Will the real Thomas F. Harney, PLEASE STAND UP!

[SSlater]

I asked for it. I will answer each in turn.

Gene C. The grounds of the White House were not "off limits" to the public. There are mentions of gates - but no guards. I have read this, there is nobody to bar passage and the multitudes, washed and unwashed, always had free egress and ingress... if we go upstairs at any hour we find corridors and waiting rooms full of people... soldiers camped on the lawn...some cattle...and Lincoln walked unattended to the War Dept....etc. It would be simple to spread a blanket and picnic, while you scraped a shallow hole for a "sub-terra".
My approach, why haul tons of explosives into the White House when you can bury a 25 pound 'sub-terra' and coax Lincoln to stand by it?
I'm being "clipped" here but you know what I mean.

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Next. Laurie don't be confused by what Atzerodt says. He can't even speak good English. Seriously, Atzerodt might not have known what "mine the White House " meant. (Apparently there were many people who thought as he did.) Harney was a sub-terra man. His last job before this one was to "mine " the roadway in front of Sherman's "March to the Sea". He was so successful that Sherman called for Confederate Prisoners to March in front of his men. The South quit, because they were killing more southerners than Yankees.

As for "Northern Crowd". That's a catch-all phrase to describe some thing that you know nothing about. There were many wealthy people in New York, and elsewhere, who, who were making "Millions" (when Lincolns Secretary was making $2500 a year). There were programs, such as, "Food for Cotton", that were legal and approved for use and Lincoln shut them down - WHAM! That hurt. So, if we kill Lincoln , the war will continue and we will make more.