Louis Weichmann

[RJNorton]

Does everybody agree that George Atzerodt was originally Booth's choice to go to Surrattsville on the 14th and do the exact same things Mary Surratt did (take the field glasses to Lloyd and tell him to have the guns ready)? This is what the late Art Loux writes in John Wilkes Booth: Day By Day. Art writes that originally JWB told Herold to tell Atzerodt to go to Surrattsville to do this "errand." However, when Booth stopped by Mary's boardinghouse on the morning of the 14th he learned that Mary was already planning her trip, and thus Booth then went to Atzerodt and told him there was now no need for him to make the trip. Maybe I have read this in other books; if so, I had forgotten, as I had thought Mary Surratt was Booth's only choice for this April 14th "errand." If Art is right she wasn't even his original choice.