John Surratt

John Surratt
John Surratt in Papal Zouave uniform
Born	April 13, 1844(1844-04-13) Washington, DC
Died	April 2, 1916 (aged 71) Baltimore, MD
Known for	Participation in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln
Spouse(s)	Mary Victorine Hunter
Parents	Mary Surratt and John Harrison Surratt

John Surratt (April 13, 1844 – April 21, 1916) was accused of plotting with John Wilkes Booth to kidnap U.S. president Abraham Lincoln and suspected of involvement in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. His mother Mary Surratt was convicted of conspiracy and hanged by the United States Federal Government. She owned the boarding house where Booth and fellow conspirators planned the scheme. John Surratt avoided arrest immediately after the assassination by fleeing the country. He served briefly as a Papal zouave before his arrest and extradition. By the time he returned to the United States the statute of limitations had expired on most of the potential charges and he was not convicted.

Early life

John Harrison Surratt, Jr. was born on April 13, 1844, to John Surratt, Sr. and Mary Surratt née Jenkins, in what is today Congress Heights. His christening was in 1844 at St. Peter's Church, Washington, D.C.^[1] In 1861, John Surratt was enrolled at St. Charles College. When his father suddenly died in 1862, John Jr. became the postmaster for Surrattsville, Maryland.

Lincoln kidnapping

Surratt was a Confederate courier and spy who had been carrying dispatches regarding Union troop movements across the Potomac River for some time. Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced Surratt to John Wilkes Booth on 23 December 1864 and Surratt agreed to help Booth kidnap U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Their meeting took place at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C., where Booth resided. Booth's plan was to capture Lincoln, take him to Richmond, Virginia, and trade him for thousands of captured Confederate soldiers. On 17 March 1865, Surratt and Booth, along with others in their scheme, would lie in wait for Lincoln's carriage when he left the Campbell General Hospital and returned to Washington, D.C. Their plans were foiled when Lincoln changed his mind and stayed in Washington to meet with the 140th Indiana Regiment and to present to the governor of Indiana a captured Confederate flag. After Lincoln's assassination, on 14 April 1865, Surratt denied any involvement with the plot, and claimed that at the time he was in Elmira, New York.

Hiding

After the assassination, Surratt fled the U.S. and arrived in Montreal, Canada on 17 April 1865. He traveled east to St. Liboire, where a Catholic priest, Father Charles Boucher, gave him sanctuary. Surratt stayed hidden there throughout the arrest, trial and hanging of his mother, Mary Surratt.

After the trials, Surratt decided to travel to Europe. With the help of Confederate agents Beverly Tucker and Edwin Lee, Surratt booked passage under an alias and landed at Liverpool, England, in September 1865. He served for a brief time in the Ninth Company of the Pontifical Zouaves in the Vatican City under the name John Watson.^[2]

An old friend of Surratt's, Henri Beaumont de Sainte-Marie, recognized him and notified Vatican officials and Rufus King, U.S. minister in Rome. On 7 November 1866, Surratt was arrested and sent to the Velletri prison. He escaped and lived for a while with the Garibaldians who gave him safe passage. Surratt then traveled to the Kingdom of Italy posing as a Canadian citizen named Walters. He booked passage to Alexandria, Egypt, and was arrested there by American officials on 23 November 1866 and extradited. He was sent home on a U.S. Navy warship, Swatara which delivered John Surratt to the Washington Navy Yard in 1867.

Trial

Surratt was tried in a civilian court of the State of Maryland, instead of before a military commission, as his mother and the other conspirators had been. This was necessitated by the recent Supreme Court decision which had declared the trial of civilians before such commissions to be unconstitutional. (Ex Parte Milligan) Judge David Cartter presided over the trial. Edwards Pierrepont conducted the case against Surratt for the government. Surratt's lead attorney, Joseph Habersham Bradley, admitted Surratt's part in plotting to kidnap, but not murder, the president. After two months, Surratt was released after a mistrial (eight voted innocent, four voted guilty). The statute of limitation on charges other than murder had run out, and he was released on $25,000 bail.

Later life

After the trial, Surratt became a model citizen. In 1872 he married a second cousin of Francis Scott Key, Mary Victorine Hunter; they had seven children. He farmed tobacco, taught at the Rockville Female Academy, gave public lectures, served as treasurer of the Old Bay Line steamship company on Chesapeake Bay, and became a teacher at the St. Joseph Catholic School in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Surratt retired from the Old Bay Line in 1914.

Surratt died of pneumonia at the age of 72.

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2008)

Citations

See also

• James W. Pumphrey - Surratt introduced Booth to Pumphrey and Pumphrey supplied Booth's get away horse.

References

• Lincoln and Booth; More Light on the Conspiracy; Winkler, H.Donald; Cumberland House; ISBN-1-58182-342-8
• Manhunt: The Twelve Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer; Swanson, James L.;William Morrow;ISBN-0-06-051849-9
• Lincoln's Avengers; Justice, Revenge, and Reunion after the Civil War; Leonard, Elizabeth D.;W.W. Norton & Co.; ISBN-0-393-32677-2
• The Last Lincoln Conspirator; Jampoler, Andrew C. A.; Naval Institute Press; ISBN-1-59114-407-6

External links

• John Surratt
• Text of John Surratt's public lecture giving his version of the conspiracy
• samuelmudd.com
• A map and timeline of John Surratt's two year flight and eventual capture.