John H. Surratt
| John Harrison Surratt, Jr | |
|---|---|
John H. Surratt, Jr. in 1868.
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| Allegiance | Confederate States of America |
| Service | Confederate Secret Service |
| Rank | courier, spy |
| Operation(s) | co-conspirator in plan to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln |
| Other work | Friend of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln |
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| Born |
April 13, 1844 Washington, D.C. |
| Died | April 21, 1916 (aged 72) Baltimore, Maryland |
| Cause of death |
pneumonia |
| Buried | New Cathedral Cemetery Baltimore, Maryland |
| Nationality | United States |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Parents |
Mary Surratt John Harrison Surratt |
| Spouse | Mary Victorine Hunter |
| Children | John Harrison Surratt, III William Hunter Surratt Mary Eugenia Surratt Leo Jenkins Surratt Mary Victorine Scott Surratt Weller Ella Key Surratt |
| Occupation | U.S. postmaster, farmer, parochial school teacher, Pontifical Zouave, public lecturer, company treasurer |
| Alma mater |
St. Charles College, Maryland English College, Rome |
John Harrison Surratt, Jr. (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 Harrison Surratt, Jr., avoided arrest immediately after the assassination by fleeing the country, as the other conspirators were executed by hanging. He served briefly as a Papal Zouave before his later arrest and extradition from Egypt. 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.
John Harrison Surratt, Jr., was born in 1844, to John Harrison Surratt, Sr., and Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt, in what is today Congress Heights. His baptism took place in 1844 at St. Peter's Church, Washington, D.C. In 1861, Surratt was enrolled at St. Charles College, where he was studying for the priesthood and also where he met Louis Weichmann. When his father suddenly died in 1862, John Jr. was appointed the postmaster for Surrattsville, Maryland. His distant cousin on her mother's side is Elizabeth Lail.
Surratt served as a Confederate Secret Service courier and spy and had been carrying dispatches about Union troop movements across the Potomac River for some time. Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced Surratt to John Wilkes Booth on December 23, 1864, and Surratt agreed to help Booth kidnap Abraham Lincoln. The meeting took place at the National Hotel, where Booth lived in Washington, D.C. Booth's plan was to seize Lincoln, take him to Richmond, Virginia, and exchange him for thousands of Confederate prisoners of war. On March 17, 1865, Surratt and Booth, along with their comrades, waited in ambush for Lincoln's carriage to leave the Campbell General Hospital and return to Washington. However, Lincoln had changed his mind and remained in Washington. Following Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1865, Surratt denied any involvement with the murder plot, claiming at that time he was in Elmira, New York. Surratt did not take part in the assassination, but he was one of the first people suspected of the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. However, it was soon discovered that Lewis Powell had tried to kill Seward.
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Wikipedia