7. Martial law came into existence in the District of Columbia as a result of Lincoln’s proclamation of September 24, 1862 (see Basler, ed., Collected Works, 5:436). Martial law was still in effect at the time of Lincoln’s assassination and the trial of the conspirators, and was not revoked by President Johnson until after the trial and execution had taken place.
8. Joseph George Jr., “Military Trials of Civilians under the Habeas Corpus Act of 1863,” Lincoln Herald 98, no. 4 (winter 1996): 134.
9. Neely, Fate of Liberty.
10. Beale, ed., Welles Diary, 2:303.
11. Beale, ed., Diary of Edward Bates, 4:141.
12. Edward Steers Jr., “Montani Semper Liberi: The Making of West Virginia,” North and South 3, no. 2, (1999): 18–33. See also Luther v. Borden, 17Howard 1, 45–46.(1849).
13. James Speed, Opinion of the Constitutional Power of the Military to Try and Execute the Assassins of the President (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1865).
14. Ibid, pp. 15–16.
15. Pitman, Assassination, pp. 251–67.
16. Ex parte Milligan, 4 Wall, 2, 18 L. ed., 281.
17. War Department circular dated “Washington April 20, 1865.” See also Fleet, “Unwritten History,” p. 399.
18. Pitman, Assassination, p. 21.
19. Poore, Conspiracy Trial, 1:223.
20. Ibid, p. 224.
21. Pitman, Assassination, p. 22.
22. In 1860, Benn Pitman published a manual of his brother’s phonographic method: Benn Pitman, The Manual of Phonography (Cincinnati: Phonographic Institute, 1860).
23. Pitman, Assassination, p. iii.
24. An example is found in Vaughan Shelton, Mask for Treason (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1965). Shelton assumed the words “press copy,” meant that Pitman had set up a flatbed press and supplied printed copies of each day’s testimony to the newspapers (“press”). Shelton apparently was unaware of the process of “lifting” copies from an inked page by blotting a damp sheet of tissue paper over the original.
25. John Calder Brennan, “The Three Versions of the Testimony in the 1865 Conspiracy Trial,” Surratt Courier 8, no. 3 (March 1983): 3–6.
26. Burnett was the judge advocate who successfully prosecuted Lambdin P. Milligan a year earlier in Indiana.
27. Porter and Comstock were replaced on May 10. Both officers were members of Grant’s staff and removed for that reason. It was thought inappropriate for them to serve since Grant had been a target of Booth’s assassination plot. See Turner, Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, p. 151.
28. Poore, Conspiracy Trial, 1:12.
29. Ibid.
30. Ownsbey, Alias “Paine,” p. 2.
31. Ibid., pp. 181–200.
32. Ibid., p. 199.
33. Ibid., p. 200.
34. Poore, Conspiracy Trial, 1:13.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid, p. 12.
37. Thomas M. Harris, The Assassination of Lincoln: A History of the Great Conspiracy (Boston: American Citizen Company, 1892), p. 80.
38. Elizabeth Steger Trindal, Mary Surratt: An American Tragedy (Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Company, 1996), pp. 147–51.
39. Roger D. Hunt and Jack R. Brown, Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue (Gaithersburg, Md.: Olde Soldier Books, 1990), p. 169.
40. Pitman, Assassination, pp. 18–21.
41. Quoted in Turner, Beware the People Weeping, p. 150.
42. Turner, Beware the People Weeping, p. 149.
43. Pitman, Assassination, p. 23.
44. Turner, Beware the People Weeping, pp. 48–49.
45. Poore, Conspiracy Trial, 1:7.
46. Davis, Jefferson Davis, p. 641.
47. Ibid.
48. Testimony of Sanford Conover, in Poore, Conspiracy Trial, 3:115–43.
49. Testimony of James B. Merritt, in Poore, Conspiracy Trial, 3:95–115.
50. Testimony of Richard Montgomery, in Poore, Conspiracy Trial, 3:83–94.
51. Booth was in Canada and most probably met with George Sanders in Montreal in October of 1864. See Tidwell, Hall, and Gaddy, Come Retribution, p. 333.
52. Turner, Beware the People Weeping, pp. 214–15.
53. OR, ser. I, vol. 49, pt. II, p. 759.
54. Turner, Beware the People Weeping, p. 132.
55. Doster argument, in Pitman, Assassination, p. 310.
56. Doster summation, in Pitman, Assassination, p. 305.
57. Wiechmann, True History, p. 301.
58. The five members were David O. Hunter, August V. Kautz, Robert S. Foster, James E.A. Ekin, and Charles H. Tompkins. Not signing the recommendation were Lew Wallace, Thomas M. Harris, David R. Clendenin, and Albion P. Howe.
