First of all, on behalf of the National Park
Service let me welcome you to Gettysburg National Military Park and our Winter Lecture Series.
My name is Ranger Karlton Smith and today we are going to be talking about Mary Surrat.
Before we get into the program I would to remind you that next Saturday, January 21,
Tom Holbrook will be speaking on “If These Things Could Talk: New Acquisitions to the
museum collection, and on January 22, we are going to have a guest speaker here, Tracy
Evens from Monocacy National Battlefield is going to be talking about the Battle of Monocacy:
The Fight That Saved Washington, D.C. And in fact one of people that shows up in this
story played a big role in the Battle of the Monocacy. I’ll see if you folks can spot
him in here someplace. But the main question here is Mary Surratt,
is she guilty or not guilty of the charges of conspiracy against her. And I should preface
this by saying I am a park ranger not a lawyer. So you have to bear that in mind as we go
through this. But, Mary Elizabeth Jenkins was born in 1823 on the family tobacco plantation
near Waterloo, Howard County, Maryland. Her father died when she was about three (3) years
old. She married John Harrison Surrat in August 1840. When she was 17 and he was 27. And John
Surrat has a rather colorful background. Apparently he was orphaned at a young age and then taken
on as a ward by a different family. He also had at least one child born out of wedlock,
prior to marrying Mary Jenkins. His guardians left him part of the farm, of the family farm
in 1845 and then after both of them died in 1851, excuse me, 1845, John inherited the
entire farm at that point. The farm house burned down though in 1851, one of the rumors
was that a disgruntled slave had set fire to the building. Starting in the 1850’s,
John, himself, starts to drink a little heavily, he fails to pay some debts, and reportedly
his temper was becoming more violent. By 1853 though, John had purchased 200 acres of land,
had built a tavern and later an inn at a major crossroads in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
He is residing there with his wife Mary and their three children: Isaac born in 1841,
Elizabeth Susanna, known as Anna, born in 1843, and John, Jr. born in 1844. The property
later includes a farm, a gristmill, and a general store. And by 1854, the area in known
as Surrattsville, Maryland. And John Senior is going to be chosen, this is going to be
chosen as the local polling place, and John Surrat is appointed the local post master
in 1854. But he still having alcohol problems, he has gambling debts, and more and more responsibility
rests on Mary during the 1850’s. But on December 6, 1853, John was able to
purchase property at what was then designated as 541 H. Street in northwest Washington using
the proceeds from the sale of the family farm. The house itself was built in 1843 as a single-family
dwelling. And John will now rent this property out in D.C.
Because of the Civil War breaking out, in April 1861, on August 16, 1861, President
Lincoln will issue a proclamation put of which will state: “…that all commercial intercourse
between the same (the states in rebellion) and the inhabitants thereof…is unlawful,
and will remain unlawful until such insurrection shall cease or has been suppressed…” In
other words no more mail connection between the United States and the Confederacy. But
this leads to an illicit courier system going through Southern Maryland, along what some
people have termed the “Secret Line.” It runs out of D. C., goes through Prince
George’s County, and into Charles County, Maryland. This wasn’t a line as such, but
it is an operation. And it is linked by farm houses, homes and taverns, as safe houses.
And along this Secret Line will be couriers, of the Confederate government correspondence,
espionage agents, recruits, foreign visitors, and contraband goods. Passaged along this
line was authorized over two signatures: the Confederate Chief of Signal Corps and the
Confederate Secretary of War. Surrattsville is about 14 miles south of Washington, D.
C. John Surrat, Jr. will later admit: “ I was not more than eighteen years of age, and
was mostly engaged in sending information regarding the movements of the United States
army stationed in Washington and elsewhere, and carrying dispatches to the Confederate
boats on the Potomac. We had a regular established line from Washington to the Potomac, and I
being the only unmarried man on the route, I had most of the hard riding to do.” So
John Surrat, after the war, will readily admit, he was a Confederate agent operating on this
line. Now John Surrat, Senior, will die in August
1862. Let me back up, Surrat Tavern, becomes a safe house along this line. One local Presbyterian
minister stated: “Prince George’s County is a very disloyal neighborhood.” And that
is easy to understand, in the 1850 Census, that is according to the 1850 Census, roughly
half the population of both Prince George’s and Charles County, to the south of it, were
slaves. So very Southern in its outlook. John Surrat, Senior, dies in August 1862,
leaving the estate to Mary but also with all these debts that have to be paid. John Surrat,
Junior, will leave St. Charles College in Baltimore, and is appointed to succeed his
father as post master in Surrattsville on September 1, 1862 and he is going to take
a loyalty oath as required but almost immediately starts working as a Confederate agent for
the Confederate Signal Corps. He is finally arrested on November 17, 1863, imprisoned
for a short while, and dismissed as the post master. Now with nothing else to do, John
is basically working full time as a courier between Washington and Richmond and also Canada.
