author
T. M. (Thomas Mealey) Harris
1817–1906
Best remembered as a Union general and physician, he also wrote forceful books about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and the trials that followed. His work brings a firsthand, deeply opinionated voice to one of the most charged moments in American history.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1817 in what is now West Virginia, he trained as a physician before serving as a Union officer in the Civil War. He rose to the rank of brevet major general and later became known for his role on the military commission that tried several of the conspirators in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
As an author, he is chiefly associated with books on the Lincoln assassination, including Assassination of Lincoln; a History of the Great Conspiracy and Rome's Responsibility for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Those works reflect his direct involvement in the events after the war and give readers a vivid sense of how fiercely the case was argued in his own time.
He died in 1906. Today, his writing is usually approached as both historical testimony and a window into the strong political and religious views that shaped late nineteenth-century debates about Lincoln’s murder.