THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL--THE GRAND REVIEWS.
Andrew Johnson took the oath of office as President of the United
States, administered to him by Chief Justice Chase, at his room in
the Kirkwood House. He sent word to Mrs. Lincoln to occupy the
White House so long as might be agreeable to her, and he accepted
the hospitality of Mr. Sam Hooper, a merchant prince, who then
represented a Boston district in the House of Representatives, and
occupied his own comfortable house at the corner of Fourteenth and
H Streets.
Every morning President Johnson went to the Treasury Department,
where he received scores of delegations, and his speeches to them
foreshadowed a reconstruction policy which would deal severely with
the leading Secessionists. In response to Governor Andrew, who
called at the head of a delegation of citizen of Massachusetts,
and assured him of the support of the Old Bay State, he made a long
speech, he defined crimes, saying: "It is time the American people
should be taught to understand that treason is a crime--not in
revenge, not in anger--but that treason is a crime, and should be
esteemed as such, and punished as such."
Mr. Johnson went on to say that he wished "to discriminate between
criminals guilty of treason. There are," he said, "well educated,
intelligent traitors, who concert schemes of treason and urge others
to force numbers of ignorant people to carry them."
Money was lavishly expended in securing the arrest of those who
had conspired with Booth to assassinate President Lincoln, Vice-
President Johnson, Secretary Seward, and General Grant. In a
fortnight the prisoners had been arrested (with the exception of
Booth, who having been tracked to a barn, and refusing to come out,
had been shot) and a military commission had been organized for
their trial in the old penitentiary near the Arsenal, where they
were confined. It was clearly shown before the Commission, of
which General David Hunter was President and General Joseph Holt
the Judge Advocate, that leading Secessionists in Canada had supplied
Booth with funds for the abduction of President Lincoln, but there
was no proof that they were privy to the assassination.
Booth squandered the money received by him in coal-oil speculations,
and in his attention to an estimable young lady, whose photograph
was found in his pocket-book after his death, but whose name was
honorably kept a secret. Mrs. Surratt naturally attracted the most
attention as she entered the room where the Military Commission
was held every morning, the iron which connected her ankles clanking
as she walked. She was rather a buxom-looking woman, dressed in
deep black, with feline gray eyes, which watched the whole proceedings.
The evidence showed that she had been fully aware of the plot.
Her house was used by Booth, Payne, Atzerott, and Harold as a
meeting place. Her son went to Richmond and then to Canada with
information, and he had only returned immediately before the
assassination. He was in Washington that day and night, and four
days later had reached Montreal. She took the arms to Surrattsville,
to the tavern which she owned, and the day of the assassination
rode out with a team Booth had furnished money to hire, to say that
the arms she had left and the field-glass she took would be wanted
that night. Payne, after attacking Secretary Seward, and vainly
attempting to escape, had called at her house in the night, and
sought admittance, but an officer was in charge, and Payne, not
having a plausible explanation of his unseasonable call, was
arrested. Mrs. Surratt was clearly shown to have been an actor in
the plot, but many doubted whether she should have been hung, and
regretted that neither her confessor nor her daughter was permitted
to see President Johnson and ask his clemency.
The male prisoners, heavily ironed, were seated side by side in a
dock interspersed with officers. Sam Arnold was of respectable
appearance, about thirty years of age, with dark hair and beard
and a good countenance. Spangler, the stage-carpenter, was a
chunky, light-haired, rather bloated and whisky-soaked looking man.
Atzerott had a decided lager beer look, with heavy blue eyes, light
hair, and sallow complexion. O'Laughlin might have been taken for
native of Cuba, short and slender, with luxuriant black locks, a
delicate moustache and whiskers, and vivacious black eyes. Payne
was the incarnation of a Roman gladiator, tall, muscular, defiant,
with a low forehead, large blue eyes, thin lips, and black, straight
hair, with much of the animal and little of the intellectual. Dave
Harold was what the ladies call a pretty little man, with cherry
cheeks, pouting lips, an incipient beard, dark hazel eyes, and
dark, long hair. Last on the bench was Dr. Mudd, whose ankles and
wrists were joined by chains instead of the unyielding bars which
joined the bracelets and anklets of the others. He was about sixty
years of age, with a blonde complexion, reddish face, and blue eyes.
