Lincoln Kidnap Tries

[John Fazio]

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(08-04-2015 09:54 AM)L Verge Wrote:  

(08-04-2015 08:03 AM)Jim Garrett Wrote:  Back to the timing.....Correct that armies waited until spring for many reasons. Winter is a terrible time to mount an offensive. Napoleon and Gen. Ambrose Burnside both found that out. Thousand of troops and the wagons and other wheeled vehicles to support them would turn the roadways with even the slightest moisture into mires. However a single wagon/buggy with a few outriders is a much different story. They could probably outpace any large pursuit with no problem.

I agree, Jim. I also believe the fact that armies seriously curtailed activities and "rested" during the winter months would make it easier to carry out the plan. It would take longer to marshal the forces to respond and begin pursuit???

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(08-04-2015 09:34 AM)John Fazio Wrote:  Wild Bill, et al:

Some good points are made by all, but IMO Gene is closer to the truth than anyone else. Yes, I have a problem with what they would have done with Lincoln. So did Davis, when he said to Maj. Joseph Walker Taylor: "I cannot give my authority, Walker...what value would he be to us as a prisoner?...If he were brought to Richmond, what could I do with him? He would have to be treated like the Magistrate of the North, and we have neither the time nor the provision." Conrad also had a problem with it. He said that "even a child" would know that a kidnapped Lincoln could do the Confederacy no good at all. Furthermore, for what reason would they have held him hostage? Grant had resumed prisoner exchange in January and was exchanging about 3,000 a week. Booth's refusal to take account of that fact, when Arnold made it clear to him, was reason enough for Arnold to say that Booth was a maniac. Actually, it revealed a deeper truth, namely that Booth had no intention of kidnapping anyone, which is why he would persist in his scheming even though the alleged rationale for it had disappeared.

No, I have not read Barbee's manuscript, but I will be happy to. Please let me know where I may obtain the same.

John

John - You have just answered a question that I have had for a long time: Did Grant speed up the prisoner exchange once it was open again? I do not know the combined total of Confederate POWS. Approximately how long would it have taken at the rate of 3000/week to close down the camps? Did the North intend to fully close every camp with the war still on? Or, just reduce the amount that had to be fed?

Barbee's manuscript is in Georgetown University's Lauinger Library. While Mr. Hall did not agree with many of his points, he was quite impressed with that mss. and tried unsuccessfully to convince Barbee's daughter to publish it posthumously. No dice. I also mentioned it to Nicholas Sheetz, former librarian there, about 20 years ago. I got the answer I was expecting, "lack of funds."

Laurie:

Here are a few things on prisoner exchange:

1. In a publication titled Friend's Review: A Religious Literary and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 18, it says, on p. 400: "Gen. Grant stated, a few days since, in his testimony before the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, that the exchange of prisoners had been placed entirely in his hands, and that he had effected an arrangement for such exchange, man for man and officer for officer, or his equivalent, according to the former cartels, until the number held by one or the other party is exhausted; and he expected exchanges to be made at the rate of 3,000 poer week.
2. In January, 1865, General Grant permitted the resumption of exchanges when Confederate authorities agreed to allow all prisoners to be included. Grant wrote Stanton that he was trying to exchange 3,000 men a week and preference should go to disabled troops, "few of these will be got in the ranks again and as we can count upon but little reinforcement from the prisoners we get." Further, in his militaty history, "The Longest Night", historian David J. Eicher states that the "Union Army paroled or exchanged about 329,963 Confederate prisoners of war, while the Confederacy paroled or exchanged about 152,015 Union prisoners of war. (The Prisoner of War Parole and Exchange System--Online)
3. See also letter of Lt. Gen. Grant to Maj. Gen. Halleck; Official Records, Ser. II, Vol. VIII, p. 63, and letter of Lt. Gen. Grant to Sec. of War Stanton; Official Records, Ser. II, Vol. VIII, p. 170
4. See also Arnold's Memoirs, pp. 26, 47, 149 and Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 181.


John