American Brutus

by Michael W. Kauffman

  Chapter 10: “You can be the leader . . . but not my executioner”

  On the envelope, franked for California senator John Conness, was an “endorsement” by John Parker Hale Wentworth, a cousin of Lucy Hale and occasional roommate of Booth’s. Wentworth, a newspaper publisher, had received a political appointment from Lincoln, and was in town for the inauguration. Daily Alta California, January 7, 1891. The document was part of the Oliver Barrett Collection, and a photograph of it was published in the Parke-Bernet auction catalog of February 20, 1952.

  Shuffling horses: Spangler-Butler, Stabler in LAS 6:142A, James Pumphrey in LAS 6:5, William Cleaver in Surratt Trial, 206, John Fletcher in LAS 5:416, Arnold, Memoirs, 24–25, John A. Foster in LAS 5:348; Mary Van Tyne referred to meeting places in LAS 6:437, as did Stabler in LAS 6:130. Surratt’s bay horse is mentioned by Mary Surratt in LAS 6:253.

  Chester in LAS 4:161; LAS 4:403, 434, 512; LAS 6:271; Arnold, Memoirs, 46; The O’Laughlen debt is mentioned in LAS 4:197.

  D. C. Forney says in the Washington Evening Star, June 27, 1891, 11, that Booth occasionally stayed at the Herndon House, and though it rests on his word, this does account for those periods when Booth was known to be in Washington, but not at the National.

  Surratt’s appearance was commented upon in the Washington Evening Star, August 29, 1865; Stabler in LAS 6:125, Grillet in LAS 3:502 and LAS 3:507, and John C. Atzerodt in LAS 3:565 all remarked on the clothing of the conspirators; Stabler in LAS 6:127 and John A. Foster in LAS 3:538 noted how Atzerodt did not fit in.

  Stabler in LAS 6:127-128, 139; Weichmann in LAS 6:505, Surratt Trial, 406, and LAS 6:501.

  St. Lawrence Hall register, Ms. Group 28, vol. 10, National Archives of Canada; Weichmann in LAS 6:499; diary of Brig. Gen. Edwin Gray Lee, C.S.A., microfilm in the papers of the Southern Historical Society, University of North Carolina; Stabler in LAS 6:127; Weichmann in Surratt Trial, 381, 789; Martha Murray in the Joseph Holt Papers, 93:7009, Library of Congress. Mrs. Murray recalled Powell using the alias of “Kinsler,” but printed versions of her account gave it as “Kincheloe.” Since the previous November, former slaves had come under military protection in Baltimore, so the beating incident was investigated by Col. John Woolley. Wallace, Autobiography, 692; Smith, Between the Lines, 255–56; James L. Stevens in LAS 3:184; Powell’s oath certificate is in LAS 4:397.

  Surratt-Parr telegrams in LAS 3:1046 and 1048; The urgency of this exchange can be inferred from the use of real names, which were required for a quick home delivery. Weichmann in Poore, 1:90, 96, Surratt Trial, 428, and Poore, 1:109; then again in Poore, 1:77, and Surratt Trial, 399; Booth telegram in LAS 15:352.

  Nora Fitzpatrick in Surratt Trial, 234, and Weichmann in Surratt Trial, 411; William P. Wood in LAS 5:413; Weichmann in LAS 6:499 and A True History, 98–99; Miles in LAS 5:292; Arnold, Memoirs, 25.

  John Howard in LAS 6:429. Herold and Booth had friends who worked there, which may account for the staff’s allowing them to have the place to themselves. Waiter Michael Hayden had known Booth. National Tribune, January 11, 1917; Thomas Manning, the night watchman, lived in Herold’s neighborhood, and sometimes took drinks with him. LAS 4:474; Arnold, Memoirs, 25.

