The well-known story of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth is that he was a crazed lone gunman who operated with a small band of conspirators loyal to him — and much of the true story is detailed for the first time in a best-selling new book. Those who will not be defeated, The case is much more sinister and involves a shadowy, well-planned, well-financed and well-organized group made up of numerous individuals with direct ties to the Confederate government: the Confederate Secret Service.
This article reveals the opening chapters of a complex plot to kidnap Lincoln, part of a larger operation by the Secret Service to use novel unconventional tactics to help the Confederacy survive the war. As with most rebellions, the South did not need to win the war, they just needed to survive.
Far from being a madman, Booth was a handsome, popular 26-year-old actor known for his sharp intellect and charismatic personality. On October 18, 1864, he crossed into Canada on the ridiculous pretext of upgrading his stage costume. Instead, he checked into Room 150 of Montreal's St. Lawrence Hall Hotel, the unofficial Northern headquarters of the Confederate Secret Service, and conspired with other Confederate agents. Booth's presence was part of a larger irregular warfare campaign that included election interference, press influence operations, riots, and a campaign of political influence and terror unleashed on the North.
The Confederate Secret Service was a dynamic but informal arm of the Confederate government, created overnight and run by a relatively small number of talented people. Decades ahead of their time, these shadowy warriors specialized in everything from novel spy gadgets like time bombs to influencing elections. They helped write the 1864 Copperhead-majority Democratic Party platform (which ended the war with an armistice). Much of the organization remains shrouded in secrecy, as its files and records were deliberately burned in the final days of the war.
George Nicholas Sanders, a political operative for the Confederate Secret Service, checked into St. Lawrence Hall on October 19th in room 169, just a few steps from Booth. Sanders was an advocate of the “dagger theory,” which had circulated in Europe before the war as a justification for tyrannical murder. Three reliable witnesses saw the two together: Wilkes, “the most handsome man in America,” and the piratical Sanders, fat and restless, who always smoked his cigars “hard and incessantly.” “They were talking in confidences and drinking together. I saw them go into Dowry's saloon. [hotel bar] “We had drinks together,” one man recalled under oath.
After meeting with Sanders, Booth went to a billiard room next door to Dooley's Bar, which catered to a Confederate clientele and served Mint Julip all year round, where talk of politics swirled and Booth is said to have exclaimed, “It didn't make much difference!” [who was elected]heads or tails, Abe's contract was about to expire, and whether he won or not, he was going to fail.” Booth later boasted, “Do you know that I am developing the sharpest play that has ever been made in America? I can win the biggest game on the side of…. You'll be hearing about double caroms soon.”
Just a day before the meeting, Confederate saboteurs crossed the border and raided the town of St. Albans, Vermont, in one of many ingenious covert operations designed by the Confederate Secret Service to damage the Union. They raided three banks and stole more than $200,000. The raid was intended to create an incident that would draw British troops sympathetic to the South to the Confederate side. The Confederates also hoped that the raid would encourage the Union to station more troops on the border in preparation for future raids. The raiders nearly became an international incident when local posse groups of Northern townspeople pursued them as they fled to Canada. However, Canadian authorities collected about a dozen prisoners and recovered and returned more than $80,000 in stolen gold. From Canada, the Confederate Secret Service carried out more daring operations, including a plot to burn down New York City and a crude biological warfare operation.
According to the St. Lawrence Hall guest book, another important Confederate Secret Service operative checked in during Booth's stay: John Harrison Surratt. He became a key member of Booth's team and one of the South's most important operatives. The 23-year-old theology student turned Confederate spy stayed at the hotel frequently; the guest and arrival books are filled in by his name and under various pseudonyms more than ten times. After his father's death, he became postmaster and innkeeper at Surratt's Tavern in Clinton, Maryland. His mother, Mary, operated a boarding house in Washington, DC. Both destinations were hideouts for the Confederate Secret Service.
Sarah Antoinette Slater, a spy nicknamed “The Frenchwoman,” often accompanied Surratt. A slender woman in her twenties with dark eyes and fair skin, she volunteered for the Secret Service when she grew tired of sitting around waiting for her husband to return from the war. She was involved in some of the Secret Service's most important missions. A few months later, for example, Slater assisted the St. Albans raiders who were arrested by Canadian authorities. She often wore a veil, spoke perfect French, and secretly transported documents from Richmond that said the raiders were not criminals but agents working for the government who had halted their extradition to the United States.
Booth's diary records the planning of the Confederate Secret Service: “For six months we [Lincoln]”Capturing the President would be more advantageous than killing him,” Booth wrote in early April 1865, and traced the origins of the plot to his visit to Montreal in October, explaining that capturing the President could give him political leverage in negotiations, and capturing a Federal leader could destabilize Federal operations and war plans.
The larger story is told in my new bestselling book. The Unconquered: The Untold Story of Lincoln's Special Forces, Mosby's Ranger Hunt, and the Shadow War that Shaped American Special Operations. This book reveals the drama of irregular guerrilla warfare that changed the course of the Civil War, including the story of Lincoln's special forces, who, wearing Confederate gray uniforms, pursued Mosby and the Confederate Rangers from 1863 until the end of the war at Appomattox. It is a story never before told, and one that will shape the founding of modern U.S. special operations in World War II and beyond. full The Story of the Confederate Secret Service His connections to John Wilkes Booth and his involvement in the Lincoln assassination.
Book Cover The Unvanquished Author: Patrick K. McDonnell
John Singleton Mosby and his Rangers, in conjunction with potential Confederate kidnappers, including preacher spy Captain Thomas Nelson Conrad, were called in to identify and guard an escape route from Washington to Richmond. In Lafayette Park, “a stone's throw from the White House,” Conrad observed, “We recorded the comings and goings of the officials, what time he was going out, the number of guards, if any, and every other detail…. We had to decide at what point it would be most expedient to seize the carriage and capture Mr. Lincoln, and then whether to travel with him through Maryland to the lower Potomac and cross the upper Potomac, or to hand the prisoners over to Mosby's Confederates for transportation to Richmond. It required many days of careful work and observation to secure the points necessary to arrive at a proper conclusion on all these matters…. We scouted the country quite thoroughly…. Finally, we decided to take the lower Potomac route.”
After the assassination, Booth took the same route to escape from Washington to Virginia, which included assistance from Confederate intelligence officer Dr. Samuel Mudd, using a secret route established by the Confederate Secret Service to get from Washington through southern Maryland. This book provides detailed research, original documents, and sworn testimony to document these connections, offering a new perspective on the Civil War.
It is unclear when the assassination option was introduced, but the evidence of John Wilkes Booth's Confederate connections is undeniable. George Sanders, later based in London, The Daily Telegraph The reporter predicted that the Confederate Secret Service would carry out a secret mission that would “stun the world.”
Patrick K. O'Donnell is a bestselling and acclaimed military historian and expert on elite military forces. He is the author of thirteen books, including a new bestselling book on the Civil War. The Unconquered: The Untold Story of Lincoln's Special Forces, Mosby's Ranger Hunt, and the Shadow War that Shaped American Special Operations, It is currently on display in Barnes & Noble stores nationwide. His latest in-person and virtual free–To–attend event On September 18th at the International Spy Museum. O'Donnell's other bestsellers include: Must-Haves, Unknown Peopleand Washington ImmortalsO'Donnell served as a combat historian for a Marine rifle platoon during the Battle of Fallujah and is a frequent speaker on espionage, special operations and counterinsurgency. He has served as a historical consultant on DreamWorks' award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers, as well as documentaries produced by the BBC, the History Channel and Discovery. PatrickKODonnell.com translation:
