Louis
Weichmann, the son of a German immigrant
tailor, was born in Maryland in 1843. The family moved to Philadelphia
and Weichmann attended the city's Central High School.
A Roman Catholic,Weichmann entered St. Charles College when he was
sixteen with the intention of becoming a priest. While at the college
in Maryland he met John Surratt. Both
men decided to abandon their plans of entering the church and moved
to Washington where Weichmann found
work as a schoolteacher.
Soon after the start of the American Civil
War Weichmann went to work as a clerk in the rapidly expanding
War Department. In November, 1864, Weichmann became a lodger at the
boarding house owned by Mary Surratt,
the mother of John Surratt. This brought
Weichmann into contact with other friends of the family including
John Wilkes Booth.
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln,
Weichmann, as an associate of John Wilkes
Booth, was arrested and threatened with being charged with the
crime. Later it was claimed that Weichmann was offered a deal and
that in return for his testimony in court, he would be allowed to
go free.
At the trial John M. Lloyd told the court
that on the Tuesday before the assassination Weichmann and Mary
Surratt visited him. Lloyd claimed that Mrs. Surratt "told
me to have those shooting-irons ready that night, there would be some
parties who would call for them. She gave me something wrapped in
a piece of paper, which I took up stairs, and found to be a field-glass.
She told me to get two bottles of whisky ready, and that these things
were to be called for that night."
When Weichmann testified he claimed he could not hear what Mary
Surratt said to John M. Lloyd as
they spoke in hushed tones. He did tell the court that he had seen
John Wilkes Booth, Lewis
Powell, George Atzerodt and David
Herold in Mrs. Surratt's house together. This supported the prosecution's
claim that the boarding house was where the assassination plot had
been planned.
Weichmann also testified that he was with John
Wilkes Booth in Washington on
23rd December when he had met Samuel Mudd,
another man charged with conspiring to assassinate Abraham
Lincoln. This was important evidence as Mudd denied that he had
met Booth in Washington.
On 29th June, 1865, Mary Surratt, Lewis
Powell, George Atzerodt and David
Herold were also found guilty of the conspiracy to murder Abraham
Lincoln and were hanged at Washington Penitentiary eight days
later. It has been argued by historians that Weichmann's testimony
in court had been crucial in the conviction of Mrs. Surrett.
After the trial Edwin M. Stanton, the
Secretary of War, and Joseph Holt, the
government prosecutor, helped get Weichmann the post as clerk of the
Philadelphia Custom House. Weichmann lost the job in November, 1866,
when President Andrew Johnson decided
to purge people that held jobs obtained via the Republican Party.
When Ulysses Grant became president, Edwin
M. Stanton arranged for Weichmann to get his job back with the
Philadelphia Custom House. When Grover
Cleveland and the Democratic Party
came to power in 1886, Weichmann was sacked again. He now moved to
Indiana where he established the Anderson Business College. Louis
Weichmann died in 1902.
(1)
Louis Weichmann, testimony
before the Military Tribunal (13th
May, 1865)
On
Friday, the day of the assassination, I went to Howard’s stable,
about half-past 2 o’clock, having been sent there by Mrs. Surratt
for the purpose of hiring a buggy. I drove
her to Surrattsville the same day, arriving there about half-past
4. We stopped at the house of Mr. Lloyd, who keeps a tavern there.
Mrs. Surratt went into the parlor. I remained outside a portion of
the time, and went into the bar-room a part of the time, until Mrs.
Surratt sent for me. We left about half-past 6. Surrattsville is about
a two-hour drive to the city, and is about ten miles from the Navy
Yard bridge. Just
before leaving the city, as I was going to the door, I saw Mr. Booth
in the parlor, and Mrs. Surratt was speaking with him. They were alone.
Some
time in March last, I think, a man calling himself Wood came to Mrs.
Surratt’s and inquired for John H. Surratt. I went to the door
and told him Mr. Surratt was not at home; he thereupon
expressed a desire to see Mrs. Surratt, and I introduced him, having
first asked his name. That is the man (pointing
to Lewis Powell). He stopped at the house all night. He had supper
served up to him in my room; I took it to him from the kitchen. He
brought no baggage; he had a black overcoat on, a black dress-coat,
and gray pants. He remained till the next morning, leaving by the
earliest train for Baltimore. About three weeks afterward he called
again, and I again went to the door. I had forgotten his name, and,
asking him, he gave the name of Powell I ushered him into the parlor,
where were Mrs. Surratt, Miss Surratt, and Miss Honora Fitzpatrick.
He remained three days that time. He represented himself as a Baptist
preacher; and said that he had been in prison for about a week; that
he had taken the oath of allegiance, and was now going to become and
good and loyal citizen. Mrs.
Surratt and her family are Catholics. John H. Surratt is a Catholic,
and was a student of divinity at the same college as myself. I heard
no explanation given why a Baptist preacher should seek hospitality
at Mrs. Surratt’s; they only looked upon it as odd, and laughed
at it. Mrs. Surratt herself remarked that he was a great looking Baptist
preacher.
I met the prisoner, David E. Herold, at Mrs. Surratt’s on one
occasion; I also met him when we visited the theater when Booth played
Pescara; and I met him at Mrs. Surratt’s, in the country, in
the spring of 1863, when I first made Mrs. Surratt’s acquaintance.
I met him again in the summer of 1864, at Piscataway Church. These
are the only times, to my recollection, I ever met him. I do not know
either of the prisoners, Arnold or O’Laughlin.
(2)
John Surratt,
lecture on the Abraham
Lincoln conspiracy at Rockville, Maryland (6th
December, 1870)
I
proclaim it here and before the world that Louis J. Weichmann was
a party to the plan to abduct President Lincoln. He had been told
all about it, and was constantly importuning me to let him become
an active member. I refused, for the simple reason that I told him
that he could neither ride a horse nor shoot a pistol, which was a
fact.
I have very little to say of Louis J. Weichmann. But I do pronounce
him a base-born perjurer; a murderer of the meanest hue! Give me a
man who can strike his victim dead, but save me from a man who, through
perjury, will cause the death of an innocent person. Double murderer!!!!
Hell possesses no worse fiend than a character of that kind. Away
with such a character. I leave him in the pit of infamy, which he
has dug for himself, a prey to the lights of his guilty conscience.
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