John Surratt

[John Fazio]

(08-07-2013 08:35 AM)Rhatkinson Wrote:  Very interesting. Thanks for posting (and thanks for your kind offer before, John.) I can only assume that the "London" person/s that Surratt references is Benjamin?

On the location of Surratt on the night of the assassination, I am inclined to believe that he was in DC because of the evidence discussed here, AND because I believe that if someone as integral as Surratt had abandoned Booth's plot when it turned to assassination, Booth would have made mention of the betrayal in his diary. However, it is most certainly not absolute in my mind. A couple of points that I cannot reconcile :

1. If Surratt was part of the assassination plot, why was he (a seasoned CSA agent) not assigned the Johnson killing over Atzerodt (and perhaps Herold), someone Booth knew to be shaky?

2. Why did Booth not sign Surratt's name to the "To Whom it May Concern" letter where he included Herold, Atzerodt, and Paine [Powell]?

RhAtkinson:

You have asked a couple of excellent questions and I am not sure I have good answers for you, without more thought. Here are a couple of possible ones:

1. According to Atzerodt, Booth assigned Herold the job of killing Johnson, with Atzerodt as a back-up only (told to his minister before his execution). According to Herold, Atzerodt was assigned the job, but Booth had little confidence that he would accomplish anything (Boston Advertiser, July 8, 1865). The likelihood is that he double-teamed them, per Atzerodt, because he did not have a lot of confidence in either of them. Surratt may have been assigned to kill Grant when Booth learned, at Willard's, that the Grants were leaving town for New Jersey. If we are to believe Atzerodt, he wasn't told until 8:00 pm at the Herndon House that he was expected to kill Johnson. That would suggest that Booth had Surratt in mind for the job until the Grant exigency arose. It is always possible, too, that Surratt was not in Washington, but in New York "prepared to fly as soon as the deed was done" (per Ste. Marie's Affidavit, which he changed in his testimony at the trial). But in that case, the next question is: Why? Why, with everything happening in Washington and the Confederacy collapsing, would he be blithely patronizing haberdashers and tailors in Elmira, incident to casing out the prison there for a possible breakout, when prisoner exchange was already being carried out, and had been carried out since January, and the war was all but over?

2. Surratt and Booth were the leaders of the conspiracy. The others were merely hatchet-men and grunts, not in the same category. Booth was confident of the success of his plot (and there is a lot of evidence for this) and visualized the escape of Atzerodt, Herold and Powell. In his mind, therefore, he could afford to reveal their identities because no harm would come to them; they would be gone. But Surratt was not to escape with them; he may have had additional work to do for the Confederacy and would stay behind for that purpose, and even if he didn't, his mother and sister would need him at home. His identity as a participant in the plot could therefore not be revealed.

John

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(08-07-2013 08:35 AM)Rhatkinson Wrote:  Very interesting. Thanks for posting (and thanks for your kind offer before, John.) I can only assume that the "London" person/s that Surratt references is Benjamin?

On the location of Surratt on the night of the assassination, I am inclined to believe that he was in DC because of the evidence discussed here, AND because I believe that if someone as integral as Surratt had abandoned Booth's plot when it turned to assassination, Booth would have made mention of the betrayal in his diary. However, it is most certainly not absolute in my mind. A couple of points that I cannot reconcile :

1. If Surratt was part of the assassination plot, why was he (a seasoned CSA agent) not assigned the Johnson killing over Atzerodt (and perhaps Herold), someone Booth knew to be shaky?

2. Why did Booth not sign Surratt's name to the "To Whom it May Concern" letter where he included Herold, Atzerodt, and Paine [Powell]?

RhAtkinson:

I forgot to add something that is worth mentioning in connection with Surratt's alleged presence in New York State at assassination time:

He said that when he heard of the assassination, he resolved to go to Baltimore immediately to find out as much about the "tragedy" as he could (Does anyone believe that?). When he learned that there was no train south from Elmira on that day, he decided to go to Canandaigua. Canandaigua is in the Finger Lakes region of New York, a good distance north and west of Elmira, whereas Baltimore is a good distance south and east of Elmira. Why on earth would he go to Canandaigua, the opposite direction from his alleged destination??? What was he doing there? Going to Baltimore by way of Canandaigua is like going to Buenos Aires by way of Alaska. It simply makes no sense. Couple that with the fact that all this traipsing and meandering about was directly contrary to Booth's directive, which he revealed to McMillan, and we are driven with ever greater conviction to the conclusion that he was, in fact, in Washington, having contrived, somehow, an alibi in Elmira.

John