American Brutus

by Michael W. Kauffman

  Much was made at the trial, and again in recent years, of the fact that Dr. Mudd did not hold legal title to his farm, but Mudd’s brother Henry testified that he could get a deed to the property at any time. Dr. Mudd had in fact sold a portion of this same tract to John F. Hardy some years before, and he kept the proceeds for himself. Poore, 2:434. See Charles County land records, Liber JHC-1, folio 62 (December 29, 1858).

  The evidence of Booth’s December visit has been interpreted in vastly different ways. Given the backgrounds of the people in Charles County, and of Booth himself, I find that Dr. Mudd’s own account, written on August 28, 1865, makes the most sense. It was published by Mudd’s daughter Nettie in The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (New York: Neale Publishing, 1906), 42–48 (hereinafter Life of Mudd). A couple of sources describe the one-eyed horse as a dark bay, but others refer to it as brown. I use the latter word to avoid confusion with the bay horses Booth and Surratt later rode. Brooke Stabler described the horse as a good pacer. LAS 6:131; Mudd’s own initial statement gave the price. LAS 2:1025; George Alfred Townsend gave the only known account of Booth’s introduction to Harbin. He said, “[Harbin] told me that Dr. Mudd introduced him to Booth, and said that Mr. Booth wanted some private conversation with Mr. Harbin. They took a room on the second floor. . . .” Whether Mudd went along to the upstairs room is a pivotal point in the case against him. It sounds as if he did not, but as Townsend did not make it any more explicit, we are left to split hairs over a secondhand account written twenty-eight years after the fact. Their relationship was one of mutual distrust, and I seriously doubt that Mudd would have divulged such damaging secrets. Cincinnati Enquirer, April 18, 1892; For the case of Jones, see Thomas A. Jones, J. Wilkes Booth: An Account of His Sojourn in Southern Maryland (Chicago: Laird and Lee, 1893), 13, and O.R. II:2, 861.

  Statement of Edman Spangler in the papers of Benjamin F. Butler, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress (hereinafter Spangler-Butler); James L. Maddox in LAS 5:250 and 5:276.

  Jeremiah T. Mudd in Poore, 2:259–60. Weichmann in Poore, 1:70 and 1:135. John Surratt, Jr., was appointed postmaster on September 10, 1862. He applied for work in the Paymaster General’s Department in October 1863, and was dismissed as postmaster the following month. Surratt Courier 25 (August 2000): 3, and Postmaster Appointments, Microcopy M-601, National Archives. See also Maj. W. B. Lane to General James B. Fry, April 23, 1865, in the records of the Provost Marshal General, Record Group 110, entry 38, National Archives.

  Life of Mudd, 42–43. At first, Weichmann insisted that this meeting took place on January 15. Circumstances proved him wrong, and when questioned by a congressional investigator on May 25, 1866, he corrected himself as to the date. Butler Papers, Box 175, Library of Congress; Apparently, Surratt encouraged Weichmann to seek a government position. Augustus Howell, the spy, said that Weichmann took the job “with the express understanding . . . that he . . . was to furnish Surratt with all information that came under his notice. . . .” John T. Ford Papers, MS 371, Maryland Historical Society. Hoffman’s office was at 1925 F Street and Weichmann had been working at St. Matthew’s Institute, only a block away. Surratt Trial, 369 and 403. Issues touching on Weichmann’s college career are in the Sepulcian Archives in Baltimore. For more, see Louis J. Weichmann, A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975), passim (hereinafter Weichmann, A True History).

  Life of Mudd, 43–44; Poore, 1:94, 96–97, 104. The lines in Booth’s drawing were wavy, and resembled streams more than roads, with indistinct squares placed alongside two of them. Though very familiar with Southern Maryland, I cannot make out what locality it was supposed to represent. The envelope had been addressed in Booth’s hand, to “Jas. V. Barnes, care of T. Zizinia, Box 1344, N. Y.” and “T. Zizinia, 15 South William Street.” It had never been used, and was evidently outdated; Zizinia had moved to 68 Beaver Street by then. Little is known of Thomas Zizinia, but his address was just around the corner from a brokerage used as a cover for Eddy Martin. The government had no files on any subversive by that name. LAS 2:292.

  Life of Mudd, 45. Weichmann denied giving out government secrets from his office. Regulations for the office were established by General Orders No. 190, issued May 3, 1864, and they show how important the office was to the flow of information on prisoners. O.R. II:7, 106–8. Weichmann was specifically charged with keeping accounts of the money found on the prisoners at the time of their capture. Weichmann, A True History, 376–77. Jeremiah T. Mudd in Poore, 2:262. Francis Lucas, who was to have taken the stove to Bryantown, had no room on his wagon. Poore, 2:267.