59. Quoted in James O. Hall, “The Mercy Recommendation for Mrs. Surratt: The Holt-Johnson Controversy,” Surratt Courier 15, no. 8 (August 1990): 4—5.
60. Washington Intelligencer, July 8, 1865.
61. Wiechmann, True History, pp. 280–81.
62. Washington Intelligencer, July 8, 1865.
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid.
20. The Aftermath: Rewriting History
1. During Mary Surratt’s trial her defense attorneys put five Catholic priests on the witness stand who testified to her deep piety.
2. Wiechmann, True History, pp. 428–40.
3. Alfred Isacsson, “John Surratt: The Assassination, Flight, Capture and Trial,” Surratt Courier 18, no. 7 (1993): 4—7.
4. Mark Wilson Seymour, ed., The Pursuit and Arrest of John H. Surratt: Despatches from the Official Record of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Austin, Tex.: Civil War Library, 2000), p. 90.
5. U.S. Congress, House, H.B. Sainte-Marie: Letters from the Secretary of War ad Interim Relative to a Claim of Sainte-Marie for Compensation Furnished in the Surratt Case, 40th Cong., 2d sess., 1867, p. 24.
6. Isaccson, “John Surratt,” p. 7.
7. James E.T. Lange and Katherine DeWitt Jr., “The Three Indictments of John Harrison Surratt, Jr.,” Surratt Courier 17, no. 1 (1992): 6.
8. Ibid.
9. Wiechmann, True History, p. 428.
10. Isacsson, “John Surratt,” p. 7. John and Mary were married in Alexandria, Virginia.
11. See Washington Evening Star, December 16, 1870.
12. In learning of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia’s ruling upholding Judge Fisher’s dismissal of the first treason indictment, the grand jury ruled “ignoramus” on the second treason indictment which means in legal parlance, “we ignore.” See Lange and DeWitt, “Three Indictments,” p. 7.
13. Isacsson, “John Surratt,” p. 7.
14. Oldroyd, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, p. 150.
15. Michael O’Laughlen died of yellow fever on September 23, 1867, while imprisoned. Samuel A. Mudd to Frances Mudd, 23 September 1867, in Mudd, Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, p. 267.
16. Rodney Bethel, A Slumbering Giant of the Past (Hialeah, Fla.: W.L. Litho, 1979).
17. Samuel Carter III, The Riddle of Dr. Mudd (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974), p. 236–37; Hal Higdon, The Union vs. Dr. Mudd (Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1964), p. 133; Elden C. Weckesser, His Name Was Mudd (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 1991), p. 143.
18. Bryan, The Great American Myth; Eisenschiml, Why Was Lincoln Murdered?; Roy Z. Chamlee Jr., Lincoln’s Assassins (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 1990).
19. William Burton Benham, Life of Osborn H. Oldroyd: Founder and Collector of Lincoln Mementos (Washington, D.C.: privately published by W.B. Benham, 1927), pp. 26–27.
20. Washington Star, August 3, 1865, p. 2, col. 4. Also in New York Times, August 4, 1865, p. 1, col. 1.
21. A search of the National Archives failed to produce General Dodd’s official report filed with Holt.
22. William F. Keeler to Congressman B.C. Cook, January 21, 1869, copy in author’s files.
23. Jones, J. Wilkes Booth.
24. An advertisement appears in the Port Tobacco Times listing “Dr. Samuel
A. Mudd” and “Samuel Cox, Jr.” as candidates for “delegate” on the “Democratic and Conservative” ticket. See Port Tobacco Times, November 2, 1877, p. 1, col. 1. Cox was elected, while Mudd was defeated.
25. Quoted in Steers, His Name Is Still Mudd, p. 54.
26. Mudd, Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, p. 115.
27. Ibid, p. 119.
28. Ibid, pp. 131–32.
29. Ibid, p. 124.
30. Ibid, p. 129.
31. Ibid, p. 225.
32. The Committee for the Restoration of the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House, Inc. Newsletter 1, no. 8 (September 1980), 2.
33. See NARA, RG 94, M-619, reel 451, for the documents associated with the investigation.
34. Mudd, Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, pp. 120–21.
35. Rewriting History: The Case of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, written and directed by Paul Davis, produced by Dennis Fedoruk, Light Vision Films, Atlanta, Georgia, 1995.
