What Was The Role of David Herold

[John Fazio]

(12-29-2012 07:06 PM)L Verge Wrote:  An assassination topic that seems to have no clear answer is: What was the role of David Herold on the night of April 14, 1865? Was he to chaperone Lewis Powell? Keep an eye on Atzerodt? Guide Booth?

Members of the Surratt Society will be treated to an extensive article on this subject in the upcoming February issue of the Courier. The author is John Fazio, who I believe is a member of this forum. Mr. Fazio is a lawyer and lays out the scenario and his thoughts in gunshot blasts.

Anyone want to chime in here on his/her opinions and then compare them in about a month when the Courier goes out to members? Did Herold accompany Powell? Did he desert Powell? Was he a point man to see that others carried through and report to Booth? Thoughts???

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Laurie:

Thank you for posting an announcement of the upcoming article and inviting discussion re the same. I am reading all the responses. This is a subject I thought I had covered all the bases on, but surprisingly and happily I am picking up new insights from the responses. It is too late to work them into the article, but I will work them into the book. This is a very valuable resource, to put it mildly.

John

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(12-30-2012 06:35 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  I agree that getting a clear answer on this is difficult. I will jot down a variety of thoughts and will stand corrected where I go wrong. I certainly look forward to Mr. Fazio's article and research.

I believe Dave Taylor once traced the original mention of Herold being at Seward's to George Alfred Townsend's (GATH's) Lady of Catoctin in 1886. Other authors, such as David Dewitt in 1909, said the same thing. This trend has continued to the present day. Virtually all authors have David Herold accompanying Lewis Powell to Seward's. Yet we have absolutely no eyewitnesses or solid evidence that this happened.

Some authors have implied that Powell didn't know his directions, and Herold was needed to guide him to Seward's. Yet George Robinson, a male nurse at Seward's, apparently saw Powell "scouting" the Seward residence on the mornings of the 13th and 14th. There is no mention of Herold. And we know Herold was on a scouting mission "in the country" on April 13th. So it would seem Powell could find the Seward residence without assistance.

As far as the trial goes, I can think of only two witnesses who even said they saw Herold in Washington on the 14th. These men were John Fletcher and Silas Cobb. Their testimony does not help in pinning down exactly what Herold's role was in Booth's scheme for the 14th. Atzerodt's statement also does not answer the question of whether Herold was with Powell at Seward's.

When Powell knocked at the door and William Bell opened it, did he see Herold in the street with the horses? It was dark, and maybe this would not be possible, but Bell never said he saw Herold.

Did Herold return to the Kirkwood House after leaving Powell at Seward's (if he was at Seward's and that's a big if)? Mrs. Jones, wife of the Kirkwood House's bookkeeper, said she heard a person moving quickly towards Atzerodt's room, trying excitedly to open the door without success and then running back downstairs. Was it Herold whom Mrs. Jones heard? Impossible to say for certain. Apparently Mrs. Jones never opened her door to see who was making all the racket in the hallway.

When at Lloyd's, Booth apparently told Lloyd that he was pretty certain that both Lincoln and Seward had been assassinated. There was no mention of Johnson. Did Herold tell Booth that Powell entered the Seward residence, and he heard screams, then rode off? Or did Booth simply have a high degree of confidence that Powell would carry out his assignment? Did Herold ride to the Kirkwood House and while there realize that Atzerodt had made no attempt to kill Johnson?

Was Herold himself supposed to kill Johnson but didn't do it?

I think there are a lot more questions than answers regarding Herold's actions in Washington on April 14th.

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Roger:

Thank you for asking the right questions and making the right observations. Townsend's book, I believe, is fiction. I do not regard it as a good source, for that reason. Weichmann, otherwise a good source, places Herold with Powell, but he had no direct knowledge of it and was writing many years later in Indiana, far removed in time and place. It seems to me he was merely repeating what he had heard elsewhere. He cites no authority for the proposition, but then, neither does anyone else. Even the more recent masters cite no authority, because, to my knowledge, there is none. In my opinion, Booth's leaving Johnson out of the tally is key. Since he went directly from Ford's to Maryland, with no contact with either Atzerodt or Powell, he could only have received such information from Herold. That means Herold knew to a certainty that Johnson had not been assassinated. He could only have acquired that information by either being at the Kirkwood or by meeting Atzerodt or both. If he was at the Kirkwood and/or met Atzerodt, clearly he was not with Powell, who, by his own statement, was heading for Baltimore. Re your last question, recall that Booth praised Herold for his courage, berated Atzerodt for his lack of it, and then said to Atzerodt, in response to the latter's saying he wouldn't or couldn't do it, "then Herold will do it". That too is key.

John

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(12-30-2012 12:50 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  Seward's next door neighbor was Benjamin Ogle Tayloe who had strong ties to the Confederacy. According to an April 16, 1865 article in the Daily National Intelligencer, Tayloe's servant saw Powell ride up to Seward's house. There is no mention of anyone accompanying Powell.

"A servant boy of Mr. Ogle Tayloe, who resides next door to Mr. Seward, saw the assassin ride up to the door of the latter and fasten his horse to the lamp-post. A few minutes afterwards Major Seward came to the door and told the boy to cry 'Murder!' asserting, at the same time, that the murderer was still in the house."

According to the Daily National Republican dated April, 18, 1865, Tayloe's servant, Ben, gave a statement that he saw Powell run out of the house after Powell attacked Seward. I have not been able to find the paper's "extra of Saturday."

"Mr. Tayloe's servant, Ben, corrects his statement published in our extra of Saturday, in relation to what he saw and heard as he stood at Mr. Seward's door Friday night. It was Governor Seward's servant and not Major Seward, who came first to the door and gave the alarm. He preceeded the assassin in coming out of the house, and said to Mr. Tayloe's servant, 'A man is in the house murdering everybody; run for your life and cry murder!' This was done by Ben who ran to the corner of Madison Place and Pennsylvania Avenue, and returned immediately, followed by several unarmed soldiers. When nearly opposite Mr. Seward's house again, a man came out of it, with a dagger in his hand, mounted his horse, and set off at a deliberate pace towards the north, until he reached Sixteenth street, when he went off at full speed, and disappeared around the corner of Governor Morgan's house, on Fifteenth and I streets, going towards the east."

Of course, this does not prove that Herold wasn't there either!

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Ms. Anderson:

Thank you for this valuable information, which had not previously come to my attention. In my opinion, the first sentence is especially significant. If it doesn't prove Herold did not accompany Powell, it is at least strongly probative of that conclusion.

John C. Fazio