He has that route going for him. His older brother Isaac had left the area in March 1861,
gone to Texas, and enlisted in the 33rd Texas Cavalry. So Mary Surrat now has one son actively
serving in the Confederate army and one son serving as a courier between Montreal and
Richmond. Mary in 1864 decides to rent the tavern to
John Lloyd, a retired D. C. policeman, for $500 a month. The plan is to move then to
the boarding house in D. C. and Anna Surratt moves to the boarding house in September 1864.
Mary remains at the tavern until December to help Lloyd with the transition.
The Surratt boarding house, itself, has, what is termed, and English basement, what we might
call the first floor. And in that floor, that floor will be used a kitchen and dining room.
On the second floor there is front and back parlor. The one in the rear being used as
Mary’s bedroom. The third floor had two small rooms in front and one large one in
the rear. In the third floor, in the attic, were two large rooms and one small one in
the back. The first boarder was Honora Fitzpatrick, age 17, she moves in on October 6. On November
1, 1864, Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Surratt’s from college, and a clerk in the
office of General Hoffman, Commissary-General of Prisoners, has a room on the third floor.
Honora, or Nora, shares a room with Anna and Mary. The Holohan family moves in about February
7, 1865, and a few additional acquaintances complete the long-term boarders. Whenever
John is in town, from whatever he is doing, he shares a room with Weichmann. Some historians
have questioned this move at least at this time. They argued that in the long term this
does make good economic sense. But, in the short term, Mary has to take out a loan to
affect, not just her physical move from the tavern to the town, she also now has to furnish
a ten-room townhouse, as a boarding house. And some suspect she is making this move to
help facilitate John’s role as a Confederate courier. He now has a place in town where
he can stay. Coming onto the scene now, is an American
actor, John Wilkes Booth, and Booth now is in the process of organizing what today is
termed an “action team” for the purpose of trying to kidnap President Lincoln. On
or about January 15, 1865, John Wilkes Booth will ask his acquaintance, Dr. Samuel Mudd,
who knew the Surratt family, to accompany him to the boarding house for the purpose
of meeting John Surratt. While they are walking there, they encountered Surratt and Louis
Weichmann on the street and then they all four spend the evening together socializing
at Booth’s room at the National Hotel and the lobby of the Pennsylvania House. Now Weichmann
will make the statement that on occasions there Booth will pull Surratt off to the side
and have a private conversation with him. About what Weichmann does not know. This is
what Weichmann is saying. Also John Surratt will take a job with the Adams Express Company,
starting on December 30, 1864, but he leaves on January 13, 1865. He does pick up his wages
for two (2) days but never comes back for the rest of it. Which everyone thought was
a little strange. Booth though now becomes a frequent visitor to the boarding house,
meeting with both John and Mary, sometimes together, sometimes separately. Over the rest
of the winter of 1865, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell, and David Herold all stay at the boarding
house on at least one occasion. George Atzerodt joined Booth as a regular visitor. And these
three men, along with John Surratt, are part of Booth’s “action team” to kidnap the
president. But Booth is not the only game in town, so
to speak. According to a confession made by George Atzerodt, on May 2, 1865, “Booth
said he had met a party in New York who would get the president certain. They were going
to mine the end of the president’s House near the War Dept. They knew an entrance to
accomplish it through…. These were understood to be projects. Booth said if he did not get
him [the president] quick the New York crowd would.” So in other words, if Booth can’t
kidnap the president, this New York group was planning to blow up the White House and
get him that way. Now that is a contingency plan in case the kidnapping doesn’t work.
On March 15, 1865, John Surratt and Lewis Powell attend a play at Ford’s Theater,
and sit in the Presidential Box, which had been arranged for them by John Wilkes Booth.
As a cover for this, they accompany Honoria Fitzpatrick, who is 17 years old, a boarder
at the Surratt House, and also Mary Apolonia Dean, who is 10 years old, and another boarder,
at the time, of the house. On March 17, Booth learns that Lincoln is
to attend a play at Campbell’s Hospital, just outside of town and he figures that’s
a good time to attempt a kidnapping. On March 17, Surratt, Herold, and Atzerodt will deliver
two carbines, two double-barreled shot-guns, a dirk, a sword, ammunition, 20 feet of rope,
and a monkey wrench to John Lloyd at the tavern and Surratt tells Lloyd to hide them in an
unfinished attic space. In fact, Surratt had to tell Lloyd where it was because Lloyd did
not even know the thing existed. As it turns out, the president does not attend the play.
