Blowing up the White House

[John Wideman]

They failed where Booth succeeded. Earlier attempts at killing Lincoln.
From Civil War Torpedoes, Kochan and Wideman, privately pubished.
The Torpedo Attack to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln

Some historians claim that the Torpedo Bureau’s attempt at assassinating Lincoln arose as a result of the 1864 raid by Captain Ulrich Dahlgren on Richmond which had been approved personally by Lincoln. Documents found on Dahlgren’s body indicated that the raid was also an attempt to assassinate Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other Confederate cabinet members. One of those documents read, “…Once in the city, it must be destroyed and Jeff Davis and his cabinet killed." With this damning evidence against Lincoln, the Confederate government struck back. The plot to blow up the White House was allegedly generated in retaliation.
By March 1865, the Confederate Congress passed the bill authorizing Davis’ direct command of the Bureau for Special and Secret Service. Davis, at this point, had the legal authorization to order the attack on Lincoln in reprisal for the Dahlgren raid.
On 1 April 1865, several days before the fall of Richmond and a week before the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, Lieutenant Thomas F. Harney, and possibly other Torpedo Bureau personnel, supplied with “ordnance” (not further identified) were ordered to rendezvous with Confederate guerrilla leader, General John S. Mosby. Mosby was to use his cavalry unit to help Harney infiltrate into Washington, DC. Although not stated, Mosby may have also been expected to assist Harney’s exfiltration from the Washington, DC, area after the action was completed. Harney met up with a Mosby cavalry troop of 150 men and proceeded enroute to the capital.
On 4 April 1865, a Confederate deserter, Private William H. Snyder of the Confederate Torpedo Bureau, approached Edward H. Ripley with shocking news.

