Assassination of Lincoln: a History of the Great Conspiracy / Trial of the Conspirators by a Military Commission, and a Review of the Trial of John H. Surratt

by T. M. Harris

To fully understand the case of Mrs. Surratt we must make her acquaintance as early as 1863. We find her at that time living at Surrattsville, in Prince George County, Md., ten miles below Washington City. The villa called Surrattsville consisted simply of a country tavern owned and occupied by Mrs. Surratt. She was a widow with three children, two sons and a daughter. The elder son had gone to Texas and had volunteered in the rebel service. The younger son, John H. Surratt, a young man of nineteen, had left St. Charles College in the summer of 1861, not to volunteer as a soldier, but to engage in the secret service of the Confederacy. There was a United States post-office at Surrattsville; and this young man, in addition to his duties as a Confederate spy and carrier of despatches for the rebel government, handled Uncle Sam's mail and delivered it to his neighbors. From all this we can readily gather the attitude of Mrs. Surratt toward the government. On the trial of John H. Surratt, John F. Tibbetts testified that in 1863 he was carrying the mail from Washington to Charlotte Hall, and that he stopped at Surrattsville to deliver the mail at that office. On one occasion, whilst waiting for the mail there, he heard Mrs. Surratt say that she would give one thousand dollars to any one that would kill Lincoln. He also testified that when there was a Union victory he heard her son say in her presence that, "The d—d Northern army and the leader thereof ought to be sent to hell."

Here we see the deep and traitorous hostility to the government of these people who were in its service under the obligations of an official oath. In the fall of 1864 Mrs. Surratt removed to Washington, taking the house 541 on H Street. She rented her Surrattsville property to a man by the name of Lloyd. What prompted this change is not known to the writer. Her son had so won the confidence of Jefferson Davis and Judah P. Benjamin that he had for a considerable time been entrusted by them, not only with important despatches, but also with large sums of money sent to their agents in Canada.[7] Indeed, this seems to have been the only employment in which he was then engaged; and at this time the assassination plot, as we have seen, was engaging the serious attention both of Davis and his agents in Canada, and that both Surratt and Booth were in the confidence of these men, though they were as yet not personally acquainted with each other.

Booth arranged with Dr. S. A. Mudd to come to Washington to introduce him to Surratt, which he did on the 23d day of December, 1864. Their acquaintanceship ripened into the closest intimacy with a rapidity that was due to a common sympathy and a common purpose. They were from that time much together, and Booth at once became a frequent and constant visitor at the house of Mrs. Surratt.[8] From this time on the evidence begins to accumulate, showing her to be informed of the work in which they were engaged, and to have fully entered into their scheme as a helper.[9] There were a number of boarders in her house. These merely received the ordinary civilities of personal intercourse from Booth; but with John and his mother his intercourse was always of a private and confidential character.

Booth's habit was to come into that house, and after the common-place civilities to tap John on the shoulder and ask him to spare him a moment of his time, when they would retire to an upstairs room and remain in conference sometimes for two or three hours. In John's absence (and he was frequently away) Booth would ask Mrs. Surratt to grant him a private interview, which she always did. What business could this man, who had been so recently introduced to the family, have had that required so much and such strict privacy? Whatever it was, Mrs. Surratt was trusted by him equally with her son. We have now presented the state of things in that house between these parties as shown by undisputed testimony, and will proceed to show from the further evidence in the case what the business was that they had on hand.

Shortly after John H. Surratt made the acquaintance of Booth, Atzerodt became a frequent visitor at Mrs. Surratt's.[10] The first time he came he inquired for "John H. Surratt or Mrs. Surratt." How did he know of Mrs. Surratt in such a way that he could make her the alternative of John? In the early part of March Payne called at the Surratt house, and inquired for John H. Surratt, but when told that he was not at home he asked to see Mrs. Surratt.[11] He was an entire stranger, but knew enough, not only about John but also about his mother, to make her the alternative in the absence of her son. He passed under the alias of Wood on this visit. Mrs. Surratt took him in for the night, and got her boarder, Wiechmann, to take him to his room, where she had his supper served to him. Would she thus have acted toward a stranger of whom she knew nothing? It is not to be believed. Payne carried the key to her hospitality in some secret sign that had been adopted by these conspirators. Toward the last of March Payne called again, giving the name of Payne and claiming to be a Baptist preacher. He remained in the house this time for three days, and on one of these days was surprised by Wiechmann coming into his room, where he found John H. Surratt and Payne fencing with bowie-knives, and with revolvers lying on the bed; there were also four sets of new spurs. Wiechmann spoke about what he had seen to Mrs. Surratt, saying "that he did not like the look of things," when she said, "Oh, you need not be disturbed about it; John rides a good deal in the country, and has to carry these things to protect himself."[12]

