Breaking a leg

[L Verge]

Boy, I don't know where to start with the red pen.

First, I believe you have erroneously referred to Nothey throughout this explanation when you really meant Lloyd? Mr. Nothey lived a ways from the tavern.

According to John Lloyd, the shooting irons were ready because he had removed them earlier that evening and placed them in the adjacent bedroom. Do you believe that Mrs. Surratt is totally innocent of all charges?

Were the horses originally supposed to be at the tavern? First I've heard of that. As for your "hint" that they were in T.B. with the notorious rebel, Mr. Huntt, someday I will show you the letters that I have from Mr. Huntt in Baltimore to Mrs. Huntt in Southern Maryland written during the Baltimore Riots in which he deplores the secessionists. Also, Mrs. Huntt had introduced Methodism to her husband's family when they married and was of the anti-slavery persuasion (even though her father-in-law still retained his until 1864). Eli and Laura Huntt, however, lived in their own house without servants approximately three miles from his parents and their servants.

My personal opinion, IF there were horses to be had in T.B., it was through John Chandler Thompson, proprietor of the T.B. Hotel (where Davey had spent the night on March 17) and owner of the livery stable across the road that supplied fresh teams of horses for the stage line that ran past the hotel. Only a four-acre field separated the T.B. Hotel from the Huntts' house.

Thompson was alive through my grandmother's childhood, and she remembered him well as siding with the South. I have often wondered why researchers haven't traced him a bit more. He was brought to D.C. for questioning. I have also wondered if Atzerodt had Thompson confused with Mr. Huntt when he claimed that fresh horses were to be supplied the kidnappers in T.B.

As for the distance from Surrattsville to Baltimore: With modern, straight, high-speed highways today, it still takes over an hour to make it to downtown Baltimore, which is approximately 60 miles north. Even with fresh horses, that would have been pushing it.

By the time he arrived in Baltimore, the telegraph would surely have been reporting that it was Booth for whom the authorities were searching and that he might be heading for his hometown. Also Baltimore had been heavily fortified with troops throughout the war. Booth's picture was distributed shortly after the deed (for those days), and he was more likely to be quickly recognized in Baltimore and points north than in Southern Maryland.

We are never going to reconcile our differences in opinion, Jerry, because the facts are just not there. It's really fun (at least for me) to hypothesize on what could have happened, but after awhile, I think we do history a disservice if we don't produce tangible evidence.