How I see John Surratt.

[L Verge]

As I mentioned previously, Fred Hatch's book on John Surratt is the most detailed account that you can ask for - yet easy to read. I'd like to share two portions with you.

Since May 1, 1976, when three of Surratt's grandsons cut the ribbon to officially open Surratt House as a public museum, I have talked with descendants as to what happened to the manuscript that Surratt had written. All that anyone would say was that he burned it before his death because there were still folks alive who had been involved in the conspiracy, and he did not want to taint their names and reputations.

Fred gives a much more detailed description, however, as to how and what was burned. My one complaint is that he does not give a source for these details: "In John's final years, his son William encouraged him to write down the story of his early life. As articles and purported interviews about him were appearing in the press, John finally agreed and set down an account of his experiences. William sent the manuscript to McClure's magazine, but received a reply from an unsympathetic editor, 'I doubt that anyone would be interested in anything Mr. Surratt has to say.' [If that man only knew...] With that rejection, John Surratt decided to destroy the manuscript. The manuscript, along with letters from Father LaPierre, Stephen F. Cameron, Roswell S. Ripley, Harry H. Brogdon, Joseph Bradley, Richard Merrick, John W. Clampitt, and others from private individuals were burned in the backyard of the Surratt home [1016 West Lanvale Street in Baltimore]. Other items burned reportedly included a document commissioning Surratt into the Confederate Secret Service signed by Jefferson Davis and numerous newspaper clippings, including one that quoted Edward C. Carrington - who had prosecuted Surratt - as acknowledging that John had been in Elmira, New York, on the day of the assassination, and that Carrington had had doubts about John's guilt during his trial. Another letter was to John R. Sherwood threatening to terminate U.S. Mail contracts with the Old Bay Line if they employed Surratt, which Sherwood, a Union veteran, had refused to heed. Also into the fire went the original manuscript of Surratt's [Rockville] lecture, the contents of which had been taken down at the time and thus became one of the very few documents from John H. Surratt, Jr., to have survived until that day."

One more interesting detail from the book and then I'll stop taking up space: In the 1880 Federal Census in Baltimore, John Surratt was living at 161 North Calvert Street with his wife and four children, his brother Isaac, his wife's sister, six boarders, and a male servant (for a total of 15 inhabitants in one house!). That either had to be one large house or the inhabitants did not mind a little "togetherness." They lived there for thirteen years, during which the Surratts had three more children.