Help Wanted

[Dennis Urban]

In reading Clampitt's account of the execution (for the first time) as posted by Ms. Higginbotham a couple of things struck me. It seems reasonable that Clampitt and Aiken would have remained with Gen Hancock at the "eastern extremity of the building" until the last possible moment hoping to receive news of a reprieve at the same time Hancock would receive it. The eastern extremity of the building has the outside door as it does today but did not, at the time, have windows close to that door looking into the south yard of the penitentiary. Two ground and upper floor windows looked into the yard but one would have had to walk west in the building to look through these windows and they were probably within rooms off a hallway. If Hancock viewed the execution, it it reasonable that Aiken and Clampitt would have still been with him. If Clampitt could not bear to see the execution, it is likely that even though he wrote his account fifteen years after the fact, he would have mentioned that. Clampitt mentions that Hancock "took no part in the execution" but that does not mean he didn't observe it. As the ranking officer present, if he walked into the yard before the execution, all eyes from the gallows platform would have looked towards him expecting some news. Therefore I suspect Hancock remained within the building and if he observed the execution it would have been from inside; either with or without Aiken and Clampitt. This conjecture does not answer the question I posed to Laurie but further clouds what may never be known definitively. Interestingly, Clampitt's account has Mary Surratt entering the yard last while most other accounts have her entering first. The mystery continues.