THAT WAS A NIGHT OF HORRORS
by Randal Berry
The initial investigation of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination came only hours after a single gunshot rang out around 10:15 p.m. at Ford’s Theatre on April 14th, 1865.
Around 1:30 a.m. on April 15th, Metropolitan Police Superintendent A.C. Richards orders a search of the 541 “H” street residence after Detective James A.. McDevitt relays information to Richards that he had come across a man on the street shortly after the assassination who told him: “If you want to find out all about this business go to Mrs. Surratt’s house on “H” street.” Almost at the identical time Richards makes his order, Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton composes his first telegraph to General John A. Dix in New York, alerting Dix of the tragedy in Washington.
Richards dispatches Det. McDevitt, Det. John A.W. Clarvoe, Det. David R.P. Bigley, Sergeant John F. Kelly, and Lieutenant Charles M. Skippon to the “H” street address to search for the assassin(s) of Abraham Lincoln.
Arriving at the boarding house give or take at 2:00 a.m., McDeviit ascends the second story landing, knocks on the door and a woman throws open the window and asks detectives who was there. “We wish to enter the house” McDevitt replied. Louis Weichmann opens the door after hurriedly getting dressed and confronts the police. Det. John Clarvoe tells Weichmann that they are looking for John Surratt. Clarvoe also announces that the President has been murdered at the theatre earlier and was looking for Booth also. Weichmann responds that neither is there. Police demand to search the premises anyway, Weichmann stands aside to let the police in and then hurries to Mrs. Surratt’s room, knocking on the door, he exclaimed that the police were here and are looking for her son John. Mary Surratt responded, “For God’s sake, let them come in, I expected the house would be searched”.
Assassination researchers have long scratched their head’s as to why the Metropolitan Police detectives showed up at the Surratt Boarding house a little less than four hours after the assassination at 2:00 a.m. on the April15, 1865. Written accounts are seemingly guesswork, innuendo and are still not definitive. That early morning visit by local police within that short time span after the assassination is still troubling to this day.
Perhaps researchers missed the reason why the Metropolitan Police originallywent to the Surratt boarding house early that morning. Students possibly should have looked at WHY the police were searching for Surratt. Assumedly they were looking for Booth, after actors, stagehands, and others identified Booth shortly after the assassination, but police were focused on John H. Surratt Jr. Why was Surratt looked at?
Shortly after the carnage at the Seward residence, Surratt was rumored to be the assailant of Secretary of State William Seward, and was rumored to be associated with John Wilkes Booth.
The 541 “H” street boarding house purchased eleven years earlier by John Surratt Sr., was located in the downtown area six blocks northeast from Ford’s Theatre. Mary Surratt moved to the property in the fall of 1864 from Surrattsville, Maryland where she operated a tavern, boarding house, and at one time a Post Office along with her son John Jr. and daughter Anna. Surratt’s oldest son Isaac had previously moved to Texas well before the rest of the family moved north into Washington.
The only thing certain, Metropolitan Police detectives showed up again two days later and a major break in the investigation presented itself with the arrest of the matriarch of the boarding house, along with co-conspirator Lewis Powell, and the current occupants.
Those Mysterious “Clues”
Kauffman(1) calls the Surratt “clue” one of the greatest mysteries of the assassination. Perhaps the “clue” was awaiting detectives at the Surratt boarding house and could lead detectives to Booth, previously identified as the assassin of Lincoln. There has to be a “clue,” or an answer to what led authorities to the boarding house that soon after the assassination.
Detective McDevitt reminisced in a newspaper interview, “that was a night of horrors” when recalling the chaos that night.(2) Metropolitan Police were very busy and outside, the police station was teeming with soldiers who were angry and wanted answers and wanted them now. The crowds outside thought people being brought into the station by police were the culprits, and police were worried that a lynch mob might form. Actually, those brought in for questioning were witnesses from the theatre and presumably theater staff. McDevitt addressed the crowd milling in front of the station house, assuring them they were doing all they could to find the assassin. Detectives ramped up its investigation and based on “information received” a tip materialized that led them to the boarding house! (3)
Theories Abound!
There is certainly a cast vying for who possibly snitched to the authorities. Presented from published conjecture, information not thoroughly researched, some of these theories are blithely accepted or passed on for lack of explanation. Presented here is a list of five possible “tipsters” and reasons why they were suspected, along with reasons why they possibly cannot be the source.
