Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth

[Gene C]

This weeks chapter is "The Detective Stories"

While not quite as interesting as some previous chapters, this caught my eye;
"A few miles from Port Tobacco dwelt a solitary woman, who, when questioned,
said that for many nights she had heard, after she had retired to bed,
a man enter her cellar and lie there all night, departing before dawn. Major
O'Bierne and the detectives ordered her to place a lamp in her window
the next night she heard him enter, and at dark they established a cordon
of armed officers around the place. At midnight punctually she exhibited
the light, when the officers broke into the house and thoroughly searched it,
without result. Yet the woman positively asserted that she had heard the
man enter.
It was afterword found she was of a diseased mind."

and this ploy by the detectives that didn't work;
"Major O'Bierne started for Leonardstown with his detective force, and
played off Laverty as Booth, and Hoey as Harold. These two advanced
to fiirm-houses and gave their assumed names, asking at the same time for
assistance and shelter. They were generally avoided, except by one man
named Claggert, who told them they might hide in the woods behind his
house. When Claggert was arrested, however he stated that he meant to
hide them only to give them up. While on this adventure, a man who had
heard of the reward came very near shooting Laverty. The ruhe now became
hazardous and the detectives resumed their real characters."

A rather frustrating time for the detectives.

[RJNorton]

That strange story from the "deranged" woman near Port Tobacco has made it into other books as well. For example, it's on pp. 112-113 of Roy Chamlee's Lincoln's Assassins.

[maharba]

I'd love to know Herold's exact words (claim) of innocence as he gave up and came out of the barn. Is there a record of what Herold initially said?
[/quote]

I'd love to know what John Wilkes Booth or 'the man in the barn' said in all the hour or two, as they apparently yelled back and forth. We have just a few fragments of supposed conversation. And then again just a bit of fragment after Boothe was shot and laid on the porch dying. I would guess he would also have asked for a drink of water or spirits, possibly a smoke? Was he paralyzed in a coma, perhaps.

[Wild Bill]

A good idea of what was said is in Richter, Last Confederate Heroes, which is based on the excellent research of the unpublished work of Jeannine Clarke Dodles, "The Last Days of John Wilkes Booth"

[Eva Elisabeth]

Having finally received my paperback yesterday and being able to read properly and highlight and make notes in the text, here come my points on the next chapter:

1. I wasn't aware Lincoln had a picture of John Bright on the mantle in his office.

2. GATH writes: "Book cases sprinkled with the sparse library of a country lawyer" - AFAIK, Mary largely extended the White House/family library, but that obviously didn't match the Lincoln image GATH wanted to forward.

3. Re.: "Tad will live to be a man pointed out everywhere, for his father's sake" - did that come true?

4. A quote for maharba: "They [Nicolay and Hay] are the only men who know his life well enough to exhaust it, aving followed his official tasks as closely as they shared his social hours." (Herndon btw had never been invited privately by the Lincoln's.)

5. "The groundless pretext, upon which he suffered the reputation of treason, issued from the Department of War - not from his office" - interesting GATH points that out.

[RJNorton]

Regarding the photo of John Bright:

"Vice-President Shuyler Colfax, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote to Bright in 1866, requesting a likeness of Bright, saying, "Your face is quite familiar to me already, as your portrait hung up in President Lincoln's Reception room, and often, in the many evenings I spent with him there, he referred to you with sincere regard & even affection. Every loyal man & woman in the land knows you, knows you and esteems you."

SOURCE: https://archive.org/stream/abrahamlincol...c_djvu.txt

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Roger!

(01-09-2016 07:05 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  3. Re.: "Tad will live to be a man pointed out everywhere, for his father's sake" - did that come true?

I should have added: What do y'all think?

[RJNorton]

Eva, my initial thought is this happened much more with Robert than Tad. Tad only lived another 6+ years after the assassination and was in Europe for close to half that period.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I think Robert's chosen career also was just prone to often make him a public person.

[Gene C]

This weeks chapter is "The Martyr", less than 5 pages.

A brief mention of General Charles Stone, p59
"Here once came Mr, Stanton, saying in his hard and positive way :
"Mr. Lincoln, I have found it expedient to disgrace and arrest General
Stone.
Stanton," said Mr. Lincoln, with an emotion of pain,
" when you considered it necessary to imprison General Stone, I am glad you did not consult me about it."
And for lack of such consultation. General Stone, I learn, now lies a
maniac in the asylum. The groundless pretext, upon which he suffered the
reputation of treason, issued from the Department of War—not from this office."

More about General Stone here
http://www.ma150.org/day-by-day/1862-02-...e-arrested

and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Pomeroy_Stone

No mention of him being a maniac in an asylum. Wonder where that came from?

[RJNorton]

I checked The Collected Works and found a letter written by Lincoln:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To Hannibal Hamlin


War Department
Washington City, D.C. April 28th. 1862

Sir; In answer to the Resolution of the Senate in relation to General Charles Stone, I respectfully state that he was arrested and imprisoned under my authority and with my sanction, upon evidence which, whether he be guilty or innocent, required in my judgment such proceedings to be had against him for the safety and welfare of the Country. He has not been tried because in the state of Military operations at the time of his arrest, and ever since, the Officers to constitute a Court, and for Witnesses, could not be withdrawn from duty, without serious injury to the service. He will be tried without any unnecessary delay, the Charges and Specifications will be furnished him in due season, and every facility for his defence will be afforded by the War Department. Respectfully Yours, ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Hon. Hannibal Hamlin.

