Stupid question?

[John Fazio]

(01-19-2016 06:46 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(01-19-2016 12:58 PM)loetar44 Wrote:  Right Laurie - Michael Schein writes in his "John Surratt: The Lincoln Assassin Who Got Away" how Herold (on March 17, 1865 – the failed kidnapping of Lincoln) was dispatched to pick up Booth’s buggy and head for Surrattsville, carrying with him an arsenal of weapons that Booth had collected.

Herold hung around the [Surrattsville] tavern for a while but nobody showed up with Lincoln a prisoner. So Herold headed towards T.B., where he arrived at the hotel of John C. Thompson about eight o’clock that night. Herold needed help hauling a trunk into the barroom. This was Booth’s trunk, heavy with two carbines, a couple of double-barrel shotguns, a pistol, a knife, a sword, rope and a wrench. Herold claimed he was going duck hunting. He asked whether John Surratt had come by, and let it be known that Surratt was expected. The next morning, most likely March 18, Herold had breakfast, shot off his pistols into the air, then started back towards Surrattsville.

Surratt and Atzerodt had fled Washington and were headed towards T.B. to find Herold. The three met up on the road between T.B. and Surrattsville. According to the testimony of John M. Lloyd, Mrs. Surratt’s tenant at Surratt’s Tavern, the three men came in, took a drink, and started playing cards. Then Surratt called Lloyd into the front parlor, where he had Booth’s carbines laid out on the sofa, along with a cartridge box, coiled rope and a monkey wrench. The monkey wrench was to be used to remove the wheels from Lincoln’s carriage, so that it could be more easily ferried across the Potomac, and the rope was to be stretched across the road to break the pursuit of any cavalry that might follow.

Surratt insisted that Lloyd hide the carbines in the house. Lloyd claims he objected and had to be persuaded by Surratt, but more likely he was a willing participant. Surratt, who had grown up in that house, knew just the place. He led Lloyd upstairs with the carbines to a sealed attic off the storeroom where the butt ends of the ceiling joists above the dining room were exposed above the attached kitchen. Surratt slipped the carbines between the joists. There they stayed, until about midnight on the night of the assassination, when Booth and Herold came to call for them. One of these same carbines was in Booth’s hands when he was shot by Boston Corbett at Garrett’s barn in Maryland.

http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/158617

The question remains: where exactly were the weapons before Herold took them to Surrattsville? In Herold's house? In Booth's hotelroom? In the stable behind Ford's Theatre (where, if my memory is right, the buggy was, the buggy bought by Arnold in Baltimore and brought to D.C. by Herold and O'Laughlen), or some other place? Arnold confessed (18 April 1865) "M. O’Laughlen said he took it [the trunk] to a Mr. Heard and from thence the unknown carried it to his house". If the "unknown" is the same "unknown" who was at Gauthier's on March 15 than this unknown person is Herold. Arnold said about this man, that he was: "a young man, name unknown, as I cannot remember names". And Arnold said: "We walked up together, Michael O’Laughlen, this unknown and myself were ushered [at Gauthier's] into the presence of J. Wilkes Booth who introduced me to John Surratt, Atzerodt (alias Port Tobacco) (alias) Mosby (= Powell) making in all seven persons." The seventh person was: Herold.

I believe that there has been a post some months ago relative to this subject and mention was made of the Baltimore boys rooming in D.C. and having charge of the cache for awhile before Booth turned it over to Herold on the 17th. Am I the only one who remembers this? Don't all yell at me at once!

I am willing to concede that Herold may have been in charge of them before that, but I guarantee they were kept well out of distance from his mother and sisters.

Laurie:

I recall the post. My understanding is that Booth obtained the arms and other items, probably in New York, where, according to Arnold, he went often to replenish "his squandering means", because of his "riotous living and dissipation". My surmise is that part of his financing came from Confederate agents in that city and/or Belmont and his circle of Copperheads. In any case, by January, he had the arms and tools he needed and gave them to Arnold and O'Laughlen in Baltimore, who promptly shipped them to Washington. They took up residence at Mary Van Tine's boarding house, at 420 D Street, on or about February 10, so the arms and tools must have been stashed elsewhere for the time being. On the morning of March 18, after the "failed kidnapping attempt", Surratt and Atzerodt went to look for Herold. They found him between Surrattsville and T.B., with the weapons and tools, which had somehow, somewhere, come into his possession (presumably on the 17th, after they had been retrieved by Arnold and O'Laughlen as part of the Campbell Hospital episode). This encounter could not have been entirely by chance. In any case, all three then went to the tavern, where they left everything with Lloyd for later pick-up. See American Brutus, pp. 187, 188.

John

P.S. Rather than start a new post, I am going to put out a call to everyone for help on an unrelated subject. I hope no one minds my piggybacking on Kees' post. I recall reading somewhere that the Military Commission that tried the conspirators subpoeaned President Andrew Johnson, but that he refused to honor the subpoena and did not appear at the trial. I believe he used "executive privilege" to justify his refusal, which apparently was not contested by the Commission. In any case, I have looked for evidence of this, but have thus far come up empty. Does anyone have a source for this information? It is important to me, because I recently uncovered evidence that sheds light on the mystery of the card from Booth that was left in Browning's box. Knowledge of Johnson's refusal is relevant. Thank you.