Breaking a leg

[John Stanton]

I am busy elsewhere, but I want to "cherp" before you shut down. I can't agree on some of your logic. Your facts are good. You are using the same logic that Bill Tidwell used. "If you can't disprove my guess, then I must be right." (We had words on that). I cannot offer an answer. All I'm saying is there may be another solution to many statements made here, that we don't know about. Personally, I lean toward the "plan", that there was no "plan". After the failure to mine the White House, Booth had to act fast, so he incorporated as much of the old plan as he was able. He goofed that plan too. Somewhere I read that Herold said that they were supposed to go down the "Bumpy Oak Road" through Southern Mardyand, They didn't. IMO each agent on the Secret Line, aka "The Doctor Line", fed the two men, but pushed them out the back door as fast as possible. They didn't want anything to do with them. Thomas Jones would not give them a hot meal in his own house. (Lame excuse # 77). The feature of the Secret Line, was to hand off the travelers rom one person to another person, but Jones sent Booth to a Tree[u],and told him to wait there, somebody MIGHT help you. Mrs. Q was not the Goal, she was the last resort. Jones knew that the Virginia side was disrupted and wasn't sure if anyone would help. He knew that all these agents had been in Richmond for a briefing on the abduction, in late March, early April. He said he went to collect his pay for the past 2 years, (Lame excuse # 107). Grymes went, so did Cawood. Cawood extended his trip in order to visit his wife in Manchester - across the James from Richmond. (Cawood had a son born in Dec. - count that up on your fingers.) We are told that Booth planned to cross the Potomac from the Nanjemoy and land near Cedar Grove. From there to Cleydael, on to Charles Mason, on to McDaniel, down "301" to Port Royal. He trusted that rt. and the people. So. when Jones put him in the boat with the hope "that someone might help him" Booth headed up river to the Nanjemoy. When he got there he found that he was persona non grata to that team, They didn't help. Quote Herold "He then crossed the river, to Virginia, passed a gunboat (actually it was the Nanjemoy Lightship) and landed on Mathias Point" - at Cawood'sCamp. But Cawood was in Manchester. He got back in the Boat, dodged a gunboat (The Juniper), arrived at the Gambo,(Another Lightship) and waited at the tree. You know the rest. Does that sound like he had a plan? He knew people, he knew where things were planted for his use, he knew Doctors, - maybe Davey had a plan.