20 additional prisoners in the Arsenal ???

[L Verge]

(01-13-2016 11:12 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  

(01-13-2016 09:45 AM)loetar44 Wrote:  The Trial: The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators by Ed Steers say in the chapter "The Lost Confession", page CIV:



It's all so confusing .....

Probably just a mistake. Joan Chaconas' transcript of the confession reads, "Statement of George A. Atzerodt to Prov. Mar. McPhail in presence of John L. Smith on the night of May 1-1865-bet. 8 & 10 P.M." No location is given.

The first book that the Surratt Society published was From War Department Files: Statements Made by the Alleged Lincoln Conspirators Under Examination, 1865. Released in 1980, it covers the statements recorded in 1865 during the examination of the then-alleged conspirators. The original documents are located in the National Archives under the War Department files. Since the conspirators were not entitled to testify in their own benefit during the trial, these statements represent their side of the story and are pre-trial testimony and were not subject to cross-examination during the trial.

That said, Atzerodt's first statement was made on board the U.S.S. Saugus at the Navy Yard on April 23, 1865 before Capt. Frank Munroe of the U.S. Marines, who was in charge of prisoners on that ship. It was then transmitted to Judge Advocate H.S. Burnett at the War Department. It is a very brief statement.

A second statement by Atzerodt was made on April 25, 1865, on board the U.S.S. Montauk (when Booth's body was placed on board the Saugus, other "occupants" were transferred to the sister ship in the Navy Yard) with Col. H.H. Wells attending. Wells was then in command of the District of the Patuxent at Port Tobacco. It is somewhat strange that Wells took the statement back to Port Tobacco with him and did not send it on to Col. Burnett via Maj. Gen. C.C. Augur until May 2, 1865.

An additional Atzerodt statement was read into the trial transcript by Atzerodt's attorney, W.E. Doster, on June 21, 1865. Two other recorded Atzerodt statements are known to exist, one was published in the Baltimore American on January 18, 1869, and is very similar to the one that Joan Chaconas found in the possession of Doster descendants. That one would be statement #3 and likely made at the Penitentiary (or on board the Montauk also. Not sure when the conspirator was transferred to the Arsenal grounds, but I think during the night of April 29). In 1980, there was supposedly yet another statement in the hands of a private individual who preferred to remain anonymous.