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SSlater · 10-13-2014, 03:15 PM

(10-13-2014 09:56 AM)RJNorton Wrote:
(10-10-2014 06:25 PM)L Verge Wrote: Most of us are aware of the failed Confederate mission to send explosives expert Thomas Francis Harney into Washington in April of 1865, for the specific purpose of blowing up the White House. A chance encounter with a Union cavalry unit halted that mission.

Harney was arrested, but soon agreed to take the oath of allegiance and went south to New Orleans. Does anyone know what happened to him after the war? Did he ever write anything on his mission? Where is he buried? Are there descendants?

As I have said before I know very little about the Confederate underground, so please excuse if my questions seem a little simple-minded.

Why would a person coming to blow up the White House and then captured be released? My initial reaction would be that more should (could) have been done.

Is there any primary source proof that he was going to blow up the White House? Specifically, how do we know that he was going to try to do this?

In his "lost confession" Atzerodt said, "Booth said he had met a party in N. York who would get the Prest. certain. They were going to mine the end of the pres. House, near the War Dept. They knew an entrance to accomplish it through. Spoke about getting friends of the Presdt. to get up an entertainment & they would mix it in, have a serenade & thus get at the Presdt. & party."

Is there more evidence than this (I do not know if Harney was the party Atzerodt was referring to) that Harney's goal was to blow up the White House?

Many thanks to any folks who can add information on Harney's secret mission. Basically what I am saying is that I see the Harney mission to blow up the White House in a lot of books, but is there definitive proof that this is really true?

"Definite Proof"? I think so.
Harney was a known Master of the Torpedo. From the records, he mined Charleston Harbor and Mobile Bay. After which he was sent to Mosby on April 1, 1865, with Land Mines. As an aside: I believe that Slater's trip to Montreal, departing Richmond April 2, 1865, was intended to notify Jacob Thompson of the plan to blow up the White House, since Thompson had his own plans to do-Lincoln- in and tell Thompson to "back-off". Thus. the remark "This makes the thing all right".
When Harney was captured at Fairfax Station - April 10th (Fairfax Station is sometimes referred to as Burke Station, because the Station is at Burke in Fairfax County), he was with Thomas Franklin Summers, from Elijah White's 35th VA/ Cav. Who was his Guide/escort. Harney and Summers were traveling with another raiding party, who were trying to capture Mules at Burke Station. Harney's Irish luck ran out that night, when the other party got captured, and they got Harney too.
Here' the stab at the heart. On April the 4th, a Confederate enlisted man from Gabriel Rains Torpedo Bureau, named Snyder, talked to Col. Edward H. Ripley (9th Vermont Inf.) back in Richmond, to tell him about "A Party" from the Torpedo Bureau had left Richmond on a Secret Mission that was aimed at the head of the Yankee Government and he wished to put Mr. Lincoln on his guard.
To me - that's enough evidence to charge Harney with attempting to "Mine the White House" in some manner. I won't limit the "target" to the White House, it may have been some place that Lincoln frequented.
That's where String fellow comes into the picture. His story says "It was the White House."
All of this supports the over-all mission, to get Lincoln.