Booth's Note to Johnson

[Craig Hipkins]

Sometime on April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth left a note in the box of William Browning at the Kirkwood House where Vice-President Johnson was staying. Browning was Johnson's secretary and he was out at the time Booth left the note. When he returned to Kirkwood at about 500p he found the note in his box which said: "Don't wish to disturb you; are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth."

Browning initially believed that the note was meant for him, but later came to believe that it was meant for Johnson. There has been a lot of speculation about this enigmatic note since it came to light a century and a half ago. What do the members of this forum think? Was the note directed at Johnson? Or was it meant for Browning? Also, wouldn't Johnson have had a mail box at the Kirkwood? Or did all his mail go through his secretary first?

Mary Lincoln always believed that Johnson had something to do with her husbands death. She wrote: "that miserable inebriate Johnson, had cognizance of my husband's death, Why was that card of Booth's found in his box..."

[PaigeBooth]

Hi Craig,

This is a very interesting topic. It has always been my understanding that Booth's note was intended for Andrew Johnson, and not for Browning. Arthur Loux's wonderful book, "John Wilkes Booth Day by Day," states the following quote found on page 196:

"Then Booth entered the hotel and left a note for Vice President Johnson with the clerk: "Don't wish to disturb. Are you are home?"........His real intent was to determine whether Johnson was in the hotel and in which room."

As far as Johnson being involved in Lincoln's assassination, I do not favor the theory. However, please see this website: http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln74.html

Here Roger Norton discusses the facts and possibilities of Johnson's involvement.

[RJNorton]

(01-11-2015 08:13 PM)Craig Hipkins Wrote:  Browning initially believed that the note was meant for him, but later came to believe that it was meant for Johnson. There has been a lot of speculation about this enigmatic note since it came to light a century and a half ago. What do the members of this forum think? Was the note directed at Johnson? Or was it meant for Browning? Also, wouldn't Johnson have had a mail box at the Kirkwood? Or did all his mail go through his secretary first?

Hi Craig. Historians speculate about this note, and as far as I know, there is no absolute certainty about its purpose or to whom it was intended. I can tell you that Johnson and Browning had separate boxes at the Kirkwood House. Browning's was #67, and Johnson's was #68. Thus, it's conceivable a note intended for one could have mistakenly been put in the other's box. I do not know if this happened with Booth's message. My best guess is that Booth was trying to somehow determine if Johnson would be in that night so Atzerodt (or possibly Herold) would have easy access to him. Paige mentioned Art Loux's book, and I agree with what Art wrote.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I recently read "American Brutus", and M. K.'s assumption is that Booth wanted to give the appearance of intimacy, involvement and co-conspiration with as many people as possible to make everyone think like Mary did. Although this sure may not have saved Booth.

[RJNorton]

Eva, I think that is a very good point. Also, I think there is some evidence that Booth knew Johnson previously. And Browning, during the trial, said he (Browning himself) had met Booth several times when Booth had performances in Nashville.

[L Verge]

Wild Bill mentions the Booth-Johnson early connections in Last Confederate Heroes. Cue to chime in, Bill.

[STS Lincolnite]

These are two interesting possibilities that when examining create more questions.

Per what Eva posted about Kauffman's assertion that Booth was trying to project an image of Johnson and he as intimates: Following Booth's assasination of Lincoln this certainly would have cast shadows on Johnson (and did to some degree - certainly in Mary Lincoln's eyes). But I can't help but wonder why he would bother doing so if the plan was to assassinate Johnson as well (Atzerodt or Herold's assignment)? Would make no difference to Booth & co. if Johnson was looked on negatively in that regard if he was dead. So if the reason that Booth left the note was solely to make Johnson look bad it would then seem that there was in fact no plan to kill Johnson, only to make him look bad. Well...that certainly would change the assassination narrative! I suppose Booth could have been doing trying to cast Johnson in a negative light as a plan B in case the assassination attempt failed. But I don't think he tooks such steps in any other case. Maybe that tells us something about his faith in Atzerodt and Herold.

