What's Your Passion & Why

[BettyO]

The Civil War has always held much fascination with me - especially hearing my grandmother and mother's stories regarding my great-great grandmother's recollections of the burning of Richmond and of my great-great grandfather's service in the Confederate Army.

My life-long interest in Colonel John Singleton Mosby and the exploits of his men reached a peak when I read Risvold's edited version of Weichmann's book in 1975. It was then that I first heard of Powell and his tenure with Mosby and became facinated with Powell and the assassination as a whole. I had never heard of Mary Surratt before I read that book - of course I had heard the name "Surratt" from my grandmother who was a friend of Philip Whitlock's daughter. Whitlock had known Booth in the Richmond Grays and gone up to the Surratt Tavern where he participated in target practice with John Surratt and others - facinating stuff!