President of the Senate.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In The Collected Works it also says, "On April 30, 1862, Senator Henry Wilson of the committee on military affairs wrote Lincoln, "I notice that your note is dated at the War Department and I would suggest that it might cause some comment when printed. Would it not be better to change it.'' Recopying and revising the letter somewhat, Lincoln sent it again addressed to the Senate on
May 1.

[RJNorton]

I was able to find the Senate Resolution referenced above:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

RESOLUTION

BY MR. MGDOUGALL, FOR Information in relation to the arrest of General Charles P. Stone. April 11, 1862.

-—Submitted, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. MGDOUGALL submitted the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be requested to inform the Senate, at once, on the following points, viz:

1. Whether or not Brigadier General Charles P. Stone has been arrested by any person in authority in the War Department or in the army of the United States; and if he has been so arrested, from whom the order for General Stone’ s arrest originally proceeded— whether the Secretary himself or the general then commanding the army of the Potomac.

2. Also, whether at the time of the arrest General Stone was not subject to the Articles of War, and entitled to the benefit of them; and if he was so subject and entitled, whether or not he was arrested for a violation of any, and which, of those articles; and on whose complaint General Stone was arrested, and by whom, if by any per sons, charges have been preferred against him; and that the Secretary of War be requested to communicate to the Senate the specifications under such charges, as fully as his present information will enable him to state them.

3. Also whether any, and if any, what, steps have been taken towards the preparation of such charges and specifications; and if any such steps have been so taken, whether or not the prosecution of the matter has been intrusted to the judge advocate general of the army, or of the army of the Potomac, or to some other, and what other, special judge advocate; and if not to either of said judges advocate general, why the case of General Stone did not take the customary course when a general officer is arrested; and whether or not either of the judges advocate above specially named has been, and when first, consulted in this matter.

4. Also, whether or not General Stone at any when and how often, either in person or by counsel, applied for an immediate trial; and whether he has not represented to the Secretary of War the injustice which he supposed would result to him from deferring his trial, by reason of the death of an important witness, in any matter connected with the administration of his late command upon the Potomac; and what answer, if any, has been made to such representation by or on behalf of General Stone.

5. Also whether or not the substance of such charges, more or less, has been in any, and what, way, and upon whose application, communicated to General Stone, and if not, why not; and if not, whether or not General Stone has applied, directly or indirectly, for such charges.

6. Also whether any, and what, privileges have enured to General Stone under the Articles of War Nos. 74, 79, 80, and 82, and Nos. 221 and 223 of the Revised Regulations of the Army; and what degree of confinement was originally ordered in reference to General Stone, and whether any, and what, change has been made, and when, from its original severity.

7. Also, if General Stone was not arrested for some alleged violation of the Articles of War, upon what pretense is he kept in close custody?

[Gene C]

This short chapter also deals with different aspects of Mr. Lincoln's character. The chapter starts...

"Washington, May 14.
I am sitting in the President's office. He was here very lately, but he
will not return to dispossess me of this high-backed chair he filled so long,
nor resume his daily work at the table where I am writing."

On p61 regarding his sense of humor
"He bought few new books, but seemed ever alive to works of comic value; the vein
of humor in him was not boisterous in its manifestations, but touched the
geniality of his nature, and he reproduced all that he absorbed, to elucidate
some new issue, or turn away argument by a laugh."

[Gene C]

This weeks chapter is "The Trial"

This is one of the more interesting chapters with his comments about the accused.
https://ia802500.us.archive.org/4/items/...67town.pdf

p63
"These are they who are living not by years nor by weeks, but by breaths."

About Mrs Surratt he says on p63-64,
"Let men remember that she is the mother of a son who has fled to save
his forfeit life by deserting her to shame, and perhaps, to death. Let women,
who will not mention her in mercy, learn from her end, in all succeeding
wars, to make patriotism of their household duties and not incite
Mrs. Surratt is a graduate of that seminary which spits in soldiers' faces,
denounces brave generals upon the rostrum, and cries out for an interminable
scaffold. when all the bells are ringing peace.

... If she did not devise the assassination, she was privy to it long. She was
an agent of contraband mails—a bold, crafty, assured rebel—perhaps a spy —
and in the event of her condemnation,
let those who would plead for her spend half their pity upon that victim whose heart
was like a woman's, and whose hand was merciful as a mother's."

- This is how she is presented to the public by the press.
More on the rest of the participants later.

[RJNorton]

Regarding David Herold, Gath writes:

"He stoops to the rail of the dock, now and then, to chat with his attorney, and a sort of blank anxiety which he wears, as his head turns here and there, shifts to a frolicking smile. But a woman of unusual attractions enters the court, and Harold is much more interested in her than in his acquittal."

Is it known who the woman was that caused Herold to look her way?