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L Verge · (This post was last modified: 08-06-2019 12:19 PM by L Verge.)

(08-05-2019 10:28 PM)mike86002000 Wrote: Laurie wrote:
I have yet to find the reference to the letter and really won't have time to look. However, when you read the testimonies from others, there is no mention of red; in fact, one uses the word "drab."

I hope you will want to follow up on this reference to what may be "The Letter". The reference in Mr. Prindle's footnote is to James O. Hall's papers, presumably in his library at the Surratt House. I hope details are specific enough to save your time in finding it.

On page 103 of his book, Mr. Prindle mentions a letter written by Surratt from Elmira, while he waited for his jacket and pantaloons to come from the tailor. It was sent to "Ms. Annie Ward", who shared it with Mrs. Surratt. Booth also saw it and expressed interest in the post mark. Mr. Prindle thinks it was written with the expectation that it would fall into the hands of the government, and so was part of Surratt's attempt to establish his alibi during the carnage in Washington, an important part of "The house that Jack built" I referred to above. Mr. Prindle's foot note, ( Chapter 9, #4 ), refers to "Notes on the Ward Department records of John Surratt by D. R. Barbee, 1933, James O' Hall Papers." Hopefully, these are in the James O. Hall library at the Surratt House. "James O' Hall" is almost certainly James Otis Hall. I immediately thought "Ward Department" was probably "War Department", but maybe not since the letter was addressed to Ms. Ward. Similarly, is D. R. Barbee really DR. Barbee? I wonder what's in the records mentioned, perhaps even the letter itself.
Mike

Mike, I have to admit that this theme is starting to get me confused, but here goes: Annie Ward was a former teacher at the St. Mary's Female Institute in Bryantown, where Anna Surratt had been educated, and was now teaching at the Academy of Visitation in D.C. She was a friend of the Surratts and very likely on the fringes of the courier system related to John, Jr. Some authors call her a girlfriend of John, but she was much older.

The so-called "missing letter" was actually the one that Jr. had sent to his mother from Springfield, Massachusetts, telling her that he had missed his connections and would be laying over there for a day. Mary received it on April 5, and that is the one that she supposedly laid on the window sill and it disappeared. The authorities were interested because it could prove that Jr. had already left town.

Annie Ward's delivery of another letter came on April 10, and Mary, Anna, and Miss Ward were opening it just as Booth arrived. He came wanting to know if Mary knew where her son was (a pretty good indicator that Jr. had cut out on Booth?). Mary asked Miss Ward to read the letter because of her poor eyesight. When finished, Anna took the letter and handed it to Weichmann, who had entered the room. Weichmann mentioned the letter many years later in his manuscript/book, but did not say what it was about.

Whatever the letter said, it made Booth angry when Lou said that the Confederacy was dead. He started pointing out escape routes still available to General Joe Johnston to avoid capture and continue to fight. Weichmann also said that Booth declared himself out of acting, except that he would like to present Venice Preserved, which is about an attempt to assassinate Venetian cabinet members to save Venice Italy. After Booth left, Mrs. Surratt asked Louis to take her to Surrattsville the next day, April 11. It was that night that Booth heard Lincoln speak from the White House window and likely decided to turn to assassination.

At the trial, Annie Ward testified that she had received at least four letters from Jr., two for her and two for his mother. She said that she assumed they had been destroyed. One letter to Mary was written from Montreal on April 12, and she received it on April 14. Another letter that is seldom mentioned is one that Jr. wrote to his cousin, Belle Seaman on April 10 from Montreal. It is just chatty.

Moving on, I am confused about your reference to "The Letter" that is supposedly in the Hall files here at Surratt House. However, I know that Sandy consulted with Michael Schein (author of very good book, John Surratt: The Lincoln Assassin Who Got Away), so I checked on that. I believe you might be confusing letters that went to those in D.C. with the one I just mentioned to Belle Seaman, the cousin who lived in Pennsylvania, so I am bowing out of that aspect.

Finally, "Ward" Department is a typo (should be "War'), James Otis Hall is indeed the wonderful expert on this whole subject and the person honored at our research center. We do have the Belle Seaman letter copy in his files.

And D.R. Barbee is usually cited as David Rankin Barbee, who did some excellent research - and some spurious claims - in the early-20th century. His records are held by the Lauringer Library at Georgetown University, and my pleas for copies have failed so far until digitization might happen that would make it possible. Most researchers have scoured the Barbee Papers. Mr. Hall was impressed with them enough that he contacted Barbee's daughter in the mid-1900s wanting to help her get the papers published. She was not interested.

That's it; I'm exhausted; I'm sure we have used up all available cyberspace...

(08-06-2019 06:29 AM)mike86002000 Wrote: I am not sure how this proves that John Surratt knew that April 14th was the "scheduled day" for assassination. Personally I do not think Surratt knew Booth was going to shoot the President on the 14th. Surratt left Washington on April 4th and did not return. Booth arrived in Washington on the 8th, but in my opinion, did not decide to shoot Lincoln until he heard Lincoln's speech on the 11th. Booth's plans on the 14th did not include Surratt (unless he told Atzerodt the truth about Surratt being in Washington; in one of his confessions Atzerodt maintained that Booth told him Surratt was in town and going to help at Ford's Theatre).

In sum, I am of the opinion that Surratt did not have foreknowledge of the timing of the assassination. So I feel I must disagree with Mr. Prindle on this.

Actually, Mr. Prindle says the same thing. He doesn't claim that Surratt had foreknowledge of the exact time of the assassination, only that it had been ordered by Benjamin in Richmond, and he had best establish an alibi. He actually says specifically that Surratt couldn't have known the exact timing, it hadn't been established, only that the murder, a change in plans from the kidnap plot, had been ordered, by Benjamin, in a message he carried to Booth.
As I understand it, the reasoning goes: Surratt carefully established his alibi. He was in Elmira when all hell broke loose. He did this because he knew the murder had been ordered by Benjamin, because he was Benjamin's courier to Booth. The hypothetical existence of a message conveyed by Surratt from Benjamin, (how else could Surratt have known he was going to need an alibi?), is supposed to show that the change in plans was ordered by Benjamin.
Mike
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I disagree with Sandy if he theorizes that Judah Benjamin gave the order to assassinate Lincoln anytime after April 1st. It may have been Plan B in some folks' minds in Richmond (because I do think the hierarchy sanctioned the capture - that could lead to someone getting killed), but in those first two weeks of April 1865, the city of Richmond had to be in chaos, and Judah Benjamin had to have been covering his personal tail feathers by destroying papers, arranging for money transfers to satisfy his own future needs, planning his own escape, etc.

John Surratt was following Confederate orders during those weeks, but those orders were sending him to Canada, Gen. E.G. Lee, scouting out Hellmira, and maybe dilly-dallying with Sarah Slater at the beginning.