Band at the execution

[NHjohn]

I found a reference to not only the beat of drums but also to the "wail of the trumpet." It's from The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and Its Expiation by David Miller DeWitt which is available on Google Books.

DeWitt does not give a source for his observation. Does anyone know if he was at the executions? Also, did Hartranft wave his sword? According to American Brutus, Captain Rath clapped his hands three times for the signal.

"Hartranft waves his sword, the two drops fall and the four figures shoot down and then sway to and fro between heaven and earth. The bodies are cut down; a hurried post-mortem examination is made; and, then, enclosed in gun boxes for coffins, they are buried in a row. The soldiery depart to the wail of trumpet and beat of drum. Silence descends on the old arsenal, broken only by the tramp of the sentinel set to guard the unhallowed dead."

My, my... isn't that interesting. Written in the style of the day, but I wonder if it's prose more than fact? "The soldiery depart to the wail of the trumpet and beat of the drum (while departing/marching I assume.) Trumpet could mean "field trumpet" also known as bugle, but I can't imagine what bugle call would be necessary in a closed space as the Arsenal Yard. Very interesting!

[RJNorton]

DeWitt does not give a source for his observation. Does anyone know if he was at the executions?

Linda, maybe, but I lean towards "no." Dewitt was born in 1837 so he would have been 27 or 28 at the time of the executions. I have the book and just read the preface and description of the executions. There is no mention of his being an eyewitness. Wouldn't he have most likely mentioned it had he actually been there?

[L Verge]

You really have to take DeWitt with a grain of salt, IMO. Sometimes, I think he and GATH were having a race to see who could write the most florid prose of the day. DeWitt also had an agenda - to condemn the government for the handling of the situation, especially the "Judicial Murder" of Mary Surratt (covered in another book of his).

[Linda Anderson]

Roger, I think that DeWitt would have mentioned being there, too. I don't know if his papers at the University of NC would be of any help.

http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/d/Dewitt...iller.html

Laurie, it's interesting that DeWitt mentions the drums and trumpet only after the execution is over, like he's emphasizing that the government was overjoyed the conspirators were dead.

This is the same scene from The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt.

"Among the tolling of the bells, sending a shudder through the silent population of the city, and heralded by the tramp of armed men, the death-march of the doomed woman and the doomed men begins. The still breathing men and the still breathing woman are clothed already in their shrouds."

After the executions, "the soldiers depart with flourish of trumpet and beat of drum."

Were the bells tolling in the city when the conspirators were marching out to the scaffold?

[BettyO]

Were the bells tolling in the city when the conspirators were marching out to the scaffold?

They tolled at 1 PM - and I think the march began at something like 1 to 1:25 PM? I get my times mixed up. Supposedly the bodies hanged until 2 PM - is that right? I'm at work (just got in from out in the field) and don't have anything to go by right now....

So if bells were tolling, I think it would be for the time? Supposedly a legend within the Herold family went that family friends who remained at home with Mrs. Herold stopped all the clocks in the house before 1 PM so that Herold's mother would not know what time the march began - however, the church bells outside tolled the hour, which she distinctly heard, so that their efforts were thwarted.

[Linda Anderson]

Were the bells tolling in the city when the conspirators were marching out to the scaffold?

They tolled at 1 PM - and I think the march began at something like 1 to 1:25 PM? I get my times mixed up. Supposedly the bodies hanged until 2 PM - is that right? I'm at work (just got in from out in the field) and don't have anything to go by right now....

So if bells were tolling, I think it would be for the time? Supposedly a legend within the Herold family went that family friends who remained at home with Mrs. Herold stopped all the clocks in the house before 1 PM so that Herold's mother would not know what time the march began - however, the church bells outside tolled the hour, which she distinctly heard, so that their efforts were thwarted.

So the church bells were chiming the hours, not for the execution about to happen?

[BettyO]

That I don't know. I do know that they tolled the hours - as they still do! Good question, Linda. Does anyone know if the bells tolled to let the City know that the conspirators had met their demise?

