Tomb Raider: President Abraham Lincoln vs. Dr. H. H. Holmes

This is the first time I'm doing a cross blog post and intertwining my Civil War blog with my Murder Castle blog. The Lincoln related information is here. To find the Holmes related information, click here: Holmes' Tomb.

I figured that instead of just writing facts about the graves of both men, I would be a little more creative and compare and contrast the tombs to see which would be harder to break into (there are pluses and minuses to each). Which do you think will prevail? Will it be the tomb of 16th President Abraham Lincoln? Or will it be the tomb of the World's Fair Serial Killer, Dr. H. H. Holmes?

DISCLAIMER:

 

THIS IS AN EDUCATIONAL (AND CREATIVE) POST DETAILING HOW THESE TWO MEN WERE BURIED. THIS DOES NOT PROMOTE GRAVE ROBBING OR BODY SNATCHING. LET THE DEAD REST IN PEACE! IF YOU DO NOT, YOUR DUMB ASS WILL BE ARRESTED AND I WILL NOT TAKE BLAME FOR YOUR STUPIDITY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

 

Now that all the bases are covered, here are the statistics regarding the burial of President Lincoln:

 

Good: We know where Abraham Lincoln is buried. (Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois).

Bad: That is a huge memorial. It's really easy to see since it isn't secluded in a back corner somewhere. The exact location of it is known by a good percentage of Americans (and most likely everyone in Illinois - they don't call it the "Land of Lincoln" for nothing).

Good: The cemetery isn't open 24/7 so the crowds will have to leave at closing time.

Bad: It's freaking Abraham Lincoln. There has to be a camera or a guard somewhere around that tomb or at the front entrance. Heck, the tomb probably has it's own Secret Service branch.

Good: We know all the specifics of Lincoln's burial.

Bad: Have you read them? First you would have to find a way into the memorial. Then you would have to drill ten feet down into the marble floor to get into the concrete burial chamber. Also, not only is the crypt encased in concrete, it is also in a steel cage. You would need a jackhammer or dynamite to get through the concrete alone. And imagine the noise that will make.

Good: At least the body isn't encased in concrete like some people we know (ahem-Holmes-ahem).

Bad: Have fun getting it out of the ground without a machine (which will need to ascend the 56 stairs and fit inside the memorial) and then back out the door, down the stairs, and out of the cemetery without causing damage or attracting attention. That is if you didn't already get arrested for attempting to blow up Lincoln's tomb.

Although both men are well protected in death, I think Lincoln has Holmes beat this time. It seems that you'd attract more attention before you would even get to the memorial. In both cases you get arrested. But you'll get arrested much faster (and probably by higher level security) if you go anywhere near Lincoln's tomb after the cemetery closes. (Think of it this way. If a newspaper report was published stating that Lincoln's tomb was broken into, people would say, "Is Lincoln okay?" Attempt to dig up Holmes' grave and the question becomes, "Is the dirt okay?").

Until next time.

XOXO, Kate

A Perfect Hell

"The next morning there was an unusual movement of feet hurrying to and fro, the rattling of chains and dragging of ponderous balls on the brick pavement in front of my cell. I could not surmise the cause for all these mysterious movements...About 2 o'clock in the afternoon General Dodd came to my cell...and asked if I had noticed anything of an unusual nature pervading the prison. I replied in the affirmative, giving him an account of the bustle and confusion, attended with the clanking of irons throughout the morning, and that I judged from these circumstances that other prisoners had arrived. He replied no, and in a soft and feeling manner informed me of the execution of four of our number."

 

"A little to the south of it the eye rested upon four mounds of new heaped earth, testifying the undeniable fact that beneath those cold and cheerless hillocks rested in the quiet sleep of death all that but a few days before were life and sensibility."

 

-Samuel Arnold

 



 

 

I have no words. Go here for a more detailed description: Thus Perished Four

 

Kate

The Court of Death

The military trial of the eight accused Lincoln Conspirators had been in session since May 10, 1865. 149 years ago today, the verdicts were finally announced. The still debated and controversial sentences came down with a bang on the morning of July 6, 1865.

