John Surratt

[John Stanton]

(05-18-2013 12:40 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  When he was caught he began eating the notes he had on his person. The one thing he couldn't dispose of was a map of Washington's defenses that was in the lining of his coat. Why at that late a date would he have had a map if the Confederacy had no army or plans to exploit any weakness?

Probably to sneak in Harney and his crew for his mission.

A Map isn't necessariy intended solely for the use of a whole army, ONE MAN (or woman) could use that map. (Ask Powell if he would like to have a map.) A full map of Washington could direct a man to a target, or tell him how to stay away from a Danger Zone. When Stringfellow blew his cover- did he do it on purpose? Was he ready to leave Washington, and he wanted the chase to be for him? It is difficult for me to think Stringfellow got careless. Was there another plan afloat, that needed the map? If the map was in the lining of his coat, it was not readily available to him, so it must have been for some other purpose. That needs to be studied, so that it fits into the entire scheme.

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...another thought struck me. Are you aware that the South did have an Army - in hiding? Hiding in the Elmira Prison. IMO Surratt's mission was one part of an immense plan to free those men, and then led by Gen. E. G. Lee (in Canada), march out of Canada, link with the Copperheads, (if they could get anyone to respond )-(( that's another story)), and with the North in disarray - Lincoln was to be eliminated by Easter, they might be able to negotiate a Treaty. I think there was a big plan, that we are not aware of. There were a lot of Spooks, doing a lot of things. Unfortunately for them, not every trick worked - and they lost. I read somewhere, I think it was in that book that a guy named Benjamin wrote about the St. Albans Raiders. In it he described a big plan by Thompson,et. al, to form an army, and attack in the "Northwest Conspiracy' area. I consider this Benjamin guy to be "Prime Source". He described what was going on day by day - as he saw it. It would be helpful if some more researchers dug in that "trash pile", to see if more can be found. A perfect solution would be for a "Round Table" group to make Canada their project, and find out what really happened.