  Chester in LAS 4:147–50; A list of broken engagements, found in Booth’s trunk, included a week in Cleveland, five in St. Louis, two in Chicago, and two in Cincinnati. LAS 2:296; John H. Jack in LAS 5:49, 55. Canning to George Alfred Townsend in the Philadelphia Evening News, January 8, 1886; Clarke, Unlocked Book, 127; Though this conversation is described as taking place in Washington, that may have been a mistake by the officer who reported it. Canning and Booth were both in Philadelphia just after the Chester discussion.

  Simonds to Booth, December 31, 1864, in LAS 2:314; Information about Adams Express is from Dan Loughran testimony, Surratt Trial, 206, Henry McDonough testimony, Surratt Trial, 356, and Weichmann, A True History, 31. Surratt’s quitclaim deed is in Prince George’s County Land Records, Liber FS2, folio 368–70, Maryland State Archives. Booth had divested himself in a similar way, yet the practice did not seem to be common among Confederate agents.

  Herold appreciated the trust Booth put in him. His own father, who died in October, refused to let him have anything to do with the management of his estate. Will of Adam George Herold in Register of Wills, District of Columbia; Arnold statement of April 17, 1865, from M-619, 458:309, with additional details from Arnold’s December 3, 1867, statement in the Butler Papers, Library of Congress; Chester in LAS 4:148–50.

  Charles C. Dunn in Surratt Trial, 437. Two years later, a hotel clerk went through Booth’s trunk and found a note that said, “I tried to secure leave but failed. J. Harrison Surratt.” Ibid., 337. Richard M. Smoot in the Fort Smith (Arkansas) Times, May 9, 1906, 4; Register of births and baptisms of the Lutheran Church of Dorna, now in the state of Langensalza, Germany, show that Atzerodt was born at 5:30 A.M. on June 12, 1835. Transcriptions were provided by Hans Falckner, of Thuringen, Germany. The Port Tobacco Times, March 12, 1857, recorded the arrival of George and John in the village; The National Intelligencer, July 9, 1865, gives additional details of the business. The partnership was dissolved February 4, 1861. LAS 7:510. Henry Atzerodt served in the Maryland Line, and was captured near Petersburg on April 3, 1865. LAS 7:006.

  Observations of John C. Atzerodt in LAS 3:558, 566; Memoranda of Nicholas B. Crangle, Henry Bailey, and Edwin Middleton are in the Records of the Provost Marshal General, RG 110, Entry 38, National Archives. Atzerodt’s own account of Surratt’s recruiting pitch is in LAS 3:597. Details on Eddy Martin are from his own account in LAS 5:330 and Surratt Trial, 214, as well as Smith, Between the Lines, 259–70.

  Daily National Intelligencer, January 22, 1865, 2. Recall that others have claimed Booth gave up acting because he had lost his voice through abuse. This review said, “To be sure he suffered from huskiness of voice—but then, what perfect acting! . . . His elocution was faultless. . . . His readings were perfect. On no occasion was he tempted to mistake the passion of his hero, and to launch forth into mere elocution, that he might display a quality so inferior to the genius of acting, and for which the role of Romeo offers so many alluring opportunities.”

  Washington Evening Star, February 10, 1864, 2; Starvation of troops was discussed at length in the February 1865 report of Gen. Lucius B. Northrup, Commissary General of Subsistence, as published in the Southern Historical Society Papers 2.1 ( July 1871): 85. Details of Eddy Martin’s dealings are in Smith, Between the Lines, 269. A more thorough discussion of the cotton trade can be found in William C. Harris, Lincoln’s Last
Months (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004), 175–88.

