John Surratt, Jr.

[L Verge]

I never heard flat out that there was a rift, but there was just a sense that the generation I was working with organizing the family reunion here was sort of hush-hush about the two sides and what relics some had and others didn't, etc.

I could understand Anna having some resentment that she was left with the whole burden after Dr. Mudd introduced her brother to Booth and became involved in the plotting. He also was in South America in 1869 when Mrs. Surratt's body was exhumed and re-interred at Mt. Olivet Cemetery (and I suspect that was for the better because the press would have had a field day!). However, he was at Anna's wedding.

The phrase in that grandchild's letter about Anna marrying a "Yankee" officer and living apart from the family shows some bitterness on that side also. I doubt we will ever know because the more generations that pass, the less history will be shared.