My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[John Fazio]

(08-16-2018 03:12 PM)mikegriffith1 Wrote:  Soon after I began to seriously study the Civil War, I began to form doubts about the traditional version of Lincoln's assassination. Even as a relative novice, I could not bring myself to buy the idea that any Confederate or Southern sympathizer would want to kill Lincoln, the one man who stood the best chance of preventing the Radical Republicans from imposing harsh reconstruction on the South. It just didn't make any sense.

On the other hand, since I was very critical of Lincoln and viewed him as being almost a tyrant, I didn't really care about his death, and so I didn't have much interest in reading about his assassination.

A few years into my research, I stumbled across Otto Eisenschiml's book Why Was Lincoln Murdered? I thought, "Now, this makes sense. If anyone had a motive to kill Lincoln and had proven themselves capable of such treachery, it was the Radicals."

I also read Eisenschiml's book In the Shadow of Lincoln's Death. I found this book hard to get through because I still held a harsh view of Lincoln and thus did not really care about the trial of Mary Surratt or whether or not Booth escaped. Eisenschiml seemed to make a good case that Booth did not escape but died in the barn. Besides, the idea that Booth escaped struck me as irrelevant and unbelievable.

About two years ago, as I began studying George McClellan, George Thomas, John Crittenden, and Stephen Douglas, my views on Lincoln began to change. I found J. G. Randall's research on Lincoln particularly enlightening and persuasive.

Then, about two months ago, my interest in Lincoln's assassination was rekindled when I watched, out of sheer boredom one day, a short documentary on Nathan Orlowek's efforts to have the body in Booth's grave and the alleged Booth spinal fragment subjected to scientific testing.

After that, I began to read everything I could find on Lincoln's death and on Booth. I read a couple of books on Booth and numerous online articles about Lincoln's assassination. I also read two books on the case of Mary Surratt. Just today I finished reading Dr. Robert Arnold's book The Conspiracy Between John Wilkes Booth and the Union Army to Assassination Abraham Lincoln. And I'm in the process of reading Roscoe's The Web of Conspiracy.

I'm still undecided about some aspects of Lincoln's assassination, but I now believe that Stanton and other War Department/Army officials were involved, that Booth was not shot in Garrett's barn, that the assassination was not a spur-of-the-moment act (as Booth claimed in his diary) but had been planned weeks in advance, that Mary Surratt was innocent, that John Surratt was not involved in Lincoln's murder, that O'Laughlen was innocent, that Dr. Mudd was not part of the assassination plot, that one of the people who jumped onto the stage after Booth shot Lincoln--Major Stewart--was there to ensure that Booth got to his horse in the alley, and that Andrew Johnson was bullied, or tricked, by Stanton into going along with a military tribunal and not pardoning Mary Surratt.

Mike:

In my opinion, most of your conclusions are erroneous. My views, which are based on having read all or part of about 125 books on the assassination and attempted Assassinations on April 14, 1865, and countless articles and newspapers, are contained in my book Decapitating the Union: Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin and the Plot to Assassinate Lincoln, which is the product of five years of research and writing and which I hope you will add to your reading list. Briefly, and addressing each of your conclusions in order, they are:

1. Stanton was not involved. That is a thoroughly discredited theory. Even Eisenschiml acknowledged that there was not enough evidence to draw that conclusion.
2. Other War Department/Army Officials MAY have been involved, especially as regards the crossing of the Navy Yard Bridge by Booth and Herold, but there is no proof of the same and the evidence is weak.
3. Booth was shot to death in Garrett's barn by Boston Corbett, though he probably would have killed himself if Corbett hadn't beat him to it. He had previously said he would.
4. You are correct in concluding that the assassination was not a spur of the moment act, but had been planned for weeks, perhaps months, in advance,
5. Mary Surratt was almost certainly part of the assassination plot;
6. John Surratt was most certainly involved in Lincoln's murder;
7. Dr. Mudd was almost certainly part of the assassination plot;
8. Michael O'Laughlen was not innocent. He was part of the conspiracy and therefore, under the laws of conspiracy, should have received the same sentence that Mary Surratt, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell did. He was lucky to escape with his life, but his luck ran out in Ft. Jefferson, where he died of yellow fever.
9. Joseph Stewart was not in Ford's Theater to assure Booth's escape; he was just an overweight and shady lawyer with a bad reputation who lied to the Commissioners, probably for financial gain. He didn't get anywhere near Booth when he finally stepped into the alley;
10. Andrew Johnson was not bullied or tricked by Stanton; the Military Commission was created by Johnson pursuant to his Attorney General's ruling (James Speed). The failure to pardon Mary Surratt, pursuant to the vote of the Commissioners, was a matter between Johnson and Joseph Holt only; Stanton had nothing to do with it.


If you read my book you will find good arguments in support of all these conclusions. Then if you wish to discuss them with me, I am all ears.

John