But on April 2, Richmond falls to the Yankees and on April 9 Lee surrenders to Grant at
Appomattox. In Booth’s mind at least, the kidnaping plan now turns into one of assassination.
On April 10, Mary is going to ask Louis Weichmann to accompany her on a trip to Prince George’s
County to collect a debt. While passing through Uniontown, they encounter John Lloyd. Mary,
at that point, asks Lloyd about the “shooting irons” and suggested they would be needed
soon. On April 14, Mary again accompanied by Weichmann, delivers a set of field glasses,
given to her that morning by Booth, to John Lloyd and again saying the shooting irons
were going to be “called for that night”. They arrived back at the boarding house about
8:30 p.m. At about 9:00 Booth shows up at the boarding house and has a private talk
with Mary. Then leaves for Ford’s Theater. And at 10:15, April 14, Booth will assassinate
President Lincoln. Four hours later, at 2:00 a.m., of April 15,
the Metropolitan Police come to the house looking for John Surratt and question Mary
about his location. According to Louis Weichmann: “When the detectives came, at three o’clock
the next morning, I rapped at her (Mary Surratt’s) door for permission to let them in. ‘For
God’s sake, let them come in! I expected the house to be searched,’ said she”
After breakfast on April 15, Louis Weichmann, along with John Holohan, who was staying at
the Surratt house, go to the Metropolitan police headquarters and give testimony on
what they know. Weichmann stated quote: “I told Officer McDevitt about Payne…and what
I knew of Surratt, Atzerodt, and Herold. No threats were made in case I did not divulge
what I knew, and no offers or inducements did if I did.” His statement was considered
creditable enough that both Weichmann and Holohan are asked to escort Metropolitan police
officers to Canada in the hopes of capturing John Surratt. So that is how good they think
the testimony is. While all of that is going on, Colonel Henry
W. Wells, Provost Marshall for the District of Columbia, is sending Major Henry W. Smith,
to the boarding house, who arrives at 11:30 p.m. on April 16. According to Major Smith:
“No inquiry was made as to the cause of the arrest” and that she (Mary) “expressed
no surprise or feeling at all.” And they are getting ready to transport the occupants
of the house to General Christopher C. Auger’s headquarters. General Auger is in command
of the Department of Washington, attached to the Middle Military District. And that
has some significance later on. While that is going on, Colonel Henry Steele
Olcott, a special government investigator, is sending his own man, Lt. Col. R. C. Morgan
to the house. So when he shows up Major Smith is already there. And they start to arrange
transportation for the four occupants of the house: Mary Surratt, Anna Surratt, Honoria
Fitzpatrick, and Olivia Jenkins, Mrs. Surratt’s niece. They are the only four occupants in
the house. Remember Louis Weichmann and John Holohan are in Montreal with the police. And
apparently the Holohan have move out by this time.
But now as they are waiting for the carriage to come and everything else, about 11:30 that
p.m., who shows up at the door but Lewis Powell., carrying a pick axe. You have to keep in mind
that Lewis Powell is about six feet two and a very muscular guy. We are not talking about
some shrimp here, he is a very formidable presence. The story he gives here is that
he had been hired by Mrs. Surratt to dig a gutter and the reason he is showing up at
11L30 at night is to double check with her to see what time she wanted him to start in
the morning. Now the police are already suspicious of that, but they also note that some of the
clothes he is wearing doesn’t fit with they would describe as a working class individual.
