At the close of the war , Howe served in the honor guard that stood watch over the corpse of Abraham Lincoln , and soon afterward was appointed as a member of the military commission that tried the Lincoln conspirators . Howe did not make any public comments on the conviction or hanging of Mary E. Surratt , but was not among the five officers who petitioned President Andrew Johnson to commute her sentence to life in prison . Both assignments may indicate that the Radical Republican faction in the Congress found him useful and sympathetic . He also served in the Freedmen 's Bureau in 1865 . Howe was mustered out of the volunteer service on July 15 , 1866
Lincoln conspirators
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Albion P. Howe