It was during this visit that Booth, Surratt, Payne, Atzerodt, Herold, and one or two others, started out on an expedition from which they returned under circumstances of disappointment and rage, as heretofore recounted, and, of the import of which Mrs. Surratt was seen to have been fully informed, as she was weeping, and declined going to her dinner. Upon the failure of this expedition Booth went to New York and Payne to Baltimore. The plot, however, was not abandoned; and for its future prosecution it seemed desirable to Booth and Surratt to transfer Payne to Washington, and that in the most secret manner, and there to keep him hidden away until he was wanted. They procured a room for him at the Herndon House, representing him to be a delicate gentleman, and stipulating that his meals should be served to him in his room.[13] It came to the knowledge of Wiechmann that Booth and Surratt had placed some one in that house, and he was naturally curious to know whom it was. Atzerodt let the secret out, and when Wiechmann spoke of its being Payne who was quartered in the Herndon House, Mrs. Surratt asked him how he knew. When he gave Atzerodt as the source of his information she manifested some displeasure. But we are not left to infer from this that she had been informed of the disposition that had been made of Payne, for a night or two after that, when returning from an evening service at St. Patrick's Church, in company with Wiechmann and three or four young ladies, she stopped when they came to the Herndon House, and asked the party to wait on her a few minutes whilst she should go in and see Payne.[14] They waited on this interview for about twenty minutes. Thus we see that she was notified of every move that was made in preparation for the assassination.

Not only were Booth, Atzerodt, and Payne visitors at Mrs. Surratt's, but also the notorious rebel spy and blockade runner, Mrs. Slater, alias Brown, was one of her visitors. This woman stayed all night with her toward the latter part of March, 1865, and was accompanied by Mrs. Surratt and her son John when she left on the next morning, Mrs. Surratt going as far as Surrattsville, whilst her son accompanied her to Richmond in place of a Mr. Howell whom she had expected to have for her escort, but who had been arrested, and so Surratt took his place.[15]

On one occasion Mrs. Surratt sent Mr. Wiechmann to Booth with a message that she wanted to see him on private business, to which Booth responded.

On the Tuesday before the assassination Mrs. Surratt asked Wiechmann to drive her down to Surrattsville, and upon his consenting to do so she sent him to Booth to request the use of his horse and buggy for the trip. Booth told Wiechmann that he had sold his horse and buggy, but he gave him ten dollars with which to procure one.[16] As they were on their way down they met Mrs. Surratt's tenant, Lloyd, on the road, when Mrs. Surratt requested Wiechmann to stop. Lloyd, recognizing her, got out of his buggy and came to the side of Mrs. Surratt's buggy, on which she was sitting, when she leaned her head out toward him and conversed with him in so low a tone that Wiechmann did not hear what was said;[17] but Lloyd testified that she told him to "have those shooting-irons handy, as they would be called for before long." The shooting-irons to which she referred were the two Spencer carbines that had been carried to Surrattsville some time previous by J. H. Surratt, Atzerodt, and Herold, and which John H. Surratt and Lloyd had hidden away, as related heretofore. Thus we see that Mrs. Surratt was kept posted in regard to every move that was made; that she knew that these arms had been deposited there, the purpose for which they had been left there, and that they would be called for soon. We can now understand Booth's generosity in furnishing her ten dollars to pay for a conveyance—she carried his message to Lloyd. On the day of the assassination she again got Wiechmann to drive her down to Surrattsville, no doubt at Booth's request, and perhaps at his expense. She gave to Wiechmann ten dollars with which to procure a conveyance, and as he passed out of her house on this errand he met Booth at the front door, in the act, as it were, of ringing the door bell.[18] When Wiechmann returned, in passing to his room, he saw Booth in the parlor conversing with Mrs. Surratt. Booth sent by her to Lloyd, on this occasion, a field-glass and a message to have the two carbines ready, together with this glass and two bottles of whiskey, as they would be called for that night. Lloyd was absent from home when they arrived at Surrattsville, and did not return until late in the evening. Mrs. Surratt dilly-dallied until he returned, and then snatched an opportunity for a private interview with Lloyd in his back yard, where he had driven. She then delivered to him the field-glass and Booth's message to have the shooting-irons, etc., ready as they would be called for that night, as they were, by Booth and Herold, about midnight. Lloyd swore that this was the message which she delivered to him during that interview in the back yard.[19]

Can any one doubt now that Mrs. Surratt was fully posted in every particular of the assassination plot, that she was fully trusted by Booth and her son, and was in sympathy with their purpose and willing to do all she could in aiding its accomplishment,—that she was, in fact, a co-conspirator?