Digging up the Lincoln Conspirators

I know that it might be a bit odd but cemeteries have always been fascinating to me.  I think the interest began when my fourth grade class visited the local Confederate cemetery.  Ever since, whenever I visit a cemetery I will wander among the tombstones and read the epitaphs.  They can often tell a remarkable story.

One of my favorite lessons that I have taught involves doing a cemetery investigation in Concord, Mass in which students try to piece together how people wanted to be remembered, or at least how other people wanted to remember them.  Among some of the most robust statements there is one lady whose epitaph simply says "She was very punctual".  Boy, they must have been really reaching for a compliment for that lady!

When I embark on one of my road trips, a visit to a cemetery is sorta a given.  Having spent the summer in and around DC giving tours, I decided to spend some time hunting down the final resting places of some of the Lincoln conspirators.  It turned out to be a much more difficult process than I had imagined.    An insane line of thunderstorms moved through the area that weekend, knocking out power to millions and uprooting thousands of trees.

John Wilkes Booth was the one I really wanted to find and I set out early one morning to find his grave, or at least the Booth family plot at Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.  After battling the insane traffic I arrived and was greeted with a "closed" sign.  Throughout the entire cemetery there were many downed trees and they closed it due to safety issues.  Luckily, one of the office workers saw me standing outside the gate and I convinced her to let me in.  Yeah, I pulled the sad teacher card.  No shame though......it DID work.

I was under strict instructions to not go anywhere else in the cemetery which was really hard to abide by since 2 other Lincoln conspirators are also buried there.  Nonetheless, I decided not to disobey them and found the Booth plot.  I found it a bit strange that people have covered some of graves with Lincoln pennies.  Not really sure of the meaning, but I found the same type of remembrance left at the site where Booth was caught and killed.

On the journey, I also found the graves of David Herold, Mary Surratt and Lewis Payne(Powell).  Check out the video to take a look at the hunt.

Gravely Speaking : Anne Royall

Have you ever dealt with a person that was always in everyones business? Someone that was always causing trouble?   Today, we begin a series where we "dig" up the stories on some interesting figures in our history.

Most people today would have no idea who Anne Royall was, but when she was alive she was both revered and despised.  She is most widely known as being America's first professional newswoman and her life was characterized by blowing the door open on government policies and corruption.  I guess she could also be referred to as the nations earliest gossip queen.

Royall was a very small lady with extremely blue and piercing eyes.  People often recalled shielding themselves from her when passing by to escape her soul piercing gave.  In 1829, she was arrested for being a "common scold" meaning that she was deemed a public nuisance.  One practice of the day was referred to as "ducking" in which the deviant was put into a chair like contraption and dunked into a river or pond.  Royall was spared this punishment, most likely because of her advanced age, and was fined 10 bucks.

One of the most interesting legends about Anne Royall involves her forced interview of John Quincy Adams.  According to the story, Adams was bathing in the Potomac River and Royall sat on his clothes until he answered her questions.

In 1831 she began publishing her own newspaper known as "Paul Pry" in which she handed out blistering attacks on those in authority and anyone else she felt generally annoyed with.  The newspaper continued in various forms until her death in 1854.


Anne Royall is buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C.

Odd how things work out

Cowpens National Monument

I have spent a good deal of the last month on the road gathering information for the website.  Most of my travels were in and around Virginia so naturally there was lots of Civil War history to learn about.  As I was sifting through all my material I became very aware of this.

I don't want the website to be just about the Civil War, although it is of huge fascination to me.  As I was beginning my journey back home via Atlanta I kept scanning the tan signs along the road in hopes of finding a new location to study.  While going through South Carolina I remembered that the Revolutionary War battle of Cowpens was fought there.  Sadly, I remembered this because of the movie The Patriot(the historian in me cringes), but nonetheless it sparked my interest when the movie came out.  For those of you not very aware of Cowpens, it was a battle in which the tide of the the war began to turn in favor of the Americans in South Carolina.

