The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt
John Stuart Mill · en
At length, in the afternoon of the 26th--Wednesday, the second week after
the assassination--Col. Conger arrived with the news of the death of Booth
and the capture of Herold on the early morning of that day; bringing with
him the diary and other articles found on the person of Booth, which were
delivered to Secretary Stanton at his private residence. In the dead of
the ensuing night, the body of Booth, sewed up in an old army blanket,
arrived, attended by the dog-like Herold; and the living and the dead were
immediately transferred to the _Montauk_. Herold was double ironed, balled
and chained and hooded. The body of Booth was identified; an autopsy held;
the shattered bone of his neck taken out for preservation as a relic (it
now hangs from the ceiling of the Medical Museum into which Ford's Theatre
was converted, or did before the collapse); and then, with the utmost
secrecy and with all the mystery which could be fabricated, under the
direction of Col. Baker, the corpse was hurriedly taken from the vessel
into a small boat, rowed to the Arsenal grounds, and buried in a grave dug
in a large cellar-like apartment on the ground floor of the Old
Penitentiary; the door was locked, the key removed and delivered into the
hands of Secretary Stanton. No effort was spared to conceal the time,
place and circumstances of the burial. False stories were set afloat by
Baker in furtherance of such purpose. Stanton seemed to fear an escape or
rescue of the dead man's body; and vowed that no rebel or no rebel
sympathizer should have a chance to glory over the corpse, or a fragment
of the corpse, of the murderer of Lincoln.
CHAPTER II.
THE BUREAU OF MILITARY (IN)JUSTICE.