In chasing lincoln's killer how does the setting contribute to the intensity of the manhunt

After the attacks, Booth was on the run. He and a man working for him named David Herold escaped to the home of a man by the name of Samuel A. Mudd and rested/hid there for a few days. After they left the Mudd residence, they jumped from house to house, searching for shelter. After being turned down by one family, the men spent a few days hiding inside a pine thicket. Booth and Herold traveled from state to state and town to town trying to hide from the manhunt. Eventually, the soldiers tracked him down and killed him where he was hiding in a tobacco barn at a farmhouse in Virginia.