Andrew Johnson's signature was affixed to the following document sent to the Old Arsenal Penitentiary:

"The foregoing sentences in the cases of David E. Herold, G. A. Atzerod, Lewis Payne, and Mary E. Surratt...are hereby approved and it is ordered that the sentences of David E. Herold, G. A. Atzerodt, Lewis Payne, and Mary E. Surratt be carried into execution by the proper military authority, under the direction of the Secretary of War, on the 7th day of July, 1865, between the hours of 10 o'clock A. M. and 2 o'clock P. M. of that day."

The sentencing of Mary Surratt was shocking in itself because the United States government had never executed a woman. But the date of execution was unbelievable. The four wouldn't sit for months waiting for death. Instead all would be hanged the next afternoon. That left less than or just about 24 hours for the construction of the gallows, final visits, and convincing Johnson to change his mind. Reuben Mussey, Johnson's secretary, wondered if that was too short of a time period. Johnson agreed that it was but rather ominously said that there had been enough time for "preparations" to be made.

Around 11 AM on the 6th, General John F. Hartanft, along with General Winfield S. Hancock, walked from cell to cell, reading the somber news and leaving all different reactions in the wake. However, they only saw the four condemned. Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlen, Edmund Spangler, and Dr. Samuel Mudd were ignorant of both their own fates and the fates of their comrades.

Lewis Powell (alias Lewis Payne) accepted the news with the same indifference he had shown since his arrest. Identified as the attacker of William Seward, he knew his fate was sealed from the beginning. His demeanor while being photographed showed this.

His family was home in Florida at the time and could not make it to Washington. He would be the sole conspirator to die before seeing a relative. However, Reverend Abram Gillette accompanied him to the scaffold.

George Atzerodt first seemed to be as unaffected as Powell. But soon his skin paled considerably and he began to tremble with fear. He saw a Lutheran minister and also asked for various members of his family to be sent for (John: his brother, Marshal McPhail: his brother in law, Rose Wheeler: his common law wife, and Edith: his daughter). His wife did visit.

David Herold was shocked almost beyond comprehension and later broke down into tears, twitching and shaking uncontrollably. He was visited by the Reverend Dr. Olds and his sisters. Though his home was close by in the Navy Yard, his mother was too distraught to leave.

Mary Surratt was affected most when she heard the decision. Various sources say that she sank to the floor and her emotions became unhinged. Her daughter, Anna, soon returned. Father Jacob Walter and Father Bernardine Wiget, both friends of the Surratt family, were with Mrs. Surratt when she died.

Dozens, including Anna Surratt and friends of her mother, and two of Herold's sisters, rushed to the Executive Mansion to see Johnson. However, he had barricaded himself in his office and would see no one or receive messages about pleas for clemency. Also ignored was a petition with signatures belonging to members of the military commission asking for Mary Surratt to be given a lesser sentence. Johnson claimed he never saw it.

Not everyone was as satisfied with the verdicts as Johnson and Edwin Stanton were (both who seemed to be ignoring Abraham Lincoln's advice about "charity for all"). A distinguished lawyer named Orville H. Browning, a close friend to Lincoln, was livid when he heard the news and expressed his rage to his journal. "The execution of these persons will be murder," Browning wrote. "This commission was without authority and its proceedings void."

John Clampitt and Fredrick Aiken, the junior lawyers defending Mary Surratt, also learned of their client's fate via newspaper. Springing to action, both hurried off to see the still unmoving Johnson. They found the stairs blocked by Preston King, a former senator from New York, and guards armed with bayonetted rifles. King rebuffed them and said it was "useless to attempt an issue of that character." The two men then went to Judge Joseph Holt to ask for a stay of execution. Anna, sobbing on her knees, begged Holt for assistance but he gave no words of comfort. Clampitt later wrote that "his heart was chilled, his soul impassive." He and Aiken finally succeeded in securing a writ of habeas corpus from Justice Andrew Wylie. That night it was sent to Andrew Johnson and with a stroke of his pen, he changed history.

All through the afternoon and into the night, Samuel Arnold recalled that the "noise of hammers was distinctly heard, as if some repairing about the building was being done...The hammering continued throughout the afternoon until late, when the noises from the hammers ceased..."

Until next time.

