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Rick Smith · 05-27-2018, 02:43 PM

(05-27-2018 01:26 PM)L Verge Wrote:
(05-27-2018 07:00 AM)Rick Smith Wrote:
(05-26-2018 08:56 PM)Dennis Urban Wrote:
(05-26-2018 07:51 PM)Rick Smith Wrote: I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
I sent an email using the forum and included my private email address. You should have it.

Sorry, but for some reason, I haven't received your email. Would you send it again?

Thanks

Dennis,

You may know this, but James Owens was arrested along with Austin and Adele Adams and eventually taken to the Old Capital. He was interrogated and apparently did not respond in the way that the federals were hoping he would. He died in the prison.

Rick

Rick - Do we have proof that Owens died in prison? I know the likelihood that he did is pretty good, but is there evidence? Are there death records for prisoners at the Old Capitol? Have the Charles County, PG County, or DC Census Records for 1870 been checked?

Just out of curiosity, I wonder how many black men/women were imprisoned at Old Capitol during the war...

Laurie,

Good questions.

Before writing the article on the Owens Statement and the fate of the horses, while I was looking through Mr. Hall's files at the JOH Library, I came across a type written letter from Mr. Hall to Joan Chaconas dated about 1975. It contained a reference to the Owens Statement. I believe that the letter also included a typed copy of the Owens Statement. There was also a hand written reference on another piece of paper in the file inferring that Owens was poorly treated and that he did not come out alive. I have since looked through the same file and other files of Mr. Hall, twice, since Bill Richter wanted me to find it for him and make a copy, but have been unable to find the original letter to Joan. I may have brought this to your attention at the time. There are copies of the Owens Statement in Mr. Hall's files and in General Tidwell's files, but the original letter, etc., is missing.

Probably plenty of black men and women saw the inside of the Old Capital for various reasons. I believe that Oswell Swann was one.

Rick

L Verge · 05-27-2018, 07:35 PM

(05-27-2018 02:43 PM)Rick Smith Wrote:
(05-27-2018 01:26 PM)L Verge Wrote:
(05-27-2018 07:00 AM)Rick Smith Wrote:
(05-26-2018 08:56 PM)Dennis Urban Wrote:
(05-26-2018 07:51 PM)Rick Smith Wrote: I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
I sent an email using the forum and included my private email address. You should have it.

Sorry, but for some reason, I haven't received your email. Would you send it again?

Thanks

Dennis,

You may know this, but James Owens was arrested along with Austin and Adele Adams and eventually taken to the Old Capital. He was interrogated and apparently did not respond in the way that the federals were hoping he would. He died in the prison.

Rick

Rick - Do we have proof that Owens died in prison? I know the likelihood that he did is pretty good, but is there evidence? Are there death records for prisoners at the Old Capitol? Have the Charles County, PG County, or DC Census Records for 1870 been checked?

Just out of curiosity, I wonder how many black men/women were imprisoned at Old Capitol during the war...

Laurie,

Good questions.

Before writing the article on the Owens Statement and the fate of the horses, while I was looking through Mr. Hall's files at the JOH Library, I came across a type written letter from Mr. Hall to Joan Chaconas dated about 1975. It contained a reference to the Owens Statement. I believe that the letter also included a typed copy of the Owens Statement. There was also a hand written reference on another piece of paper in the file inferring that Owens was poorly treated and that he did not come out alive. I have since looked through the same file and other files of Mr. Hall, twice, since Bill Richter wanted me to find it for him and make a copy, but have been unable to find the original letter to Joan. I may have brought this to your attention at the time. There are copies of the Owens Statement in Mr. Hall's files and in General Tidwell's files, but the original letter, etc., is missing.

Probably plenty of black men and women saw the inside of the Old Capital for various reasons. I believe that Oswell Swann was one.

Rick

Thanks, Rick. I didn't realize that it was a second sheet of paper that was missing, the one that indicates Owens did not make it out alive. I can only hope that that sheet of paper has been misfiled - don't want to think of the items that we may have lost over the years by trusting too many people...

I wish we had staff and time to thoroughly check each item in the Hall files and put them in better order (similar to what Wild Bill did years ago when we "hired" him to come East and make sense of the Tidwell files). That has been a great help. The Hall files, however, are intimidating - about 16 file cabinets, each with five drawers, I believe.

Rick Smith · 05-28-2018, 09:51 AM

Laurie,

You’re welcome.

No reflection on your staff, but on the Honor System, which seems to have stumbled and fallen, never to rise again.

The volume of material which makes up Mr. Hall’s files is massive.

You should make an offer to Wild Bill. Have him come east and work on the files.

Dennis Urban · 07-10-2018, 05:45 PM

Re: Booth & Herold at Adams Tavern, Newport MD
Now that I spent a recent day with Rick Smith in and around the areas of the Booth escape route in southern Charles County, read Bill Richter's proposed timeline with the visit to Adams Tavern, and considered the horse disposal issue discussed above, I am more curious than ever about certain elements of this scenario.

I find the Owens statement given to Col. Henry H. Wells in Bryantown to be completely plausible. Such a detailed statement given a short time after the assassination contains facts that could only have been known by a participant rather than gathered from other sources over such a brief time period. Samuel Cox Jr is alleged to have led Booth and Herold to Newport on April 20, but why the detour going east and away from the river crossing point? Certainly Cox Jr was someone who would likely have known such a
route. Perhaps an earlier meeting up with Thomas Jones was the objective but this detour was away from Huckleberry rather than towards it. Very curious.

Regarding the killing and dumping of the two horses and tack in the swamp, I wonder who was the original source for the disposal of these animals. Blood on the Moon (page 160) attributes the information to Cox Sr telling Jones he saw Herold lead the horses into the swamp and later heard two gunshots. In his short 1893 book, Jones says Cox "heard the pistol discharged" (page 82), later searched for the horses and could find no trace of them. I question these accounts because Cox Sr would not want to be seen anywhere near the pine thicket (recall he did not take them there himself) and I doubt if he could have heard such shots from Rich Hill. I believe the horses lived out their days in a neighboring farm of a cooperative accomplice.