Death warrant

[L Verge]

(04-15-2017 04:37 PM)loetar44 Wrote:  I've a question. Who can help please?

Who read the death warrant to Mary Surratt (and the others)? Was that John F. Hartranft, accompanied by Hancock? Or was it Atzerodt's brother in law John L. Smith?

Thanks!

Without my books to back me up, I believe that it was Hartranft. I have also read that he was accompanied by another general. However, I have a question: Was the death warrant read twice -- once in the cells on July 6 and again right before the drop from the gallows? Or, did Hartranft deliver the verdict in just common terms and announce that it would happen the next day during the visit to each cell? Did the second reading at the gallows consist of the legalese version?

As for Smith, I believe he was involved only with the arrest of Atzerodt. As Mike Kauffman used to say on our Booth tours, "Can you imagine coming home from work, and when your wife asked what you did that day, you had to tell her that you just arrested her brother?"