John Minchin Lloyd - Who was he...really?

[L Verge]

It was James O. Hall who pointed out the fact that John Atzerodt was drinking in the tavern on March 18 when the conspiratorial trio arrived with the supplies after the aborted kidnapping. I remember well sitting in the room upstairs at Surratt House and having my jaw drop when I heard Mr. Hall say that. In all my readings, I had never run across that information. It was during a training session for new docents in either late-1975 or early-1976.

The Surratt Tavern was a very popular stop for many people - including Union forces - throughout the war, so I don't think it would have been that strange for the two brothers to meet by accident there. And, I'm sure that Mr. Lloyd knew enough to keep his mouth shut around John Surratt, Jr. Don't bite the hand that's giving you a roof over your head. Remember also that John Lloyd came from a long line of Virginians and had also been farming in Allen's Fresh in Charles County, a hamlet very close to the Potomac and the blockade running trade. I'm quite sure we can suspicion where his sympathies might lie. Like others, however, he did not bargain for full-fledged assassination.