The Lincoln Conspirators at Fort Jefferson

[Rob Wick]

Thanks Dave! That makes far more sense to me than my thinking anything would be open-air. Can't wait for the next videos.

Best
Rob

[Steve]

Dave, how detailed were the burial records of the people buried at Bird Key? As in, how sure can we be that it was actually O'Laughlin's body which was disinterred and sent to Maryland?

[Dave Taylor]

(12-03-2024 03:26 PM)Steve Wrote:  Dave, how detailed were the burial records of the people buried at Bird Key? As in, how sure can we be that it was actually O'Laughlin's body which was disinterred and sent to Maryland?

You bring up an excellent point, Steve. The records surrounding the burials at Fort Jefferson are poor. For the longest time, I was unsure which of the keys O'Laughlen was buried on due to conflicting information in secondary sources. Over the history of the fort, burials had taken place on practically all of the keys of the Dry Tortugas. After the yellow fever epidemic in 1864, most of the remaining burial space at Hospital/Sand Key was used up. Some burials occurred as far as East Key, and in 1866, there were plans underway to transform a part of Loggerhead Key into a National Cemetery, but this order was rescinded.

I'm indebted to the research of Bob Summers, who went through the records of Fort Jefferson and found that in 1873, the commander of the fort attempted to compile some sort of official list of burials in the Dry Tortugas. This was in response to another yellow fever epidemic that had claimed the lives of more soldiers and a request by the commander for headstones for his men. Michael O'Laughlen's name is included on the master list of burials from 1867, though he is mistakenly listed as a soldier. Of course, in 1873 O'Laughlen was no longer buried in the Dry Tortugas since we have the orders and confirmation that he was exhumed and transported to Baltimore.

It is certainly possible that a different body was mistakenly sent home in 1870 by mistake. However, my own belief is that they got the right man. We know from later reports that most of the deaths in 1867 were given some sort of makeshift gravestone in the form of a headboard. While the commander in 1873 complained about the faded nature of these makeshift headstones, I think the fact that O'Laughlen was removed only three years after his death makes it likely that some semblance of a grave identifier was present in 1870. At that time, the institutional memory would have been better than it was another three years later. During the 1867 yellow fever epidemic, the fort was garrisoned by the 5th U.S. Artillery. They were replaced by the 3rd U.S. Artillery in January 1869. The 3rd Artillery stayed until November of 1872 when they were replaced by the 1st U.S. Artillery. While the 3rd U.S. Artillery had not been there when O'Laughlen died, I feel that they were in a better position to know where he was buried since they had spent some time guarding the other conspirators. In addition, while those digging up O'Laughlen only took a peak at the body, I would assume that the O'Laughlen family conducted some form of private identification of their own when O'Laughlen arrived in Baltimore (much in the same way the Booths identified JWB in 1869).

The document surrounding the exhumation of O'Laughlen seems pretty clear that those in the Dry Tortugas believed they had the right man. Exhumation was somewhat common then, anyway. Just a year earlier, the bodies of Dr. Joseph Sim Smith and his son Henry had been disinterred and sent back to New York for reburial. Had the O'Laughlens waited much longer, however, the result would have been quite different. As the commander noted in 1873, "The graves [on Bird Key] are scattered about, without regular arrangement, and almost hidden by a dense growth of bay cedar. Three or four coffins were found uncovered. Occasionally Coffins are washed out to sea during a heavy blow. There is no cemetery at the Post deserving the name; and this is probably the only Post in the U.S. where a deceased Soldier cannot have decent interment."

In the end, rather than spending resources trying to establish a National Cemetery in the Dry Tortugas, the bodies of the men who died in the 1873 yellow fever epidemic were exhumed and transported to Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola, Florida. Not long thereafter, Fort Jefferson was disbanded as a manned fortification.

Thanks for a great question!

[Gene C]

Good videos Dave.
I've watched the first three.

In your research, have you uncovered anything of interest about a prisoner named George Greenfield?
I first learned about him from Sam Arnold's "Memoirs of a Lincoln Conspirator

[Dave Taylor]

(12-04-2024 05:27 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Good videos Dave.
I've watched the first three.

In your research, have you uncovered anything of interest about a prisoner named George Greenfield?
I first learned about him from Sam Arnold's "Memoirs of a Lincoln Conspirator

Gene,

Col. George St. Leger Grenfell makes his appearance in episode four when he is first placed with the other state prisoners in the dungeon of Fort Jefferson. From then on, he is imprisoned with the conspirators, so his name pops up from time to time. I talk about how he helped care for Samuel Arnold during the yellow fever epidemic. I also mentioned Col. Grenfell's own escape from Fort Jefferson in the eighth episode (which hasn't been released yet). He was quite a character and I wish I had more time to devote to him.

There's a book called Colonel Grenfell's Wars, which tells his story. You can check it out from the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/colonelgrenfells0000star

[Gene C]

Thank you Dave.
And thanks for correcting my mistake on Grenfell's last name.

[Dave Taylor]

Sure thing, Gene.

The penultimate episode is now up. In Part 7, I discuss Benjamin Butler's select committee on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln that was formed in 1867 in an attempt to connect Andrew Johnson to Abraham Lincoln's death. The committee sent a representative down to Fort Jefferson to interview the surviving conspirators and gather up statements. Today (December 5) is actually the day the representative departed the Dry Tortugas with his statements from Dr. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler.

https://youtu.be/zhNxwuInmTc

[Rob Wick]

Dave,

Just finished the final part of your series. Excellent work! Hopefully, it got a lot of "eyes" on YouTube. It definitely has enhanced your already stellar reputation amongst those who study Lincoln. Great job!

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

I second Rob. I wish I could have seen this prior to visiting the fort in 1994.

P.S. The 'bonus coverage' got me dizzy!!

[Steve]

Great conclusion to the series Dave!

[Dave Taylor]

Thank you, Rob, Roger, Steve, and everyone else for watching my videos. It was a lot of fun putting this project together and, really, Bob Summers of this forum is largely responsible for motivating me to do something like this. I first visited Fort Jefferson in 2019 and brought Bob’s book, Get the Doctor From His Cell. Reading it on the beach outside of the fort was an amazing experience and I attempted to shoot some videos during that trip, but I was very unprepared for how windy the Dry Tortugas can be. I vowed then to do my research, prepare a script, and come back better equipped to share the knowledge in Bob’s book in a video form. That is why Bob gets a special thanks credit at the end of the series.

For those who want to see the final episode you can watch them all here:
https://lincolnconspirators.com/the-linc...jefferson/

As Roger noted, there is a bonus episode which contains a sped up tour of the fort. While you get to see most of the fort, it can be a bit dizzying.