What Was The Role of David Herold

[John Fazio]

(02-10-2013 09:18 AM)Philip G Wrote:  Great article by Mr. Fazio!! Forgive me if someone mentioned or asked this already, but if Herold was near or in the theatre say from around 9:00 PM for some time maybe 30 minutes, do we know of anyone who saw him there or nearby??

Phil

Philip: Thank you for the compliment.

I cannot say with certainty that someone saw him, but someone may have and, further, there is good circumstantial evidence putting him there:

Consider:

1. As Roger already pointed out, Sgt. Dye testified at the trial of the conspirators (Pit., p. 72) that he saw Booth conversing with a "ruffian looking fellow" ( a good description of Herold that fairly well fits Fletcher's that night) on the sidewalk in front of Ford's Theatre that night (as well as with a better dressed man).

2. Dye testified again in John Surratt's trial (Vol. 1, p. 131).

3. In Atzerodt's July 6 confession, he said that after 9:00 p.m., Herold left him to go for Booth. (Weichmann, p. 387)

4. Harrison Reed's report that, according to his information, Herold had confessed to Marshall Murray of New York that his place was at Ford's Theatre and as soon as the President was shot, he ran to the Kirkwood to Atzerodt's room.

5.The person seen to mount a horse, which had been standing next to the theater, and then gallop away, by the party who resided at 333 F Street, may have been Herold. The person seen standing on the sidewalk next to the solitary horse adjacent to the theater may also have been Herold. See p. 13 of the article. These whistles, incidentally, were the known mode of communication of Mosby's Rangers, some of whom were known to have infiltrated Washington that night, probably in Union uniforms. Coggeshall puts some of them in the theater (p. 27). Does anyone suppose they came to be entertained by a worn out English comedy?

John