John Surratt

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John Surratt
St. Charles College, Maryland
  • English College, Rome
  • Occupation(s)U.S. postmaster, farmer, parochial school teacher, Pontifical Zouave, public lecturer, company treasurer
    Known forCo-conspirator in plan to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Friend of John Wilkes Booth
    Spouse
    Mary Victorine Hunter
    (m. 1872)
    Children7
    Parent(s)Mary Surratt
    John Harrison Surratt
    Espionage activity
    AllegianceConfederate States of America
    Service branchConfederate Secret Service
    Rankcourier, spy

    John Harrison Surratt Jr. (April 13, 1844 – April 21, 1916) was an American

    conspiracy by a military tribunal and hanged
    ; she owned the boarding house that the conspirators used as a safe house and to plot the scheme.

    He eluded arrest following the assassination by fleeing to

    Pontifical Zouave but was recognized and arrested. He escaped to Egypt but was eventually arrested and extradited. By the time of his trial, the statute of limitations
    had expired on most of the potential charges. He was tried in civilian court in 1867 in Washington D.C. and was not convicted due to a hung jury. He was never tried again.

    Early life

    He was born in 1844, to John Harrison Surratt Sr. and

    Louis Weichmann. When his father suddenly died in 1862, Surratt was appointed the postmaster for Surrattsville, Maryland
    .

    Plot to kidnap Lincoln

    Surratt served as a Confederate Secret Service courier and spy. After he had been carrying dispatches about Union troop movements across the Potomac River, Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced Surratt to Booth on December 23, 1864, and Surratt agreed to help Booth kidnap Lincoln. The meeting took place at the National Hotel, in Washington, D.C., where Booth lived.

    Booth's plan was to seize Lincoln and take him to Richmond, Virginia, to exchange him for thousands of Confederate prisoners of war. On March 17, 1865, Surratt and Booth, along with their comrades, waited in ambush for Lincoln's carriage to leave the Campbell General Hospital to return to Washington. However, Lincoln had changed his mind and remained in Washington.

    William H. Crook, one of Lincoln's bodyguards, claimed that Surratt had boarded the River Queen shortly before the Third Battle of Petersburg, using the name of Smith and demanding to see Lincoln (who was aboard at the time). Crook later stated his belief that Surratt "was seeking an opportunity to assassinate the President at this time".[3]

    Assassination of Lincoln

    After the assassination of Lincoln, on April 14, 1865, Surratt denied any involvement and said that he was then in

    Lewis Powell
    .

    In hiding

    When he learned of the assassination, Surratt fled to

    St. Liboire
    , where a Catholic priest, Father Charles Boucher, gave him sanctuary. Surratt remained there while his mother was arrested, tried, and hanged in the United States for conspiracy.

    Aided by ex-Confederate agents Beverly Tucker and Edwin Lee, Surratt, disguised, booked passage under a false name. He landed at Liverpool in September, where he lodged in the oratory at the Church of the Holy Cross.[4]

    Surratt would later serve for a time in the Ninth Company of the Pontifical Zouaves, in the Papal States, under the name John Watson.[5][6]

    An old friend, Henri Beaumont de Sainte-Marie, recognized Surratt and notified papal officials and the US minister in Rome, Rufus King.[7]

    On November 7, 1866, Surratt was arrested and sent to the

    Alexandria, Egypt, but was arrested there by US officials on November 23, 1866, still in his Pontifical Zouaves uniform.[8] He returned to the US on the USS Swatara to the Washington Navy Yard in early 1867.[9]

    Trial

    Papal Zouave
    uniform, c. 1867

    Eighteen months after his mother was hanged, Surratt was tried in a

    , had declared the trial of civilians before military tribunals to be unconstitutional if civilian courts were still open.

    Judge David Carter presided over Surratt's trial, and Edwards Pierrepont conducted the federal government's case against him. Surratt's lead attorney, Joseph Habersham Bradley, admitted Surratt's part in plotting to kidnap Lincoln but denied any involvement in the murder plot. After two months of testimony, Surratt was released after a mistrial; eight jurors had voted not guilty, four voted guilty.

    The statute of limitations on charges other than murder had run out, and Surratt was released on bail.[10]

    Later life

    Surratt tried to farm tobacco and then taught at the Rockville Female Academy. In 1870, as one of the last surviving members of the conspiracy, Surratt began a much-heralded public lecture tour. On December 6, at a small courthouse in Rockville, Maryland, in a 75-minute speech, Surratt admitted his involvement in the scheme to kidnap Lincoln. However, he maintained that he knew nothing of the assassination plot and reiterated that he was then in Elmira. He disavowed any participation by the Confederate government, reviled Weichmann as a "perjurer" who was responsible for his mother's death and said his friends had kept from him the seriousness of her plight in Washington. After that revelation, it was reported in Washington's Evening Star that the band played "Dixie" and a small concert was improvised, with Surratt the center of female attention.

    Three weeks later, Surratt was to give a second lecture in Washington, but it was canceled because of public outrage.[11]

    Surratt later took a job as a teacher in St. Joseph Catholic School in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In 1872, Surratt married Mary Victorine Hunter, a second cousin of Francis Scott Key. The couple lived in Baltimore and had seven children.[12]

    Some time after 1872, he was hired by the Baltimore Steam Packet Company. He rose to freight auditor and, ultimately, treasurer of the company. Surratt retired from the steamship line in 1914 and died of pneumonia in 1916, at the age of 72.[13]

    He was buried in the New Cathedral Cemetery, in Baltimore.[14]

    In film

    Surratt was portrayed by Johnny Simmons in the 2010 Robert Redford film The Conspirator.[15]

    See also

    • James W. Pumphrey – Surratt introduced Booth to Pumphrey, who supplied Booth's getaway horse.

    References

    1. ^ "The Surratt Family Tree – Surratt House Museum". Surrattmuseum.org. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
    2. LCCN 95050031
    3. .
    4. ^ Shuey v. United States, 92 U.S. 73 (1875).
    5. ^ Howard R. Marraro. "Canadian and American Zouaves in the Papal Army, 1868–1870". Canadian Catholic Historical Association Report, 12 (1944–45). pp. 83–102. Retrieved December 23, 2011. Footnote 1 lists documents and works related to Surratt.
    6. ^ Martinkus, Mary Salesia (1953). Diplomatic Relations between the United States and the Vatican During the Civil War (MA thesis). Loyola University Chicago. pp. 40–42. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
    7. ^ Hatch, 2016, p. 130
    8. ^ Hatch, 2016, p. 134
    9. Washington Evening Star
      . December 7, 1870. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
    10. ^ "John H. Surratt Dead! Last Of The Alleged Conspirators In The Lincoln Assassination". The New York Times. 1916-04-22. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
    11. ^ Jampoler, Andrew C. A., The Last Lincoln Conspirator: John Surratt's Flight from the Gallows, Naval Institute Press, 2009
    12. ^ Puente, Maria (April 14, 2011). "Redford's 'Conspirator' lets Mary Surratt testify". USA Today. Retrieved February 26, 2015.

    Sources

    External links