The prisoners were allowed counsel and such witnesses as they
desired to have summoned. The Commission concluded its labors on
the 30th of June. On the 5th of July the President approved the
finding and sentence, and ordered the hanging of Mrs. Surratt,
Harold, Atzerott, and Payne to take place on the 7th. The sentence
of execution was carried into effect, and Arnold, Mudd, Spangler,
and O'Laughlin were sent to the Military Prison on the Dry Tortugas.
Meanwhile the victorious armies of the Union had been congregated
at Washington, where they passed in review before President Johnson
and General Grant, and then marched home and into history. On the
23d of May the "Army of the Potomac," and on the 24th the "Division
of the Mississippi," swept through the metropolis for hours, the
successive waves of humanity crested with gleaming sabres and
burnished bayonets, while hundreds of bands made the air ring with
patriotic music. Loyal voices cheered and loyal hands applauded
as the heroic guardians of the national ark of constitutional
liberty passed along. Neither did the legions of imperial Rome,
returning in triumph along the Appian Way, or the conquering hosts
of Napoleon the Great, when welcomed back from their Italian campaign
by the Parisians, or the British Guards, when they returned from
the Crimea, receive a more heartfelt ovation than was awarded to
the laurel-crowned "Boys in Blue."
Great expectation concerning this review was indulged throughout
the nation. This home-coming of the "Boys in Blue" was a matter
interesting every hamlet of the North and almost every home. But
more than the welcome was clustering about the scene. These grand
armies and their famous leaders had become historic, and worthily
so, for they had endured and achieved, and victory now was theirs.
The newspapers proclaimed the grandeur of the coming event; the
railroads extended their best accommodations to travelers, and the
people responded in immense numbers. With the soldiery and the
civilians, Washington was densely packed, but cheerful enthusiasm
appeared on every side.
Two hundred thousand veteran troops, trained on a hundred battlefields,
and commanded by the leading Generals of the service, were there
to be reviewed by the Lieutenant-General who commanded them all,
by the President of the United States, by his Cabinet, by the
dignitaries of our own and other nations, and by the innumerable
throng of private citizens whose homes had been saved, and whose
hearts now beat with grateful joy.
In those proud columns were to march the Army of the Potomac, the
Army of the James, the Army of Georgia, the Army of the Tennessee,
and the cavalry led by the indomitable Phil. Sheridan. To behold
such a spectacle men came from every portion of the North; fathers
brought their sons to see this historic pageant, while historians,
poets, novelists, and painters thronged to see the unparalleled
sight and there to gather material and inspiration for their future
works. In that great display were to march heroes whose names will
live while history endures.
The night before the review of the Army of the Potomac was wet and
dreary enough, but as day dawned the clouds disappeared, and the
scene in Maryland Avenue, between the Long Bridge and the Capitol,
and on the large plain east of that building, was warlike and
interesting. Brigades marching at route step, bivouac fires, around
which groups were eating their breakfast, orderly sergeants insisting
in very naughty yet impressive language on the use of sand paper
on muskets already bright, musicians rehearsing some new march,
little boys bracing up drums half as high as themselves, important
adjutants riding to and fro to hurry up the formation of their
respective regiments, elegantly attired aides-de-camp galloping
like mad and endeavoring to avoid mud puddles, batteries thundering
along, as if eager to unlimber and fire at some enemy--in short,
it was fifty acres, more or less, of uniforms, horses, flags, and
bayonets, in apparently inextricable confusion. Yet one man ran
the machine. A few words from him reduced confusion to order, and
the apparent snarl of humanity and horses began to be unraveled in
a single, unbroken line, when General Meade gave the single word,
"Forward!" Exactly as the watches marked nine the head of the
column moved from the Capitol toward the reviewing stand along
Pennsylvania Avenue.
The reviewing stand, erected on the sidewalk in front of the White
House, was a long pavilion, with a tight roof, decorated with flags
and bearing the names of the principal victories won. In this
pavilion were seated the assistant secretaries and heads of bureaus
and Diplomatic Corps. President Johnson occupied the central chair
in a projection from the centre of the front, with Lieutenant-
General Grant, Major-General Sherman, and the members of the Cabinet
at his right and left hand.
The reviewing pavilion was flanked by two long stands, occupied by
officials, ladies, and wounded soldiers. Opposite the reviewing
pavilion was another on the north sidewalk for Congressional and
State officials, and on the flanks of this pavilion were others,
erected at private expense, for the families of officers on parade
and for the citizens of Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts.
