy for her, no reprieve was to come. On July 7, 1865, she was hanged with three of the other conspirators.