Breaking a leg

[JMadonna]

(12-03-2012 07:41 PM)L Verge Wrote:  And until you can provide proof that those plans existed, it's time to end this "conversation," I do believe.

Nonsense!
The horses existed because they were the key to the kidnapping plot weeks earlier. They were ready to go when the plot fell apart. What happened to them? Because they weren't used in the assassination does that make them non-existant? If they didn't exist then the kidnapping plot didn't exist. Which one is it?

Let me ask you a question. Booth stepped in to the assassination when the mining of the White House plot failed. Booth seemed to be privy to those plans. Do you think that if it succeeded that the New York Crowd would have gone South like Booth did to make their escape? Carefull now there is no historical evidence to go by - you'll have to make an assumption.

IMO the answer would be a resounding no. We know there were confederate safehouses set up all the way North, the south was not the only place with a secret line. But Booth didn't follow that path, not because he thought the way south was the better route but because he broke his leg.

As to your point that the Southern line did a good job in protecting Booth lets take a closer look. You said Herold's mission was to tell people that 'something big was going to happen' kind of like a civil war Paul Revere. If you have tangible proof of that claim he certainly did a lousy job since everyone seemed surprised by the news and Booth's appearance. They let him shiver in the woods for days with no shelter and they took his horses, in return they gave him food, water and newspapers. In short he was treated like a dog and in the end they put him in a rowboat at night and said good-bye. Not exactly Southern hospitality.

Secondly as to your point that he would have been immediately picked up in Baltimore because of the telegraph, let me remind you that Baltimore was the most 'southern' city in the Union. Four years earlier the police chief conspired to have Lincoln assassinated. IMO If they knew Booth was coming they probably would have given him a parade. The only way he would have been stopped is if they stopped all train traffic going through Baltimore, which they did not do - Also, maybe you know better but, I did not find anyone arrested for looking like Booth in Baltimore that day.

What we do know of Booth's big southern escape plan was simply to "find Moseby" - that IMO was no plan that was a 'Hail Mary'.