  Arnold, Memoirs, 25–26; Evening Star, March 15, 1865, 2. The exchange went back into effect on January 18, and was to take place at the rate of three thousand per week. General Grant later testified to a congressional committee that it had gone into full swing within a month. In fact, Grant’s February visit to Ford’s Theatre was made on the occasion of this Capitol Hill appearance. The New York Times, February 12, 1865, 1; Rep. Com. No. 119, Thirty-eighth Congress, Second Session; Whether Arnold was aware of the Grover’s Theatre visit depends on how closely he and the others were trailing the president. It was reported in the following day’s Evening Star, March 16, 1865. Clara Harris was their guest, and she was escorted by Gen. James G. Wilson.

  Arnold’s original account of this is in Record Group 94, Records of the Advocate General’s Office, on Microcopy M-619, 458:305–12; additional details are in Arnold, Memoirs, 26–27; Thomas Manning in LAS 5:286.

  Weichmann in Poore, 1:90, 106, 108, 110, Surratt Trial, 399, and LAS 6:499.

  Mathews in Philadelphia Press, December 4, 1881; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, March 18, 1865. Mathews was not in the cast of Still Waters Run Deep. The same cast performed this play the following night in the city. Original playbill for March 18 is in the Crawford Theatre Collection, Box 28, Yale University Library. Harry Clay Ford later recounted a political discussion with Booth in the same bedroom (LAS 5:456). Mathews may have been misquoted in this article. He begins his interview by saying that he and Booth had grown up together in Baltimore, but he actually met Booth for the first time on January 1, 1865, and spoke to him only a few times (LAS 5:304). He testified in 1867 that he grew up in Cumberland, Maryland. Surratt Trial, 824.

  Arnold, Memoirs, 26; Arnold-Butler; The Surratt Tavern involvement is in LAS 2:200; The boardinghouse rendezvous is in Poore, 1:370.

  Atzerodt gave some details of the escape route, saying Booth wanted to avoid toll roads and vigilant toll takers (LAS 3:596); T.B. is just north of the intersection of Maryland Routes 5 and 301 in southern Prince George’s County. It got its name from Thomas Brooke, a colonial landowner, who marked his boundaries with stones bearing his initials. Richard M. Smoot identified Joseph Eli Huntt as the man with the fresh horses. Huntt’s house still stands at T.B., and is occupied by his granddaughter. Ft. Smith (Arkansas ) Times, May 9, 1906, 4; Details of the so-called kidnap attempt are given in Arnold-Butler, and in John Surratt’s Rockville lecture. Surratt later claimed to have intercepted a carriage with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase inside. Chase, however, was probably in Baltimore that day. An unidentified newspaper article recounted a brief conversation at the hospital between Booth and Davenport, in which the latter told Booth the president was not there. See Margaret Leech, Reveille in Washington (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1941), 375. The Surratt house rendezvous was mentioned by Weichmann in Poore, 1:370.

  The ceremony was a planned event, undoubtedly known to at least some of the National’s residents in advance. The flag in question had been captured by the 140th Indiana at Fort Anderson, North Carolina. Evening Star, March 18, 1865, 1. Long before the details of a kidnap attempt were known, Thomas E. Richardson, editor of the Constitutional Union, said that he was with Booth on that occasion. New York Herald, June 18, 1878, clipping in the papers of John T. Ford, Maryland Historical Society.

  Weichmann in Poore, 1:370–72, 374, LAS 6:502, and Surratt Trial, 399. Maybe that’s when Booth told Surratt that he was a good actor. Weichmann was not sharing a room at this time, and I can imagine no reason why anyone would need to go into his room, instead of a private one.

  Lloyd in LAS 5:157–62 and LAS 165–66; Norton in LAS 6:309–10. Norton gave the date as April 1, but that was inconsistent with other evidence.

  John Lloyd in LAS 5:167; John Atzerodt in LAS 3:558–62. This coincidence was brought to light by computer analysis of the records. Lloyd in LAS 5:167–68.