Upon entering South Carolina I stopped at their Welcome Center.  Yeah, I have this weird thing about stopping at the Welcome Center in each state.  Kinda my own little OCD thing.  Anyway, Cowpens had flickered in my mind as I was driving but for some reason I really thought that it was located closer to the coastline which was at least a few hours away from where I was.  It definitely would not have fit into my itinerary since I was supposed to be in Atlanta in just a few hours.

Little Paul with Cornwallis

I guess my intuition kicked in because as I was leaving the Welcome Center it just dawned on me to plug the location of Cowpens into my GPS.  Luckily I did, because as it turns out, the battlefield was only about 15 miles away!  My historical heart leapt for joy because it has always been a place I wanted to visit.  To make matters even better, there were all sorts of special events going on that day because they were having a special fireworks display that evening.  Not only did I get to tour the battlefield, i also got to see a firing demonstration and had the chance to meet a man portraying General Cornwallis.


Pretty amazing how things can turn out huh?  I shot a little mini field trip there that will go up on our website in the near future so be sure to check back.

Crotch Powder and Candles?

I will readily admit that I am a gift shop junkie.  I am very well aware of some historians who cringe at the thought of placing gift shops at historic sites, but in most cases I find their products helpful in teaching history.  Usually they are filled with books, postcards, and reproductions.  Pretty standard stuff really.

Manassas battlefield is another story though.  It was at Manassas that two major Civil War battles were fought, the first being one of the opening engagements of the war.  It is a wonderful and impactful place to visit.  The opening film in the visitor center is top notch and the park rangers are very helpful.  Upon entering the gift shop I spotted the usual wares but then my eyes fell upon something called "crotch powder" which was apparently used to calm the chafing of the fine young soldiers.  For 15 bucks you too can march in comfort!

I can sort of forgive the crotch powder a little bit since it probably does have some historical meaning but I laughed and then grimaced a bit at the next two items I saw on the shopping spree.  I am rarely without chapstick but I never thought I would actually find some on a battlefield.  Yes at Manassas you can support either side of the conflict with their official Civil War lip balm.  You yankee northerners can slather some Billy Yank on your lips or if you are a Confederate you can pucker up for some Johnny Reb mint julep flavored balm.  I guess if you are confused about where they have their allegiance, all you have to do is kiss them to find out.

The other perplexing items were the candles. When I think of the death and carnage that resulted from these two battles, pretty scents do not come to mind, but if you want to bring the experience of battle home with you, there are some choices to be made.  Are you partial to First Manassas?  If so, then you can fill your home with the scent of honeysuckle.  Of course maybe you are more inclined to the even deadlier Second Manassas. In that case you can look forward to your home smelling of cotton blossom.  Either way, war smells delightful!

Now I am sure that these items make the NPS money which I would never criticize.  It just seems a little bizarre to me and frankly I am just a bit bizarre myself which is quite telling.  The question I sometimes ponder is where does it go from here?  I mean can you imagine a place like Aushwitz selling little trinkets?

The Strange World of Coke

On my way back to Tampa some colleagues of mine attended a conference in Atlanta.  I met them at the airport and we decided to spend one day just seeing the sites around Atlanta.  We all figured that World of Coke was something we would all find interesting.

Seriously, what is this?

Well, I sorta figured that we would learn a whole lot about the origin of Coke and about John Pemberton.  Nothing could have prepared us for the sheer weirdness of the place.  The opening film was about some strange universe where a giant lipped creature fell in love with a dandelion and they spent the whole fifteen minutes of the movie singing about it.  I truly felt like we were in some sort of twisted Willy Wonka nightmare.

After we partially recovered from the oddness of the opening film we decided to see the infamous Coke vault where the secret formula is kept under heavy security.  It starts out with everyone entering "the vault" and they do all these odd scans of your body and once they clear you to enter you are inundated with all kinds of flashing screens attempting to tell how Coke came about.  Being a person with some major attention issues, I felt like my head was going to explode.

