USA HISTORY

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR(1861 1865)

LINCOLNS ASSASSINATION

[SOURCES]
Mary Surratt

(A) ** Held meetings in her boarding house and delivered a gun to Booth

(B) Married to Abraham Lincoln

(C) Heard two men bragging about killing Lincoln and sent them to a farm

(D) Tried to kill secretary of state William Seward

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -After her execution for her participation in the assassination conspiracy, subsequent owners continued to maintain the property as a boarding house. In 1925, then-owner Irvan Schwarztman converted the first floor of the dwelling into a commercial space and added show windows at the street level.

Concept note-2: -It was a conspiracy. Around 2 A.M. on April 15, 1865, members of the District of Columbia police visited the Surratt boarding house inquiring about John Wilkes Booth. By now the police were aware that Booth’s plan was to shoot the president while a second gunman tried to assassinate the Vice-President.

Concept note-3: -While debate still rages over the role Mary and her boardinghouse played in Lincoln’s demise, it is widely accepted that she hosted and possibly attended meetings about the conspiracy convened there by John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt. (Mary herself denied any involvement during her trial.)

Concept note-4: -Booth and other conspirators meet at Gautier’s Restaurant at 252 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington to plan the kidnapping of President Lincoln. The plan calls for Lincoln to be taken to Richmond, where he would be held until exchanged for Confederate prisoners-of-war.