It's April 25, 1865, and the American Civil War has been over for less than two weeks.

On a tobacco farm in Virginia, a swarm of union troops and detectives

encircle a small barn that has a wanted man inside.

Detective Everton Conger, a former union officer, creeps toward the barn and tosses a flaming

torch onto a pile of kindling his men placed around the exterior of the barn moments ago.

The pine needles, twigs, and hay quickly catch fire, and soon flames engulf the

wooden timbers of the barn. Illuminated by the fiery glow, Conger can see the silhouette of the fugitive

inside. He has a clear shot, but Conger and his men are under strict orders to take this criminal

alive. So Conger and his officers creep to the door of the

barn, ready to make an arrest. They know it's only a matter of time before the fugitive makes

run for it. The wind is wailing, and the fire has been whipped into a roaring inferno. No one could

withstand the heat and smoke for long. But then, amidst the roar of the fire, a shot rings out.

Conger looks through the wooden slats to see the fugitive fall to his knees.

Conger is furious. One of his men disobeyed orders, but there's no time to deal with that right now.

Conger bursts into the burning barn and drags the wounded criminal away from

the inferno. The soldiers and detectives placed a fugitive beneath a nearby locust tree. And there,

as the life drains from his eyes, the actor John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln,

utters his final words, useless, useless.

When John Wilkes Booth shot and ultimately killed President Lincoln, the union was devastated.

But while many mourned the death of their president, one man took control, the Secretary of War

Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton immediately declared martial law, and then presided over the largest

manhunt in U.S. history that eventually led to Booth's dramatic death and the capture of his many

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