Alleged Tipster: Daniel H.L. Gleason
One of the most often repeated and almost believable theories is Daniel H.L. Gleason a co-worker of Louis Weichmann at the Commissary General of Prisoners in D.C., which he, Gleason, alerted authorities shortly after having learned of the assassination on Friday night, about “strange happenings” regarding a plot to kidnap the President that emulated from the Surratt boarding house. Heard in confidence from co-worker Louis Weichmann, boarder at the “H” street address, Gleason claimed it was his “tip” that led authorities to the boarding house. Gleason had learned of Weichmann’s concerns one month earlier (March) and had promised Weichmann to report them to the proper authorities; he did so, after the assassination.
Fact:
This revealing “confession” from Gleason was recalled 46 years after the assassination. Gleason also recalled that he went to General Augur’s headquarters shortly after hearing about the assassination on April 14th and “advised the arrest of Weichmann and everyone found at the Surratt house” (4) Gleason’s statements after a long period of time makes this a wholly un-reliable source.
Trivia:
Major Gleason, regulated to a desk job after being wounded in the war, was also a member of the Veteran Reserve Corps.
Alleged Tipster: John Fletcher
John Fletcher, foreman for Nailors Stable located at 299 “E” St. was also thought to be the source, for having reported his horse stolen by David Herold, after Herold and George Atzerodt rented horses earlier that morning of the assassination from Nailors. Herold was seen around 10:00 p.m. on a Washington street and Fletcher shouted at him to stop, and then pursued him when Herold didn’t heed his order to halt. Fletcher chased Herold all the way to the Navy Yard Bridge, but was stopped by Sgt. Silas Cobb, and was told by Cobb that if he crossed, he could not come back into the city until the next day. Fletcher headed back into the city and went directly to the police to report the horse stolen and that he knew who had stolen it.
Fact:
Fletcher was referred to General Augur’s headquarters by the Metropolitan Police and was asked if he could identify a saddle and bridle found in the area. Fletcher recognized it as the one belonging to the horse that co-conspirator George Atzerodt rented earlier that day. There isn’t any evidence that Fletcher tipped police that night, and that the horses rented earlier in the day had any connection with the assassination or the boarding house during the initial hours of the investigation.
Trivia:
Fletcher certainly was friendly with at least one of the co-conspirators as he testified May 17, 1865 at the initial trial, that on the evening of the assassination, he and co-conspirator George Atzerodt went the Union Hotel to partake in libations very shortly before Atzerodt’s appointed time to visit the Kirkwood House for his assignment to murder Vice President Andrew Johnson. Atzerodt purportedly mentioned to Fletcher, “If this thing happens tonight, you will hear of a present”.
Alleged Tipster: John Mathews
Another scenario, provided by Moore,(5) intimates actor/friend of Booth, John Mathews, who was carrying a letter Booth had written explaining his motives and Mathews promised to deliver the letter to the editor of the National Intelligencer on Saturday morning of the 15th, that it was Mathews, who was the tipster. This insinuation from Moore is troubling, because he writes “identity uncertain, but probably Booth’s friend Mathews, who knew a lot about the actor’s doings”. Moore then cites McDevitt’s article as his source that appeared in the Washington Evening Star, April 14, 1894, entitled, “Some Interesting Reminiscences of a Thrilling Night”. In fact, in this article, McDevitt states that he thought it was actor John McCullough who gave him the tip. There is no mention of John Mathews in McDevitt’s interview.
Fact:
Mathews learned within a few minutes that Booth was the murderer, and he realized he could possibly be incriminated by having Booth’s letter in his possession. He hastened back to his boarding house and tore open the envelope, read the contents and promptly burned it. It’s remarkable that he could recall the contents of the letter, supposedly verbatim, and entered as evidence in John Surratts trail in 1867 and President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial in 1868.(6) Later his memory of the letter was aided by a reporter named Frank A. Burr in 1881 for a Philadelphia newspaper article.(7)
Trivia:
John Mathews acted in “Our American Cousin” that fateful night. The playbill for that performance lists Mathews as playing a fictitious Mr. Coyle, the attorney, and the irony is, Mathews was to deliver Booth’s letter to Mr. John F. Coyle, an editor of the National Intelligencer! Actor Harry Hawk, alone on the stage when Booth leapt from the box, later recalled in an interview for the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette in 1894, that Mathews played the part of Lord Dundreary.(8) Ford’s company stock actor Edwin Arthur Emerson played the role of Dundreary that night.