So one of the things they do is take the pick away from him, first of all. He is in the
hallway and they call Mrs. Surratt out to identify him, now Lewis Paine [Powell] is
in the hallway underneath a gas jet that’s been turned on full, Mrs. Surratt is probably
three or four feet from him, and she declares openly that she has never seen this guy before,
has no idea who he is. They later in the trial try to bring up the fact that Mary Surratt’s
eyesight was failing her. That she could no longer thread a needle and she didn’t read
at night because that wasn’t enough light for her to focus on. But the police aren’t
buying any of this. So Powell, along with the women, is arrested, Powell does not put
up any resistance. He goes on very peacefully. They then conduct a search of the house, and
the only really incriminating things they find are a pair of spurs, a bullet mold, a
composite photograph of Confederate leaders and carte de visited decorated with Confederate
flags and the inscriptions: Thus will it ever be with Tyrants, Virginia the Mighty, and
Sic Semper Tyranis. As it turns out John Surratt had left Washington
for Richmond on March 25. He arrived in Richmond on March 29 and reported to Judah Benjamin,
the Confederate Secretary of War. Benjamin now sends him with dispatches to Canada. He
leaves Washington on April 4 and arrives in Montreal by April 6. He is then sent by those
Confederate agents to Elmira, New York, where he arrives on April 13. The reason for John
going to Elmira they wanted him to kind of case the prison up there for the possibility
of realizing Confederate prisoners there. John hears about the assassination attempt
and decides that discretion is the better part of valor, so he heads back to Canada
and arrives back in Montreal by April 18. Mary is going to be interrogated by Colonel
Wells, and of course Colonel Wells being a 19th Century man, thought he could brow-beat
Mary in telling him what he wanted. Mary is a lot tougher than that and she is not telling
Colonel Wells anything he doesn’t already know. But as a result Mary is going to be
imprisoned in Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D. C. , where the U. S. Supreme Court building
now stands. Also being thrown in here is Louis Weichmann, he at first is considered part
of the conspiracy, and they are not quite sure how he fits, so he will be spending some
time in there. Once they get all this straightened out, Mary along with seven other defendants
are going to be moved to the Old Arsenal Penitentiary, located now on the grounds of Fort Leslie
J. McNair. And to give you kind of a heads up, only this portion right here, that building,
that’s the only thing left of this of this whole compound. I’m going to talk about
that building before too long here. Then we sort of come to our first Gettysburg
connection with this whole thing. Major General Winfield Scott Hancock is the commander of
the Middle Military Division; he has been commanding that since February 27, 1865, and
on April 22 Hancock will move his headquarters from Winchester, Virginia to Washington, D.
C. On May 1, President Andrew Johnson, on the
advice of the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, decides to order a military commission, to
try the Conspirators. He does this against the advice of the Secretary of the Navy Gideon
Welles and the Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch. On the same day, May 1, Brevet
Major General John F. Hartranft is appointed a special provost-marshal general “for the
purpose of said trial, and attendance upon said Commission, and the execution of its
mandates.” In other words, General Hartranft, a native Pennsylvanian, now is in charge of
the prison and will execute whatever dictates the Commission has for him to do.
The Military Commission consists of nine military officers. Starting from the left: Lieutenant
Colonel David R. Clendenin, officially assigned to the 8th Illinois Cavalry, but was not present
here at Gettysburg; Brevet Colonel C. H. Thompkins; Brigadier General T. M. Harris; Brigadier
General Albion P. Howe, who commanded the Second Division of the Sixth Corps here at
Gettysburg; Brevet Brigadier General James A. Eking; Major General Lew Wallace, that’s
our Monocacy connection; Major General David Hunter; Brevet Major General August V. Kautz;
Brigadier General Robert S. Foster, the Honorable John A. Bingham, right here, is a special
judge advocate; Colonel Henry L. Burnett, is also a special judge advocate; and Brigadier
General Joseph Holt, is the Judge Advocate. Now the Commission will establish its’ own
rules and procedures. Today you hear one of the criticisms against the Commission is that
the defendants will not be allowed to testify in their own behalf. And today that sounds
pretty terrible. But in terms of the 19th Century that was standard court room procedure.
Only one state allowed the defendants to testify in their own behalf. And that was the state
of Maine and they did not approve that until 1864. It was considered, defendants were considered
incompetent to testify on their own behalf. First of all because they might further incriminate
themselves or they might perjure themselves on the stand. So that was reasoning behind
not allowing defendants to testify on their own behalf.
Major General David Hunter will be the president of the Commission. Hunter was born in 1802,
graduated from West Point in 1822, resigned his commission in 1836, then returned to the
Army in 1842 in the paymaster’s corps with the rank of major. While commanding the Department
of the South, on April 12 of 1862, he ordered all slaves in and around Fort Pulaski, Georgia,
to be confiscated and declared free. An action President Lincoln had to walk back because
he wasn’t quite ready for it. During his Shenandoah Valley Campaign in June of 1864,
he is going to burn the buildings of the Virginia Military Institute. He also presided over
the court-martial of Major General Fitz John Porter. A court people said was “organized
to convict.” If you want to know about the Fitz John Porter court-martial, come here
on February 11, and that’s the topic Matt Atkinson is going to talk about. Give you
a little head’s up there. The Judge Advocate is Joseph Holt. He was
born in 1807 and among other things he had served as commissioner of patents; Post Master
General in 1859; and interim Secretary of War. He had been appointed Judge Advocate
with the rank of colonel in September of 1862 and appointed a brigadier general on June
22, 1864. It was his job to implement the administration’s policy of keeping civilians
in jail without recourse to the writ of habeas corpus and he also oversaw the military commissions.
He is also going to be involved in the trials of Clement L. Valllandingham and Captain Henry
Wirz. If you want to know a little more about Henry Wirz, come back on March 4, Philip I
think that is it, Philip’s wife Catlin will be giving a talk on the trail Henry Wirz.