I know in England, when someone went to Tyburn Hill, they fired a cannon and ran up a black flag to signify that the condemned had met their fate.

[L Verge]

Lindsey Horn, a member of the staff at Surratt House, is our Herold expert; and I believe she found reference to the bells tolling at the nearby church in the David Rankin Barbee Papers. She believes that the tolling was strictly announcing the hour - not the execution.

I also went to American Brutus and checked both text and the extensive notes to see if Kauffman included any reference to drums or a band. I see no mention, and if that escaped his attention, I would be very surprised.

[RJNorton]

This might(?) have come up once before, but I have forgotten the answer. Outside (according to Twenty Days) there was a party-like atmosphere with the crowd "regaling itself with lemonade and cakes."

I have never seen a primary source for this, and at least one other book I own that says this uses Twenty Days as the source. Is there an actual primary source for this?

[L Verge]

I have heard that same story for years, but don't remember where - probably Twenty Days. I suspect that the story is true, however. Victorians (as well as the crowds at the foot of French guilliotines) enjoyed the three Rs: retribution, revenge, and revelry.

Our staff librarian, Sandra Walia, found reference to the band that was used in the 1864 cortege that bore the female victims of the Washington Arsenal explosion to their graves as being from the Finley Military Hospital, which was listed as being the best in the capital. However, Finley Hospital was in northeast D.C., and the execution of the conspirators occured in southwest D.C. My first thought was that Finley was close to the Arsenal and served it as well as the hospital, but I think that rules that out. Back to square one.

[Linda Anderson]

This might(?) have come up once before, but I have forgotten the answer. Outside (according to Twenty Days) there was a party-like atmosphere with the crowd "regaling itself with lemonade and cakes."

I have never seen a primary source for this, and at least one other book I own that says this uses Twenty Days as the source. Is there an actual primary source for this?

It's from the 7/7/1865 Evening Union.

"Outside the prison cake and lemonade vendors were around as though they were attending a holiday."

[RJNorton]

Many thanks, Linda! Great research! I have always wondered where the Kunhardts found that information.

[L Verge]

I also forgot to mention that we did check the history papers of Col. Julian Raymond, who once commanded the post at what is now Ft. McNair and had a great interest in the assassination. No mention of any band or drums as the execution.

[NHjohn]

I have heard that same story for years, but don't remember where - probably Twenty Days. I suspect that the story is true, however. Victorians (as well as the crowds at the foot of French guilliotines) enjoyed the three Rs: retribution, revenge, and revelry.

Our staff librarian, Sandra Walia, found reference to the band that was used in the 1864 cortege that bore the female victims of the Washington Arsenal explosion to their graves as being from the Finley Military Hospital, which was listed as being the best in the capital. However, Finley Hospital was in northeast D.C., and the execution of the conspirators occured in southwest D.C. My first thought was that Finley was close to the Arsenal and served it as well as the hospital, but I think that rules that out. Back to square one.

The Band of Finley Hospital would be primarily Veteran Reserve Corps soldiers assigned the hospital as guards, supply, maintenance, ward orderlies, but any having a musical background could/would play in the band. Others US General Hospitals in DC fielded bands, including the Lincoln, Campbell, Carver, Armory Square, Harewood, and they played in Lincoln's Funeral Procession. Since the Arsenal had a hospital, one of my thoughts was, the soldiers of the Veteran Reserve Corps stationed at the Arsenal & hospital may have had a band. The "Draft Rendezvous" post, manned by Veteran Reserve Corps (VRC) in Alexandria had a brass band, General Slough, the Military Governor of Alexandria had his own Brigade Band, separate from the Draft Rendezvous band; the Quartermaster Corps in DC had a band, The US Treasury had a band; the 9th VRC and 10th VRC stationed in downtown Washington, DC, each had a band.

[L Verge]

I see your point, but wouldn't mention of it have been made somewhere? The history of Ft. McNair from its earliest beginnings in the 1700s has been the subject of books on its own as well as related to the Civil War at the trial of the conspirators. If no one found records of a band there in 1865 in all that research, it would be fairly strange.