Was John Surratt engaged to Miss Roose?

[L Verge]

I think there is very little doubt that Annie Ward was a tiny piece of the Secret Line/courier chain as related to keeping John Surratt up-to-date or running errands for him, at least near the end of the war. However, I seriously doubt any personal relationship between the two.

For one thing, there was a big age difference (I think we discussed this many moons ago). Remember also that being a link in the espionage chain did not mean that you knew anything about other links, what your role in something might turn out to be, why you were all of a sudden meeting a famous actor in the parlor of a family that you had known for nearly ten years, etc.

The Surratts - at least Annie Surratt - knew Annie Ward before the war because the lady was a teacher at Miss Winifred Martin's school in Bryantown, MD, which Annie attended. She then moved to a teaching position at the Visitation School in DC, which wasn't far from the boardinghouse. It seems to be standard operating procedure for Southern Maryland residents to change addresses in or close to Washington, D.C. during the war, usually to assist the Confederacy in some way.

Annie Ward was an immigrant to Maryland from Ireland. The Confederate influences in the area where she was raised as well as Lincoln's former dealings with the American Party might make her easily accessible to helping the Confederate underground, especially in its dying moments.

One last gasp from me on the subject: Remember Richard Smoot and his story about being at the boardinghouse on the night of the assassination in order to get paid for his boat? His middle name was "Mitchell."