36. Mudd, Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, p. 131–32.
37. Samuel A. Mudd, letter to Jeremiah Dyer, 21 October 1865, in Mudd, Nettie, The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (1906; reprint, Marietta, Ga.: Continental Book Company, 1955), 350–51.
38. Ibid., p. 144.
39. Examples include Hal Higdon, The Union vs. Dr. Mudd (Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1964); Samuel Carter III, The Riddle of Dr. Mudd (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974); Elden C. Weckesser, His Name Was Mudd (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 1991); John E. McHale Jr., Dr. Samuel A. Mudd and the Lincoln Assassination (Parsippany, N.J.: Dillon Press, 1995).
40. Washington Intelligencer, 8 July 1865, col. 6, p. 1.
41. Statement by Frederick Stone in Higdon, The Union vs. Dr. Mudd, p. 208.
42. Mudd, Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, p. 317.
43. Steers, His Name Is Still Mudd, pp. 116–17.
44. Yellow fever is caused by a small, ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus and is one of a class of hemorrhagic viruses that cause severe gastrointestinal bleeding resulting in shock and death.
45. Steers, His Name Is Still Mudd, pp. 116–17.
46. Richard D. Mudd, Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd and His Descendants (Saginaw, Mich.: privately printed by Richard D. Mudd, 1979).
47. According to Nettie Mudd, Dr. Mudd’s youngest daughter, Spangler received five acres but never built his house on the property. See Mudd, Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, p. 322.
48. There is some confusion in the literature as to the exact whereabouts of Spangler between the time of his release in March of 1869 and his death in February 1875. Most authors rely on Nettie Mudd’s statement that Spangler died eighteen months after arriving at the Mudd farm (see Mudd, Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, p. 322). This would mean that Spangler did not arrive until the summer of 1873 leaving a little over four years unaccounted for. It seems certain that Spangler made his way to the Mudd farm soon after his release arriving in the spring of 1869 and staying for approximately six years, not eighteen months. Nettie Mudd was not born until three years after Spangler’s death and did not write her book until thirty-one years after his death. Had Spangler lived and worked elsewhere for the period between April 1869 and February 1875 some record of his existence would have been discovered.
49. Arnold, Memoirs, p. 39.
50. Percy E. Martin, “Samuel Bland Arnold Revisited,” in In Pursuit Of..., ed. Verge, p. 34.
51. Arnold, Memoirs, p. xiv.
52. Ibid., p. 43.
53. Ibid.
54. Samuel Bland Arnold, Defence and Prison Experiences of a Lincoln Conspirator (Hattiesburg, Miss.: Book Farm, 1943).
55. Arnold, Memoirs.
21. Life after Death
1. Circuit Court for the City of Baltimore, case no. 94297044/CE187741, October 24, 1994.
2. Finis L. Bates, Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, Assassin of President Lincoln (Memphis: Pilcher Printing Company, 1907).
3. The evidence is summarized in two articles that appear in a publication of the Surratt Society titled, The Body in the Barn, ed. Laurie Verge (Clinton, Md.: Surratt Society, 1993), pp. 3–10.
4. John Wilkes Booth was born on May 10, 1838.
5. James O. Hall, “The Case of David E. George,” Surratt Courier 17, no. 3 (March 1992): 3–5.
6. William G. Shepherd, “Shattering the Myth of John Wilkes Booth’s Escape,” Harper’s Magazine, November 1924, pp. 702–19.
7. Ibid, p. 718.
8. Bryan, The Great American Myth, p. 333.
9. In addition to his success with automobiles, Ford turned his daily piles of scrap wood, left over from constructing Ford bodies, into a bonanza. Ford converted the scrap into charcoal that he bagged and marketed under the name of his favorite Uncle, “Kingsford.” The charcoal briquettes were highly popular, and could only be purchased at Ford dealerships. Today “Kingsford” charcoal can be purchased through a number of outlets and is the leading charcoal sold on the open market.
10. This “new” evidence is discussed in Nathaniel Orlowek, “Why We Believe Booth Died in 1903,” in The Body in the Barn, ed. Verge, pp. 3–6.
11. Steven G. Miller, “Wilson D. Kenzie, the Linchpin of the Booth Escape Theories,” in The Body in the Barn, ed. Verge, p. 25.
12. Affidavit of Wilson D. Kenzie, March 13, 1922, Beloit, Wisconsin, David Rankin Barbee Papers, Georgetown University Library, Georgetown, District of Columbia. Hereafter referred to as Kenzie affidavit.
