The Lincoln Conspirators at Fort Jefferson

[Dave Taylor]

Forgive the shameless self-promotion, but this evening, I have just published the first part of an eight-part video series about the Lincoln assassination conspirators who were imprisoned at Fort Jefferson. My wife Jen and I visited the Dry Tortugas back in March of 2023 and spent the bulk of our three-night camping trip shooting footage with my phone. After letting the footage languish on my computer for the last year and a half, I have finally attempted to edit it all together. I'm no Ken Burns, but as far as homemade YouTube documentaries go, it's not bad.

This first video is about the geography of the Dry Tortugas, the construction of the fort, and the Civil War.

https://youtu.be/KUmaGodxyUQ

The next part (which I'll post in a few days) gets into the introduction of prisoners to the fort, the assassination of Lincoln, and the arrival of the conspirators. From that point on, I relied heavily on the work of fellow forum member Robert Summers, who gets a special credit at the end of the series.

[RJNorton]

Wonderful, Dave!!

[Rob Wick]

Well done, Dave! This was something I was not aware of.

Best
Rob

[Dave Taylor]

Thank you, Roger and Rob. I'm glad you've enjoyed the first part and have learned something new. I may not be teaching anymore, but that educational background never leaves you (as Roger rightly knows).

As a preview of coming attractions, here's a transition shot I made using a historical image of the entrance to the dungeon cell in which Dr. Mudd and the gang were placed and a modern photograph of the same area. I couldn't get everything to line up exactly, but it's pretty close.