Booth in Boston April 1865

[John Fazio]

(02-08-2017 10:16 PM)SSlater Wrote:  Here is some more pertinent reading. http://www.seacoastnh.com History-matters/the-elusive-trail-of -Lucy-Hale. 4 pages. (They misspelled Lucy's mother's maiden name on each page) and the text is carefully worded to avoid confirmation of any of the text. (It's odd that so many competent authors can come up with the same information, over many many years - and they all deny that they know who they are writing about.)

Thank you all for participating in this study.

John (The Lawyer one) All the reports on the capture of Harney, claim that he was captured AFTER Lee's surrender.

I put myself on record that I believe that the "woman" who accompanied Booth was Lucy Hale. As J. O. Hall said "there it must rest" (or something very similar.)

John:

That is, of course, possible. There are, in fact, three possibilities. 1)The reports to which you refer are mistaken. (How many reports are there? What are their sources? How reliable are they?) 2) Harney's capture may have been later on the same day that Lee surrendered (the 9th). 3) Crawford's account is correct.

Crawford was a Ranger. He was there in the flesh. His book (Mosby and His Men) was published in 1867 and was therefore probably written in 1865 or 1866, almost contemporaneously with the events it describes. On p. 357 of his book he identifies the relevant date as April 9. On p. 359 of the book, he describes the capture of Harney, which he says was "irretrievable", an allusion, obviously, to the importance of his mission. Crawford, of course, does not reveal the mission, but by characterizing the capture as "irretrievable", he effectively tells us that he knew what it was. We may be sure that if he knew, others also knew, including, without question, Mosby himself.

I am willing to be persuaded that the capture took place on a day other than April 9, but the evidence will have be pretty strong to overcome Crawford. Steers, as I recall, places the capture on the 8th.

John