The “Sam” letter contained a reference to another of Booth’s friends whom the government added to their list of suspects: a man by the name of “Mike.” Arnold had written in the “Sam” letter, “I called also to see Mike, but learned from his mother he had gone out with you, and had not returned.”37 Washington was as much in the dark about “Mike” as they were about “Sam.” But McPhail was ahead of Washington here also. He had known the O’Laughlen family for thirty years, and his office was located only a short distance from the O’Laughlen home. McPhail’s earlier investigation had turned up the name of O’Laughlen as well as Arnold.
Word soon reached the O’Laughlen family in Baltimore that the authorities were looking for their son Mike. On Monday, April 17, O’Laughlen made arrangements to turn himself in to the Baltimore police to spare his mother the pain of seeing her son arrested in her home. By the evening of the seventeenth, Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlen were in the custody of McPhail and on their way to Washington. That same evening detectives were making their way to the boardinghouse of Mary Surratt armed with new information and new questions for the lady of the house.
Government detectives first visited Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse around 2:00A.M. on the morning of April 15. This visit occurred only three and a half hours after Booth had shot the president and while he and Herold were en route to Dr. Mudd’s house near Beantown. While the name of John Wilkes Booth would not be released officially until 3A.M., the visit to Mary Surratt’s house at 2:00 A.M. shows that government detectives were already aware that Booth was the assassin and that Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse was linked to Booth. Such speed requires explanation.
According to his testimony during the conspiracy trial, Detective James A. McDevitt went to the Surratt boardinghouse along with his partner John Clarvoe and two other detectives, Daniel Bigley and John Kelly, shortly before 2 A.M. on the fifteenth.38 McDevitt was looking for John Surratt and found Louis Wiechmann instead. Years later McDevitt claimed that he had been out that night on a “scouting expedition” when he received a tip from an unnamed actor who told him “to keep an eye on Mrs. Surratt’s house on H Street.”39 Information had also come into police headquarters from James P. Fergueson, the bartender of the saloon next to Ford’s Theatre on the side opposite the Star Saloon. Fergueson told detectives that John Surratt was often in the company of Booth.40 Thus the name of John Surratt was linked with that of Booth early on the morning of April 15. McDevitt visited Mary Surratt’s house looking for her son John.
McDevitt and his colleagues searched the house thoroughly, looking for any sign of John Surratt or Booth. According to Wiechmann’s later testimony, McDevitt told him that John Surratt was the suspected attacker of Seward.41 Wiechmann told the detectives that Surratt was in Canada. Mary Surratt confirmed Wiechmann’s statement by telling the detectives that she had received a letter from her son in Montreal that very day. Asked to produce the letter, Mary couldn’t find it.42
Wiechmann later wrote in his memoirs that when he asked McDevitt why they came to Mrs. Surratt’s house so soon after the assassination, McDevitt had said that “a man on the street” told him, “if you want to find out all about this business go to Mrs. Surratt’s house on H street.”43 The identity of this mystery informant, however, remains obscure.
Satisfied that John Surratt and Booth were not at the house and nothing more could be done just then, the detectives returned to their headquarters leaving the occupants of the house in a state of high anxiety. After all, Booth had been a frequent visitor and was a friend of John Surratt. What the detectives did not know—and what Mary Surratt did know—was that several others in Booth’s cabal were also visitors to the house and only hours earlier Booth had been at the boardinghouse and asked Mary to take a package and message to Surrattsville for him.
The next two days were ones of frightful anxiety for the members of Mary’s boardinghouse. Following breakfast on Saturday morning, Louis Wiechmann had gone to police headquarters with another of Mary Surratt’s boarders, John Holohan. The two men became voluntary “witnesses” and were subsequently authorized to accompany detectives John McDevitt and Daniel Bigley on a futile mission to Canada in search of John Surratt. As two of Mary Surratt’s boarders, these men were initially under suspicion, especially Louis Wiechmann. But Wiechmann was proving to be the government’s key informer, and after he was held in custody for a brief period he became the government’s “star” witness. His long association with John Surratt, his knowledge of all of the boarders and visitors to the Surratt house, and his role in escorting Mary Surratt to and from Surrattsville on two occasions made him crucial for the government’s case.
