Interesting Day at the Old Surratt Hacienda

[L Verge]

Guy is still a member of the Surratt Society (although quite elderly), so I may have to chastise him! And, that's exactly where the theater people got the 1817 from. Three of them were here last week (before I got the review of the play), and in discussing something, they mentioned his book was used as a source for interpreting the trial. I don't think Guy would be pleased.

His is an interesting story. When we opened Surratt House in 1976, his book and the pair of Helen Jones Campbell's "interpretations" on Mary's history and that of her son as a Confederate Courier, were about the only things available as reference books - except for the intimidating Web of Conspiracy by Roscoe (which would have caused the majority of our early volunteers to resign!).

Mr. Moore had written The Case of Mrs. Surratt as a Master's thesis. His wife was a great defender of Mary Surratt, so she pushed him to have it published. That is sort of the same course that Timothy Good's great account of eyewitness reports took - from college requirement to good book.

I appreciate Mr. Moore's work because (despite errors), he tried to produce a well-balanced interpretation from a legal standpoint.