20 additional prisoners in the Arsenal ???

[John Fazio]

(01-11-2016 09:43 AM)loetar44 Wrote:  Still reading Roy Z. Chamlee’s “Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and Punishment”. He writes on p. 199: “The Government housed about 20 prisoners in the Arsenal in addition to the eight conspiracy suspects.” IMO that means about TWENTY in addition to Spangler, Arnold, O'Laughlen, Powell, Atzerodt, Herold, Mary Surratt and Dr. Mudd… Who were the others? The only ones I can mention are Hartmann Richter, João M. Celestino and Burton N. Harrison.

Kees:

Remember that immediately after the assassination, Stanton initiated a dragnet that corralled hundreds of suspects and deposited most of them into the Old Capitol Prison. These included, in addition to the three you mention, Augustus Howell; Samuel Cox, Dr. Richard Stuart and other members of "the mail line"; John T. Ford; Henry Wirz; "a few officers of the Stonewall Brigade"; "forty citizen prisoners"; and 800 "rebel officers". Obviously, some of them were held in the arsenal, probably because they were expected to be tried, unlike the greater number who were investigated and then released. It doesn't surprise me.

John