With Wiechmann and Holohan away and John Surratt missing, Mary was left alone at her boardinghouse along with the three other women: Honora Fitzpatrick, seventeen years old; Anna Surratt, twenty-two years old; and Olivia Jenkins, Mrs. Surratt’s fifteen-year-old niece who was visiting with her. At 11:00 P.M. on Monday, April 17, five military detectives appeared at Mary’s door. Colonel Henry H. Wells, provost marshal for the defenses south of the Potomac, now had received several snippets of information from different sources that all had a common connector—541 (now 604) H Street. Wells told Colonel H.S. Olcott to order a search of the Surratt house and to arrest all of the occupants. Major H.W Smith of Augur’s Twenty-second Army Corps, Captain W.M. Wermerskirch, R.C. Morgan, Eli Devoe, and Charles W. Rosch arrived at the house around 11 P.M. Smith informed Mary Surratt that they had come to arrest her and “all in your house, and take you for examination to General Augur’s head-quarters.”44
While Smith waited for the ladies to gather their things, one of the more fortuitous events for the government occurred. A “peculiar knock” was heard at the front door. Wermerskirch opened the door to find a tall man with a pickaxe on his shoulder standing in the doorway. The man was taken aback by the uniformed men standing in the hallway. Somewhat startled, he told the officer that he must have the wrong house. When challenged as to whose house he sought, the man answered, “I came to see Mrs. Surratt.” He was told he was at the right house and to step inside. The stranger was Lewis Thornton Powell (alias Lewis Paine). Powell had fled the Seward house on Friday evening and disappeared into the void of Washington. Now, three days later, he showed up at the home of Mary Surratt.
The Baltimore Clipper for Thursday, April 20, was a bestseller. It carried the complete text of a letter Booth had left with the local Washington newspaper that began, “To Whom It May Concern.” The paper also carried a detailed description of the events at Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse on the night of April 17:
Late last night R.C. Morgan of New York made a lucky strike in working up the assassination plot. Acting as one of the special commissioners of the War Department under Mr. Orcutt [Olcott], he visited the residence of Mrs. Surratt, on H street, between Ninth and Tenth [actually between Sixth and Seventh].
The women were put under arrest and sent to headquarters for examination,—Then a search of the house was made,—Papers and correspondence of a most important character were found, but the most important event transpired while search was being made in the garret.
A peculiar knock was heard at a lower outer door. The expert at once entered and opened the door, when a large man confronted him with a pick ax in his hand. Stepping aside, the man entered rapidly and Morgan then closed the door upon him and quickly locking it, put the key in his pocket.
The stranger, here discovering something was wrong, turned and remarked that he had made a mistake—was in the wrong house, etc. “Who did you wish to see,” he was asked. “I came to see Mrs. Surratt,” said he. “Well, you are right then. She lives here,” was replied.
He nevertheless insisted upon retiring, but a pistol was pointed at him and he was ordered into the room adjoining. His pick-ax was taken from him and he [was] ordered to sit down. Here a lengthy questioning and cross-questioning took place.
He stated he was a refugee from Virginia; was a po
or man’s son; had been brought up on a farm; did not know how to read; had always been kept hard at work, because his father was poor, and then showed his oath of allegiance, which he had in his pocket; said he had worked on the horse-railroad here [horse-drawn trolley system in Washington].
When asked where he lived, he boggled a little. When asked where he slept last night, he said, “Down the railroad”—When asked where the night before and Friday, he was still more embarrassed, and equivocated considerably. He said he came to this house to dig a drain for Mrs. Surratt; that he was to work at it early in the morning, and thought he would come in before he went to bed, as she would not be up in the morning.
