Mary Surratt

Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the United States federal government, was hanged on July 7, 1865 for conspiracy related to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Her last words were "Please don't let me fall". She was the mother of John Surratt, also involved in the conspiracy.

Mary was a widow and mother of three children. Her older brother, Zadoc Jenkins, was arrested by Union forces for trying to prevent "occupying" Federal soldier from voting in the Maryland elections that gave Lincoln a second term; Her husband operated a tavern and post office, also the polling place, at a crossroads that was known as Surrattsville now Clinton, Maryland. After his death, she rented the tavern and farm to John Lloyd and set up a boarding house in Washington, D.C.. This house was the site of meetings between her son and other Lincoln conspirators including John Wilkes Booth. Her son was actively involved in the earlier plot to kidnap the President but he was not in Washington at the time of the assassination.

On the day of the attack, Mary rode out to her tavern with another boarder, a young War Dept clerk who was a friend of John Surratt. Although Mary claimed to have made the journey to collect back rent owed to her by Lloyd, her boarder later testified against her saying she had told the inn keeper to "ready the shooting irons." After injuring his leg in a leap from the Presidential Box at Ford's Theater, Booth did stop at the Surrattsville Tavern along with companion David Herold. The inn keeper gave them a carbine and field glasses and they proceeded to travel south, helped by many of the same southern-sympathizers who aided John Surratt in his activities as a courier for the Confederacy.

While she was being questioned by police in her boarding house, Lewis Payne, the former Confederate raider who attempted to assassinate Secretary Seward, appeared at her door, linking her further to the conspiracy.

Held in military custody under sweltering conditions, Mary and the other prisoners had their heads enclosed in padded canvas bags to prevent suicide attempts. It was popularly believed that Mary was on trial as a means of forcing her son to surrender. That did not happen and she was found guilty and sentenced to death. Despite the desperate pleas of her daughter Annie, President Johnson signed her death warrant; there is dispute over whether he ever saw the military judges' recommendation that her sentence be commuted.

Because she and several other of the conspirators were Roman Catholic, there was speculation that the assassination was somehow connected to a Papist plot. There was still fairly rampant anti-Catholic sentiment in the country at that time.

She was executed along with Payne (also known as Powell), Herold (who stayed with Booth until his death in a Virginia tobacco barn), and George Atzerodt (a German immigrant from Port Tobacco, MD, who was tasked with killing Vice President Johnson, a mission he failed to complete).

Her son John was ultimately captured after several years on the lam, including a stint as a Papal Zouave. He was tried but found not guilty and traveled the lecture circuit in subsequent years.

Her boarding house still stands, it is now a Chinese restaurant, and her tavern is a historical site run by the Surratt Society.

External links

• Mary Surratt (http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln26.html)
• Surratt Society (http://www.surratt.org/index.html)