Alleged Tipster: John Edward McCullough
It was thought the “tip” came from actor John McCullough. Det. McDevitt’s interview as mentioned above states that he thought it was McCullough. A great actor during his time, McCullough was a regular guest at the National Hotel (same hotel as Booth) when acting at the National Theater in D.C. He was very friendly with Booth, who acted in “The Apostate” at Ford’s on March 18, 1865 in a benefit for McCullough. This performance by Booth would be his last on the stage.
Fact:
An affidavit entered as evidence for the trial of conspirators from McCullough regarding his whereabouts on the eve of the assassination was not allowed by Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt. However Holt later allowed a telegram from McCullough (dated June 2, 1865) to John T. Ford, into testimony that stated he had left D.C. on March 26, 1865 and had not been back to the city since. This effectually rules out McCullough.
Trivia:
McCullough, on stage in 1884 in Chicago broke down in the middle of his performance and was later diagnosed with paralytic dementia, presumably caused by a syphilis infection. He was committed to an asylum in New York and later again in Philadelphia where he died in 1885. It was later rumored that McCullough was shot to death beneath the stage at the National Theatre by a rival actor and that his “ghost” haunts theatre employees to this day !
Alleged Tipster: James P. Ferguson
A.C. Richards, in a letter dated April 29, 1898, published in Louis Weichmann’s “tell all” book,(9)claims the “tip” came from a saloon keeper near the theatre. He recalled the name “Ferguson.”
Soon afterwards, Richards (supposedly) obtained information that John Surratt was seen in the company of Booth and that Booth often visited the boarding house, thus leading to the raid.
Fact:
James P. Ferguson owned a saloon/restaurant named the Greenback Saloon at 452 Tenth Street adjoining the theatre. Ferguson was in the audience that night hoping to get a glimpse of General Grant, his icon and native of Ohio like Ferguson, but Grant begged out at the last minute telling Lincoln he and his wife wanted to return to New Jersey to see their children.
Richards’s statement to Weichmann is most assuredly bogus, as it was recalled thirty three years after the assassination in correspondence. Richards also claimed he went along on the “raid” but Detective McDevitt disputes this in reoccurring correspondence with Richards after the fact. McDevitt in trial testimony states “I went to Mrs. Surratt’s house with Mr. Clarvoe, and several other officers of the department.”(10) One doesn’t forget to mention his “boss”, especially during an important official proceeding. Richards’s letters to Weichmann are hardly believable anyway, as he states that there was two “raids” on the boarding house that night! (11)
Another example of A.C. Richards proclivity to tell falsehood’s, is that he states he was seated in the dress circle that night.(12) Kauffman in “American Brutus”,(13)disputes this.
Ferguson after witnessing the assassination immediately went to the police station to report what he had experienced. The late James O. Hall speculates that it was Ferguson who tipped the police.(14)
Trivia:
Ferguson gave slightly various accounts on what happened that night to the newspapers and the courts when he testified in the initial trail of the conspirators, and also in John Surratt’s trial in 1867.
The Other Side of the Coin
One assumption is General C.C. Augur immediately ordered the cavalry to conduct searches at local stables knowing Booth and the (unknown at that time) assailant of Seward fled on horseback.(15) Livery stable proprietors presumably would be the number one priority to search by authorities.
Booth did have a place to stable/care for his horse, east of the theatre in Baptist alley. Ford’s Theatre carpenter, scene-shifter, and a co-conspirator Ned”Edmund” Spangler, remodeled a small two horse stall for Booth earlier in the winter of 1864. (16)
David Miller DeWitt,(17) writes: “It being presently discovered that Booth had escaped on horseback across the Navy Yard Bridge with David Herold ten minutes in his rear, a dash was made upon the livery stables of Washington, their proprietors taken into custody, and them the whole of lower Maryland was invaded the soldiers declaring martial law as they progressed.”
An immediate search of the local stables makes sense.
Published accounts seemed to back up the searches throughout the city.
A New York Times story on the 17th of April, 1865 states:
“Every street in Washington was patrolled at the request of Mr. Richards.
Every road leading out of Washington was strongly picketed and every possible avenue of escape was thoroughly guarded”
The Indiana Democrat on the 20th of April, 1865 likewise published, “The military authorities have dispatched mounted patrols in every direction in order, if possible, to arrest the assassins. The whole Metropolitan Police likewise, vigilant for the same purpose”
Did the War Department have prior knowledge of the boarding house?
William Hanchett in his article titled “The War Department and Booth’s Abduction Plot”(18) mentions myriad scenarios that the War Department allegedly had prior knowledge of the boarding house.
