Does anyone know...?

[John Fazio]

(09-12-2017 07:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(09-12-2017 12:00 AM)John Fazio Wrote:  

(09-11-2017 12:37 PM)L Verge Wrote:  How do you explain away the weapons and materiel stored at Surratt's tavern from March 17 until April 15? The Atzerodt statement about supplies sent to Mudd ahead of time? The details about the purchase of the boat as supplied years later by Smoot? The folklore (which you never should discount) that half of Southern Maryland knew about a planned kidnapping? The assistance of the Confederate underground in that area?

It may have been a hare-brained scheme from our perspective, but we were not in the center of things in the winter and spring of 1865. Booth was likely of the same mindset as our modern folks who think they can hop the White House fence and get to the President -- and some get pretty close.

Laurie:

We all know that Booth made preparations for his escape. Thus it was that he was given letters of introduction, in Canada, to Dr. Queen, Marshall George P. Kane, Dr. Garland (most likely) and Dr. Mudd, meeting the latter several times before the assassination. And thus it was that he spent some days in November and December, 1864, in Charles County, meeting, at least, with Queen, Mudd and Thomas Harbin. Accordingly, there is no reason whatsoever to suppose that the carbines, cartridges and rope that Surratt, Herold and Atzerodt left at the tavern could have been used, or were intended to be used, only in connection with kidnapping Lincoln. They could just as easily have been needed and used by Booth and whomever he planned to have with him, or might have with him, on the escape, sans Lincoln. Similarly, the provisions and liquor Booth sent to Dr. Mudd, per Atzerodt, could have been used as easily by Booth and his co-conspirators for purposes of their escape as they could have been used incident to a kidnapping of the president. Likewise with the boat. The escapees would need a boat to get across the river. Booth could not know with certainty how many would be with him when the time came for action, so he made arrangements, through Atzerodt, Surratt and Harbin, for a fishing skiff that would accommodate a substantial number. He never used the boat anyway and its size may well have had something to do with it. There were, after all, only two fugitives.

Recall, too, Booth's remark to Ruggles, Bainbridge and Jett that "In the plot to kill, Paine alone was implicated...not even Herold knowing what was to be done. Atzerodt knew nothing of the intended assassination." Does this not show, rather conclusively, that Booth was always duping most of his action team with the malarkey about kidnapping, a duping that was made more convincing by deposits of weapons, materials, etc., here and there and arrangements made for a boat that was never used? It all fits rather well in my opinion. Conversely, a bona fide kidnapping scheme is contrary to the evidence, totally irrational, completely unworkable and without any genuine purpose, the business about Confederate POW's having already been undercut by Grant, as pointed out by Arnold to Booth at the Gautier's meeting.

John

John - We are going to have to agree to disagree because I will never understand your logic in this and you will never understand the Maryland situation and the feelings of its people at that time. And please remember that the kidnap plot goes back to the fall of 1864 and earlier, if you consider other plans that never materialized - not just a month before the assassination.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember a discussion many years ago that releasing the POWs, either through ransom or via Confederate raids both north and south, was a military consideration to divide Union forces as well as to form a pincher (is that the proper military term?) maneuver emanating in Canada and aimed at northern targets - a similar tactic to the failed incendiary attempts in NYC. The Copperhead movement in northwestern New York State was supposed to be involved also. I have always wondered if "the New York crowd" was a reference to them, not the wheeler/dealers in NYC.

One question: I don't remember you mentioning Dr. Garland in your book; did I miss something? Were you able to identify Dr. Garland, because Tidwell, Hall, and Gaddy were very anxious to find out who he was (if he existed at all). The closest we could come was a Dr. Garland who went south to become one of Davis's physicians. Tell me more about Dr. Garland and your sources for him.

Laurie:

I don't know anything about Dr. Garland and I don't know anyone who does. Reference to him is made on p. 278 of my book. It derives from an oral statement made by Arnold to James L. McPhail, Provost Marshal of Maryland, to the effect that Booth had corresponded with Drs. Mudd, Garland and Queen. McPhail included this statement in a note he attached to a written statement made by Arnold, which written statement McPhail gave to Stanton. My reference for this is Steers's Blood on the Moon, pp. 172, 173. It appears that the written statement did not mention Garland; only Queen and Mudd. That conclusion derives from the fact that Eaton Horner, one of McPhail's detectives, testified at the conspiracy trial and said that Arnold had stated that Booth had a letter of introduction to Dr. Mudd and Dr. Queen. Steers's reference is to "Statement of Sam Arnold, RG 94, M-619, reel 458, frames 0305-0312; and Baltimore American, "Statement of Arnold on His Arrest," January 19, 1869, p.1, col.1". Steers adds that "The Dr. Garland mentioned in the note has not been identified." My guess is that Dr. Garland was either a man of little or no importance or was so powerful and influential that he managed to cover his tracks better than the other two doctors. Because no reference to him crops up anywhere else, I favor the first explanation. It may well have been nothing more than a name Arnold heard from Booth and so he threw it into the stew verbally, but didn't think it important enough to put in the written statement.

As for the folklore in lower Maryland about kidnapping, if word of it was so widespread, that would mean, of course, that Union intelligence knew of it too. That, in turn, would mean that it really wasn't planned, because the last thing the Confederate leadership would do would be to plan a kidnapping the knowledge of which was all over lower Maryland. A bona fide kidnapping plan would be such a super-secret thing that it would be known to almost no one, i.e. only to a very select few operatives charged with the responsibility of engineering it. In other words, widespread "knowledge" of a kidnapping plot is evidence of its non-existence, not its existence.

As for the assistance of the Confederate underground in that area, it came into play only to assist Booth and Herold escape. Tidwell, Hall and Gaddy said: "When Jones mentioned Thomas Harbin and Joseph Baden in his book, he revealed something of the clandestine apparatus working to effect Booth's escape. The word had already gone across the river to those on the other side that Booth was still free and would be sent across as soon as possible. Be ready." (CR, p. 451) Further, on p. 458, they make reference to "how closely the Confederate clandestine machinery was following Booth's movements through King George County." It strains credulity to suppose that all this help was spontaneous. It is far more likely that the greater number of mail line operatives knew what was coming and were prepared for it.

I believe we have beaten this one enough. We're a couple of old oaks: not likely to bend much.

With great respect, John