Lincoln Conspiracy

[Mayerling]

Hi Brad and Stan,

Yeah, Stan, we can finally - apparently - use the dimimutive for "Richard". That's a plus.

The Federal Government (actually the lunatic fringe of the Radical Republicans - trying to tie Vice President turned President Andrew Johnson to a Confederate plot) attempted to link Johnson and Booth to Davis and
other Confederate leaders. But several things worked against this. First, public opinion regarding Davis changed when it was thought that he was undergoing too rough a time as a prisoner in Fortress Monroe (his jailer was Northern General Nelson Miles, whose propensity to get bad publicity began here). Reports circulated (somewhat exaggerated) that Miles put Davis (who suffered from several illnesses, including neuralgia) in heavy chains. In the end he was released on bail that was paid by the prominent abolitionist editor of the New York Tribrune Horace Greeley. He was supposed to be tried for treason, but the trial never occurred.

Secondly, although an inept President, Johnson was courageous enough to fight back. Eventually he would be impeached for a violation of the Tenure of Office Act, a controversial law regarding requiring Congressional approval for the removal of cabinet officers who were appointed in the previous administration. This act would bother every President from Andrew Johnson through Grover Cleveland, before the Supreme Court decided it was illegal in 1887. Johnson tried to remove Secretary of War Edward M. Stanton, who had been spying on his cabinet meetings for the Radical Republicans. It was this that led to the impeachment. Johnson (like Bill Clinton) was impeached
(indicted) by the House of Representatives. But like Clinton he would be acquitted by the Senate (by one vote from Senator Edmund Ross of Kansas - see PROFILES IN COURAGE by John F. Kennedy).

Finally the Congressional investigation (the congressman who led it was so strange even the friends of the Radicals thought he was crazy), was tainted by shady professional witnesses like Sanford Connover - who would later testify and villify Dr. Tumblety.

The end result was that if there was evidence of a Southern conspiracy it got so tainted that it was buried as soon as it could be.

Jeff

[sdreid]

Hi Jeff,

I don't really see Davis signing off on killing Lincoln even though there was a rivalry and probably some hatred there. It seems to me that he at least had some respect for Lincoln and perhaps even some admiration although maybe only subconsciously. I don't recall hearing about any great glee on Davis' part upon learning of Lincoln's murder.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

Jeff - I think we kept our independence because we had more cunning diplomats than people might think;

After the Cold War I noticed, that there were three countries in the world not officially accepting the Baltic countries belonging to the former USSR; USA, UK and... Finland!

I think it's easy to believe, that I was bloody amazed!

Bringing this point to the thread;

Since Davis definitely realised the southern defeat taking place, would it have been a wise thing to calm down the Yankees by gunning down (though secretly) their president?

All the best
Jukka

[Chris George]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for correcting it. I always end up thinking his name is Fernandina which is easier to recall than Ferrandini. The reality of the plot is up in the air, but it is the only so-called plot of any substance between "Mad Dick" Lawrence and Booth. By the way, my favorite cartoon of Lincoln in this affair showed him opening a luggage car door on the train to get down, wearing (I think) the Scotch cap disguise, and being scared by a cat!

You are forgetting one thing about the "popular sentiment" in Baltimore. It and the tragedy of that April 19th riot led to Maryland getting it's state song - I believe the only state song based on an anti-Federal Government incident: "Maryland My Maryland". Read the original lyrics and it is an invocation to the memory of the Southern martyrs who got killed, whose blood "flecked the streets of Baltimore"!

I don't know if they ever put an actual monument up at that site on Pratt Street.


Jeff

Hello Jeff

There is no monument as such to the Pratt Street riot of April 19, 1861 although it conceivably deserves one since it was the first blood of the Civil War. Interestingly, the first blood of the War of 1812 was also spilled in Baltimore during a couple of anti-Federalist riots in the summer of 1812. The city of Baltimore did put up a plaque to the Pratt Street riot: it's on the bridge over the street by the National Aquarium. And yes you are certainly correct about the pro-southern lyrics of the official Maryland State Anthem, "Maryland, My Maryland," which uses to the same tune as "The Red Flag" (!) and "O, Tannenbaum." The lyrics were written as a poem by a Maryland-born Confederate, James Ryder Randall. Randall was in Louisiana teaching at the time of the riot and heard about it apparently through the New Orleans papers. The poem was first published in the New Orleans Sunday Delta on April 26, 1861.

All the best

Chris

[Mayerling]

"The Despot's Heel is on Thy shore, Maryland my Maryland!"