Leaving the note to find out if Johnson was in and what room he was staying in would make sense if he was a target. Along with the "Plan B" scenario above he could have killed two birds with one stone.

The other option is that, as some might believe, Johnson was in on the plot and Booth honestly wanted to see him to apprise him of the status of the plan.

All are possible, but which is the most probable? At least at this point, I would say he left it to find out where Johnson was and hedged his bet and did try to make Johnson look bad just in case.

[Wild Bill]

According to Hamilton Howard (son of Senator Jacob Howard, Radical Republican from Michigan), in his book Civil War Echoes (1907), Johnson and Booth knew each other from Nashville. Johnson was military governor of Tennessee and Booth appearing as an actor, as usual. Johnson evidently knew a pair of promiscuous sisters and knowing Booth's reputation as a hustler of women asked the actor to share the girls. Later, Booth allegedly serviced both of them when Johnson was away in DC. Johnson's wife, a consumptive, was also damaged from childbearing and could no longer satisfy him sexually and another pregnancy would have been life-threatening. This same story is in Jerry Madonna's, A Threat to the Republic. He and I used the same source independently. So Johnson and Booth were likely more "intimate" than normally assumed. What this all means, if anything, is up to you.

[Eva Elisabeth]

(01-12-2015 01:07 PM)STS Lincolnite Wrote:  But I can't help but wonder why he would bother doing so if the plan was to assassinate Johnson as well (Atzerodt or Herold's assignment)?

I had the same question. But I also wonder if he seriously believed and relied in Atzerodt would kill Johnson.

[Cliff Roberts]

(01-12-2015 01:29 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  According to Hamilton Howard (son of Senator Jacob Howard, Radical Republican from Michigan), in his book Civil War Echoes (1907), Johnson and Booth knew each other from Nashville. Johnson was military governor of Tennessee and Booth appearing as an actor, as usual. Johnson evidently knew a pair of promiscuous sisters and knowing Booth's reputation as a hustler of women asked the actor to share the girls. Later, Booth allegedly serviced both of them when Johnson was away in DC. Johnson's wife, a consumptive, was also damaged from childbearing and could no longer satisfy him sexually and another pregnancy would have been life-threatening. This same story is in Jerry Madonna's, A Threat to the Republic. He and I used the same source independently. So Johnson and Booth were likely more "intimate" than normally assumed. What this all means, if anything, is up to you.

The story of Booth and Johnson sharing sisters in Nashville first appeared in the press in 1867, during the impeachment investigation of President Johnson, and was reprinted in various newspapers around the country. Perhaps the earliest reference is found in a long page-one article in the June 1, 1867 issue of the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, signed only with the initials "H.V. N. B.," which contains the following paragraph under the heading "BOOTH AT NASHVILLE":

After the Republican party had nominated its ticket Booth passed time in Nashville. There he was well acquainted with Mr. Johnson. Both had mistresses there, and these mistresses were said to be sisters. Booth was also well acquainted with Mr. Browning, the Private Secretary of the Vice President.

The entire article is clearly anti-Johnson and is filled with slurs and obvious untruths.

While I could find no evidence to substantiate the shared mistress claim, it is interesting that Booth's mistress, Ella Starr, is said to have accompanied her married sister, Mary Jane Treakle, to Nashville where they spent some time together. This again is based on press reports, but I recall some documentation that Mary Jane, at least, did reside for a time in Nashville before coming to Washington.

[STS Lincolnite]

(01-12-2015 01:29 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  According to Hamilton Howard (son of Senator Jacob Howard, Radical Republican from Michigan), in his book Civil War Echoes (1907), Johnson and Booth knew each other from Nashville. Johnson was military governor of Tennessee and Booth appearing as an actor, as usual. Johnson evidently knew a pair of promiscuous sisters and knowing Booth's reputation as a hustler of women asked the actor to share the girls. Later, Booth allegedly serviced both of them when Johnson was away in DC. Johnson's wife, a consumptive, was also damaged from childbearing and could no longer satisfy him sexually and another pregnancy would have been life-threatening. This same story is in Jerry Madonna's, A Threat to the Republic. He and I used the same source independently. So Johnson and Booth were likely more "intimate" than normally assumed. What this all means, if anything, is up to you.