So what exactly is Mary and these seven guys charged with. Well, the basic charge is Conspiracy.
So how is this actually going to read? See is where you are going to have bear with me
a little bit with the legalese. Charge 1, ,and there’s only one charge: For maliciously,
unlawfully, and traitorously, and in aid of the existing armed rebellion against the United
States of America, on or before the 6th day of March, A. D. 1865, and on divers other
days and times between that day and the 15th day of April, A. D. 1865, combining, confederating,
and conspiring together…to kill and murder, within the Military Department of Washington,
and within the fortified and intrenched lines thereof, Abraham Lincoln…Andrew Johnson…William
H. Seward…and Ulysses S. Grant…and in pursuance of and in prosecuting said malicious,
unlawful, and traitorous conspiracy aforesaid, and in aid of said rebellion, afterward, to
wit, on the 14th day of April, A. D. 1865, within the Military Department of Washington
aforesaid and within the fortified and intrenched lines of said military department…maliciously,
unlawfully, ,and traitorously murdering the said Abraham Lincoln…” That’s the charge.
The specification for Mary is going to read: “…And in further prosecution of said conspiracy,
Mary E. Surratt, did, at Washington City, and with the military department and military
lines aforesaid, on or before the 6th day of March, A. D. 1865, and on divers other
days and times between that day and the20th day of April, A. D. 1865, receive, entertain,
harbor, and conceal, aid and assist the said John Wilkes Booth…and their confederates,
with the knowledge of the murderous and traitorous conspiracy aforesaid and with intent to aid,
abet, and assist them in the execution thereof, and in escaping from justice after the murder
of said Abraham Lincoln, as aforesaid.” So basically Mary is being charged with knowledge
of this plan to kill the president, and helping Booth carry it out, and escape. That is what
all eight conspirators are charged with. The only major difference is when you get to Lewis
Powell. And Lewis Powell is now specifically also charged with murder, trying to murder
William Henry Seward, the Secretary of State. That is the only major change in all eight
articles against the conspirators. The meeting of the Commission will take place
in what is now referred to as the Old Officer’s Barracks, Building 20, Grant Hall, at Fort
McNair. That one section I highlighted of the Old Federal Penitentiary, this is what’s
left of it. But that constitutes the building on the third floor where the commission is
going to meet. The meeting, the first meeting takes place on May 9. The prisoners are given
until 10 a.m. the next day, roughly twenty-four hours, to secure counsel. And you might wonder
who is going to defend the conspirators of Abraham Lincoln. Well some very top-notch
lawyers come in to help with some of the defense. Including one of the most prestigious, Reveredy
Johnson of Maryland. Now Johnson had been born in 1797, he had served in the Maryland
Senate, U. S. Senator, U. S. Attorney General, represented, he actually represented the slave
owner in Dred Scott v. Sandiford in 1857; was a Maryland delegate to the Peace Conference
in 1861, and had served in the Maryland House of Delegates. He also represented, another
strange connection here, he also represented Major General Fitz John Porter court martial
headed by David Hunter. So Reveredy Johnson is well aware at how David Hunter operates
a court. And even though he is representing Mary Surratt, his main focus here is to challenge
the constitutionality of military tribunals to try civilians. Part of his argument went:
“That a tribunal like this has no jurisdiction over other than military offenses, is believed
to be self-evident. That offenses defined and punished by the civil law, and whose trial
is provided for by the same law, are not subjects of military jurisdiction, is of course true.”
Now keep in mind that it is not until after November 1963 that shooting a president is
a federal offense. Prior to that they were state offenses. So if Lee Harvey Oswald had
gone to trial, it would have been before the regular courts meeting in Dallas and not a
Federal court. Also joining Reveredy Johnson for the defense
of Mary Surratt are two young attorneys from his firm: John W. Clampitt, and this is a
later picture of Clampitt, and Frederick Aiken> Of course, U. S. Attorney General James Speed
is asked to give his opinion on the constitutionality of the tribunal, the commission. And after
going through five or six pages of reasoning, this is what Speed is going to come up with:
“My conclusion, therefore, is, that if the persons who are charged with the assassination
of the President committed the deed as public enemies, as I believe they did, and whether
they did or not is a question to be decided by the tribunal before which they are tried,
they not only can, but ought to be tried before a military tribunal. If the persons charged
have offended against the laws of war, it would be as palpably wrong for the military
to hand them over to the civil courts, as it would be wrong in a civil court to convict
a man of murder who had, in time of war, killed another in battle.” In other words, the
proper authority to decide first of all if the conspirators are public enemies is the
military tribunal. So if the military tribunal decides that than naturally they are the ones
who can try them. So the military tribunal is basically being asked to decide on its
own merits if it’s constitutional or not. So you can kind of guess how the military
tribunal will decide on that one. But James Speed, as an addendum, is going
to cite, Francis Lieber. Francis Lieber was a well-known authority on both international
law and the laws of war. In fact, on April 21, 1863, under Lieber’s guidance, the government
is going to issue General Order #100, also known as “Instructions for the Government
of the Armies of the United States in the Field. What we today might call rules of engagement.
