Does anyone know...?

[Steve]

Everyone:

There are stumbling blocks, true. That's nothing new.

Gene, I believe it more likely that Booth, Herold and Atzerodt were that stupid. I also believe it likely that she had the date wrong ("As near as I can recollect, between the 12th and the 15th of April"). I can place Booth and Herold together then, but not Atzerodt, who does not appear to have joined the conspiracy earlier than the winter of 1864-1865.

Steve, it is possible that Booth was in Washington while en route from New Orleans to Boston, but I doubt it. More likely is it that Mrs. McClermont erred with respect to the date. She was, after all, recalling an event that occurred about some years earlier. Your point about John Surratt not being mentioned in her testimony is a good one. It most likely accounts for the fact that she was not cross examined.

Susan, the fact that defense counsel did not cross-examine her could not have had anything to do with their believing her testimony was "so improbable". If they believed that, they would have been salivating like a starving pit bull to get at her. Further, the reference to the Soldiers' Home is ambiguous; we can't be certain she was talking about Lincoln's being there at that time, as opposed to being there at various times, which fact was known to the conspirators. I agree with you that she most likely meant a date in the spring of 1865 rather than 1864, at which time the three conspirators named are known to have been together and in gear. If that is true, it would explain why she hadn't been heard from before the trial. There may have been other reasons she failed to come forth with her story until 1867. One can speculate, but little if anything is gained by so doing.

In my judgment, the equities favor credibility, but there are problems, unquestionably.

John

I was just thinking over Mrs. McClermont's testimony. Ignore the problematic identifications from at least a year before the assassination and assume that she was mistaken about when she overheard the conversation and it was closer to the summer of 1864 when it would be more likely that Lincoln's family would be at Soldiers' Home. There was an incident that sort of matches what she described. In August 1864, some unknown person took a shot at Lincoln as he was riding up to Soldiers' Home. That seems to match closely with what she testified, about a "telescopic riffle".

[L Verge]

Rec'd the following email inquiry today and am not familiar with this name. Anyone want to help?

Have your Lincoln assassination researchers ever come across the name of Edward Oaksmith? The Long Island Advance (I believe) ran an obituary of his mother, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, on November 24, 1893. The obituary contains this: "Some place a good deal of credence in the statement that possibly Edward Oakesmith [sic] was one of the conspirators who assassinated Lincoln."

(quoted in Passages from the Correspondence and Other Papers of Rufus W. Griswold. Cambridge: W M Griswold, p.132)

[L Verge]

There's that NY crowd again???

[Steve]

I found this blog post about Edward Oaksmith's mother, Elizabeth Oakes Smith that has some information on Edward:

http://lorenelizabethchristie.blogspot.c...fe-in.html

and her papers at the University of Virginia:

https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/vie...u03614.xml

Apparently, even though Elizabeth was a Unionist and opponent of slavery there was an effort to paint her as a southern sympathizer at the time of her death. The "anecdote" of son Edward possibly being a member of the conspiracy probably arises from that. I can find no mention of it before the 1890's. Elizabeth did have a son, Appleton Oaksmith who did support the Confederacy as a blockade runner, was caught and then escaped from a Boston prison in 1862 and fled to London.

Here's a link to a brief 1880 bio of Edward Oaksmith:

https://books.google.com/books?id=g2lsPj...22&f=false

He translated the play Narcisse from the German in 1863. He also apparently was an artist:

http://figure-drawings.blogspot.com/2009...-feet.html

and

http://nyeandcompany.com/auctions/70/a-c...ry-98.html

[L Verge]

I found this blog post about Edward Oaksmith's mother, Elizabeth Oakes Smith that has some information on Edward:

http://lorenelizabethchristie.blogspot.c...fe-in.html

and her papers at the University of Virginia:

https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/vie...u03614.xml

Apparently, even though Elizabeth was a Unionist and opponent of slavery there was an effort to paint her as a southern sympathizer at the time of her death. The "anecdote" of son Edward possibly being a member of the conspiracy probably arises from that. I can find no mention of it before the 1890's. Elizabeth did have a son, Appleton Oaksmith who did support the Confederacy as a blockade runner, was caught and then escaped from a Boston prison in 1862 and fled to London.

Here's a link to a brief 1880 bio of Edward Oaksmith:

https://books.google.com/books?id=g2lsPj...22&f=false

He translated the play Narcisse from the German in 1863. He also apparently was an artist:

http://figure-drawings.blogspot.com/2009...-feet.html

and

http://nyeandcompany.com/auctions/70/a-c...ry-98.html

WOW, once again, Steve. Thanks so much, and I am forwarding this to the inquirer.

[JMadonna]

I liked this excerpt, things haven't changed much. -

It’s hard to tell where Brooklyn Eagle reporters got their information, or if they were sometimes just making it up as they went. This is taken from Elizabeth Oakes Smith’s obituary in the November 20, 1893 Brooklyn Eagle. Even though it is inaccurate, it is interesting to read the general opinion (and misconception) about EOS at the time of her death.