Thanks Bill, for some additional details on the acquaintence between Booth and Johnson. I had never heard about the illnesses of Mrs. Johnson. I would be interested to know how many times these, umm, "meetings" occurred. When I get home, I will check in Loux book and see when Booth was in Nashville during the time Johnson was military governer.

[Jenny]

Hey Cliff,

Do you have the source for the claim that Mary Jane lived in Nashville at some point? I'm trying to track down the "Starr" family (well, I've been taking a break recently) and hadn't heard of a Nashville connection before so I'm curious!

Any info would be awesome!

[STS Lincolnite]

Andrew Johnson's service as Military Governor of TN was from 12 March 1862 to 4 March 1865.

I did a quick scan and according to Art Loux's book John Wilkes Booth Day by Day, the only time Booth was in Nashville during this period was from 1 February 1864 to 13 February 1864. Loux also makes a note in the entry for 8 February 1864 that Johnson left that day for Washington, DC. February 1864 is consistent with what I have seen in the past as the time Booth and Johnson interacted.

They may have crossed paths somewhere else along the line, but there appears to be only 7 days when they were in Nashville at the same time (during Johnson's tenure as Military Governor anyway). I too would be curious to know the time frame that Mary Jane Treakle may have lived in Nashville. I wonder if it there was a crossover with the dates above?

[Cliff Roberts]

(01-12-2015 07:30 PM)Jenny Wrote:  Hey Cliff,

Do you have the source for the claim that Mary Jane lived in Nashville at some point? I'm trying to track down the "Starr" family (well, I've been taking a break recently) and hadn't heard of a Nashville connection before so I'm curious!

Any info would be awesome!

Hi Jenny! I keep forgetting that old rule, "check twice, post once!" In this case, I reviewed my files for the main posting but relied on memory (bad habit) for that last sentence. Without first checking, I managed to mix up Norfolk Virginia (where we know Mary Jane's ex-husband lived and died) with Nashville, Tennessee (well, they both start with an "N") and thus the error. The 1865 clippings say Mary and Ella Starr lived in Richmond before coming to D.C., and there are records showing Mary Jane's children being born in Virginia, but nothing showing either sister in Tennessee. That's one of the benefits of belonging to this board of experts: If you screw up, someone's gonna catch it and call you on it! Thanks for letting me straighten that out.

By the way, I've got over 200 files on the Starr family, going back to Ellen Starr's parents and her various residences in Baltimore before coming to D.C. I've been meaning to post something but never got around to it. If there's anything I can do to add to your Starr file, send me a PM!

Cliff

[LincolnToddFan]

(01-12-2015 09:12 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  I recently read "American Brutus", and M. K.'s assumption is that Booth wanted to give the appearance of intimacy, involvement and co-conspiration with as many people as possible to make everyone think like Mary did. Although this sure may not have saved Booth.

Hi Eva,
I was going to mention Michael Kauffman's "American Brutus" too. I totally agree with MK. Booth was spinning a large, deceitful web and intended to involve certain people in his plot. He had no intention of going down alone.

---

(01-12-2015 01:29 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  According to Hamilton Howard (son of Senator Jacob Howard, Radical Republican from Michigan), in his book Civil War Echoes (1907), Johnson and Booth knew each other from Nashville. Johnson was military governor of Tennessee and Booth appearing as an actor, as usual. Johnson evidently knew a pair of promiscuous sisters and knowing Booth's reputation as a hustler of women asked the actor to share the girls. Later, Booth allegedly serviced both of them when Johnson was away in DC. Johnson's wife, a consumptive, was also damaged from childbearing and could no longer satisfy him sexually and another pregnancy would have been life-threatening. This same story is in Jerry Madonna's, A Threat to the Republic. He and I used the same source independently. So Johnson and Booth were likely more "intimate" than normally assumed. What this all means, if anything, is up to you.

I shouldn't be shocked by this info considering what is known about both JWB and Johnson. So why am I sitting here with my lower jaw touching the floor?! The things I learn on this Forum!

Thanks Wild Bill-