Was there an assassin on Grant's train?

[L Verge]

(06-22-2015 11:41 AM)Gene C Wrote:  John, a long list. The more I learn, the more questions I have.

Some of the items you mentioned I don't know much about. Can you tell us a little more, and I only need a brief answer and perhaps a reference on where I can read more?

Who is #5, Jack Cade?
What was the Campbell Hospital Fiasco in #7
I know McMillan, #12-17, (who testified at Surratt's trail), is mentioned in Weichmann and Jampoler's book. Are Surratts comments to him confirmed by any other witness? Are there other sources to verify McMillan's statements?
Do we know anything about McMillan's reputation? Was he a reliable witness? (I have my doubts)

A question for Rick Smith, or anyone else. I don't know much about John Surratt. What little I have read (and maybe I missed it) doesn't show him in a favorable light. Has any one written anything that shows some of his outstanding qualities, specific examples of his behavior or actions that might show another and better side of him? I would like more than a general letter of reference or comment from a priest he knew years before the war.

Please take your time answering. This is an area of Lincoln's assassination that I don't know much about, and am a bit confused by what I think I know.

Very good questions, Gene. That's exactly what a good historian should be asking. I will let others who made mention of Cade and McMillan answer you first to see if they are objective.

As far as John's behavior before the Civil War, he was likely an impressionable young man who was influenced by a very vocal father and other members of the slave holding community in Southern Maryland. John had just turned 16 when the war began. He was at school in northern Maryland under the tutelage of the Catholic Church, which also supported slavery in Maryland. Upon his father's death in the summer of 1862, he dropped out of school to assist at the farm and post office, where he was again surrounded by Southern sympathizers, Secret Line agents for the CSA, and also frequent Union patrols that destroyed and looted the neighborhoods.

Yes, he became a courier for the Confederacy - unlike his older brother who had left home on Inauguration Day in 1861 to serve the cause. I have always considered the possibility that John chose the underground movement because it would keep him somewhat in touch with his mother and sister even while he was on assignments.

His mother was also still keeping up the safehouse tradition of assisting Southern agents that his father had established. There is a third-quarter Confederate report listing Surratt Tavern as one of the safehouses in 1864 (two years after Mr. Surratt's death). One thing instantly catches the eye when reading the report. It lists the various safe areas from the Potomac River through Charles County and on to D.C. In every instance except one, a town is listed. When the stops get to Surrattsville, it is the tavern that is specifically noted.

When young Surratt became involved with Booth, he deeded over his share in the Surratt lands to his mother. Mrs. Surratt had inherited nothing from her husband because he did not leave a will. In those days, widows did not inherit without a will saying it was okay - children did. John knew that if he were captured during his service as a courier, the U.S. government would seize the family lands. As badly in debt as their father had left the family, John was still trying to protect his mother and sister (at least in my mind).

I still do not believe that John or his advisers within the underground and the church thought that the government would execute his mother. As Andy Johnson said, "....women had not been punished for their deeds in this war" (or words to that effect). Rose Greenhow's actions had contributed to military defeats, but she was not condemned to death.

After the three-ring circus that comprised John's trial, if he had been deemed so terrible with strong evidence used against him, he should not have had a hung jury nor should another indictment have failed, leading to "nolle process." Did I spell that correctly? The U.S. government goofed big time, in my estimation, by ignoring his arrest for two years as well as allowing that judicial circus - if John was such a "vile" person.

Finally, his trip to South America, his abbreviated attempt at lecturing, his selling of his photographs, etc. were likely a means to obtain some sort of income - even if it meant relocating to South America along with a good number of Confederates (whose descendants are still there).

One last thought: He married the second cousin of Francis Scott Key. Both the Scotts and the Keys were well-respected families in Maryland from its early days. If they had judged John Surratt as such a horrible person, Mary Victorine would not have been allowed to marry him. Families had that much influence in those days.