George
Atzerodt was born in Thurlingen, Germany,
on 12th June, 1835. Eight years later his family emigrated to the
United States and settled in Maryland.
Atzerodt established a carriage repair business with his brother at
Port Tobacco. During the American Civil
War Atzerodt obtained extra money by helping Confederate agents
to cross the Potomac River. One of the men he helped was John
Surratt who invited him to Washington.
While he was in the city he met Mary Surratt
and John Wilkes Booth. Atzerodt stayed
at Surratt's boarding house but was asked to leave after she discovered
that he had been drinking alcohol in his room.
In 1864 John Wilkes Booth devised a scheme
to kidnap Abraham Lincoln in Washington.
The plan was to take Lincoln to Richmond
and hold him until he could be exchanged for Confederate
Army prisoners of war. Others involved in the plot included Atzerodt,
Lewis Powell, John
Surratt, David Herold, Michael
O'Laughlin and Samuel Arnold. Booth
decided to carry out the deed on 17th March, 1865 when Lincoln was
planning to attend a play at the Seventh Street Hospital that was
situated on the outskirts of Washington.
The kidnap attempt was abandoned when Lincoln decided at the last
moment to cancel his visit.
On 9th April, 1865, General Robert E. Lee
surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant
at Appomattox. Two days later Booth attended a public meeting in Washington
where he heard Abraham Lincoln make a
speech where he explained his views that voting rights should be granted
to some African Americans. Booth was furious and decided to assassinate
the president before he could carry out these plans.
John
Wilkes Booth
persuaded most of the people who had been involved in the kidnap plot
to join him in his plan. Booth discovered that on 14th April, Abraham
Lincoln
was planning to attend the evening performance of
Our American Cousin at the Ford Theatre in Washington.
Booth decided he would assassinate Lincoln while Lewis
Powell
would kill the Secretary of State William
Seward. Atzerodt was given the task of murdering Vice President
Andrew
Johnson.
All attacks would take place at approximately 10.15 p.m. that night.
Atzerodt rented a room close Kirkword House where Johnson was staying
on 14th April. He also asked questioned a local bartender about Johnson's
movements. However, unlike John
Wilkes Booth
and Lewis
Powell,
Atzerodt made no attempt to assassinate his intended victim.
When detectives began investigating the murder of Abraham
Lincoln they were soon given the name of Atzerodt as being one
of Booth's close friends. Detective John Lee searched Atzerodt's rented
room and found evidence that he had been involved in the conspiracy
plot.
Atzerodt was arrested on 20th April at the home of his cousin, Hartman
Richer, who lived in Germantown, Maryland. He was charged with being
involved in the conspiracy to murder Lincoln.
On
1st May, 1865, President Andrew
Johnson
ordered the formation of a nine-man military
commission to try the conspirators. It was argued by Edwin
M. Stanton,
the Secretary of War, that the men should be tried by a military court
as Lincoln had been Commander in Chief of the army. Several members
of the cabinet, including Gideon
Welles (Secretary of the Navy), Edward
Bates (Attorney General), Orville
H. Browning (Secretary of the Interior), and Henry
McCulloch (Secretary of the Treasury), disapproved, preferring
a civil trial. However,
James Speed, the Attorney General, agreed
with Stanton and therefore the defendants did not enjoy the advantages
of a jury trial.
The trial began on 10th May, 1865. The military commission included
leading generals such as David Hunter,
Lewis Wallace, Thomas
Harris and Alvin Howe and Joseph
Holt was the government's chief prosecutor. Mary
Surratt, Lewis Powell, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel
Mudd, Michael O'Laughlin, Edman
Spangler and Samuel Arnold were
all charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln. During the trial Holt
attempted to persuade the military commission that Jefferson
Davis
and the Confederate government had been involved in conspiracy.
Joseph
Holt attempted to obscure
the fact that there were two plots: the first to kidnap and the second
to assassinate. It was important for the prosecution not to reveal
the existence of a diary taken from the body of John
Wilkes Booth.
The diary made it clear that the assassination plan dated from 14th
April. The defence surprisingly did not call for Booth's diary to
be produced in court.
On 29th June Atzerodt was found guilty. Atzerodt, along with Mary
Surratt, Lewis Powell
and David
Herold
were hanged at Washington Penitentiary on 7th July, 1865.
Execution of Mary Surratt, Lewis
Powell,
David
Herold
and
George Atzerodt
at Washington Penitentiary on 7th July, 1865.
