Existing comment:
The Hiding of the Guns:
In the fall of 1864, the Surratt family became involved with John Wilkes Booth in a plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. Following an aborted attempt on the afternoon of March 17, 1865, two Spencer repeating carbines and other supplies were brought here by John Surratt, Jr., David Herold, and George Atzerodt -- three members of Booth's gang.
The items were brought to this room, and the carbines were slid back horizontally in the space seen here between the floor of the adjoining bedroom and the ceiling of the downstairs dining room. There they stayed until midnight on April 14, 1865.
Fleeing Washington after shooting Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, John Wilkes Booth and David Herold stopped here briefly to retrieve the weapons. Because his broken leg was making it difficult to maintain balance in the saddle, Booth left one rifle behind with John Lloyd, who was renting the house at that time.
Instead of returning the rifle to its original hiding place, Lloyd tied rope to its barrel and lowered it down vertically between the downstairs walls of the dining room and kitchen. There it remained until Lloyd confessed to one of the authorities that the gun was in the house.
When retrieval was attempted, it was found that the gun had fallen down, and a Col. Cottingham ordered a soldier to take an axe to the dining room wall. That Spencer carbine would be a crucial part of evidence in the case against Mary S. Surratt. |