Renewing Old Acquaintances

[Laurie Verge]

On April 16, 1983, the Surratt Society held its sixteenth Booth Escape Route Tour. There were quite a few "persons of interest" on that tour - including four of us who claimed relationships to the conspirators. There was an Atzerodt kin, a direct Mudd descendant, a supposed relation to David Herold, and a descendant of Mary Surratt via son John.

The Atzerodt kin returned today on another Booth Tour composed of residents around Williamsburg, Virginia. It had been thirty years since we met each other, and we spent an hour catching up while his friends took the tour. His name is Fred Atzrodt (his family dropped the "e" several generations back). Fred is the great-great nephew of George Atzerodt - his great-grandfather being George's brother, Henry (Harry), who fought for the Confederacy through the war before being taken prisoner at Petersburg just twelve days before the assassination.

Harry was sent to Point Lookout Prison Camp here in Southern Maryland. In later years, he became a member of the Maryland Confederate Veterans' Society when it was founded in 1871. This group was comprised of Confederate veterans with spotless war records (a requirement for membership). Other members with familiar names to us were Samuel Arnold, John and Isaac Surratt, and Thomas Jones.

Harry Atzerodt spent his last years in the Confederate Veterans Home in Pikesville, outside of Baltimore, Maryland and was one of only two living there when the Home was closed sometime in the 1930s. He then went to live with Fred's grandfather. I believe that he is buried near York, Pennsylvania.

As soon as I can get the 1983 photo of the four "fugitives" standing by the Garrett Farm sign scanned, I will have Roger post it. The fugitives include Fred, Mary Mudd McHale (great-granddaughter of Dr. Sam), me (who has yet to figure out the "kissing cousin" relationship to Herold), and James Surratt from a North Carolina branch.

One of the things Fred brought along was a manifest of who was on that tour. Included are some familiar names to us old-timers in the field: James O. Hall (our narrator), John C. Brennan and Father Robert Keesler (two of our original godfathers), Dr. Joseph George of Villanova University (who wrote and lectured on Mary Surratt), two granddaughters of James B. Haliday (a bodyguard for Lincoln, Grant, and Johnson), Frank Hebblethwaite (then-curator for the NPS at Ford's Theatre), Mike Kauffman (author of American Brutus), Art Loux (author of John Wilkes Booth Day by Day and member of this forum), Percy and Ray Martin (experts on the Sam Arnold story), Dr. Ernest Miller (wrote John Wilkes Booth Oilman), Guy Moore (author of The Case of Mrs. Surratt), Betty Ownsbey (who's she?), and Ed Steers (prolific author and member of this forum).

Good memories and good friends.