Louis J. Weichmann
| Louis J. Weichmann | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
September 29, 1842 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Died | June 5, 1902 (aged 59) Anderson, Indiana |
| Nationality | German American |
| Occupation | Clerk |
| Known for | Testifying against Mary Surratt |
Louis J. Weichmann (September 29, 1842 – June 5, 1902) was one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution in the trial of the alleged conspirators involved in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. Previously, he had been also a suspect in the conspiracy because of his association with Mary Surratt's family.
Weichmann was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of German immigrants. The family surname was originally Wiechmann, but as in the case of many who emigrated to the United States, the name underwent several phonetic spelling changes. His father Johann was a Lutheran, and his mother Maria was a Catholic. Johann Weichmann was a tailor by trade, and he moved with his wife and their five children first from the vicinity of Baltimore to Washington D.C., and later to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Louis claims to have attended Central High School in the autobiographical work mentioned below. Central High School records show Louis Weichmann was a member of the 36th graduating class. He was admitted July 1856 and left in Sept. 1858 with a Partial Course Diploma. He wrote in his autobiographical work, A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865, that he desired to pursue a career as a pharmacist, but, at the behest of his mother, he reluctantly agreed to study for the Roman Catholic priesthood. At the age of seventeen he entered the seminary at St. Charles College in Maryland. There he met and befriended a fellow seminarian, John Surratt, Jr. This friendship was to later have profound consequences for both of them.
In 1862, a year after the outbreak of the American Civil War, both Louis Weichmann and John Surratt, Jr., left the seminary without becoming priests. Weichmann went to Washington, D.C., where he taught school for two years at St. Matthew's Institute for Boys. After leaving this position in 1864, he became a clerk in the Department of War, headed by Secretary Edwin Stanton. John Surratt, Jr. had in the meantime become a courier and agent for the Confederacy, working out of Union territory. As a result of his earlier friendship with John Surratt Jr., Weichmann took lodgings in the boarding house of Surratt's mother, Mary Surratt, in Washington D.C. This brought him into contact with the major conspirators involved in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. According to Weichmann's testimony at the trial of the conspirators, John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, Lewis Payne, George Atzerodt, John Surratt, Jr., and others continually met at Mary Surratt's boarding house prior to the assassination.
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