Sarah Slater's death certificate

[John Fazio]

(11-06-2015 02:23 PM)L Verge Wrote:  "The business about casing out the prison there for a possible breakout has an odor to it; Grant had resumed prisoner exchange in January and had set a goal of 3,000 per week."

I'll just take a moment to be picky about the above statement because I have spent so many years listening to people disparage the thought that John Surratt would have been assigned to case the joint at Elmira (affectionately known as Hellmira) Prison Camp as late as April of 1865. There were still a large number of Confederate prisoners held at just that one camp - and there were hundreds of thousands more held in similar camps both North and South.

When one states that the prisoner exchange was resumed under Grant on January 24,1865, with an anticipated release of 3000/week, one is giving the impression that gates immediately opened and quickly released the inmates. We all know that government never runs things that efficiently!

How long did it take for the orders to filter down to each prison commander? How long did it take to determine who would be the first prisoners released? How much paperwork was involved? Where would they be transferred before official release from military duty or reassignment? Where would the special needs inmates (those in need of immediate medical care) be sent? How quickly could even 3000 be processed out?

Just wrap your brain around the fact that Andersonville alone had over 30,000 prisoners. Moving at great efficiency, that would take at least ten weeks to clean out just that one camp. That would move just its closing into the month of March 1865. And, after Sherman delivered Savannah to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift in 1864, the health issues just there became more dire as the Union forces laid total destruction to crops, animals, mills, etc. -- anything that could supply citizenry, and that included those dying in the prisons.

That said, why is it so darned hard to believe that John Surratt was sent on a side mission by Gen. E.G. Lee to check out the situation in Elmira (likely for the purpose of determining the possibility of getting those prisoners into Canada for medical assistance)? Why wait any longer for Booth to accomplish something? If Surratt is on the Confededrate payroll, he'll do what the Confederate commanders request -- and he'll be a lot closer to safe territory in Canada if something does go wrong.

By the way, was Grant's goal of freeing 3,000 prisoners a week ever met, even one week?

Laurie:

Let us grant that there was some value in casing out Hellmira. That still leaves open the two questions: 1) What happened to Surratt's being "ordered" to Washington "immediately" by Booth, especially after he allegedly telegraphed Booth in New York from Elmira and learned that he had already left for Washington, and especially because he allegedly told McMillan that in response to Booth's order, he left Montreal "immediately" for Washington? 2) Do we really know that Sarah went with him to Montreal, and then to Elmira, and then back to Montreal after the assassination?

John