Thomas F. Harney

[John Fazio]

SSlater, Roger, Jerry, Gene, Herb, Jane, Laurie, et al.:

I have very little to add to this thread. To paraphrase Will Rogers: All I know about Thomas Frank Harney is what I read in other people's works (Jane; Tidwell, Hall and Gaddy; Steers; Crawford). I will, however, add two comments which address comments made above by Roger and SSlater, namely their suggestions that the failure of the Harney mission may have been the trigger to make Booth move, i.e. that Harney's capture convinced Booth to carry out the assassination. What I have to say will also address Steers's comment that the failure convinced Booth that capturing no longer had strategic purpose.

in my opinion, Harney's failure did precipitate Booth's action, but not because he was convinced of anything, but because he was under orders from Richmond to execute a contingency plan to assassinate if Harney failed. There are at least two items that support this theory: 1) The fact that Booth made plans not to assassinate just Lincoln, but to decapitate the government, i.e. Lincoln, Seward, Johnson, Stanton and Grant, at least, which, if successful, would have approximated the intended result of Harney's mission; and 2) The fact that Booth communicated with Surratt when the latter was in Montreal, telling him that their plans had changed and that he was to return to Washington forthwith. This communication is attested to by McMillan in the trial of Surratt in 1867 and is mentioned in several sources, including Weichmann. Asked by McMillan what he did in response to the communication, Surratt said he left Montreal immediately. This would have been about April 11 or 12.

Further, it is also my opinion, as many of you know, that Steers (an otherwise very astute observer whose works have contributed greatly to the literature) and most assassination historians are mistaken in their belief that Booth's plan was, and had been for perhaps the previous nine months, to "capture" Lincoln and take him to Richmond, there to be held as ransom pending the release of Confederate POW's. My opinion, rather, is that Booth never intended to kidnap anyone and that kidnapping was always a ruse to cover his more sinister purpose of multiple assassinations. In my judgment, the evidence for this conclusion is clear and convincing, very strong to overwhelming, and I hope to one day have the opportunity to present it our little community.

John