XOXO, Kate

Spirits in the Mist

On July 4, 1863, 151 years ago, a severe rainstorm halted any further combat and the Battle of Gettysburg came to an end after three days of fighting. Once the landscape dried and the sun rose again, photographer Timothy O'Sullivan visually documented the "Harvest of Death" left behind on the battlefields.

Today, his images remain some of the most famous and recognized of the Civil War.

 

In this picture, a group of dead soldiers lie in the dirt. The soldier closest to the lens was shot through the abdomen, his shirt stained with dark, dried blood. The soldier to the far right fell with his hand covering his eyes. He looks as "if he were asleep" and merely shielding his brow from the sun. According to author Stefan Lorant, the eerie early morning pictures "inspired the Gettysburg Address."

As of this morning, a rain like mist has settled over the battlefields and unmarked graves of Gettysburg, almost as if the spirits of the deceased have returned to walk the land once more.

So from the beautiful fog of Gettysburg to wherever you are spending the day, may God Bless America, from sea to shining sea, in the land of the free because of the brave.

Happy Fourth of July.

XOXO, Kate

End of the Road: Slaughter on Cemetery Ridge

I'm writing this as thunder shakes my house and reminds me of the terrible sound cannon fire produces.

July 3, 1863 marked the third and final day of the battle of Gettysburg. It also marked the day of Pickett's Charge, a failed Confederate assault on Union General George Meade's troops who were stationed on Cemetery Ridge. The attack not only proved futile in the end, it mentally damaged the minds of the southern soldiers who escaped with their lives, leaving a bloodstain that would never wash away. The Confederate war efforts did not recovered.

The charge was named after Major General George Pickett, one of three generals involved in the charge. However, it was General Robert E. Lee who ordered the attack and General James Longstreet who held overall command. Pickett's division led the charge and was followed by Brigadier General Johnston Pettigrew and Major General Isaac Trimble, consisting of troops from Longstreet's First Corps and Lieutenant General A.P. Hill's exhausted Third Corps.

Major General George Pickett

Brigadier General Johnston Pettigrew

Major General Isaac Trimble

General Longstreet did not like the idea of charging the ridge. He felt the Union line was too strong for a southern success and the Union soldiers were too well prepared. Instead he told Lee that moving between the Union and Washington DC would force the northern soldiers to fight in a position they did not choose. Lee didn't listen, feeling his forces could accomplish what Longstreet warned was impossible. Longstreet walked away believing the plan to be disastrous. He was right. "My heart was heavy," he wrote. "I could see the desperate and hopeless nature of the charge and the hopeless slaughter it would cause...That day at Gettysburg was one of the saddest of my life."

General James Longstreet

One of the main problems began when the Confederates opened fire. Though the 150 artillery guns numbered the largest southern bombardment of the Civil War, they began firing too high, missing the ridge where the Army of the Potomac (Meade's troops) were waiting. In contrast, Meade's headquarters just over the ridge crest was shattered to pieces. Meade himself almost had his leg ripped off with a shell as he stood in the doorway. Another shell killed a few horses. In the constant commotion, it was impossible to bring or send information from the building. It was abandoned under the hailstorm of fire power and later turned into a hospital for the wounded. Another problem was that about 14,000 Confederates had to march three quarters of a mile across an open field to reach the entrenched and well supplied Union.

Early attack of the ridge

The attack was ordered by Longstreet around 3:00 PM.

Artist rendition of the attack

The Confederates were wrong about the Union artillery guns being taken out in an earlier attack. They had actually just stopped firing to lure the Confederates out of hiding. As the various southern divisions made their way across the field, the guns suddenly roared to life again and filled the air with shots and shells alike. With the two sides firing, smoke soon obscured the battlefield. In the confusion, the Confederate soldiers couldn't see until they were almost on top of their targets. Orders that were supposed to be carried out to protect Pickett and his men went array. Other units marched too far to do anything when they were needed. The southern plans shattered to pieces. General Lewis Armistead, with his hat on his sword, barely broke the first Union line before his hand was blown off and he perished, followed by those behind him.

The death of General Lewis Armistead

The charge lasted only a half hour but less than half of the 14,000 men returned. Pickett's division alone lost two thirds of his men, including three brigadiers, all thirteen colonels, and 12 out of the 15 battle flags.