The Army of the Potomac was six hours in passing the reviewing
stand. As each brigade commander saluted, President Johnson would
rise and lift his hat. General Grant sat during the whole time
immovable, except that he would occasionally make some commendatory
comment as a gallant officer or brave regiment passed. The foreign
Ministers appeared deeply impressed by the spectacle.
It was the subject of general regret in the Army of the Potomac
that President Lincoln was not there to review those who idolized
him. For four long years they had guarded him at the Federal
metropolis, often fighting desperately under generals whose ability
to command was doubtful. Meanwhile the dandies of McClellan's
force had become veteran campaigners, accustomed to the exposure
of the bivouac, the fatigue of the march, the poor comfort of hard-
tack, the storm of battle, and the suffering of sickness and wounds.
They had watched on many a picket line the movements of a wily foe;
they paced their weary rounds on guard on many a wet and cheerless
night; they had gone through the smoke and breasted the shock and
turned the tide of many a hard-fought field.
The Division of the Mississippi, which had swept like a cyclone
"from Atlanta to the sea," was reviewed the next day. General
Sherman, by granting amnesty to Joe Johnson's army, had incurred
the displeasure of Secretary Stanton, who had intended that he
should not have headed his victorious legions; but he was not to
be separated from his "boys." As he passed along Pennsylvania
Avenue the multitude of spectators sent up shouts that must have
made his heart leap, and the enthusiasm increased as he approached
the Presidential stand. He "rode up with the light of battle in
his face," holding his hat and his bridle-rein in his left hand,
and saluting with the good sword in his right hand, his eyes fixed
upon his Commander-in-Chief. His horse, decked with flowers, seemed
to be inspired with the spirit of the occasion, and appeared anxious
to "keep step to the music of the Union."
After passing the President, General Sherman wheeled to the left,
dismounted, and joined the reviewing party, where he was greeted
by Governor Dennison. He shook hands cordially with President
Johnson and General Grant, but when Secretary Stanton advanced with
outstretched hand he remarked, "I do not care to shake hands with
clerks," and turned away. Never was there a more complete "cut
direct" than was given by the central figure of that grand pageant,
whose brain and hand had guided this vast multitude of stalwart
braves, leading them to victory, glory, and final triumph.
The troops displayed a fine physique, and had apparently profited
from their foraging among the fat turkeys of Georgia. Their faces
were finely bronzed, and they marched with a firm, elastic step
that seemed capable of carrying them straight to Canada, or by a
flank movement to Mexico, in a short space of time.
Any representation of Sherman's army would have been incomplete
which omitted the notorious "Bummers." At the end of each corps
appeared the strangest huddle of animation, equine, canine, bovine,
and human, that ever civilian beheld--mules, asses, horses, colts,
cows, sheep, pigs, goats, raccoons, chickens, and dogs led by
negroes blacker then Erebus. Every beast of burden was loaded to
its capacity with tents, baggage, knapsacks, hampers, panniers,
boxes, valises, kettles, pots, pans, dishes, demijohns, bird-cages,
cradles, mirrors, fiddles, clothing, pickaninnies, and an occasional
black woman.
In effect Sherman gave a sample of his army as it appeared on the
march through the Carolinas. Some of the negroes appeared to have
three days' rations in their ample pouches, and ten days' more on
the animals they led. The fraternity was complete; the goats,
dogs, mules, and horses were already veterans in the field, and
trudged along as if the brute world were nothing but a vast march
with a daily camp. Thus were we shown how Sherman was enabled to
live upon the enemy.
[Facsimile]
Yours truly
John A. Logan
JOHN A. LOGAN was born in Jackson County, Illinois, February 9th,
1826; studied and practiced law; was a member of the State Legislature;
was a Representative from Illinois, 1859-1861; was commissioned in
September, 1861, Colonel of the Thirty-first Illinois Volunteers;
was promoted to Brigadier-General in 1862, and Major-General in
1863, especially distinguishing himself at Belmont, Fort Donelson,
Pittsburgh Landing, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and as commander
of the Army of the Tennessee; was Congressman-at-Large from Illinois,
1867-1871; was United States Senator from Illinois, 1871-1877,
again in 1883, and was re-elected in 1885, for six years.