  Weichmann in Surratt Trial, 373; Parr in LAS 5:519, 528, and 6:20; Smith, Between the Lines, 258; Maggie Branson in LAS 3:189; Mary Branson in LAS 3:197. In September 1863, Maggie Branson allegedly brought Powell a federal uniform when he was in the hospital. He put it on and simply walked out of the place. After the assassination, Samuel S. Bond claimed that Maggie Branson was widely suspected of helping prisoners escape from the hospital in Gettysburg as well. LAS 3:274–75; Mary Branson in LAS 3:198 mentions the blue uniform Powell wore on his first visit to the house after his escape. The “skedaddle” was explained by John H. Alexander in Mosby’s Men (New York: Neale Publishing Company, 1907), 20. Gen. William H. Payne letter to Bradley T. Johnson, September 6, 1894, typescript in the Virginia Historical Society; See Betty J. Ownsbey, Alias Paine: Lewis Thornton Powell, the Mystery Man of the Lincoln Conspiracy (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1993). Ms. Ownsbey speculates (p. 30) that the man Powell saw in Richmond was Joseph Branson, Mary’s father. She and others have wondered if Powell was brooding over an important “secret service” assignment, but to me, the mood suggests a romantic despondency. Mary Branson conceded her intimacy with Powell in LAS 3:199; Lewis Edmonds Payne, son of Powell’s host, Dr. Albin S. Payne, gave a detailed account of this period in “Lewis Powell’s Exploits: Reminiscences of the Remarkable Youth Who Stabbed Secretary Seward,” Philadelphia Weekly Times, June 3, 1882.

  The sale of his horse was mentioned in the Alexandria, Virginia, Gazette, June 23, 1865; Smith, Between the Lines, 258; Though she did not identify the Greenback raid by name, Mary did recall something about a raid in which newspapers were captured. In fact, newspapers were taken in large quantity during the Greenback raid, and were spread over the floor of the railroad car as part of a threat to burn the car. If Powell had been involved, he would have received a large sum of money for his participation (estimates vary; in Mosby’s Men, p. 113, John H. Alexander claimed that each got $2,200). Powell’s brothers, George and Oliver, were not actually killed in the war, as he had thought. According to the family Bible, George Powell lived until June 8, 1923, and Oliver died April 25, 1928. Courtesy of George’s descendant Jewell Powell Fillmon.

  General Robert Schenck advised General Lew Wallace to watch out for the women in Baltimore; they were “cunning beyond belief,” and did most of the espionage work. Wallace, Autobiography, 675. Maggie and Mary Branson both admitted to sending provisions to Confederate prisoners—Maggie in LAS 3:192, Mary in LAS 3:202; Though many of Mrs. Egerton’s letters were found in the Branson house, no one by that name was listed among the residents at the time of the assassination. She was in touch with Major Allen G. Brady, a Connecticut officer whom she (and possibly Maggie Branson) had attended in the hospital at Gettysburg. Brady had been wounded in the shoulder, and was assigned to the same hospital as Powell. As an officer in the V.R.C., he was appointed provost marshal of the Point Lookout Prison, and Mrs. Egerton was in close communication with him throughout the following year. LAS 2:672–75. A. G. Brady pension file, National Archives.

  Mrs. Parr’s relief efforts were mentioned in her husband’s obituary, The Baltimore Sun, November 15, 1900, 7. Powell’s initial contact with Parr might have come about in another way: a daughter of Dr. Alban S. Payne, in whose house Powell had lived, was a sister-in-law of Nannie (Ann Corbin Lomax) Green, an intimate friend of Annie Parr. Thus, a family visit in Fauquier County could have led to a series of recommendations. Gen. William H. Payne letter, Virginia Historical Society, and Preston Parr in LAS 5:528.

  Preston Parr tried to downplay his connection to Surratt after the assassination, describing him as “a troublesome visitor” who annoyed him by using the china shop as a rendezvous point for lewd women and others whom Parr did not know. Parr in LAS 6:26, 5:518–23, and 5:533.

  Every known letter of Mary Surratt’s deals with the education of her children and with the drunkenness of her husband. As she wrote to Father Joseph M. Finotti, she felt her husband would kill her if she did not become what he wished. Undated letter, New-York Historical Society; The Surratt house was generally thought to have been intended as a tavern from the beginning, but a letter from Father Leonard Nota to Father Bernardin Wiget dated January 3, 1855, explained that the family’s circumstances derived from severe losses, which obliged Mrs. Surratt “to keep a public house, where the public stage stops but occasionally.” Maryland Province Archives of the Jesuit Order, Georgetown University Library.

  The boardinghouse had six large bedrooms and two small ones. Washington Evening Star, November 11, 1864, 3. Similar ads were placed on November 30, December 8, and December 27. A consolidated report of the Signal Corps, C.S.A., for the quarter ending March 31, 1864, described the recommended stops for mail runners going by way of Mathias Point: “Allen’s Fresh, Newport, Bryantown, Surratt’s Tavern, to Washington.” Captured Confederate records, Record Group 109, National Archives. Thanks to Erick Davis.

