Christian Rath (October 22, 1831 – February 14, 1920) was a German-American soldier and businessman. Among his duties as an officer in the U.S. Army was to act as the executioner for several of the conspirators in the

assassination of Abraham Lincoln On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play '' Our American Cousin'' at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, L ...

Early life

Rath was born to Johann Adam and Anna Marie (Schlee) Rath in

Pfalzgrafenweiler Pfalzgrafenweiler ( Swabian: ''Pfalzgrofeweiler'') is a municipality in the district of Freudenstadt in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The Counts of Tübingen had a large castle located at Pfalzgrafenweiler in the 13th and 14th centuri ...

Landkreis Freudenstadt Freudenstadt is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Rastatt, Calw, Tübingen, Zollernalbkreis, Rottweil and the Ortenaukreis. History The district was created ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, in modern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. At the age of 18, he left home to participate in the

revolutionary movement A revolutionary movement (or revolutionary social movement) is a specific type of social movement dedicated to carrying out a revolution. Criteria Charles Tilly defines it as "a social movement advancing exclusive competing claims to control o ...

sweeping the region at that time. At the age of 19, he emigrated to the United States. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

for a brief time, and then settled in

Jackson, Michigan Jackson is a city in Jackson County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 31,309 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along Interstate 94 in Michigan, Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 127 in Michigan, U.S ...

U.S. Army service

After the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Rath enlisted in the 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Execution of Lincoln conspirators

While detailed to the staff of Major General John F. Hartranft, Rath was assigned various duties related to the executions by

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

Mary Surratt Mary Elizabeth Surratt (; 1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 18 ...

, Lewis Paine,

David Herold David Edgar Herold (June 16, 1842 – July 7, 1865) was an American pharmacist's assistant and accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. After the shooting, Herold accompanied Booth to the home o ...

, and

George Atzerodt George Andrew Atzerodt (June 12, 1835 – July 7, 1865) was a German American repairman, Confederate sympathizer, and conspirator in the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was assigned to assassinate Vice President And ...

on July 7, 1865, due their guilty verdicts stemming from the

. These duties included making and hanging the nooses, giving the command for the prisoners to be hung, and arranging for their bodies to be put into coffins and buried.

Later life

Rath was discharged from the Union Army on July 19, 1865, twelve days after his participation in the execution, and returned to his home in Jackson, Michigan.

References

1831 births 1920 deaths Union army officers Emigrants from the German Confederation to the United States People associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln American executioners People from Jackson, Michigan People of Michigan in the American Civil War Shoemakers {{US-army-bio-stub