Lucas cabin

[Rhatkinson]

If I am not mistaken, about now 148 years ago, the Lucas family was brought into a great tragedy. I still maintain that Lucas or someone in his family was the "source" mentioned in Woods' report. This was the evidence he had to believe that JWB broke his leg on the jump at Ford's rather than during the horse fall. What else could it have possibly been?

The Lucas family was in a terrible position having been already implicated in placing Booth and Herold at Col. Cox's home (and testifying that Col. Cox allowed them inside against the Col's testimony.) There is no way they could survive having been the source of information that Cox KNEW who Booth was when he allowed him into his home (thus the re-cantment of the "how JWB broke his leg" story.)

Heath

[L Verge]

Heath,

I think you mean Oswell Swann, the Wesort who led Booth and Herold to Rich Hill? The Lucases and their cabin were on the other side of the Potomac in Virginia and close to Dr. Richard Stuart.

If I were Mr. Swann, I would be afraid of Cox. Remind me some time to tell you about what Cox did to one of his slaves, Jack Scroggins. No time right now. Some of you who received the new exhibit booklet from Surratt House will find the story in there.

[Rhatkinson]

Uggggg

I meant the Swann's, not the Lucas family. I was typing on my iPhone, so I'll blame that for my brain seizure. I am so embarrassed.

Heath

[L Verge]

I have brain seizures all the time, but I can blame it on age!

Last night, I mentioned the story of Samuel Cox and his slave, Jack Scroggins, as something that would make Oswell Swann very leery of Col. Cox. In Southern Maryland, there were Yankee camps under Gen. Hooker and Gen. Sickles who were supposed to aid slaves seeking help and freedom. One famous incident involved Jack Scroggins. The slave had tipped off the Union troops that Cox had hidden large amounts of arms and ammunition in marsh land near his house. The slave then sought protection at the camp of the 70th New York, which was stationed about ten miles away at a hamlet called Hill Top.

Cox went to the camp and demanded that Scroggins be returned to him under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, which was still in force and protected by Lincoln as a way to keep Maryland in the Union. The officers obeyed the terms of the Act and returned Scroggins to Cox with the promise that the slave would not be punished.

As soon as the pair was out of sight of the troops, Cox tied Scroggins to the back of his saddle and forced the slave to run behind the horse. After awhile, the poor man was literally dragged back to Rich Hill. There, he was tied to a tree and beaten until unconscious. He was cut down and left to die where he fell.

You can be sure that the brutal story made the rounds in at least Charles County. Oswell Swann must have known about how dangerous Cox could be. However, he was a free man (a Wesort), and by 1865, would certainly have the protection of the military seeking information about Col. Cox. One of Cox's female house servants, however, gave statements that protected her former owner.

Ed Steers included this incident in his great book, Blood on the Moon.

[Jim Garrett]

I have brain seizures all the time, but I can blame it on age!

Last night, I mentioned the story of Samuel Cox and his slave, Jack Scroggins, as something that would make Oswell Swann very leery of Col. Cox. In Southern Maryland, there were Yankee camps under Gen. Hooker and Gen. Sickles who were supposed to aid slaves seeking help and freedom. One famous incident involved Jack Scroggins. The slave had tipped off the Union troops that Cox had hidden large amounts of arms and ammunition in marsh land near his house. The slave then sought protection at the camp of the 70th New York, which was stationed about ten miles away at a hamlet called Hill Top.

Cox went to the camp and demanded that Scroggins be returned to him under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, which was still in force and protected by Lincoln as a way to keep Maryland in the Union. The officers obeyed the terms of the Act and returned Scroggins to Cox with the promise that the slave would not be punished.

As soon as the pair was out of sight of the troops, Cox tied Scroggins to the back of his saddle and forced the slave to run behind the horse. After awhile, the poor man was literally dragged back to Rich Hill. There, he was tied to a tree and beaten until unconscious. He was cut down and left to die where he fell.

You can be sure that the brutal story made the rounds in at least Charles County. Oswell Swann must have known about how dangerous Cox could be. However, he was a free man (a Wesort), and by 1865, would certainly have the protection of the military seeking information about Col. Cox. One of Cox's female house servants, however, gave statements that protected her former owner.

Ed Steers included this incident in his great book, Blood on the Moon.

That is such a great example and much thanks to Ed and Laurie here. The issue of how to deal with runaway slaves evolved with the penninsula campaign in the spring of 1862 when slaves came pouring into the Union camps around Fortress Monroe. It was this situation that had them declared "contrabands of war", but that didn't apply in Maryland as Laurie pointed out.

[Laurie Verge]

I think the importance of Maryland to the Union is often overlooked by scholars. We are written off as a "border state," and that's pretty much it. The only other time it gets mentioned is Monocacy and Antietam.

On the issue of contraband, the Confiscation Acts by the Union allowed them to take Maryland plantations, and some of them became camps and government farms for the benefit of the Union. The old Sothoron plantation, The Plains, that we have talked about previously was an example of this.

[Bill Richter]

And if one wishes to believe David Rankin Barbee, "Lincoln and Booth," a lengthy manuscript in the Barbee papers at Georgetown U, the Maryland planters who suffered from Lincoln's policies were instrumental in scheming to kidnap Lincoln, a plan later picked up by the Confederacy.

Of course, Tidwell, Hall, and Gaddy, Come Retribution, in the oft neglected first section of the book, show how much Confederate activity took place in Southern Maryland.

There was also a large Union military training camp for black soldiers at Benedict that trained at least 4 regiments (1,000 men each) and continual Yankee raids along the rivers in Southern Maryland.

[Laurie Verge]

Thank you, Bill, for adding this because I'm a firm believer in the Maryland planters' role in at least the earlier kidnap scheme. And yes, the Come Retribution triumvirate is one of the few scholars to give credence to this. I would love to find a money trail emanating from the likes of Dr. William Queen, Barnes Compton, Col. Samuel Cox, various members of the Mudd family, the Watsons of Cliffton, etc. -- and that's just in Charles County. There's just too much coincidence to me that the kidnap scheme and Booth take form at the same time that the new Maryland state constitution outlawing slavery goes into effect in November of 1864.

Our Surratt House exhibit on Southern Maryland in the Civil War speaks to this and also to the psychological warfare placed on the people down here via such means as the USCT training camp known as Camp Stanton at Benedict on the Patuxent River. Forces there could go directly into plantations in Prince George's Charles, and St. Mary's County that laid along the Patuxent.

Having the huge POW camp known as Point Lookout at the tip of St. Mary's County didn't help either. Watching Confederate prisoners suffer while in the heart of Southern sympathizers was another form of the Union getting on Southern Maryland nerves. But, as they say, all is fair in love and war.... It's just that the history books don't adequately portray all sides of the war.

And it's often the sidebars such as this that explain other actions -- such as devising or participating in a plot to kidnap or kill the President of the United States.

[Jim Garrett]

And lets not forget my area of the state, western Montgomery County. In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln received.........1 vote. I understand they later caught that man! The Monocacy Cemetery has 34 Confederate veterans and 1 Union. Talk about abusing states rights, how many citizens, including the mayor and police chief and every newspaper editor in Baltimore were arrested and imprisoned in Ft. McHenry without charges.