Section Nine, Paragraph 148 covered assassination. This is what Lieber wrote: “The law of war
does not allow proclaiming either an individual belonging to the hostile army, or a civilian,
or a subject of the hostile government, an outlaw, who may be slain with out trial by
any captor, any more than the modern law of peace allows such international outlawry;
on the contrary, it abhors such outrages. The sternest retaliation should follow the
murder committed in consequence of such proclamation, made by whatever authority. Civilized nations
look with horror upon offers of reward for the assassination of enemies, as relapses
into barbarism.” So in other words the head of one government can’t put out a wanted
poster on the head of the opposing government and offer a reward for the assassination.
That goes counter to the laws of war and international law. The court room is going to be laid out like
this: a table for the military commission, a witness stand, a table for the reporters,
tables for the counsels, and a prisoners dock. And take a look just at the prisoners dock:
Mary Surratt, guard; Herold, guard; Paine, guard; all the way down there is a guard between
each prisoner. So there is no presumption of confidentiality if you will between the
prisoners and their defense. Now the guards have been told not to listen in, but they
are standing right there. So I don’t know you are going to avoid one or the other. And
then there are some sketches as to what the court room actually looked like during the
trial. The two main witnesses against Mary Surratt
will be Louis J. Weichmann and John Lloyd. Now some claim Weichmann especially had been
coerced into giving testimony. But Weichmann always denied this. We do know that Weichmann
spent almost 30 days in Old Capitol Prison. And there are some who claim his story changed
in those 30 days to more implicate Mary Surratt. And also one interesting thing about the law
back then if you do testify in a conspiracy trial, you can’t be charged with conspiracy
yourself. So that is one of the quarks in the law back then. The lawyers will also claim
that Weichmann really wanted to go South and join the Confederate government, he was a
secret Southerner, in that sense. And they would also try to claim that John Lloyd was
drunk when Mary talked to him. Now from what I have read in the transcripts all the people
who said Lloyd was drunk also said they never knew him to be so drunk as when he was talking
to Mary Surratt. So of all the times he was drunk, the most drunk just happened to be
when he was talking to Mary Surratt. And you can imagine the prosecution blowing holes
in all that. They also brought in some of Weichmann’s supervisors, if you will, to
testify to his good character. But Weichmann’s testimony especially is still somewhat controversial.
And there are some people who think that government prosecuting Mary was simply a tactic to try
to bring John Surratt back from Canada. But John Surratt stays the whole time in Canada
while he’s up there. Now the military commission, at the end here,
has to go through the testimony of 366 witnesses and 4,900 pages of testimony. So it was estimated
that they will take a while to go through all this. They first met at 10 a.m., June
29 and “After mature consideration of the evidence,” the verdicts are delivered to
President Johnson, who approves of them, on July 5. Six days later. So they went through
this whole thing pretty quickly. According to the rules, 6 of the 9 members must agree
to convict and the punishment. Apparently, five of the members of the commission had
proposed to either acquit Mary of all charges or at least spare her life. Now this is where
things get a little murky. The most common story is that at that point, Judge Advocate
Holt went to Secretary of War Stanton and told him what the situation was. And Stanton
told Holt to go back to the commission and tell them if they vote to convict and execute
Mary, they can send in a petition for clemency and I’ll make sure President Johnson sees
it. Whatever the truth of the matter, 5 members of the commission, including David Hunter,
and if you know anything about David Hunter that is a big surprise, David Hunter do sign
a petition for clemency for Mary Surratt. Now President Johnson will by 1873 claim he
never saw that and that Judge Holt kept it from him. Holt is going to respond with a
newspaper article citing letters not just from officials from the War Department but
at least two cabinet members who remember that the petition was debated at a cabinet
meeting. And that the clemency was attached to all the evidence from the trial itself.
So the report is Johnson had to see it. But Johnson himself always denied he ever saw
it. On July 6, General Hancock will deliver eight
(8) sealed envelopes from the War Department to General Hartranft. Those envelopes are
given to the conspirators. Four are delivered to Lewis Powell, Mary Surratt, David Herold,
and George Atzerodt, announcing not just the verdict but also the sentence of death. And
worse than that, they are also told the sentences are to be carried out the next day, July 7.