  For more on Mrs. Slater, see James O. Hall, “The Saga of Sarah Slater,” Surratt Society News 7, no. 1 ( January 1982): 3-6 and 7, no. 2 (February 1982): 3-6; also Alexandra Lee Levin, This Awful Drama: General Edwin Gray Lee, C.S.A., and His Family (New York: Vantage Press, 1987), 145–47; Her fluency in French would have enabled Mrs. Slater to claim Canadian citizenship, had she been caught. The description came from Atzerodt, and was published in the Baltimore American, January 19, 1869.

  Just before this, Surratt had brought Atzerodt from Port Tobacco and put him up at the Pennsylvania House for a night. In the conspiracy trial, Weichmann testified that Atzerodt came to Surratt’s alone, and Surratt showed up later. Poore, 1:72. Atzerodt, however, said that Surratt brought him there, and Weichmann later said the same. LAS 3:597, Weichmann, A True History, 75. I suspect Atzerodt went to the door, while Surratt delayed his entrance. For Howell’s presence, see Poore, 1:88, and for Mrs. Slater’s visit, see Weichmann in LAS 6:506 and 6:473. Howell and Slater crossed the Potomac on that trip, and Atzerodt rowed them across. See James Fowle’s statement, papers of Benjamin F. Butler, Box 175, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

  Poore, 1:89, 1:73, 1:106; Mary Surratt in LAS 6:170, Anna Surratt in LAS 6:212, and George Atzerodt in LAS 3:596.

  Arnold, Memoirs, 24.

  Arnold-Butler; Junius Booth diary, entry for February 7, 1865, Mugar Library, Boston University; Washington Evening Star, February 11, 1865, 2. As John Sleeper Clarke was the star of the play, it is entirely possible that Junius knew the Lincolns were planning to attend. He made up the premonition story because he suspected his brother would do something that night.

  Clarke, Unlocked Book, 120, 121; Alfred Smith in LAS 2:12; McCullough told George Alfred Townsend that he and Booth kept their trysts secret by using the code names “Jack” and “Bob” for the ladies. San Francisco Chronicle, July 30, 1882; John and Letitia McCullough had been married since April 8, 1849, and their two sons were fifteen and five years old in 1865. Woodruff, 15, 17.

  Simonds to Booth, February 21, 1865, in LAS 2:318–19; Chester in LAS 4:161.

  McVicker to Booth in LAS 2:349.

  The Maryland trips were mentioned in Henry Merrick’s memorandum, based on entries in the National Hotel register. Poore, 1:48; For Chester’s specific role, see LAS 5:496; Booth had evidently done his research, and he knew that Forrest insisted on keeping the back door to Ford’s locked for fear that he might catch a chill. Borrows in LAS 4:70; Chester’s figure of $4,000 for horses is in LAS 4:154.

  Surratt Trial, 375; Martin in Surratt Trial, 217; Smoot in Ft. Smith Times, May 9, 1906, 4.

  Weichmann in Poore, 1:75–76, 1:88, 1:109.

  McCullough related the incidents to Townsend a few years after the assassination. San Francisco Chronicle, July 30, 1882, 1. John Surratt also made a point of telling Lou Weichmann that Booth was out riding with McCullough. Weichmann in LAS 6:499.

  Louis Weichmann letter to Thomas Donaldson dated April 20, 1886, in the colle
ction of Monsignor Robert L. Keesler. In his memoirs, written much later, Weichmann changes the place of their meeting, and says they were sitting in the Surratt parlor when he suggested they go to the Capitol. Weichmann, A True History, 88. This version is based on the one he gave in Surratt Trial, 379.

  Booth told David Herold that Miss Hale had obtained a pass for him. John A. Bingham in the Chicago Tribune, November 23, 1873, 9. Some writers believe the story of John W. Westfall, an officer of the Capitol Police, who later claimed to have held Booth back as he lunged for the president. Benjamin B. French recorded his recollection of the incident just after the assassination. According to French, a man lunged at the president, and he (French) ordered Westfall to grab him. The man insisted he had a right to be there, and thinking he might be a new member of Congress, French told the policeman to let him go. Benjamin French to Francis O. French, April 24, 1865, French Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. See also Weichmann, A True History, 90–93. A photograph of the event purporting to show Booth and his conspirators standing close to the president may have been misinterpreted. The man standing near Lincoln may or may not be Booth; in some photographs of the scene, he does not look much like him. However, Powell was in Baltimore at the time, and Herold may have been laid up with a sprained ankle in Piscataway, Maryland. Atzerodt had spent the previous night rowing across the Potomac. Though he spoke freely about the activities of his fellow conspirators, Atzerodt never mentioned their presence at the Capitol that day. See Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Twenty Days (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), 34–35.