Hi Chris and Jukka,

I don't know all of the popular songs that became official state or city songs, but MARYLAND MY MARYLAND always impressed me. Interestingly enough, while CARRY ME BACK TO OLD VIRGINY has been fixed in these politically correct times to remove traces of "Jim Crow" in the lyrics (particularly about the singer's loyalty to "ole massa"), nobody appears to wish to tamper with MARYLAND MY MARYLAND. A former supervisor and friend of mine from Baltimore (unfortunately dead over a decade ago) once told me that feelings down there are still sore about Lincoln's removal of habeas corpus, imprisonment of various officials (some for four years), and the firing on the rioters by Massachusetts troops (under the ever controversial General Benjamin "Spoons" Butler), so they don't feel like changing the lyrics.

A book can be written on this subject. New York State adopted (probably because it was the theme song for Governor Al Smith in the 1920s) "THE SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK" for it's state song. The "Sooner State" welcomed with open arms a genuine Broadway show stopper "OKLAHOMA" for it's state song. On the urban level, San Francisco had a close fight that ended very oddly a few years back. For many years the Tony Bennett tune, "I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO" was the favorite (especially with romantics). Then one of the locals pointed out it is a kind of "downer" tune, as the singer is a loser in love. This party suggested (as it turned out successfully) an older tune sung by Jeanette MacDonald in the 1936 film (of the same name) SAN FRANCISCO ("San Francisco, open your golden gate...") which had a more vigourous optimism in it. That's the tune that is now the official song of that city.

I take it that "CHICAGO, CHICAGO" is the "Prairie City"'s tune. But I have to admit that in the film VICTOR, VICTORIA, Leslie Ann Down sings a nightclub dance number that celebrates the city as the only one whose name begins with "C" "H" "I" "C" ("Chic"), and that mentions (the film is set about 1930) that one of these days they'll have an airport (possibly the only tune to hint at the creation of O'Hare International).

Edwin Newman, in his book on good and bad English, STRICTLY SPEAKING,
mentioned his favorite state song was the old football tune "Boolah, Boolah"
which was adopted by Yale University, and so ended being adopted by the state of Connecticut. But Newman sourly pointed out that one of the charms of the tune was the lack of more than one word repeated again and again in every part of it - and that the state had new lyrics for the tune that spoiled it!

Well, this is a thread about Lincoln's Assassination - so (regretfully) we must leave the area of music and state/city tunes.

Jukka I have been very impressed by Finland's great success, especially in doing so much damage under Mannerheim to Stalin's armies in 1940 - 1943.
Yeah the Russians unfortunately won, but they did not have the total victory they sought.

Back in 1980 there was a television series about Russia in World War II. It was put out by the Soviet Government, and had some great, never-before-seen footage of the war from Soviet archives. Burt Lancaster narrated it.
In the opening episode it dealt with the Russian - Finnish "Winter War". The way the Russians explained it, suddenly the viewers were introduced to a new sidelight on history: Finland's attempt to create the "Greater Finnish" co-prosperity sphere (to borrow a term from Imperial Japan) at the expense of poor little Russia. I'm not making this up!

Jeff

[GCW]

Thanks to all for this enlightening, erudite and well-measured discussion – the only problem being it has now increased my reading list yet again.

In one of the earlier (lost?) posts there was a question regarding the ease with which Confederate sympathizers moved about Washington. The permeable nature of security in Washington may be explained to some extent by the very nature of the combatants in that there was no physical way of distinguishing friend from foe. Even identifying a person as a Southerner was of little use when one considers that every one of the Confederate states put troops into the field under the Union banner. The western counties of Virginia seceded from the Confederacy in 1861 and were subsequently admitted to the Union in 1863 as West Virginia. Kentucky, a Southern, slave-owning state voted to stay with the Union but it fielded regiments for the CSA as well. An early Lincoln kidnap-plot was hatched by Major Joseph Walker Taylor, a Kentuckian serving in the Confederate army on the staff of General Simon Bolivar Buckner. His uncle was former President Zachary Taylor and another uncle was Union Brigadier General Joseph Pannill Taylor, his cousin Sarah Knox Taylor (daughter of Zachary) was the first wife of Jefferson Davis. Major Taylor was not without major connections. After he escaped capture at the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862 Major Taylor decided that it would be a fine idea to abduct Lincoln. He travelled to Washington, stayed with his uncle the Brigadier General and was reputedly introduced to Lincoln at a White House reception. He remained in Washington for a few days observing Lincoln’s movements and then returned to Richmond where he set forth his abduction plan to Davis. Davis is reported to have rejected the plan since it served no real purpose, and if Lincoln was killed during the abduction attempt he (Davis) would be blamed by imputation for sanctioning an action that in the end could only harm the Confederate cause. Taylor eventually moved into the Confederate Secret Service for a short while before joining a number of irregular cavalry units operating in Kentucky.
Lincoln’s assassination can perhaps be seen as the first act of a dirty ‘war’ that took place after Appomattox rather than as part of a conspiracy by the collapsing Southern administration, or by Lincoln’s Northern political rivals. Across the former Confederate states, and in some of the Union border-states, there was a settling of accounts at a local level as former soldiers rejoined their communities only to find in many cases sentiments had shifted. Unionists who had suffered under the Confederacy were now in the ascendant.