  Mrs. Van Tyne in Poore, 1:142; Herold’s clerkship has been given in several conflicting versions, but this is the earliest one. Herold in LAS 4:442; Atzerodt in LAS 3:598; George Bateman had known of the boat’s purpose all along, but now he and Charles Yates were expected to keep an eye on it for Booth. Smoot, Ft. Smith Times, May 9, 1906, 4.

  Woodruff, 9; Richard Lalor Shiel, The Apostate (New York: French’s Standard Drama, 1846), 16–17; Weichmann in Poore, 1:73 and 1:102–3.

  W. B. Lyndall to Mary A. Lyndall, November 14, 1866, in the Lyndall Papers, Duke University; J. J. Reford to Booth, February 20, 1865, in LAS 2:354; Weichmann in Surratt Trial, 380; R. D. Watson to Surratt in LAS 3:114; New York Tribune, May 17, 1865; Edwin Booth told Henry Magonigle that he had not planned to make it a long run, but William Stuart kept pushing him. Booth letter dated November 14, 1874, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington.

  A report on Atzerodt by
John A. Foster, published in the Daily National Intelligencer, July 9, 1865, mentions New York only once, despite the many references by Atzerodt in his “confessions.” Actor Charles Pope claimed that in February, Booth hinted at some enterprise he wanted Pope to join. New York Sun, March 28, 1897. Actor John M. Barron told nearly the same story in The Baltimore Sun, March 17, 1907. Chester in LAS 4:145; Junius in LAS 2:263; Arnold, Memoirs, 46; Atzerodt in the Baltimore American, January 18, 1869; Lone Star is mentioned in Surratt Trial, 241; prostitutes are in LAS 3:693; Lux in LAS 2:157; James Gordon, of Mississippi, later claimed to have been involved in the capture plan, though his account is vague and unverified. See Goodspeed’s Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891), 1:805–7.

  Telegram is in LAS 15:331; Weichmann in LAS 6:499; In 1867, Weichmann said the post office visit happened on about the twentieth. Surratt Trial, 380, 381; Poore, 1:78 and 3:221.

  Weichmann in LAS 6:501; D.H.L. Gleason, “Conspiracy Against Lincoln,” Magazine of History 13, no. 2 (February 1911): 59–65; In his published account, Gleason mistakenly gave the date as February, evidently thinking it had to have been before the inauguration. Gleason in LAS 4:373; Gilbert J. Raynor in LAS 6:101; In LAS 6:463–64, Col. John A. Foster said that Weichmann suggested he might join the blockade-running scheme “for the fun of the thing,” but that his fellow clerks told him to stay away from it. Weichmann later said he was just “blowing,” and all of his remarks were made “in a spirit of fun.” His figure of $30,000 apparently came from Atzerodt, who expected to make that amount from his participation in the plot. Weichmann may have recanted because he came to feel he had become an “insider.”

  J. B. Menu in LAS 2:381; Menu’s letter was grouped with others found in Booth’s trunk after the assassination, while Lou Weichmann’s papers were grouped elsewhere. Had Weichmann known it existed, he certainly would have used it to bolster his claim that he had tried to report the plot.

  Weichmann in LAS 6:457, 499, 503; The blank on the note comes from Weichmann’s account, which never identified the person who was supposed to have the money. Smoot, Ft. Smith Times, May 9, 1906, 4. Surratt took up the habit of avoiding Smoot by pretending he had gone to New York.

  Atzerodt in LAS 3:596; John H. McOmber, clerk of Barnum’s Hotel, certified that on March 25, Booth arrived in Baltimore on the 3:30 A.M. train from Philadelphia and left on the 7:00 A.M. train to Washington. His eight o’clock arrival in the capital coincided with Mrs. Slater’s appearance at Surratt’s. M-619, 458:333; Edwin G. Lee Diary, March 22 entry; Weichmann in Poore, 1:80; Stabler in LAS 6:121 and 142, Weichmann in LAS 6:472; George Atzerodt was quoted as saying that “Major Barron, formerly of the rebel army” was on this trip, but Atzerodt got the story secondhand, and evidently misunderstood the name; it was Barry, not Barron.

