Tidwell revisited

[John Fazio]

(09-01-2020 08:26 AM)Mylye2222 Wrote:  What was the torpedo plot? Blowing away a public building in Washington full of officials?
I also heard Marshall Lamon and Washington police debunked a plot about dissemination of explosive

Mylye:

The torpedo plot doubtless refers to the Thomas Harney Mission. It was Harney's purpose to infiltrate Washington, with appropriate help, and then blow up a wing of the White House where Lincoln and other federal officeholders had gathered incident to an entertainment program, thereby decapitating the government or a substantial part of it. It failed because Harney and a few of his men were captured on April 8 or 9. My view is that failure of the Harney Mission activated Booth's plan to decapitate the government, which was a contingency plan. Thus the letter (telegram?) from Booth to Surratt, who was in Montreal, on April 10, telling Surratt that their plans had changed and that he was to return to Washington forthwith. There is quite a lot written about it and reference to it even appears in Atzerodt's confession of May1, 1865.

John