It is proper to state that up to the questioning of where he stayed, no suspicion had been excited that he was other than a veritable laborer; but the fact of his coming at so late an hour led to suspicion that he might know something of the family connections.
Surratt himself having disappeared with Booth, a glance at his boots covered with mud disclosed them to be fine ones; his pants, also very muddy, were discovered to be of fine black cassimere. His coat was better than laborers usually wear and nothing but his hat indicated a refugee.
He was further questioned and on saying that he had no money he was searched and twenty-five dollars in greenbacks and some Canadian coins found on his person, a fine white linen handkerchief with delicate pink border, a tooth and nail brush, a cake of toilet soap and some pomatun [hair pomade], for all of which he tried to give a plausible account, though bothered a good deal about his taste for the white handkerchief in his possession.
Here his hat was examined and found to have been made of a fine gray or mixed undershirt of his own, which he had taken off to make a hat of, cut out in Confederate soldier style, and not sewed up but pinned. This led to the conviction that he had lost his hat, and other circumstances fixed suspicion that he was the assassin of the Seward family.
The Secretary’s [William Seward’s] negro doorkeeper [William Bell] was sent for without the knowledge of what was wanted, came into the room and was seated, the gas having been turned down previously. After he was seated the gas was turned on brightly, and without a word being spoken, the poor boy started as if he had been shot, and the pseudo laborer started also and turned deadly pale.
The last photograph taken of Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, before leaving for Washington. By C.S. German, February 9, 1861.
The Passage through Baltimore, by Adalbert Volck, March 1861.
Above left, Allan Pinkerton, ca. 1875. Head of Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency. (Courtesy of James O. Hall.) Above right, Believed to be the encampment on the White House grounds of Company K, 150th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. From a stereoview by E. and H.T. Anthony, no. 1311, c. 1862. Unpublished. (Author’s collection.)
View of Soldiers’ Home, c. 1862. Anderson Cottage (left) served as the “Summer White House” for the Lincoln family from 1861 to 1865. From an unmarked stereoview. Unpublished. (Author’s collection.)
Above left, The Booth family house in Baltimore. (Courtesy of Richard Sloan.) Above right, The photograph of John Wilkes Booth known as Gutman No. 35. This photograph was sent to Captain George W. Dutton in command of the guard at Aqueduct Bridge in the District of Columbia to help in the search for Booth. Carte de visite photograph, c. 1863, by Silsbee, Case and Company, Boston. (Massachusetts Historical Society.)
Tudor Hall. The Booth Home near Bel Air, Maryland, built in 1851–52. The Booth family moved into the house in 1853. (Photograph by the author.)
Above left, Samuel Bland Arnold. 1865. (Library of Congress.) Above right, Michael O’Laughlen Jr. 1865. (Library of Congress.) Below, Barnum’s City Hotel. One of Baltimore’s finest hotels, Barnum’s served as the site for the Democratic National Convention between 1832 and 1852 and later became the principal meeting place for anti-Lincoln forces. It was here that Cipriano Ferendini worked as a barber and where John Wilkes Booth met with Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlen during the first week of August in 1864 to enlist them in his plot to capture President Lincoln. (Photograph by William Chase, author’s collection.)
Above left, Samuel Alexander Mudd. (Surratt House and Museum Library.) Above right, Thomas H. Harbin. A Confederate agent who was introduced to John Wilkes Booth by Samuel A. Mudd on December 18, 1864, at the Bryantown Tavern. As a result of the meeting Harbin agreed to help Booth in his scheme to capture Lincoln. (Courtesy of James O. Hall.)
Bryantown Tavern, c. 1870. Where John Wilkes Booth stayed and where Samuel A. Mudd introduced him to Thomas H. Harbin on December 18, 1864. The Thirteenth New York Cavalry set up headquarters in the tavern on Saturday, April 15, 1865. Now a private residence. (Courtesy of Robert W. Cook.)
