Surratt Conference Wrap-Up

[L Verge]

The 20th Annual Surratt Conference on Lincoln assassination history was a great success -- at least according to the praises we received from over 120 attendees.

The theme was "Lincoln's Assassination: Was It Just One Mad Act?" Did Booth have help? From whom? Our opening speakers were Judge Sandy Prindle and Barry Sheehy, both authors on recent books documenting Confederate activities that certainly suggest ties between Richmond and Canada. Sandy's book is entitled Booth's Confederate Connections and Barry has written Montreal: City of Secrets. Treat yourselves if you are a student of the Lincoln assassination.

They were followed by Ed Steers, who spoke on his years-long investigation of the Neff-Guttridge papers that led to Dark Union. Ed shot so many holes in their research that hopefully it will finally succumb.

David Goetz, author of Ever The Gray Ghost, a sequel to previous work on the mighty Mosby, presented research that has him suggesting that the Rangers were into the final stages of the Lincoln plot. Richard Willing followed with thoughts on the Trials and Tribulations of the Tribunal in their efforts to link the conspiracy to the CSA high command. The final talk was given by John Fazio, who presented a timeline of history on black flag warfare and how the final years of the CW led to the assassination.

Ernie Abel, author of John Wilkes Booth and the Women Who Loved Him, educated and entertained us after dinner with a talk on a variety of ladies who were affected by the Lothario. Very few of them had successful and happy lives afterwards.

The off-site bus tours that we offer each year were well-received again with trips to Maryland's Eastern Shore and the Harriet Tubman and Underground Railroad Museum (an idea conceived years ago by Dr. Kate Clifford Larson). Sunday's tour went to Orange, Virginia, to view a museum dedicated to our Founding Fathers and early Presidents from that area and then on to the Exchange Hotel in Gordonsville, which began life as a railroad hotel and then became a critical hospital for Confederates and Union forces alike during the war.

Now, aren't you sorry you did not attend? Planning has already started for the 2020 conference.