To suggest a Grand Conspiracy as the cause of Lincoln’s death is at the peril of ignoring the collective madness that had gripped the United States since 1861 and its spawn who acted-out their individual madness in 1865.

Just a thought,
Graham W.

[Mayerling]

Hi Graham,

I did not know about Major Joseph Taylor's plot to kidnap Lincoln, but it was just one of many. I do know that in 1865 there were actually two plans to kill Lincoln. One was Booth's (which...to give the assassin a little credit...appears to have been a last minute decision in late March, early April - certainly by the time Richmond fell). The other plot I have wondered about since I first saw it mentioned.

In 1865 the career of "the bloodiest man in American History" was at a nadir.
William Clarke Quantrill was in the trans-Mississippi area, his followers having been reduced by the defection the previous year of large numbers under his more aggressive (!) lieutenants George Todd and "Bloody Bill" Anderson. With Todd, at least, Quantrill was humiliated when he was faced down before his
"command". A few loyal followers remained, and Quantrill had to consider what the future would bring. He could see the war was ending (at least east of the Mississippi) in a Union Victory. He could head south into Mexico and join up with Maximillian's army, or he could try to keep a guerrilla war going.

Instead, in February 1865 Quantrill decided on what can only be termed a suicide mission. Compared to it, Booth's plans were brilliant. Quantrill took his remaining men across the Mississippi River and planned to go through Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland, and make an attack on Lincoln with the intention of killing him. That this scheme meant going over one thousand miles, mostly through territory he did not know, did not seem to bother him. He probably (like Booth) figured that his sacrifice would rekindle the war effort). While thinking of this, consider that Booth simply planned to be guided by David Herold into Virginia, and head south to join Joe Johnston's army - and possibly President Jefferson Davis - and then, if necessary, head towards Texas and Kirby-Smith's army. But in the initial stages, Booth knew (or Herold or Atzerodt or John Surratt knew) about the
various escape routes in Maryland and Virginia. He'd been in that area. Quantrill never was!

By the time he reached Kentucky in May 1865, Quantrill finally learned that Booth had reached the President first. Common sense should have made Quantrill head back to the Mississippi and head for Mexico (or, if he wanted to be different, head for nearby Canada). Instead he decided to see what he could pick up from bushwacking unsuspecting Federal troops in Kentucky.
At the end of the month he was surrounded by Federal troops, and shot in the back trying to flee. He died in June 1865 from his wounds.

I might add that there were probably many hidden plans for the kidnapping of various figures on both sides during the war. And again, I remind everyone to look at the Dahlgren Raid controversy, and whether there was a scheme there to kill Davis and his cabinet in the middle of that raid.

Wasn't there an incident involving John Mosby's command in Maryland and Virginia, where a northern General was captured in an embarrasing way?

Best wishes,

Jeff

[GCW]

Hi Jeff,

As always you’ve raised some interesting points. I was not familiar with the details of Quantrill’s intentions in 1865 – the logistics of such an undertaking should have suggested (to any reasonable person) that élan alone would be insufficient.

You raise another interesting and controversial issue with the Dahlgren Raid – I’m still not sure what to believe. To commit an assassination order to paper is imprudent, to carry such a document into the field of operation is insanity. If captured it would be the bearer’s dearth warrant. The raid was ostensibly to (A) free Union prisoners in Richmond with a second phase (B) to destroy Richmond and kill Davis and his Cabinet – a rather tall order by any standard. If (B) was the real reason for the raid then the only papers carried into the field should have specified (A) as being the purpose – if captured the bearer could possibly command some respect. There are so many inconsistencies such as Brig.-Gen. Judson Kilpatrick’s statements to Gen. Meade that he saw the orders and authorised the raid but that part (B) was not part of the orders. Other officers associated with the raid also saw the orders but stated that part (B) was included. The situation is further muddied by the removal of the original papers by Stanton from the Confederate Archives and their subsequent disappearance. At the time of the raid Ulric Dahlgren was a one-legged, 21-year old Colonel, just recently promoted from the rank of Captain. That Dahlgren may have been responsible for the (B) section would not be surprising given that in May 1863, while a-d-c to Hooker, he proposed a raid on Richmond with the purpose of destroying as much materiel and infrastructure as possible. The plan was wisely rejected by Hooker. If the document was a Confederate forgery, as has been contended by some, including Dahlgren’s father, then I have yet to see any argument pointing the finger at a particular individual. The letter, rather than the raid, had a much greater impact – the Confederacy made great propaganda use of it and has been offered as part of the reason that precipitated Booth’s action in 1865.. If the document was forged then it certainly fooled Lee who approached Meade on its contents directly – I don’t think Lee was anyone’s fool.

