The Case For Mrs. Surratt

[STS Lincolnite]

Laurie,

I had always thought that Atzerodt gave two "confessions". The first on May 1 (of which Joan found the original document) and the second to a Reverend Butler in early July, after he had been convicted. It had always been my impression that the items that had been published were related to the confession he gave to Butler. I guess I had no real reason for assuming that other than the timing of publication that I was aware of and the fact that I knew the other one (original anyway) was brought to light in the 1970s. In revisiting based on your posts, I really can't say for sure which "confession" informed the early published accounts. I will try to hunt down the newspaper article when I have some time and see if there is any clarification as to where the information came from.