Editing Winfield Scott Hancock (section)

===Execution of Lincoln assassination conspirators===
[[File:Execution Lincoln assassins.jpg|thumb|The [[Capital punishment|execution]] of the [[Abraham Lincoln assassination|Lincoln assassination]] conspirators, July 7, 1865]]
At the close of the war, Hancock was assigned to supervise the execution of the conspirators in the [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|assassination of President Abraham Lincoln]].<ref>Jordan, p. 177.</ref> Lincoln had been assassinated on April 14, 1865, and by May 9 of that year, a military commission had been convened to try the accused.<ref>Trefousse, pp. 211–12; Jordan, pp. 176–77.</ref> The actual assassin, [[John Wilkes Booth]], was already dead, but the trial of his co-conspirators proceeded quickly, resulting in convictions. President [[Andrew Johnson]] ordered the executions to be carried out on July 7. Although he was reluctant to execute some of the less-culpable conspirators, especially [[Mary Surratt]], Hancock carried out his orders, later writing that "every soldier was bound to act as I did under similar circumstances."<ref>Jordan, pp. 179–80; Tucker, p. 272.</ref>