  Weichmann in LAS 6:472; Augustus Howell statement, John T. Ford Papers, Maryland Historical Society; Barry in Surratt Trial, 751–52, 754. Barry wanted to meet Charles Cawood, a signal service officer, at Port Tobacco.

  Atzerodt in LAS 3:596; Surratt’s original note is in LAS 6:145; Stabler in Surratt Trial,

  Chapter 11: “There is going to be some splendid acting tonight”

  Ford in LAS 5:485.

  Notice in the Evening Star, March 27, 1865, 2 (emphasis added). Mrs. Lincoln had invited Senator Charles Sumner to be their guest in “a large private box” for the opera. Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 209; Booth telegram to O’Laughlen in LAS 15:356; In Surratt Trial, 401, this telegram was erroneously reported as having been sent from New York. Williams in Poore, 1:145–46, LAS 3:611, and LAS 6:497. The Fayette Street address was the bakery owned by Arnold’s father.

  Thomas Wallace statement in the Joseph Holt Papers, 93:7014, Library of Congress.

  Crangle in LAS 4:109, John Atzerodt in LAS 3:561, Nicholas B. Crangle statement in Record Group 110, Entry 38, National Archives; John Atzerodt in LAS 3:563, Bailey in LAS 4:53. Bailey told authorities that he quit his job merely to “take a little turnaround.” Henry M. Bailey statement in Record Group 110, Entry 38, National Archives.

  Martha Murray first recalled the name as “Kensler,” but all subsequent transcripts of her testimony gave it as “Kincheloe.” A detective clipped the signature from the hotel register, and it has not been seen since. Martha Murray in Surratt Trial, 247, and Joseph Holt Papers, 93:7009. Arnold letter in LAS 15:343, reproduced here in full in chapter 4, pages 65–66.

  Greenawalt in LAS 2:1052 and LAS 3:633; Bailey in LAS 4:53; Walter M. Barnes in LAS 4:98; William P. Wood in LAS 6:460; John Atzerodt in LAS 3:557; Charles Bostwick in M-619, 456:532. Edwin Middleton also visited them.

  John Atzerodt in LAS 3:565. Years later, Atzerodt’s brother-in-law, John L. Smith, claimed to have reported those remarks to Seward, but no action was taken. Baltimore American, December 12, 1903; Stabler in LAS 6:130; Greenawalt in LAS 2:1052. In another version, Greenawalt said that Atzerodt only claimed his friends could get him out of financial trouble. Surratt Trial, 273; Stabler in LAS 6:130 and 6:127–28.

  Herold in LAS 4:442; Greenawalt in LAS 2:1055, Mary Van Tyne in LAS 6:442, Herold in LAS 4:451; George W. Baird, who once attended school with Herold, remembered him as a chubby boy who joked his way out of trouble. November 29, 1921, letter published in Burke McCarthy, The Suppressed Truth About the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Washington: privately printed, 1922), 110.

  Fitzpatrick in LAS 5:404, 410.

  Weichmann in Poore, 1:76. Lloyd said he had seen John Surratt at the tavern about fifteen or twenty times in the early months of 1865. LAS 5:162; Stabler in LAS 6:127, and Greenawalt in LAS 2:1054, Stabler in LAS 6:127, Arnold, Memoirs, 34, LAS 6:439, John R. Gile in Poore, 3:215; Weichmann in LAS 6:422. Rullman’s had recently been acquired by Henry Lichau, whose Lichau House was around the block on Louisiana Avenue. The conspirators were in the habit of calling both places by the name “Lichau’s”; I have made them consistent here. Arnold and O’Laughlen moved out of Rullman’s just after they inadvertently encountered Surratt in Booth’s hotel room. Mary Surratt in LAS 6:236 and LAS 6:172. The thirty-five-day cycle in Surratt’s route was estimated by Col. John A. Foster, who questioned Preston Parr about it (LAS 5:534).

  Arnold-Butler, and Arnold, Memoirs, 36, 28–29.

