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| | Surratt House Museum/Lincoln Assassination/John Wilkes Booth |
 | | Benn Pitman, brother of Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-97), the inventor of the Pitman stenographic system, or phonetic shorthand, and himself an inventor of a shorthand system modeled after that of his cousin, was chief of the team of five stenographic reporters who recorded the trial of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. |
 | | Pitman applied to, and was commissioned by, the War Department to compile, at his own expense, trial testimony, documents introduced in evidence, the discussion of points of law raised during the trial, the addresses of the counsel for the accused, the reply of the Special Judge Advocate, and the findings and sentences of the Commission. |
 | | Pitman's one-volume work, published in 1865 in Pitman's home town of Cincinnati by publishers Moore, Wilstach and Baldwin, summarizes the testimony given at the Conspiracy Trial in narrative form, and arranges the testimony in a logical framework relating to the prosecution and defense of each defendant. |
| www.surratt.org /documents/dpitman.html (769 words) |
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