Food for Thought

[mike86002000]

Laurie wrote:
I have yet to find the reference to the letter and really won't have time to look. However, when you read the testimonies from others, there is no mention of red; in fact, one uses the word "drab."

I hope you will want to follow up on this reference to what may be "The Letter". The reference in Mr. Prindle's footnote is to James O. Hall's papers, presumably in his library at the Surratt House. I hope details are specific enough to save your time in finding it.

On page 103 of his book, Mr. Prindle mentions a letter written by Surratt from Elmira, while he waited for his jacket and pantaloons to come from the tailor. It was sent to "Ms. Annie Ward", who shared it with Mrs. Surratt. Booth also saw it and expressed interest in the post mark. Mr. Prindle thinks it was written with the expectation that it would fall into the hands of the government, and so was part of Surratt's attempt to establish his alibi during the carnage in Washington, an important part of "The house that Jack built" I referred to above. Mr. Prindle's foot note, ( Chapter 9, #4 ), refers to "Notes on the Ward Department records of John Surratt by D. R. Barbee, 1933, James O' Hall Papers." Hopefully, these are in the James O. Hall library at the Surratt House. "James O' Hall" is almost certainly James Otis Hall. I immediately thought "Ward Department" was probably "War Department", but maybe not since the letter was addressed to Ms. Ward. Similarly, is D. R. Barbee really DR. Barbee? I wonder what's in the records mentioned, perhaps even the letter itself.
Mike