Above left, David E. Herold. (Library of Congress.) Above right, George Andrew Atzerodt. A resident of Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, Atzerodt avoided arrest while ferrying men and materials across the Potomac River throughout the war. Atzerodt was assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. (Library of Congress.)
Above left, Edman Spangler. (Library of Congress.) Above right, Lewis Thornton Powell, alias Lewis Paine. A member of Mosby’s Rangers, Powell was assigned to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward. (Courtesy of Betty Ownsby.)
Mary Elizabeth Surratt, c. 1852. Mary Surratt operated the boardinghouse on H Street and owned the tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland. Both establishments served as safe residences for Confederate agents. Mary Surratt was hanged as a conspirator in Lincoln’s death. (Courtesy of James O. Hall.)
John Harrison Surratt Jr. Posing in his uniform as a Papal Zouave, c. 1870. (National Archives.)
The Surratt boardinghouse, located at 541 (now 604) H Street, Washington, D.C. Booth visited this house on several occasions, and Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt boarded here. Mary Surratt and Lewis Powell were arrested here on the night of April 17, 1865. (Photograph by the author.)
Above left, John T. Ford, c. 1864. From a carte de visite photograph. (Author’s collection.) Above right, Harry Clay Ford, c. 1864. From a carte de visite photograph. (Author’s collection.)
Ford’s Theatre draped in mourning the day of Lincoln’s funeral in Washington, D.C., April 21, 1865. From an unmarked contemporary stereoview by Alexander Gardner. (Author’s collection.)
The presidential box at Ford’s Theatre. From a contemporary stereoview by Alexander Gardner. (Author’s collection.)
View of the rear of Ford’s Theatre showing Baptist Alley. Booth used the stage door shown in the picture. (Photograph by the author.)
The Surratt tavern in Surrattsvilie, Maryland. Booth and Herold stopped here near midnight on April 14, 1865, to pick up a carbine, a field glass, and whiskey on their way to Samuel Mudd’s house. (Photograph by author.)
Above, Huckleberry. The home of Thomas A. Jones at the time he hid Booth and Herold in a pine thicket. Jones, Booth, and Herold stopped here briefly the night of April 20 on their way to the Potomac River. (Photograph by the author.) Right, Thomas A. Jones. Jones was the chief agent of the Confederate Secret Service in southern Maryland. Under instructions from Samuel Cox Sr., Jones cared for Booth and Herold from April 16 through April 20 when he placed them in a small boat and sent them across the Potomac River toward Virginia. (Thomas A. Jones Collection, Charles County community College, La Plata, Maryland.)
Left, Samuel Cox Sr. Booth and Herold stopped at Cox’s plantation home, Rich Hill, around midnight on April 15, 1865. Cox saw to their safe hiding in a pine thicket not far from his home. (Courtesy of James O. Hall.) Above, Rich Hill. The home of Samuel Cox Sr. (Photograph by the author.)
The home of Samuel Alexander Mudd near Beantown in Charles County, Maryland. Booth was a houseguest of Dr. Mudd in November and December 1864. Booth and Herold arrived at Mudd’s house at 4:00A.M. on Saturday, April 15, and stayed until 7:00P.M. that same evening before traveling to the home of Samuel Cox Sr. (Courtesy of James O. Hall.)
Cleydael. The home of Dr. Richard H. Stuart. Booth and
Herold were brought to Cleydael by one of Thomas Harbin’s agents on the evening of April 23. Stuart fed the two fugitives and sent them to the cabin of William Lucas. (Photograph by the author.)
William Rollins of Port Conway, Virginia. Rollins and his wife, Bettie, furnished Union soldiers with vital information that led the search party to Willie Jett in Bowling Green, Virginia. Jett then led the Union soldiers to Richard Garret’s house where Booth and Herold were hiding out. (Courtesy of James O. Hall.)
Site of the ferry slip at Port Royal, Virginia, c. 1935. Booth and Herold, along with four Confederate soldiers, landed here shortly before noon on Monday, April 24. (Surratt House and Museum Library.)
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