13. Orlowek, “Why We Believe,” p. 3.
14. Kenzie affidavit, 1.
15. Rhodehamel and Taper, eds., Right or Wrong, pp. 102–5.
16. Kenzie affidavit, pp. 2–3.
17. Ibid, p. 3.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid, p. 1.
21. Rufas Woods, The Weirdest Story in American History: The Escape of John Wilkes Booth (Wenachee, Wash.: privately printed, 1944).
22. Steven G. Miller, “Did Lieut. William C. Allen Witness the Shooting of John Wilkes Booth,” in The Body in the Barn, ed. Verge, p. 38.
23. Moxley’s statement appeared in the Baltimore American, June 3–6. 1903.
24. U.S. Congress, House, Testimony of Edwin M. Stanton before the Judiciary Committee of the House, 40th Cong, 1st sess, 1867.
25. Bryan, The Great American Myth, p. 294.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid, p. 306.
28. Ibid, p. 307.
29. Ibid, p. 308.
30. Washington Evening Star, February 16, 1869.
31. Bryan, The Great American Myth, pp. 308–9.
32. Bryan, The Great American Myth, p. 309. The original of the telegram is in the Edwin Booth artifacts located in the Players Club in New York.
33. Ibid, p. 280.
34. Interview of Basil Moxley in the Baltimore American, June 6, 1903, p. 6.
35. Quoted in Bryan, The Great American Myth, p. 313.
36. John Frederick May, The Mark of the Scalpel (Washington, D.C: Columbia Historical Society, 1910).
37. Verge, ed., War Department Files, p. 2. Booth played in The Marble Heart at Ford’s Theatre on Wednesday, November 9, 1863. This may be the time Herold is referring to although Booth also played at Grover’s Theatre in Washington.
38. William May to Captain Dudley Knox, May 18, 1925, printed in James F. Epperson, ed., “The Positive Identification of the Body of John Wilkes Booth,” Civil War Naval Chronology (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971).
39. Statement of John Frederick May, NARA, RG 153, M-599, reel 4, frames 361–365. Hereafter referred to as May statement.
40. May, Mark of the Scalpel
41. According to May, the incision had been torn open by Booth’s co-star Charlotte Cushman during a theatrical performance. Miss Cushman had thrown her arms around Booth’s neck and hugged him so vigorously during the play that she tore the incision open. As a result when the wound healed it left a large, circular mark whose new tissue gave the appearance of a “burn” scar. A search of the various theatrical records for 1863 has failed to tur
n up any performance in which Booth and Cushman performed together. Cushman was living in Europe at the time of the alleged incident. Personal communication, Terry Afford, November 8, 2000.
42. May statement.
43. Ibid.
44. The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1861–1865), 4 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1875), vol. 4, p. 452.
45. Leonard F. Guttridge, “Identification and Autopsy of John Wilkes Booth: Reexamining the Evidence,” Navy Medicine, January-February 1993, 20.
46. Poore, Conspiracy Trial, 2:60.
47. “The Booth Autposy,” in The Body in the Barn, ed. Verge, pp. 67–68.
48. Janvier Woodward to General G.W. Schofield, letter book, 1865, p. 212, Laboratory and Museum, Surgeon General’s Office, NARA, RG 94, July 19, 1866.
49. Afford, ed., A Sister’s Memoir, p. 45.
50. Orlowek, “Why We Believe,” p. 4.
51. D. Mark Katz, Witness to an Era: The Life and Photography of Alexander Gardner (New York: Viking Penguin, 1991), pp.161–62.
52. James O. Hall, “The Body on the Monitor,” in The Body in The Barn, ed. Verge, p. 70.
53. Herold statement, in Verge, ed., War Department Files, p. 14.
54. Ibid, p. 15.
55. Trial of John H. Surratt, 1:309.
56. Statement of Luther B. Baker, NARA, M-619, reel 455, frame 0689. See also Testimony of Everton J. Conger, in Poore, Conspiracy Trial 1:319. This draft was subsequently identified at the conspiracy trial by a Canadian banker, Robert Anson Campbell, as the one he handed personally to Booth the preceding year. See testimony of Robert Anson Campbell, in Poore, Conspiracy Trial, 2:87–88.
57. Circuit Court for Baltimore City, case no. 94297044/CE187741, May 26, 1995.
58. The decision of Judge Kaplan was appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals. On June 4, 1996, Judge C.J. Wilner ruled for the court, upholding the decision of Judge Kaplan. Court of Appeals of Maryland, September term 1995, no. 1531.
22. Goodbye, Father Abraham
Blood on the Moon Page 48
