Was there an assassin on Grant's train?

[RJNorton]

(07-17-2015 08:36 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Can you please tell what/in which letters she wrote about the assassination? Ore someone else? My memory completely seems to fail, I was sure she only made one vague reference in one letter afterwards. Thanks!

Hi Rosemary and welcome to the forum! I have the same question as Eva. My memory is that her letters contain many references to her overwhelming love for her husband, but few (if anything) specific references to the assassination. I can think of her letter to Sally Orne where she says she is sure Andrew Johnson was involved in Booth's plot, but that is all that I can think of right now. Have you read letters of hers that discuss more? Many thanks!

(07-18-2015 02:49 AM)John Fazio Wrote:  Who is Surratt's junior partner?

Like John I am curious about this. Rosemary, did you have a name in mind?

(07-17-2015 09:53 AM)John Fazio Wrote:  I believe "speculates" doesn't quite describe my opinion as to the identity of the messenger who called on Julia Grant on the 14th. I am, rather, convinced that it was Herold, largely because Julia was convinced...

John, please accept my apology. I was applying what was in my mind to yours, and I should not have stated it that way. My excuse, if there be one, is that (unless I missed it in another book) this is the first time I've read that the "messenger" was David Herold. Other books I've read are in line with what Tony Pitch and Michael Burlingame say. In They Have Killed Papa Dead! Tony Pitch refers to the person as "Mrs. Lincoln's Courier." In Abraham Lincoln: A Life Michael Burlingame uses the phrase "the First Lady's Messenger."

The idea that John Wilkes Booth assigned David Herold to go to the Grants' room at the Willard was new to me.

I do not believe I have read in any other book that John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, Lewis Powell, and George Atzerodt had lunch together at the Willard Hotel on the day of the assassination.

So all this was new to me, and the word speculate is what came to my mind. I credit you with making an excellent case based on Julia Grant's word, but I am wondering....if these four men actually ate together at the Willard wouldn't we have more witnesses than Julia? Wouldn't we at least have had a waiter come forward in an interview and say, "Wow, I served lunch to Booth, Seward's attacker, and two other main conspirators on the day of the assassination?"

Grant left Julia at Stanton's reception (night of the 13th) and went to the White House for a Grand Illumination carriage ride with Mary Lincoln. Is it not possible that the two discussed the Ford's outing, and Mary told Grant that she would send a courier the next day with information as to the exact time the Grants would be picked up?