So they have less than 24 hours to prepare. Mary is going to be spending those last hours
with her priest, at least two priests, Anna Surratt is there for a while, the two younger
lawyers are there for a while, and some other members of the Surratt family come and go.
Anna Surratt is going to try to see the president to try to get clemency but she can’t get
in to see him. But also pleading for clemency is Mrs. Adele Cutts Douglas, the widow of
Senator Stephen Douglas. She was also a niece of Rose O’Neal Greenhow, who had been convicted
of spying for the Confederacy. Mrs. Douglas was also a great-niece of former First Lady,
Dolly Madison. And Adele could remember being bounced on Mrs. Madison’s knee when she
was young. So you might be able to keep out Anna Surratt and no one is going to complain
too much about it, but I’m pretty sure Mrs. Douglas got in to see the president. Can you
imagine what the press might say if the president refused to see the widow of Stephen Douglas.
They would be all over it at that point. Being given the assignment as the executioner
is Captain Christian Rath, of the 17th Michigan, on the staff of General Hartranft.
The construction of the gallows will begin on July 6. By the time they are done, they
are going to be 12 feet high, the platform is 20 square feet. Rath is going to make four
nooses: three with the traditional seven twists, one with only five, and that was for Mary.
There were two reasons for that: One is that Rath, like everyone else was convinced, at
the last minute, Mary is going to receive clemency; it was also past midnight and Rath
was getting tired. So that is why he only put five twists in the last one. The soldiers
begin testing the gallows about 11: 25 a.m. on July 7. By noon the temperature is close
to 100 degrees. But her lawyers are not done yet. Aiken and
Clampitt would now go to Andrew Wylie, justice of the Supreme Court in the District of Columbia
and file a writ of Habeas Corpus in behalf of Mary Surratt. And it’s said they do this
early in the morning, the writ is actually issued at 3 a.m. in the morning. So they got
Judge Wylie up around midnight. It’s served on General Hancock and he is now ordered to
produce Mary Surratt in court to Andrew Wylie by 10 a.m. that morning. Hancock sends an
order to the prison to Hartranft to not allow any U. S. Marshall into the prison. But not
allowing the marshal in, he can’t deliver the writ to General Hartranft. So General
Hancock and Attorney General Speed will go to the president. And President Johnson is
going to issue an order suspending the writ in this case and that is presented to Judge
Wylie at 11:30 am that morning. With the president suspending the writ there is nothing Judge
Wylie can do. So everything is now going to move forward.
Alexander Gardner will get the assignment of being sort of the official photographer
for the execution. Now to give you a heads up here some of the pictures might be considered
disturbing to some people. At about 11:15 a procession will come out
of the building headed for the gallows. Mary had to be supported by two soldiers and her
priests. She is wearing a black alpaca dress and a black veil. Captain Rath deliberately
put Mary on the right side of the four here because he considered that the place of honor
and he wanted to give it to Mary. Sometimes there is no understanding gallantry in the
19th century. Because of the heat, Mary and a lot of the
VIP’s are going to under umbrellas to try to shade them a little. Although what good
black umbrellas are doing I’m not sure. But now General Hartranft will read the execution
order publicly. And here we see Mary under the umbrella with
her two priests praying with her at the last minute. Once Hartranft has read the warrant:
The ministers are given one final chance to pray with the condemned.
Once they back off, it is time to adjust the ropes. Bindings are put on the arms, legs
and ankles of the condemned. Mary complained her bindings hurt. And one soldier reportedly
said: “Well, it won’t hurt for long.” About 16 minutes after they first entered
the court yard, everything is ready. The prisoners stand up, they move towards
the drop, the witnesses and everybody moves back, Captain Rath, who is on the ground,
gives some type of signal, and the props are pulled out. Mary had just
taken a step onto the drop, she moved forward far enough, and so when there drop fell, she
instead of dropping straight down, she lurched forward, the rope snapped her back, and probably
broke her neck. A lot of people said Mary’s death appeared to be the easiest.
And eventually, everything is done. The bodies were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes
before they were cut down. And as the prisoners were coming out just
to one side of the scaffold were the graves and the wooden boxes for the condemned. George
Atzerodt was the first one to be cut down, and they just cut him down and he dropped
with a thud. After that the soldiers were reprimanded and the bodies were brought down
a little easier. When Mary’s was cut down, she was the last one about 1:58 p.m. When
her body was cut down her head fell forward, one soldier stated: “She makes a good bow”
and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor. I was talking to one of our
volunteers here before the show started, and actually let me preface that, once everything
is over, Captain Rath is going to start to cut the rope into one foot lengths and start
to saw up the platform to sell for souvenirs. Okay. Get back to our one volunteer here.
