Military Units at the Arsenal on July 7, 1865

[L Verge]

Bessie Jenkins's photo is on one of the display panels in our visitors' center. I believe that I have posted before that my great-grandfather knew Mrs. Surratt's younger brother, James Archibald Jenkins, and extended his sympathies to him on the tragic death of his sister. The man responded with words to the effect that no sympathies were needed. She knew what she was doing and got what she deserved.

By what we can tell of his normal life, he was the black sheep of the family -- illiterate, common law marriage, nothing of means according to his will (which is signed with an X), and buried in an unmarked grave in a Methodist churchyard about three miles from Surratt House and very near to where the Jenkins once lived on lands now within Joint Base Andrews.