John Surratt

[JMadonna]

Good points, Gene. Just be careful with the last one since it is quite possible that Surratt did not know that the plot had definitely changed to murder - especially if it changed as of the night of April 11. And, if he already had orders from Gen. Edwin Lee (which I believe he did), he had to obey those orders (for self preservation also?).

I think Surratt's message to Lee was to make sure the money that Thompson had was being sent to England and to inform Lee that the Harney mission was approved. Surratt in his Rockville speech admitted that he knew that there was a plot, but not involving Booth.

[Laurie Verge]

John Surratt was very careful in his later ventures into the lecture field in order to make money. He avoided naming names and placing blame (except on Weichmann). Perhaps that was one of the reasons that his speaking engagements were lackluster - the public wanted to know more than what they had read in the papers, and he was not giving it to them.

Good spies never tell - especially when they consider that they might need assistance down the line from higher-ups in their activities. Surratt's wartime adventures included supervision by William Norris on the secret line chain. Surratt would later ask for financial assistance from Norris.

[John Fazio]

I'm still not 100% convinced Surratt was in Elmira when President Lincoln was assassinated.

Although the majority of my assassination views are "conventional," I do believe there is enough evidence John Surratt was in Washington on April 14 that it should not be dismissed out-of-hand.

I think Booth's thinking changed with the Harney mission's failure. This set in motion a whole series of events. Mary Surratt traveled to Surrattsville on April 11 and told John Lloyd the "shooting irons" would be needed soon. Also, on April 11, Lincoln spoke from the White House. Booth, Herold, and Powell were in the audience. Among other things, Lincoln discussed possible new rights for certain blacks. He suggested conferring voting rights "on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers." Booth was enraged.

On April 13 Herold was sent into the country to inform key people something was about to happen. Dr. Mudd may have been one of these folks Herold visited.

Also on April 13 Lewis Powell was sent to scout the Seward residence. We have pretty good evidence that this occurred.

I think it's possible Booth looked at what he had available (Herold, Powell, and Atzerodt), and decided he needed John Surratt to assist. He contacted Surratt and told him to come to Washington. Booth may also have told Mary that John was coming.

I believe a grand total of 13 eyewitnesses placed John Surratt in Washington on April 14. One eyewitness said he saw Surratt in front of Ford's Theatre prior to the assassination. Another person, a barber, said he cut Surratt's hair in Washington on the morning of April 14. And there were many others.

In his July 6th statement, George Atzerodt wrote, "Booth told me that Surratt was in the Herndon House on the night of the murder, the 14th of April, we were not all together at the Herndon House. Booth told me that Surratt was to help at the box, that he expected others in the box. I saw Surratt a few moments ago."

On Wednesday, April 12, Mary Surratt told Richard Smoot that John would be in Washington on April 14th.

Additionally, the ledger pages for the Brainard House in Elmira for the dates "John Harrison" (John Surratt) was allegedly there are mysteriously missing.

I just think there's enough there to give John Surratt's whereabouts on April 14th a second look.

Roger:

And a third and a fourth look too. There are a lot of things about the conventional wisdom that have an odor about them (again!). We are asked to believe, for example, that after returning to Washington from Richmond on April 3, after just meeting with Benjamin and probably Davis, Surratt, who was in the center of all political maneuverings and developments (Washington), and at a time when Richmond was being evacuated and occupied and the Confederacy collapsing in a cloud of dust, decided to hotfoot it off to Montreal, a 600-mile journey (1,200 round trip), with a stop in New York to see Booth, who, however, was not there, being rather in Boston for a theater engagement. He then resumes his trek to the French-Canadian city and finally arrives on April 6. For what purpose? Why, to deliver to General E. G. Lee dispatches that relate to, according to him (in his Rockville lecture), "accounts of money transactions". Does anyone believe this? He then cools his heels for a few days, admiring the sights of this cosmopolitan city, while his beloved Confederacy continues to collapse in a cloud of dust, until, on April 10 (Monday), he receives word from Booth that their plans have changed and that he must return to Washington forthwith. (The evidence for this communication is very strong.) Shall we surmise that their change of plans has something to do with the fact that Harney was captured and his mission aborted at Burke's Station on the 9th (not the 8th or the 10th, as so many historians have erroneously reported it, but the 9th, per Crawford, his comrade-in-arms). So he hightails it out of Montreal on the 12th, but not to Washington (what happened?), but to Elmira, New York, pursuant to General Lee's request, who wants him to case out the prison there with a view toward a possibile breakout of Confederate POW's, and this despite the fact that Grant had already resumed prisoner exchange in January (shooting for 3,000 per week) and despite the fact that the other General Lee had already thrown in the towel on April 9, thereby, for all practical purposes, ending the war. Does anyone believe this? Then, rather than resume his journey to Washington, per Booth's instructions, he decides to cool his heels in Elmira for a few days, admiring the lower New York scenery, while the Confederacy continues to crumble to dust, until --Mirabile Dictu!!!--he hears of the assassination of Lincoln, whereupon he decides to forget all about Washington and Booth and his mother and decides, instead, to seek refuge and safety among Catholic clergy in Canada, after which he tells three different versions as to how and when he learned of the assassination and how and when he left the country. Does anyone believe this? Not feeling safe enough in Canada, he goes to Europe for sanctuary, telling McMillan and Ste. Marie, when safely away from American justice and while imbibing heavily, everything we need to know to conclude that he and Booth engineered the assassination and the attempted assassinations, at a cost of $10,000 ($140,000 in today's money). Inasmuch as neither he nor his actor friend was working, and inasmuch as it appears to be a safe assumption that his mom's boarding house was not likely to pay that much, it is fair to ask how he came into such a sum. The answer to that question will lead us directly to the masterminds of the the assassination and the attempted decapitation, which, according to the Confederate agent "Johnston" (see p. 727 of The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence), was to have eliminated 15 Northern leaders, if everything had gone according to plan. (When does it ever?) Bottom line: The conventional wisdom needs a third and fourth look. I am in the middle of the final chapter of my book. You get a free copy.

