Louis Weichmann

[Pamela]

Thanks, Herb and Laurie. Something else I'd like clarity on is his physical description because there are two completely opposite versions that I've come across. I just read this in Michael Shein's Surratt book, p 12: "Louis was doughy--'fatty' they called him in the casual cruelty of the schoolyard, clumsy, homely, 'poor white', cowardly (at least in popular reputation), frivolous with regards to study, and to make matters worse, he spoke with a lisp and was useless in the manly arts." Schein forgot to mention the hump on his back and club foot! I believe Elizabeth Trindal gave a similar description in Mary Surratt, An American Tragedy, and added something to the effect that had he become a priest it would have been the only way he would have been taken seriously, he had a pot belly and was sexless. She included a picture of him as an older man. Schein lists his sources as Isacsson, Townsend and Surratt's lecture.

On the other hand, Pitman said, "I...found him to be a young man of preposessing appearance, with clear and placid eye, and a countenance indicative of intelligence, modesty and conscientiousness." Major General Lew Wallace said, "I have never seen anything like his steadfastness. There he stood, a young man only twenty three years of age, strikingly handsome, self possessed, under the mist striking self examination I have ever heard." Gleason described him as "...physically and mentally a giant...".

So, there are really two very opposite descriptions. I'm not aware of any others.