the first pursuer
the kentucky Giant who Chased Lincoln’s Assassin and personified a turbulent nation
Coming Soon: The story you’ve heard about the Lincoln assassination is wrong. Joe Barry’s debut book corrects the false notion that the audience at Ford’s Theatre sat passively after John Wilkes Booth landed onstage. In fact, prominent Washington, D.C. lawyer Joseph B. Stewart jumped out of his front-row seat and chased Booth out of the theater. Joe analyzes the events of that fateful night in remarkable detail, relying on archival records from the two conspiracy trials, personal memoirs, newspapers, and other primary sources.
In The First Pursuer: The Kentucky Giant Who Chased Lincoln’s Assassin and Personified a Turbulent Nation, Joe chronicles the life of Joseph B. Stewart from an upstart Kentucky lawyer to the “Big Boss of the Lobby” in the nation’s capital. Stewart participated in many key developments—and was present during countless watershed moments—that shaped America’s growth into a world power. Joseph B. Stewart could rightfully be referred to as the Forrest Gump of nineteenth century America.
With a keen eye on the historic parallels to modern challenges, Joe transports the reader to a deadly race riot in Louisville; intense lobbying for the transcontinental railroad; an international controversy that led to the ouster of a foreign ambassador; a forgotten moment in civil rights history; Gilded Age corruption; and the chaotic post-Reconstruction South. Along the way, we gain insights into President Abraham Lincoln’s sense of justice, and individual accounts of service and sacrifice.
In chronicling Stewart’s rapid rise and dramatic descent, The First Pursuer illustrates America’s unconquered demons as a stark reminder of democracy’s fragility.