The dead on the field

However, Meade, who had been in command for all of six days, was unaware just how hurt the Confederates were and did not launch a counter attack to destroy them. Lee rode among his startled troops saying, "It's all my fault....It is I who have lost this fight." The next day, the Fourth of July, heavy rain halted further assaults and Lee soon retreated.

Since Meade was stationed on the ridge, he had the better vantage point. The Union had the clear advantage of being able to see each move the Confederate troops made. Pickett's charge was actually a rather reckless order by Lee. While it lessened the number of southerners, it barely chipped away at the northerners. In the end, Cemetery Ridge was an ultimate disaster for the Confederate States of America. This is how it and its various memorials appear to visitors today.

The stone wall on Cemetery Ridge

The High Water Mark (the farthest point the Confederate soldiers reached on the ridge)

Until next time.

XOXO, Kate

The Charge on Little Round Top

On July 2, 1863, also known as day 2 of the Battle of Gettysburg, Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine (a Union division), found himself forced to hold off advancing Confederates on Little Round Top.

In case you were wondering, Little Round Top is the smaller of two rocky hills south of Gettysburg. It is adjacent to a taller hill named, surprise of all surprises, Big Round Top (or sometimes Great Round Top).

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain 

The Battle of Little Round Top was an unsuccessful assault by Confederate troops attempting to break the Union's left flank stationed on the hill. For the already weakened Union, Little Round Top was a decisive victory, considered by some to be the best part of the Union's second day. It was there that the 20th Maine fought throughout the day, ending with a dramatic downhill bayonet charge that would earn Chamberlain the Medal of Honor.

Despite numerous casualties, the 20th Maine held off two charges made by the 15th Alabama and various other Confederate regiments for about ninety minutes. Low in both soldiers and ammunition as a final charge came forward, Chamberlain order the remaining men to "fix bayonets" and charge down Little Round Top, a somewhat bizarre tactic even for the time period. However, it proved effective, stopping and capturing a large number of the 15th Alabama soldiers.

An artist rendition of the charge down Little Round Top

Chamberlain, who survived the war, eventually received the Medal of Honor for his part in the defense of Little Round Top. The citation read that it was awarded for "daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top."

Yet, despite this favorable shift, the Union still remained in broken pieces and the battle would rage on for another day.

The view from Little Round Top today

Until next time.

XOXO, Kate

The Battle of Gettysburg

151 years ago, the famous Battle of Gettysburg began between Union and Confederate forces in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Although the Confederates would immediately gain the upper hand, when the battle ended on July 3, 1863, it was the Union who emerged victorious.

The battle, which followed shortly behind General Grant's successful capture of Vicksburg, was hailed as the turning point in the Civil War, shifting favor toward the faltering Union just in time for Independence Day.

Centuries later, battles such as Pickett's Charge and Devil's Den are unable to be forgotten. In fact, Gettysburg seems to be the most remembered battle of the entire war.

But that memory comes with a high price. Gettysburg marked one of the bloodiest battles of the war. In total, the Union suffered over 23,000 casualties. Confederate casualties, while harder to estimate, were around 28,000. Almost a third of Lee's officers were killed, wounded, or captured. Together, both sides suffered a loss of men numbering over 57,000. Photographer Timothy O'Sullivan took pictures of the dead in the days after the battle, naming his collection, "The Harvest of Death." One of the captured Confederates was a ranger named Lewis Powell. On this day, in 1865, Powell was on trial for his life, having be charged with attempting to murder Secretary of State William Seward.

Though the Union snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, the news brought mixed reactions in Washington. The happiness of finally seeing a northern won battle was tainted by the insane number of lives that battle claimed in the end. Other complained that General Lee was able to retreat back down south with his remaining troops, meaning the war would continue to rage on and, therefore, it was almost as if Lee had won.

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication ceremony for the newly established Gettysburg National Cemetery. There, he used his Gettysburg Address to honor the fallen soldiers and give new meaning to the war's purpose.

In remembrance of this hopeful but tragic anniversary, I will be posting facts and photographs relating to the battle that turned the tides of victory.

Until next time, stay tuned.

XOXO, Kate