War Department officials searched John Wilkes Booth room at the National Hotel within three hours of the assassination, and found a letter from co-conspirator Samuel Arnold in his trunk. Known as the infamous and damning “Sam” letter, Arnold states that the government suspects that something is afoot. The letter was dated March 27, 1865, a little more than two weeks before the assassination.
Co-conspirator John Harrison Surratt, on trial in 1867 (indicted for the murder of Abraham Lincoln), was set free courtesy of a hung jury. Surratt lectured in Rockville, Maryland three years after his ordeal on Tuesday, December 6, 1870 .The lecture covered mostly his involvement in the plot to kidnap the President, his denial of the plot changing to murder, his escape, capture, and all the while delivering a few solid right hooks at Louis Weichmann. He recalled one occasion at a meeting in Washington restaurant (Gautier’s) with the rest of the conspirators present, to discuss the in’s and out’s regarding the kidnapping plot, that he had also understood that the government got wise to the plot. Everyone except Booth wanted to abandon the plan at that meeting. The “Sam” letter and Surratt’s recollection that the government, in this case the War Department, suspected something was brewing, is probably unsubstantiated paranoia.
Today, the “H” Street boarding house is in an area known as Chinatown, a suburb of D.C. The address has changed to 604 N.W. “H”street and now houses a Chinese restaurant/sports bar, “The Wok n’ Roll” a pun on the cuisine. There is a plaque mounted at the entrance way stating:
“Surratt Boarding House”
604 H Street N.W. (then 541)
is said to have been where
the conspirators plotted
the abduction of
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
in 1865.
Plaque by Chi-Am Lions Club
Notice the plaque say’s “abduction”. The boarding house was where the plan to abduct the President was discussed.
Later, President Andrew Johnson described the boarding house as “the nest that hatched the egg”. It is quite possible, not yet proven, the Metropolitan Police department suspected the boarding house as a conduit to Booth. We probably will never know who or what tipped the visit by city police at the Surratt Boarding house early morning on the 15th.
Sources:
1. Kauffman, Michael W. American Brutus: “John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies”. New York: Random House, 2004 Pg. 56
2. The Washington Evening Star: April 14, 1894 “Some Interesting Reminiscences of a Thrilling Night”
3. Hall, James O. “Why was Mrs. Surratt’s Home raided on the Night of April 14-15, 1865?” Surratt Society News: July, 1983
4. Hanchett, William “The War Department and Booths Abduction Plot” Lincoln Herald: Winter 1980.
5. Moore, Guy W. “The Case of Mrs. Surratt” University of Oklahoma Press, 1954
6. Kauffman, Michael W. American Brutus: “John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies”. New York: Random House, 2004 Pg. 476
7. Edwards, William C. and Edward Steers “The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence” University of Illinois Press 2009 Note on page 488.
8. Good, Timothy S. We Saw Lincoln Shot: “One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts” University Press of Mississippi, 1995. Pg. 104
9. Weichmann, Louis J. “A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865” Edited by Floyd E. Risvold, Alfred A. Knoff, New York 1975
10. Pitman, Benn. “Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Trail of the Conspirators” With an Introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern, (Facsimile Edition) Funk & Wagnall’s 1954
Trial testimony of James A. McDevitt, pg. 140
11. Weichmann, Louis J. “A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865” Edited by Floyd E. Risvold, Alfred A. Knoff, New York 1975
12. Good, Timothy S. We Saw Lincoln Shot: “One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts” University Press of Mississippi, 1995. Pg. 100
13. Kauffman, Michael W. American Brutus: “John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies”. New York: Random House, 2004 Pg. 392
14. Hall, James O. “Why was Mrs. Surratt’s Home raided on the Night of April 14-15, 1865?” Surratt Society News: July, 1983
15. Cottrell, John “Anatomy of an Assassination: The Murder of Abraham Lincoln” New York:Funk & Wagnalls 1966
16. Edwards, William C. and Edward Steers “The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence” University of Illinois Press 2009 Note on page 847.
17. DeWitt, David Miller “The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt” John Murphy & Company, 1895
18. Hanchett, William “The War Department and Booths Abduction Plot” Lincoln Herald: Winter 1980
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to the following people who offered advice, criticisms, guidance, etc.
Kate Clifford Larson, Steven G. Miller, Richard Sloan, Roger Norton, Laurie Verge, Michael Kauffman, and major kudos to Sandra Walia, Librarian of Surratt House Museum. These folk’s went above and beyond my constant questions and annoyances.