The Confederate Connection???

[L Verge]

Watching the C-Span video of the five panelists at Ford's Theatre brought back memories. First, it was nostalgic to see four great historians again, all of whom are now discussing history in the hereafter. It was also slightly traumatic to view the fifth author, who had created a little grumbling in the ranks twenty years ago - even to the point of my watching half the audience stand up and walk out during his presentation at a meeting of the LGDC. (I wanted to join them, but decided to be polite.)

It was also nice to see some of us as we appeared twenty years earlier. If you knew who to look for, you probably spotted Michael Kauffman (American Brutus), Richard Gutman (authority and author on all known Booth photos), Fred Hatch (The Journal of the Lincoln Assassination), Karen Needles (digital archivist for Lincoln papers), Elwin Penski (leader in the fight to preserve the Booth home at Tudor Hall), Ed Steers, Joan Chaconas, and others.

Now, you might enjoy this video from the National Archives as Ed Steers and Harold Holzer discuss their joint book on the Hartranft daybook under the moderation of Michael Beschloss (who was once the reigning prince of Presidential studies):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlUJ6F_COLU

As a little introduction, not enough credit is given to those who actually brought these records of Gen Hartranft, who had charge of the conspirators as prisoners at the Arsenal Penitentiary, to light. Several decades ago, Betty Ownsbey and Nancy Griffith of the Surratt Society traveled to Gettysburg College to research papers there. The librarian came over and plopped down materials and said, "You may be interested in these." It didn't take long for the ladies to realize that they were looking at the day-to-day notes of Gen. John Hartranft from 1865, courtesy of the Hartranft family and filed and forgotten.

Betty quickly found a phone (pre-Smartphone days) and called James O. Hall. "Stay right where you are; I'm on my way." A few hours later, the head detective was seated in the Gettysburg library also. The discovery went public, assassination researchers were in Seventh Heaven, and a feud erupted between the Hartranft descendants, the College, and the federal government as to who had rights to these papers. The originals now reside in a Pennsylvania branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, but the important materials therein have been made public in book form by Ed Steers and Harold Holzer (featured on video) and also digitally by a Mr. William Edwards. The daybook reveals a lot about the treatment (some of it rather kind) of the Lincoln conspirators.