“The Confederate soldier alluded to above, who came to my headquarters and begged to have an interview with me on a very important subject, was a more than usually intelligent and fine-appearing man in uniform, by the name of Snyder.
He began by saying that he was an enlisted man in Raine's torpedo bureau, an organization of the Confederate secret service, which had among its duties such services as the blowing up of our magazines and our river steamers, raids on our rear like the St. Albans raid, firing of Northern cities, like the simultaneous attempts on the Fifth Avenue and many other New York hotels, the blowing up of the powder boats at City Point, the distribution of small-pox clothes, etc., etc., in fact all kinds of deviltry and irregular warfare, calculated to create panic or discontent in the rear of the Union armies. Their method was to plan an expedition and detail certain men who never knew what they were to do until they arrived at a designated rendezvous and received their orders. He then said that what he was particularly anxious to tell me was this:
He knew that a party had just been dispatched from Raine's torpedo bureau on a secret mission, which vaguely he understood was aimed at the head of the Yankee government, and he wished to put Mr. Lincoln on his guard and have impressed upon him that just at this moment he believed him to be in great danger of violence and he should take the greater care of himself. He could not give names or facts, as the work of his department was secret, and no man knew what his comrade was sent to do, but of this he was convinced, that the President of the United States was in great danger. Upon expressing willingness to make a statement and swear to it, I called in Captain Staniels, acting assistant adjutant-general, who took down his statement under oath. I then told him I should feel obliged to keep him in custody until I could arrange an interview with President Lincoln. I wrote the President a note and sent it at once aboard the Malvern, asking an interview at his earliest leisure on an important matter. It was then about 10 o'clock in time evening. In reply he wrote me a personal note, saying he would see me at 9 o'clock the next morning. I was promptly on hand, taking Snyder and his statement with me.”
Lincoln listened to the report from Snyder on 5 April 1865 aboard USS Malvern. He said that he did not believe anyone would do him harm. However, Snyder had been privy to a highly secret Confederate assassination mission.
On 9 April 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
On 10 April 1865, 15 miles from the White House, Mosby’s patrol ran into a Union cavalry unit and a skirmish ensued. After the fight, Harney and several others were captured. Neither Harney, nor his comrades, revealed the true purpose of their mission and were simply transported to Old Capitol Prison for the duration.
Yet, Harney did not assume the disguise of one of Mosby’s men but self-reported that he was in the Engineer Bureau apparently failing to mention that the Torpedo Bureau was part of the Engineer Bureau.
Colonel Charles Albright, 202nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanding the capturing Union force reported “List of prisoners and property captured: Richard McVey (wounded severely), Edward Hefflebower, Thomas F. Harney, Engineer Bureau, Lieutenant Company F, Sixth Missouri brought ordnance to Colonel Mosby and joined his command ; First Sergeant David G. Mohler, Company H, Samuel Rogers. Six horses captured. Six or 8 horses killed; 7 complete sets of horse equipments. The road from Mr. Arundel’s to Wolf Run Shoals was strewn with blankets, hats, caps, etc. I have no doubt a number of the enemy were wounded and probably some killed that were got away through the woods. ” (Emphasis supplied.)
It is not reported what kind of device was available for the mission, but Confederate Torpedo Bureau personnel had several years’ experience with horological devices, which seems the most likely device in this scenario. The amount of powder required is too much for a cavalry column to carry, so the powder had to be pre-positioned in Washington, DC. The setting up the explosives and detonating them with a powder train or time fuze did not require the services of a specialist like Harney.
In 1977, the confession of Lincoln co-conspirator, George Atzerodt, taken in 1865 during the trial of Lincoln’s assassins, was discovered in the hands of a descendant of Atzerodt’s attorney, William E. Doster. That confession was not permitted to be used at the military tribunal in 1865. It remained with the attorney’s family until surfaced by a researcher in 1977.
In significant part, the confession states as follows, “Booth said he had met a party in N. York who would get the Prest. [President] certain. They were going to mine the end of the pres. House, near the War Dept. They knew an entrance to accomplish it through. Spoke about getting friends of the Presdt. to get up an entertainment & they would mix it in, have a serenade & thus get at the Presdt. & party. These were understood to be projects. Booth said if he did not get him quick the N. York crowd would. Booth knew the New York party apparently by a sign. He saw Booth give some kind of sign to two parties on the Avenue who he said were from New York.” (Emphasis supplied)
A 2007 experiment, televised on the History Channel, using a device prepared by co-author Mike Kochan, indicated that a device placed in a basement room directly under the White House East Room could accomplish the assassination.
We know that Harney’s mission was ordered and authorized by senior Confederate officials, but exactly who is unknown. Rains and Davis were very close friends so the most likely scenario is that someone proposed it, Davis authorized it and Rains carried it out. Harney worked directly for Rains in Richmond as did Private Snyder. The identity of the “N. York crowd” can only be guessed but some have speculated that a cabal of Northern merchants (and possibly radical Republicans) involved in various trading schemes was seeking to assassinate Lincoln. The use of explosives indicates that these other conspirators had no intention of kidnapping Lincoln but intended to kill him. They were also in Washington, DC, during the period of Harney’s failed mission.
Torpedoes played an additional role in the plan. Beverly Kennon was assigned to place Type 5 swaying torpedoes at critical points in the Potomac River between Virginia and Maryland to hinder the pursuit of the kidnappers/assassins by any US naval assets. Some of these torpedoes were hidden and uncovered after the assassination by US naval personnel with directions from Kennon. (See Chapter 4 for further information on these torpedoes.)
On 14 April 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater, Washington, DC.
At the end of the war, Union forces, during the investigation of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, decided that the “rebel secret service” was responsible for the act. So, arrest warrants were issued by Major General Henry Halleck and troops sent to round up former torpedo operators and commanders.
“Richmond Va., June 3, 1865. (Received 1.45 p.m.) Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War: I have just received the original official report of John Maxwell, of the rebel secret service, of the blowing up of the ordnance stores at City Point last year. It appears from this report that the explosion was caused by a horological torpedo placed on the barge by John Maxwell and R. K. Dillard, acting under the direction of Brig. Gen. G. J. Rains and Capt. Z. McDaniel. I have ordered the arrest of these persons, if they can be found and will send you a copy of the report and indorsement. H. W. Halleck, Major-General. Headquarters Armies of the United States“
None of the operators is known to have been found and arrested.
McDaniel died in Danville, Virginia, on 1 June 1871, of unknown causes. His burial site is unknown.
Maxwell avoided capture as well and died peacefully on 12 September 1916 at the home of his son-in-law in Richmond, Virginia. He is buried, like many Confederate veterans, at Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia (Lot 88, Section R).
If this Harper’s account is to be believed, Confederate retribution continued after the end of the war as well.
“On Thursday, May 25, a terrible explosion, involving great loss of life and property, occurred at Mobile. We illustrate this event on page 396. About half past two in the afternoon the main Ordnance Dépôt of the Government, on the corner of Lipscomb and Commerce streets, was blown up. Eight squares of buildings were demolished by the violence of the shock. It is estimated that the number of persons killed will reach fully two hundred. This will appear no large estimate when it is considered that nearly all the work-shops, foundries, cotton-presses, etc., which covered the vast area destroyed, were employing quite a number of men. A large number of persons were wounded. A number of the bodies recovered were so mutilated that recognition was impossible. Major Slough estimates the amount of cotton destroyed at from eight to ten thousand bales: nearly all this belonged to private citizens. The noise of the explosion was so great as to be heard at the distance of forty miles from the city. The steamers in the river suffered greatly from the shock, and a number of persons were killed. Two steamers were destroyed. A man named Wall has been arrested at Mobile charged with being implicated in the explosion. He states that he and two other men, on the night previous to the explosion, placed torpedoes between the buildings containing the powder; that the work was performed under the direction of a rebel major, who threatened them with instant death if they disobeyed or offered to resist; and that the major afterward lighted the fuze of the shell connected with the infernal arrangement. Torpedoes have also been discovered in the Custom-house, so arranged as to explode on opening the doors.”