At the end we were all shut up in some circular theatre and told to all gather in the middle.  Another bizarre film played for a couple of  minutes where images of Coke flashed all around us.  It all felt very subliminal and then all of a sudden the screen dropped and smoke filled the room.  Taking up the whole wall was the actual vault.  They encouraged pictures but if you got too close, alarms started going off and a booming voice warned you to get away.

Honestly, it was an interesting experience and I truly enjoyed getting to taste the Cokes from around the world, but I do not think it is one of those places I will be dying to visit again.  By the way, if you go be sure to try the Italian Coke known as Beverly and send me your thoughts.

I'm gonna find you Mrs. Surratt!

After my visit to Congressional Cemetery, I still wanted to track down one of the most controversial and debated of the conspirators.  Mary Surratt was convicted of taking part in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln and others.  She became the first woman to ever be executed by the federal government.

A lot of mystery has swirled around her guilt or innocence for the last 143 years.  Some feel she was simply caught up in the hysteria and vengeance around wanting to make someone pay for the crime, while others believe that she played a vital role in the plot and deserved what she got.

The 2.5 mile hike in the blazing heat was brutal!  No Metro stops close by and no cab was willing to pick up a stinking sweaty tourist.  Anyway, after getting to Mt. Olivet Cemetery, I asked the staff for assistance in finding her gravesite.   I was then informed that due to a request by the descendants of Mary Surratt, the staff was no longer allowed to tell anyone where the gravesite was.  I seriously thought they were playing with me, but apparently the family was not happy with all the attention surrounding The Conspirator film.

Despite the run around from the cemetery staff, I checked out Find a Grave and was excited to see that they had the location listed.  Despite the directions it still took me forever to find the grave.  It turns out that I have a horrible sense of direction.  The grave itself is very simple and only says "Mrs. Surratt".

I found you!  You can't run and you certainly can't hide

After relishing in finally tracking her down, the realization of hiking back over 2 and a half miles to the Metro sunk in.  To those people who had to sit next to me on the way home, I am so sorry.  I truly smelt of death and sweat.

The (almost) Curse of Booth

Today I decided to get up early and try to hunt down where John Wilkes Booth is buried.  After battling the traffic and a very testy Garmin, I finally arrived in Baltimore at Greemount Cemetery and was greeted with a sign that said they were closed due to damage from the storm last Friday. 

Destruction!

My heart sank but luckily a nice lady came out to the gate after apparently sensing my dismay from the office window.  With just a little bit of begging, she went back in to see if she could get permission to let me in.  I'm really glad that I did not have to resort to crying.  Trust me, I probably would have after dealing with I-95 traffic around DC!  The sweet lady(sorry, I never got her name.  Really bad about that) came back out and said they would let me in as long as I only went to the Booth grave.

As I trudged through the cemetery I was shocked to see just how much damage the storm had caused.  Limbs(not the human kind) were all over the place and some trees were virtually split in half from the force of the wind and most likely some lightning. 

The Booth family plot is pretty small and contains the remains of various members of the Booth family, including John Wilkes, his father, mother and some siblings.  John Wilkes Booth is in an unmarked section of the plot due to family request.  Although the exact location remains unknown, I did find it interesting that some people placed Lincoln pennies on one marker in the corner of the plot.  I'm not exactly sure what it means though.  My best guess is that it could be a protest to Booth, but then again it could be a symbol to praise Booth for what he did.  Strangely enough there are still some people out there that think Booth is a hero for assassinating President Lincoln.  When I visited the site where Booth was killed I found that people also left pennies there.  Hmmmmm.....

Since I am on a Lincoln assassination kick, I might try and go find the graves of other conspirators tomorrow that are buried around DC.  Thank you very much to the kind and courteous staff at Greenmount Cemetery for allowing me in today.  They taught me a very valuable lesson to call ahead before making hitting the road. 


Another tragedy almost struck as I was getting ready to leave the cemetery.  As I was walking to my car I suddenly realized that I had left Paul at the Booth grave.  I ran back and discovered that the poor guy had fallen off and was lying face down on the plot.  I'm so glad I caught my mistake in time because it would have been pretty embarrassing to have to knock on the gate and tell them I left my doll, uh historical action figure.