He and his wife are actually part of a Civil War dance troupe, and another member of the
troupe happens to be a descendent of General Hartranft. And one of the more bizarre things
they have of the general are four one-foot lengths of rope from each of the four nooses
up here. The boarding house that
night is going to be attacked that night by a mob stripping it of souvenirs until stopped
by the police. Anna Surratt will spend four years asking
for her mother’s remains. In 1867, the government decided to tear down a portion of the Washington
Arsenal where the graves were located. The coffins were disinterred on October 1, 1867
and reinterred in vaults in Warehouse #1 at the Arsenal. Finally, on February 8, 1869,
Mary’s body was returned to the Surratt family.
She was buried the next day, February 9, 1869, at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Washington under
a stone that reads Mrs. Surratt. John, himself, is going to be sheltered by
priests in St. Liboire, Canada. He then flees to Liverpool, England, serves as a papal guard
in Rome, and is finally arrested on November 23, 1866 in Alexandria, Egypt and brought
home on the USS Swartara, which comes in on February 19, 1867. John is charged as an accomplice
to murder and tried in civilian court on June 10, 1867 which ends in a mistrial. The government
then indicates him for treason in 1868 but that indictment is rejected because the conspiracy
charge had passed the two-year statute of limitations. The government tried for a second
indictment and that was dismissed by the grand jury citing the first dismissal for the same
reason. So John now is clear. He can’t be tried for anything at this point.
So he decides to go on a lecture tour, telling of his activities as a Confederate courier,
and sort of downplaying his role in the conspiracy. Now in this he does not have much to say of
his old friend Louis Weichmann. In fact what he did say was this: “I have very little
to say of Louis J. Weichmann. But I do pronounce him a base-born perjurer; a murderer of the
meanest hue! Give me a man who can strike his victim dead, but save me from a man who,
through, perjury, will cause the death of an innocent person. Double murderer!! Hell
possesses no worse fiend than a character of that kind.”
For his part, Louis Weichmann got a job at the Philadelphia Custom House, supposedly
due to the influence of Edwin Stanton. He is there off and one depending on which party
is in power, until 1885 when he moves to Anderson, Indiana. One brother, was a Catholic priest,
and two sisters are already settled there and Weichmann is going to open a business
school. He died on June 5, 1902, after swearing out another affidavit reaffirming his testimony
in the Conspiracy Trial. So he is basically signing a death bed confession.
The U. S. Army, in its infinite wisdom, not only preserved that section of the building
was in, they also restored the room on the third floor to the way it looked during the
Conspiracy Trial. This I understand is open once a quarter. So check on the Fort McNair
website and you might find out when it is open again.
The site of the gallows, ironically, is now occupied by the Officer’s Tennis Court at
Fort McNair. The Surratt Tavern was sold at auction in
1869. It is now 9118 Brandywine Road, Clinton, Maryland and operated by the Surratt Society.
Surrattsville later changed its name to Clinton to avoid association with the Surratt family.
But I understand the high school and middle school there are still named Surrattsville.
So the name is still around. The boarding house, itself, was sold on June
26, 1866 to help pay off remaining debts. It’s gone through various owners over the
years, the outside especially has changed configuration somewhat. It is now designated
as 604 H Street, Northwest Washington, in Chinatown and is, you guessed, the Wok and
Roll Restaurant. But in 1968 this was designated as a DC Landmark; in 1982 as part of the downtown
Historic District; and it does have a plaque, or it is on the National Register of Historic
Places. John Surratt, himself, moved to Baltimore,
married Mary Victorine Hunter in 1872and had seven children before his death in 1916.
Mary Surratt has the distinction, if you will, as being the first woman hanged by the Federal
Government. Was she completely innocent, or did she as President Johnson said “…keep
the nest that hatched the egg.” You want a personal opinion; I think Mary is guilty
of something. I find it hard to believe that a woman who has a son in the Confederate army,
another that is a Confederate courier, that she knows is a Confederate courier, and all
these strange guys coming in and out of the house, that something is not going on; especially
when she is asked by John Wilkes Booth to at least take these field glasses out to John
Lloyd at Surratt’s Tavern. Does it come up to the grade of being, punishment by being
executed, probably not? But Mary, as a former friend of mine here used to say, is probably
guilty up to her eyeballs. And John Surratt is probably guilty up to the top of his head.
The debit over Mary Surratt’s guilt or innocence still goes on and there are those that say
she is completely guilty and those whose say she is being railroaded by the government
for one reason: and that is to entice John Surratt to come back from Canada and give
himself up. If that is what the government is thinking, its’ not going to work.