(1)
Sergeant L. W. Gemmill, testimony before the Military Tribunal
investigating the assassination of President Abraham
Lincoln (17th May, 1865)
I
arrested the prisoner, George A. Atzerodt on the 20th April, about
4 o'clock in the morning, at the house of a man named Richter, near
a place called Germantown. I was sent there for the purpose by Captain
Townsend, with a detail of six men. When I knocked on the door, Richter
asked me twice who it was before he would let me in. I told him to
come and see. When he came to the door I told him I was going to search
the house. He got a light, and taking two men with me, went up the
stairs, where I found Atzerodt lying on the front of the bed. I asked
him his name, and he gave me a name I did not understand, and which
I thought was a fictitious one. I told him to get up and dress himself;
and took him to Mr. Leaman, a loyal man, who knew him. Mr. Leaman
told me he was the man. Atzerodt made no inquiry as to why he was
arrested.
(2)
Marcus Norton, George Robinson, testimony before the Military Tribunal
investigating the assassination of President Abraham
Lincoln (3rd June, 1865)
From about the 10th January until about the 10th March, I was staying
at the National Hotel in Washington. I knew John Wilkes Booth, having
seen him several times in the theatre. I saw the prisoners, George
Atzerodt and Michael O'Laughlin, prior to the inauguration of President
Lincoln. I saw Atzerodt twice and O'Laughlin three or four times,
in conversation with Booth.
(3)
William Doster, the former provost marshal of Washington, defended
George Atzerodt in court. He failed in his attempts on 30th May, 1865,
to persuade the Military Tribunal to allow Atzerodt's original confession
that he made to Captain Frank Monroe to be placed before the court.
William Doster: I wish to submit an application of the prisoner in
writing. This is a proposal on the part of the prisoner, Atzerodt,
that his confessions made to Captain Frank Monroe shall be heard by
this court as testimony in his favour. He asks his statement to be
placed on record, because he has been debarred from calling any other
prisoners who might be his witnesses, for the reason they are his
co-defendants.
Judge Advocate: It is greatly to be deplored that the counsel for
the accused will urge upon the court proposals which they know to
be contrary to law.
(4)
Ben Pittman, The Assassination of
President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators (1865)
Atzerodt is a short, thick-set, round-shouldered, brawny-armed
man with a stupid expression, high cheek-bones, a sallow complexion,
a small grayish-blue eyes, tangled light-brown hair, and straggling
sandy whiskers and mustache.
(5)
Captain Christian Rath, was placed in charge of the execution of Mary
Surratt, Lewis Powell, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael
O'Laughlin, Edman Spangler and
Samuel Arnold. He was later interviewed
about his role in the event.
I was determined to get rope that would not break, for you
know when a rope breaks at a hanging there is a time-worn maxim that
the person intended to be hanged was innocent. The night before the
execution I took the rope to my room and there made the nooses. I
preserved the piece of rope intended for Mrs. Surratt for the last.
I had the graves for the four persons dug just beyond the scaffolding.
I found some difficulty in having the work done, as the arsenal attaches
were superstitious. I finally succeeded in getting soldiers to dig
the holes but they were only three feet deep.
The hanging gave me a lot of trouble. I had read somewhere that when
a person was hanged his tongue would protrude from his mouth. I did
not want to see four tongues sticking out before me, so I went to
the storehouse, got a new white shelter tent and made four hoods out
of it. I tore strips of the tent to bind the legs of the victims.
(6)
William Coxshall, a member of the Veteran Reserve Corps, was assigned
the task of dropping the trapdoor on the left side of the gallows.
The prison door opened and the condemned came in. Mrs. Surratt
was first, near fainting after a look at the gallows. She would have
fallen had they not supported her. Herold was next. The young man
was frightened to death. He trembled and shook and seemed on the verge
of fainting. Atzerodt shuffled along in carpet slippers, a long white
nightcap on his head. Under different circumstances, he would have
been ridiculous.
With the exception of Powell, all were on the verge of collapse. They
had to pass the open graves to reach the gallows steps and could gaze
down into the shallow holes and even touch the crude pine boxes that
were to receive them. Powell was as stolid as if he were a spectator
instead of a principal. Herold wore a black hat until he reached the
gallows. Powell was bareheaded, but he reached out and took a straw
hat off the head of an officer. He wore it until they put the black
bag on him. The condemned were led to the chairs and Captain Rath
seated them. Mrs. Surratt and Powell were on our drop, Herold and
Atzerodt on the other.
Umbrellas were raised above the woman and Hartranft, who read the
warrants and findings. Then the clergy took over talking what seemed
to me interminably. The strain was getting worse. I became nauseated,
what with the heat and the waiting, and taking hold of the supporting
post, I hung on and vomited. I felt a little better after that, but
not too good.
Powell stood forward at the very front of the droop. Mrs. Surratt
was barely past the break, as were the other two. Rath came down the
steps and gave the signal. Mrs. Surratt shot down and I believed died
instantly. Powell was a strong brute and died hard. It was enough
to see these two without looking at the others, but they told us both
died quickly.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
