On the ninth day of May the Commission met but only to adjourn that
the prisoners might employ counsel. On the same day, two of its
members, General Cyrus B. Comstock and Colonel Horace Porter-names
to be noted for what may have been a heroic refusal-were relieved
from the duty of sitting upon the Commission, and two other
officers substituted in their stead. So that Tuesday, May 10th,
1865-twenty-six days after the assassination, a period much too
short for the intense excitement and wild desire for vengeance to
subside-may properly be designated as the first session of the
Court. On the early morning of that day-before daylight-Jefferson
Davis had been captured, and was immediately conducted, not to
Washington to stand trial for his alleged complicity in the
assassination, but to Fort Monroe. On the next day Clement C. Clay,
also, surrendered himself to the United States authorities, and was
sent, not to Washington to meet the awful charge formulated against
him, but to the same military fortress. The room in which the
Commission met was in the northeast corner of the third story of
the Old Penitentiary; a building standing in the U. S. Arsenal
Grounds at the junction of the Potomac with the Eastern Branch, in
a room on the ground floor of which the body of Booth had been
secretly buried. Its windows were guarded by iron gratings, and it
communicated with that part of the prison where the accused were
now confined, by a door in the western wall. The male prisoners had
been removed some days before from the Monitors to the
Penitentiary, where Mrs. Surratt was already incarcerated, and each
of them, including the lady, was now immured in a solitary cell
under the surveillance of a special guard. Around a table near the
eastern side of this room sat, resplendent in full uniform, the
members of the Court. At the head as President was Major-General
David Hunter-a stern, white-headed soldier, sixty-three years old;
a fierce radical; the first officer to organize the slaves into
battalions of war; the warm personal friend of Lincoln, at the head
of whose corpse he had grimly sat as it rested from place to place
on the triumphal progress to its burial, and from whose open grave
he had hurried, in no very judicial humor to say the least, to take
his seat among the Judges of the accused assassins. On his right
sat Major-General Lew Wallace, a lawyer by profession; afterwards
the President of the Court-Martial which tried and hung Henry Wirz;
but now, by a sardonic freak of destiny, known to all the world as
the tender teller of "Ben Hur, a Tale of the Christ." To the right
of General Wallace sat Brevet Brigadier-General James A. Ekin and
Brevet Colonel Charles A. Tompkins; about whom the only thing
remarkable is that they had stepped into the places of the two
relieved officers, Colonel Tompkins being the only regular army
officer on the Board. On the left of General Hunter sat, first,
Brevet Major-General August V. Kautz, a native of Germany; next,
Brigadier-General Robert S. Foster, who may or may not have been
the "Colonel Foster" alluded to in the testimony of Lloyd quoted
above, as threatening the witness and as afterwards being seen by
him on the Commission-the presence of an officer, previously
engaged by the Government in collecting testimony against the
accused, as one of the judges to try him not being considered a
violation of Military Justice. Next sat Brigadier-General Thomas
Mealey Harris, a West Virginian, and the author of a book entitled
"Calvinism Vindicated;" next, Brigadier-General Albion P. Howe, and
last, Lieutenant-Colonel David R. Clendenin.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
