Assassination Trivia

[wpbinzel]

I first ran across the name of Gazaway Bugg Lamar in law school, in connection with his Court of Claims case, and have always thought him to be an interesting character. This is what Robert Mathis wrote about him in 1979:

"The assassination of Lincoln led immediately to the next postwar tragedy for Lamar. The identity of those who were directly involved in the atrocity was quickly discovered, but in their minds of many bereaved Northerners the true instigation came from the Richmond government. It seemed natural for many to interpret the assassination as the result of a desperate eleventh-hour plot by the Confederate leaders to keep their hopes alive. A leading proponent of this view, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, zealously gathered evidence in an effort to document the complicity of Jefferson Davis and others in the plot. During the accumulation of this evidence, the name 'Lamar' appeared in the testimony of several individuals. As a result, on 28 April Stanton ordered his assistant secretary, Charles A. Dana, to arrest Gazaway Lamar. He explained: 'We have reason to believe that he was concerned in the death of Mr. Lincoln.' On the night of 28 April Lamar was, without forewarning, arrested and quickly transported eight hundred miles to Washington City. While Stanton's investigation continued, Lamar was confined, without any knowledge of his alleged crime and under very degrading conditions, for three months in Old Capitol Prison. Several times Lamar unsuccessfully applied for an interview with Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, to ascertain the reasons for his imprisonment. When friends approached the new president in Lamar's behalf, they found that he was 'strongly prejudiced' against the Georgian. To one of these persons Johnson curtly stated, 'Why they say he is as bad as Jeff Davis.'"
-- Mathis, pp. 342-3