Something I've Wondered About....

[LincolnToddFan]

(06-28-2014 02:56 PM)BettyO Wrote:  As we approach the 149th anniversary of the hanging, I have been thinking that of all (or at least) most of the guards who actually guarded the death cells of the Conspirators on the evening and morning of July 6-7, almost nothing has been written or recorded. According to Hartranft, at least two guards were positioned outside the various death cells - yet we have apparently never read/heard anything from these fellows as to the goings-on within the chambers themselves on that fateful day. I've always wondered about this - perhaps these documentations are yet to be found? Thanks to John E and Barry C, we DO know the names of the guards who escorted the condemned to the scaffold.

I did find this online - and have never heard of this either:

http://www.grandhaventribune.com/opinion/opinion/122781

Anyone else ever heard of any recollections from the death cell guards themselves?
Just curious.....

BettyO, all I remember reading(from NY Times articles) is that Mrs. Surratt did not sleep the night before, nor did she eat, and that she spent the hours preceding the execution prostrate in her cell. Her confessor with her, and her distraught sobbing daughter.

Davy Herold's sisters spent the morning with him and they were likewise crying and inconsolable.

Lewis Powell is said to have been the only prisoner who appeared outwardly calm on the eve. He slept through the night and consumed a hearty breakfast the next morning.

I don't remember much about Atzerodt.

All of them were attended by clergy.

(Most of these recollections are from James Swanson's "Lincolns Assassins: Their Trial and Execution)