Mudd Descendants visit Fort Jefferson NP

[John Fazio]

[i]

(07-30-2015 10:22 AM)L Verge Wrote:  "On Friday, April 14, 1865, two men appeared before the guard on the road leading into Washington from the east. Refusing to give their names or state their business, they were arrested and put in the guard tent, whence they were to be sent to headquarters. This was about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. In an hour or two they gave their names as Booth and Herold."

John - this is the previous passage that I remembered reading earlier in which I got the impression that Booth and Herold were stopped from entering the city early in the morning and held for several hours. It struck a chord with me because of my family's story that Herold left our home before the family got up on the morning of the 14th. Mr. Huntt had a store to run, and Mrs. Huntt had a four-year-old daughter and a two-month-old infant son - both good reasons for getting up early. Herold's sister also said that he was home in D.C. in time to have breakfast with them. I also knew that Booth's movements in D.C. were well-documented that day and that spending time in a guardhouse was not on the agenda.

This sign/counter-sign/password debate is interesting. Dave Taylor has posted a great excerpt from a CW diary maintained by Julia Wilbur, an abolitionist sent to D.C. to assist the escaping (then freed) slaves. I'll have to re-read it, but I swear she talks about crossing from Alexandria into the city with ease because the security on the bridges has been relaxed. See BoothieBarn.com

Laurie:

I am not prepared to dismiss Demond's letters and statement that easily. I believe they can be reconciled with your family history and other information. The only error i see him making is the time when they were finally let go. It could not have been as late as he says it was, because we know that Herold was at Willard's about mid-day and Booth was there shortly thereafter for the luncheon, probably after he left Ford's Theatre, where he went to pick up and read some of his mail around noon. Demond was recalling events of 46 and 51 years ago, when he was a boy of 18. It is understandable that he would have erred with respect to time. Think of ourselves trying to recall with accuracy events that occurred in 1964 and 1969. My rough scenario is as follows: They emerge from overnight stays in Maryland and show up at the Maryland side of the bridge early in the mnorning. They are detained, but then released on the say of an Augur aide and a Dana orderly. They then cross the bridge. Herold probably stops at home and while there has breakfast. At mid-day he shows up at Julia Grant's suite at Willard's. Booth stops three times at Mary Surratt's in the course of the day. He shows up at the theatre for his mail about noon and leaves in about a half hour. He already knows where Lincoln will be that night (per Tidwell,Hall and Gaddy). He joins Herold, Atzerodt and Powell in the dining room at Willard's for Julia's luncheon. In the afternoon he performs carpentry at the theatre. He has an accidental meeting with Mathews on the avenue, giving him the letter he had written earlier for publication in the National Intelligencer. Here, too, he finds out that Grant is leaving the city after Mathews draws his attention to the Grants' carriage. He goes to Willard's and finds out where the Grants are going and then makes arrangements to have an assassin on board the train to Burlington. The rest (the horse, his trips to the theatre, his drinking with Spangler and others, etc.) is well known. Such a scenario incorporates the evidence we have from Demond, Julia, Ulysses, Mathews, the Fords, Weichmann and others.

John