  City Point is at the confluence of the Appomattox and James rivers. It is now the town of Hopewell, Virginia. Mary Ann’s letter is in LAS 2:352.

  New York Herald, May 19, 1863; comments by Sen. Lazarus Powell (KY) in the Congressional Globe, Thirty-seventh Congress, Third Session, 1061.

  Col. John A. Foster in LAS 5:348; John Fletcher said that Booth came in with Atzerodt and said that he was leaving town, but consented to the sale of his horses. Record Group 233, House of Representatives, Committee of Claims, Thirty-ninth Congress, First Session, HR39A–H4.1, National Archives; Stabler in LAS 6:121, 130–31; Greenawalt in LAS 6:633 and Surratt Trial, 273.

  Weichmann in Surratt Trial, 387, 453. Surratt and Weichmann belonged to a draft club that charged $50 for each call. They pooled the money, and used it to buy exemptions for any members who had been called up. Mary Surratt in LAS 6:238–39; Nora Fitzpatrick in LAS 5:400; Weichmann in LAS 6:170, 174, 237, 454, and 501, and again in Surratt Trial, 388.

  Report of Gen. Lucius B. Northrop, February 1865, in Southern Historical Society Papers 2, no. 1 (July 1871): 85; Financial incentives are contained in the Records of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad, Virginia Historical Society. It should be pointed out that bounties were high, in part, because they were offered in Confederate scrip, which was nearly worthless by that time. Civilian poaching from the “government farm” was mentioned in a clipping in the Lincoln Obsequies Scrapbook, Library of Congress. The authors of Come Retribution believed these measures were taken to prepare for Lincoln’s abduction, not to provide food to Confederate troops.

  Greenawalt in LAS 6:
633 and Surratt Trial, 273; Atzerodt told John Fletcher he had sold the horse to John F. Thompson, driver of the Port Tobacco stage line. But the line was based in the Pennsylvania House, and perhaps it fell under Greenawalt’s control. LAS 5:415; Stabler in LAS 6:142A.

  Alfred Smith to Edwin Stanton, April 16, 1865, in LAS 2:11; Providence Press, April 18, 1865, 2. Thanks to James O. Hall. The original signature clipped from the register is now in the collection of Dr. John K. Lattimer.

  The Rail Splitter 8, no. 1 (Summer/Fall 2002): 4. O’Beirne wrote back for confirmation. Some conspiracy buffs have taken Mrs. Lincoln’s note as an appointment of Parker to the “bodyguard” detail. See Otto Eisenschiml, Why Was Lincoln Murdered? (Boston: Little, Brown, 1937), 11–21. 20. Nelson D. Lankford, Richmond Burning (New York: Viking, 2002), 161–67.

  Evening Star, April 6, 1865, 2; Frances Seward letter to her sister, as quoted in Frederick Seward, Seward at Washington (New York: Derby and Miller, 1891), 271. Stanton asked the president to return to Washington, but Lincoln thought better of it. Details of the accident are in M-473, 88:801, telegrams sent by the secretary of war.

  Surratt was listed in Rooms thirteen and fifty; St. Lawrence Hall register, National Archives of Canada; Diary of Edwin Gray Lee, Barney Devlin in LAS 2:124; James Sangster in Surratt Trial, 166. As a courier, Surratt had the option of declining all espionage work. See Confederate Signal Service quarterly report, Record Group 107, National Archives. See also John Surratt’s lecture in Rockville, Maryland, in 1870 (hereinafter Surratt Lecture). Washington Evening Star, December 7, 1870.

  “Some Newly Collected Facts About John Wilkes Booth,” typescript by Quincy Kilby, in William Seymour Collection, Princeton University; Chester in LAS 4:160. Though Lucy Hale left Newport with Booth, she disappeared from the story when he got to Boston. I have assumed she stayed with friends there while Booth conducted his business and went on his way. However, she might have continued on to her family’s home in Concord, New Hampshire.