I don’t have much knowledge regarding the Dahlgren raid so I was wondering if anyone has an opinion on Duane P Schultz’ The Dahlgren Affair: Terror and Conspiracy in the Civil War.

Your reference to Mosby is an interesting link to the Dahlgren affair. Had Dahlgren been fighting on the Confederate side I suspect he would have been competing with Mosby for honours. The embarrassing circumstances you refer to I assume are the events surrounding the capture of Brig.-Gen. Edwin Stoughton who was awoken by Mosby with a slap on the rear. Again, like so many Civil War anecdotes, trying to discern fact from fiction without reference to primary sources is extremely frustrating. I think I’ve read four different versions of Lincoln’s supposed response on receiving news of Stoughton’s capture. Similarly there is the story that Mosby’s presence in Fairfax County, where Stoughton happened to be billeted, was that Mosby was in pursuit of Col. Percy Wynham who had insulted him (Wynham had commanded the Second Cavalry Brigade of Gregg’s Third Cavalry Division in the Army of the Potomac – Judson Kilpatrick had command of the First Cavalry Brigade in the same division). Also present at the scene was Antonia Ford who was billeting Stoughton’s mother and sister – Ford had previously passed intelligence to JEB Stuart and was implicated in Stoughton’s capture - something that was later denied by Mosby. Whatever the truth of the matter, the capture or kidnapping of senior military officers was completely different to that of kidnapping politicians. Military officers were currency and could be exchanged whereas politicians had no value at all. Stoughton himself was exchanged as had Mosby before him in 1862. Strangely enough Mosby had been capture while asleep at Beaver Dam Station – although he was wearing something more than a nightshirt, unlike the unfortunate Stoughton.

On the subject of Mosby any direction towards a balanced account of his career would be appreciated. Most of what I’ve seen tends to be adulatory in the extreme. Mosby, like all other soldiers operating in the partisan realm, and in the units sent out to oppose them, did so outside the margins of official military oversight. The normal rules of engagement seem to have been dispensed with in Missouri, Kentucky and occupied Virginia – or so it would appear to my limited acquaintance with the literature.

Thanks again for your insight into this most paradoxical phase of US history,

Graham W.

[Mayerling]

Hi Graham,

I read Schultz's book (which I bought during a village to Maryland in 2002, which included looking at Antietam and Harper's Ferry). It's a neat puzzle, and I agree that the fact the papers were found on Dahlgren's body is quite peculiar. But in fact, it would not surprise me if Lincoln (or Stanton) gave Dahlgren a "wink" to try to carry out such an act. The war had somewhat bogged down in the winter of 1863 in the east. There had been a victory at Chattanooga, but that had nothing to do with Lee's army in Northern Virginia.
The last offense that Lincoln ordered was the pitiful Mine Run offensive that got no where fast. So possibly the President and his military chief considered harsh and unusual methods instead.

My favorite bit in the Schultz account: the image of old Jubal Early studying the surviving papers and accounts and playing Sherlock Holmes. Early was a practicing attorney, so one can see he'd have some training in this. But due to his fierce, never ending detestation of the Yankees any opinion he gave would be dismissed by them.

You are right about the small size of the forces that were supposed to be let loose on Richmond in the raid - too small to free the Libby Prison prisoners and then hunt down Davis and his cabinet. But then Kilpatrick's men never really got deeply into the raid themselves, cutting down the Union forces. Also, had Kilpatrick and his men joined Dahlgren, and reached Libby, they would have had additional reinforcements from the Union prisoners. We might be considering a force that had grown to about five to seven hundred men. Not one to sneeze at any longer.

I suspect that the reason that I believe Early's view is that I am from a later and more cynical period. In the post-war era Lincoln was the martyred President who could do no wrong, so few Americans were willing to give consideration to Early's reasonable findings. But we live in an age where (in the Iraq War conflict) there are grounds to believe our President may have lied about several subjects to convince Congress to approve the invasion - like weapons of mass destruction that never turned up at all. So now Early's viewpoint is really worth considering.

