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(11-22-2020 02:04 PM)McCastle Wrote:  Hello Susan,

Although I haven't purchased your book yet, I do look forward to reading it soon.

After a quick revisit to the burial certificates for Congressional Cemetery, I found there are two separate burials for site 124/26. One is for Gustavus Howell, who died from Billious Typhus in 1836. This certificate also notes "the estate of Gustavus Howell" paid for the burial of his son, Gustavus the 2nd, in the same site 124/26.

Thirty-three years later in 1869 when Junior died, the burial certificate shows Mrs. Howell paid a small fee of $2 of his internment above his fathers grave.

Lacking age and date of birth on the certificate makes it somewhat difficult to determine if this is "the Augustus Spencer Howell, tied to the assassination, Are you aware of any obituary or newspapers that mentioned Howell Jr's death in 1869? I not sure, but I think the Howells buried at Congressional lived near Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Joe

I don't think I've found any obit. Jim Garrett and Richard Smyth in "Where Are They Now?" identify Augustus Spencer Howell as being buried in the 124/26 plot, so they might have some information. In the confession by Atzerodt published in the Baltimore American on January 18, 1869, Howell is named as "Gustavus Howell."

Many thanks to Steve for sending this. Steve writes, "The National Archives actually has a copy of Augustus Howell's discharge from the Confederate Army from July 1862 (which is kind of unusual for an enlisted Confederate soldier)."

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(11-25-2020 10:36 AM)McCastle Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 06:06 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Many thanks to Steve for sending this. Steve writes, "The National Archives actually has a copy of Augustus Howell's discharge from the Confederate Army from July 1862 (which is kind of unusual for an enlisted Confederate soldier)."

Thank you Steve, and to Roger for posting these documents.

They are kind of unusual. These have obviously been altered and duplicated. The last two handwritten lines on the bottom of the page seem to have been added at a later date. Snowden applied for Howell's discharge on July 14, but the last lines on the document show... "Discharge 11th July, 1867", with a type written #7. Also, the name of the Post Commander at the bottom looks like Jn. H Winder. If so, why would the head of Richmond's prisons need to sign off on the discharge of a private in the Maryland Artillery?

Emack, according to Tidwell, was a student of John H. Winder

The bottom reads "Discharged this 11th day of July 1862 at Richmond" with "11th", "July", "2" (of 1862), and "Richmond" handwritten on a preprinted form. The bottom of the form was written out first at Richmond while the top would presumably have been written three days later by his unit commander confirming the discharge.

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On a side note, I highly recommend that those on this thread google Richard Snowden Andrews, the Captain who signed the discharge document. His personal story is truly remarkable. The shell jacket he was wearing when he was so gravely wounded is in the collection of the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. Andrews is laid to rest in Green Mount, along with many notables from the assassination.

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(12-11-2020 11:26 AM)McCastle Wrote:  Meanwhile, John Surratt had given several different reasons for rushing down to Richmond immediately after the arrest of Augustus Howell. He told David Barry that he had to take the woman in his charge to Richmond, although there is no evidence at this point that Sarah Slater went any further than Port Tobacco. Mary Surratt told Louis Weichmann that John was going to Richmond for a clerkship. George Atzerodt had a letter and claimed Surratt told him "he was in trouble."

Joe, in Come Retribution it says, "At the same time that Harney and his men left Richmond, John H. Surratt was in the city. He arrived there on 29 March with Sarah Slater who had come from Montreal with dispatches from Jacob Thompson and Edwin G. Lee for Secretary of State Benjamin."

Do you feel Slater's alleged presence in Richmond is just an assumption on the part of the authors (as you indicate there is no proof)? Thanks, Joe.

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(12-12-2020 05:52 PM)McCastle Wrote:  

(12-12-2020 09:58 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(12-11-2020 11:26 AM)McCastle Wrote:  Meanwhile, John Surratt had given several different reasons for rushing down to Richmond immediately after the arrest of Augustus Howell. He told David Barry that he had to take the woman in his charge to Richmond, although there is no evidence at this point that Sarah Slater went any further than Port Tobacco. Mary Surratt told Louis Weichmann that John was going to Richmond for a clerkship. George Atzerodt had a letter and claimed Surratt told him "he was in trouble."

Joe, in Come Retribution it says, "At the same time that Harney and his men left Richmond, John H. Surratt was in the city. He arrived there on 29 March with Sarah Slater who had come from Montreal with dispatches from Jacob Thompson and Edwin G. Lee for Secretary of State Benjamin."

Do you feel Slater's alleged presence in Richmond is just an assumption on the part of the authors (as you indicate there is no proof)? Thanks, Joe.

I do Roger. I think it is an assumption that may have originated with statements by Louis Weichmann and David Barry in which John Surratt was to accompany Sarah Slater to Richmond. Taken at face value, it made sense to believe that Sarah Slater stayed with Surratt for the entire journey to Richmond. David Barry claimed he, along with Sarah and John, stayed overnight at Port Tobacco. and although he says Surratt ran the blockade, he never said that Sarah went with him.

When John Surratt returned to his mothers house in Washington on April 3rd, he seems to have returned alone. He asked Weichmann to exchange some gold pieces for greenbacks saying he was going to New York, but in Surratt's lecture he insisted that he did not go to his mothers house but rather to a hotel, which probably led some to believe that Surratt had Sarah stashed somewhere before going to New York. It's just a guess though. There is simply no evidence that she was with Surratt when he returned to Washington, let alone when he crossed the Potomac on his way to Richmond.

I could be mistaken, but I think Confederate spy Olivia Floyd of Port Tobacco, who was also thought to have been Sarah Slater, once took dispatches to Popes Creek that Sarah Slater later delivered.

If the dispatches were delivered directly into the hands of Sarah Slater at Popes Creek, is it possible that David Berry left Sarah in Port Tobacco because she was a local?

Perhaps a smitten George Atzerodt was trying to throw authorities off her trail by claiming she was from North Carolina.

Sarah was from NC, by marriage, anyway. She was born in Connecticut and ended up in NC, where she married Rowan Slater in Goldsboro, NC.

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(12-12-2020 07:15 PM)McCastle Wrote:  Susan,

While I agree that the extensive work on Sarah Slater done by author and historian John Stanton is impressive, I have to ask the same question I posed to John many years ago... what if the name Sarah Slater was an alias?

Years ago, long before his passing, he took me on the "Cawood No Escape Tour" near his home at Mathias Point Va.

A good man, and I always enjoyed his company.

I suppose it's possible that "Slater" was an alias, but Weichman's trial testimony that Mrs. Slater was from North Carolina, spoke French, and could apply to the French consul for aid if needed coincides nicely with the background of the actual Sarah Slater.

(12-12-2020 07:15 PM)McCastle Wrote:  Susan,

While I agree that the extensive work on Sarah Slater done by author and historian John Stanton is impressive, I have to ask the same question I posed to John many years ago... what if the name Sarah Slater was an alias?

Years ago, long before his passing, he took me on the "Cawood No Escape Tour" near his home at Mathias Point Va.

A good man, and I always enjoyed his company.

John is one of the people on this forum that I wanted to meet in person, but was never able to do so. We shared comments through the forum and a few emails.
I looked forward to his post. I'm a bit envious of those of you who got to know him

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