New Atzerodt Article

[Clarence]

(04-20-2022 05:19 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(04-19-2022 09:02 PM)Clarence Wrote:  I find it plausible Herold was tasked to kill VP Johnson (if Atzerodt failed do the deed) but could not retrieve his weapons.

In his statement of July 6, 1865, George Atzerodt wrote wrote:

"Booth appointed me and Harold to kill Johnson; in going down the street I told Booth we could not do it. Booth said Harold had more courage, and he would do it. Harold and I were on Pennsylvania Avenue together. I told him I would not do it, and should not go to my room for fear he would disturb Johnson. He left me to go for Booth."

Clarence, I think you made many perceptive statements in your post. We once had a long discussion of whether Herold accompanied Powell to the Seward home on the night of April 14th, and (as I recall) many posters felt the books that say this happened are wrong.

https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...ght=herold

Thanks Roger. I should have included that statement. It is good support of the hypothesis. I am using the Civil War in general and the Lincoln assassination plot in specific as scenarios for an intelligence analysis course. I am nearing the completion of the course - after more than a year of working on it. The information I have gleaned from this site has been remarkable. Constructing realistic scenarios is the hardest part of building a course. Kudos to all those posters who have made such great contributions to clarifying the events and challenging the accepted "wisdom".
I will be using the question of who was supposed to kill VP Johnson as the final Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH) exercise. At this moment, I am working on four hypotheses - Herold; Atzerodt; both; or someone else. So, I am still gathering all the evidence I can to support and detract from each hypothesis. Assumptions can be helpful, but hard evidence and primary sources are much better.
I welcome any serious input anyone wishes to provide.

This course will be at least 80 (2 weeks) of classroom hours and a fair amount of homework. I intend to offer numerous free seats in each iteration of the course to wounded warriors, other disabled veterans and first responders, and spouses and adult children of veterans and first responders who died in the line of duty. The course will develop the students into well-qualified intelligence analysts capable of working for federal, state, and local law enforcement or in academia. This is not a history course, but in using the Civil War and the Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy as the scenarios, the students will walk away knowing more about it than 99% of Americans.