You are right that it was the grabbing of General Stoughton that I had in mind. Years ago there was a Walt Disney mini-series with Helen Hayes' adopted son James MacArthur in it, about the "Grey Ghost" and his foes.
They had the incident with Stoughton, only Stoughton confronts General Fitzhugh Lee (a former classmate) and Stoughton tells a red-faced Lee, "I'm surprised and disappointed at you Fitz!".

Years ago there was a television series about Mosby, but I never saw it. John Banner (Sgt. Schultz on HOGAN'S HEROES) played a Bavarian cavalry officer who rode with Mosby, and whose memoirs were one of the basis for the series.

You are right too about the odd, bitter nature of the border warfare in Missouri/Kansas and Maryland/Virginia. It was also in Kentucky/West Virginia
(an offshoot of it there was the Hatfield - McCoy feud of the 1880s).
I suspect that only the people in those areas at the time, and maybe there descendants, understood the nature of the warfare. One of them actually was defending Quantrill into the 1970s. You will find President Harry Truman's defense of William Quantrill in the book PLAIN SPEAKING. Very odd to see that - I keep imagining Obama defending H.H. Holmes for his innovative use of building material as somewhat close to that one.

Best wishes,

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Sorry, in my first parenthesis I meant to say "visit" to Antietam, etc...not "village".

Jeff

[YankeeSergeant]

Stanton

I would be more inclined to believe Stanton capable of that sort of thing. The idea of assassination as a political tool used by Abraham Lincoln seems out of character for him. I can see Jeff Davis and company believing he was behind it though. Bythe time of the Dahlgren raid the war was going better for the Union than many believed. The raid was an ill-conceived misadventure from the start and if, as the Confederates maintained that the documents carried by Dahlgren were genuine (The UNion maintained they were forgeries) then indeed someone was indulging in a bit of terrorism.. I would also find this out of Ccharacter for Lincoln but maybe not for Stanton and Kilpatrick. Regards,

[revpetero]

American Brutus

With regards the theory that JWB may have survived and the body wasn't his.

1. The man shot by Boston Corbett (not a full shilling by all accounts) had a tattoo the same as JWB and a broken leg the same as booth had.

2. He was also found hiding with David Herold who Booth was on the run with.

3. John Wilkes Booth was highly recognisable and it wouldn't have taken long for somebody to notice it wasn't JWB.

4. If it wasn't JWB then David Herold would have had a cast iron alibi that he wasn't with JWB and used it to avoid the gallows.

I would highly advise American Brutus as a read to anybody. Kaufmann has put together possibly (in my opinion) the ultimate book on the conspiracy and JWB.

In regards to Stanton being the president. The world escaped there, Stanton would have become even more tyranical than Lincoln (again only my own opinion).




Peter

[Mayerling]

Hi Peter,

Yeah, Stanton probably was one of those would-be Presidents (General Leonard Wood was another) we were fortunate enough to avoid over the years. But we shouldn't be too cocky. We did vote in Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Warren Harding and some others who I will leave out.

Best wishes,

Jeff

[jmenges]

Thanks Jeff for your posts and thoughts on Quantrill in Kansas. The border war between Kansas and Missouri is a specialty of mine. An ancestor was shot but survived the sack on Lawrence and the scars of Quantrill's raid are still visible on a few buildings in that town. The personal scars still run deep in this part of the state from those times.

The next time I'm in Lawrence I'll take some pictures of what little remains from the day of the raid, as well as the mass grave for his victims.

As you know, when Quantrill returned to Lawrence (he had earlier taught in a school there) to go on his rampage, he carried with him a lengthy hit-list of prominent citizens he wanted to make sure were murdered. I can very well see that hit-list change into one of politicians in Washington DC, although nothing of the kind was found on his person when he died, days after being wounded.

JM

[Mayerling]

I can see Quantrill having a "little" list of society Yankees that "would never be missed" by the South. On the other hand, it would have been so difficult for him to have gotten anywhere in Washington. Even if he linked up with Mosby or some other eastern Confederate raider, Quantrill's reputation in the South among non-Missourian Confederates was not too popular - there were rumors that his men did not hesitate to be violent to non-Quantrill Confederates (including robbing them).

I imagine that if he had survived the war sooner or later he'd have gone the route of the James and Younger boys and become a regular desperado.

I'll be very curious to see those photographs of the town of Lawrence.

Best wishes,

Jeff