John

[HerbS]

I am still looking for the ledger that Surratt signed at the Webster House in Canandaigua,NY[he went to Easter Sunday Mass there],Then he went to Montreal,Canada and signed in as John Harrison.

[Bill Richter]

I turned to the "Johnston Letter," Evidence, 727, at John Fazio's interesting post because it rang a bell with me. I think its tone is much the same as the letter found at the pier in Morehead, NC, from the mysterious "O.B. No. 5." (Richter, Last Confederate Heroes, II, 187). I always found the latter so interesting because it used Booth's code name, "Pet." I agree that there is more here than meets the eye, but what. . .?

[RJNorton]

I am in the middle of the final chapter of my book. You get a free copy.

I am still looking for the ledger that Surratt signed at the Webster House in Canandaigua,NY[he went to Easter Sunday Mass there],Then he went to Montreal,Canada and signed in as John Harrison.

Many thanks, John. I will very much look forward to it. Herb, see if you can also find the missing pages from the ledger of the Brainard Hotel in Elmira. That would be a great discovery, too.

[JMadonna]

Snyder, the Confederate who tried to warn Lincoln of the Harney mission, told Ripley of how the secret service worked. He said "Their method was to plan an expedition and detail certain men who never knew what they were to do until they arrived at a designated rendezvous and received their orders."

So was Harney's control agent JWB? Was it his job to manage Harney?
Opinions?

[HerbS]

JWB probably thought he was or was in control and wanted his"15 minutes of Fame"!

[L Verge]

I think Harney answered to a different handler than Booth -- and I wish that Jane Singer would sign in on this one because she is one of the best authorities on Thomas Harney.

[JMadonna]

I think Harney answered to a different handler than Booth -- and I wish that Jane Singer would sign in on this one because she is one of the best authorities on Thomas Harney.

I think you may be right.

[RJNorton]

I have always felt a plot with the intention of blowing up the White House must have begun at the highest levels - with Jefferson Davis and Judah Benjamin. Does this make sense?

[JMadonna]

Absolutely. From the speed at which it was enacted it was probably a contingency plan put into action when Booth's kidnapping plot failed.

[Jane Singer]

I think Harney answered to a different handler than Booth -- and I wish that Jane Singer would sign in on this one because she is one of the best authorities on Thomas Harney.

Hi all,

So glad to be part of this forum and thanks, Laurie, for your kind words. Yes, I would agree that becasue Harney was one of the last Torpedo Bureau operatives left in Richmond at the fall of the city, he was dispatched by either Gabriel Rains or Samuel Gooch Leitch, the acting bureau head at the time. Leitch was a wild one and a friend of Snyder's. According to a letter Leitch wrote young Snyder, the Bureau was cooking up and soliciting "projects" of all kinds the summer before.

I believe as well that Thomas Summers of Elijah White's Cavalry was assigned to Harney as an escort as they were captured separately. My book The Confederate Dirty War details my discovery of Summers. He and Harney were captured separately, not with the Mosby scratch Company "H." bunch.

I'm not sure Booth's plan and Harney's were at all related, though I pondered this over and over at the time I wrote my book.

[John Stanton]

Consider this - When we examine the timing of Harney's mission, it had to have been created at the highest levels of the Confederate government, and /or unless Sarah Slater's last mission was the impetuous. Slater went to Canada just before the failed Abduction Mar. 15+/-, Arv. Mar 17, met with Thompson, and left immediately for Richmond, with dipatches and his famous "his makes the thing all right". She arv'd D.C. Mar 25. (Did she tell Surratt what the new mission was to be?) Surratt then took her to Richmond, arv. Mar29. They didn't have time to unpack and they are ordered back to Canada. Dep. April 2, At exactly this same time HARNEY LEFT FOR MOSBY. Surratt and Slater arv Montreal April 6. and got sent to Elmira. (Part of the overall plan)Harney is captuered April 8/10. Kerplop! The bottom fell out of the whole plan.They all knew Lincoln was going to die, in the bombing. In the ensuing termoil, IMO, Gen.E.G. Lee was expecting to have his own "new" Army to lead out of Canada, the escaped prisoners. IMO, Booth tried to insure the plan would continue, by killing Lincoln. I am rambling - but I'm thinking. None of what happened was Happen-stance. It was all related. (Don't laugh!)

[JMadonna]

I'm not sure Booth's plan and Harney's were at all related, though I pondered this over and over at the time I wrote my book.

Any opinions as to who was Harney supposed to report to in Washington?

Here's a thought. Maybe Mary Surratt was actually the mastermind behind all the plots. She was at the center of everything. Maybe she was so good an actress that we continually overlook her.
Hmm I smell a movie of the week..