The Lincoln Assassination & the Michigan Executioners
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ย. 2022
- A look at the execution of the Lincoln Conspirators (with some details you may not have heard before) and especially two Michigan soldiers who played a significant role in the hangings.
NOTE: Since this video was published, information has come to me that strongly suggests that the man wearing white on the scaffold at 12:16 may not be Christian Rath after all, and that Rath may actually be the soldier (looking down) immediately to the right of the man wearing white. We may visit this further in a future video.
I have read, and otherwise, listen to, many iterations and accounts and tellings of this story. But never, ever, have I felt it as though I were there until right now. You did an awesome job!
many thanks
In the mid-1950's Walter Cronkite narrated the television history show "You are there" He took an event from history and gave it a 50's news story reporting. You gave this story a factual moment-by-moment retelling. Mr Cronkite would be pleased with your news story.
Thank you!
I have been a student of the Lincoln assassination and aftermath since I was a boy. This is an INCREDIBLE and thorough examination of the facts. Well done, sir!
Many thanks - as you can see from the comments, there is still quite a bit of controversy and mystery to it, and a lot of room for argument :)
It is fascinating how prolific these folks were and what tumultuous and colorful lives they led. From farmers, shoemakers, storekeepers to military officers and soldiers who saw the the blood and horror of combat...and then to go back to their old professions or become lawyers, inventors, businessmen, judges and many other things. Amazing! You seldom find people like this today. Add to that many of these individuals wrote down their experiences in diaries and memoirs. The photography is absolutely surreal.
Every war that was ever fought, soldiers come back to the jobs that they had before the war.
@@ronaldmayle1823 Yes. But nowadays you do not go from being a Home Depot manager to a full general to fight in some "foreign misadventure" and relinquish your commission within a few years and go back to your old job. Standing Western militaries are composed of a core of professional soldiers who now spend their entire careers as soldiers, not withstanding the reservists and those who join for 2-4 years to get GI Bill benefits.
@@tibzig1 Now if you work at Home Depot, you're probably the one we are fighting. lol
@@ronaldmayle1823 murica
As a news photographer in Chicago, now retired, I am impressed by the quality of the photos.
This was the most thorough and in-depth account of the executions I've ever seen and heard. Some of the Gardner images I'd not ever seen before, as well. Excellent.
Thank you!
about everything i've read is mentioned here. a final addition would be that the area is now a tennis court, and a small part of that long building is still standing. there are pictures of the gallows superimposed over the tennis court to show its exact position
@@jgunther3398 Yup. Went and visited it a couple years ago. Took a while to figure out exactly where the gallows was.
These days it would take 20 years of appeals to get to this day, not to mention they'd screw up the execution, or that it'd cost tens of millions of dollars to bring them to justice.
Apparently the 10 foot drop, with the instant death failed with all four.
@@seerstone8982 they all died within a couple of minutes.
I was 11 years old when I witnessed a firing squad executed a murderer back in Vietnam in 81..never seen a body decimated by AK 47 and still haunt me to this day..think hanging is a cleaner death..
@@seerstone8982Ten foot drop or Six foot drop as told in this video? From the before and after pictures of the hangings I think the six foot drop is accurate.
Apparently framing people and a rush to judgment never happened.
Especially in the racially Equal south.
Very well researched and very well explained. First GrearLakes Traveller vids I ever saw but I've already subscribed. One of the better history podcasts I've seen.
Thanks Paul, much appreciated!
I appreciate the many high quality photos and the keen details. I've seen executions images countless times but never knew they were shoeless. Nicely done.
Many thanks :)
What a wonderfully narriated, detailed account of an historical event that has fascinated me for 66 years. Even the Readers Digest account in the mid fifties that started my interest have so many photos or details. AND, never has this Michigan native (me) ever known before now about my states connection or the irony of Christian (w)Rath
Thanks George - that's the fun part of doing these!
You brought great clarity to these photographs and even though I have read many accounts, I have never heard these details. Thank you and great job! New subscriber here!
Very glad to hear! :)
history and the part his great grandfather played in it. He is very proud of his heritage. Other Civil War historians have interviewed him in the past about this subject. Thanks again, for your documentary.
Outstanding work, sir. Very well laid out and written.
Thank you!
This is the MOST in-depth audio-photo narrative account regarding the fate of the conspirators and the outstanding men who orchestrated the execution.
What is more impressive is how these men excelled and accomplished even more after the aftermath.
This presentation is a national treasure.
Thanks Dennis!
@@greatlakestraveller9703
👍
A very well put together peice of history that i never new about, and you narrated it very well to.
Much appreciated!
Wow, an important story told wonderfully and with an appropriate use of some amazing old photos. That both officers lived a long life and had misgivings about participating in the executions -- living with that memory for 55 years, and then dying the same year and only miles apart -- amazing.
Excellent presentation. Some details I'd never read before. Thank you!
Thanks Jan - much appreciated!
@@greatlakestraveller9703 So msrys rope worked fine with just 5 wins around instead of 7 with no additional suffering?
That was a well put together and informative video. Nice job. 👍
Many thanks!
Thank you for these informative and thoughtful videos. You have more than earned my subscription.
you are more than welcome!
Thank you for this very well presented and good production covering the officers who oversaw the execution of the Lincoln Assassination conspirators. Allow me to say that you have a very pleasant narration voice that helped in this presentation.
Thank you - much appreciated!
I've only ever seen one or two photos of these executions and this almost play by play just about puts you right there. Thanks and well done.
Very welcome and thank you Jackie!
a presentation I had not imagined. well done. respectful. thank you.
thanks for your comment....and you are very welcome.
A brilliant anatomy of a sad episode in American history. Way up there for description, imagery and detail. A great job!
Thanks much! :)
Well done video, very informative and a fine history lesson. No doubt people who saw written accounts at the time would have used such material to form their opinions on hanging and other aspects of the event.
Thank you Jack!
In the late General Colin Powell’s autobiography, “My American Journey,” General Powell wrote that Mary Surratt’s ghost was said to haunt her place of execution.
Very well put together. This is historically correct. Interested telling of this account!
Very well presented and illustrated. Well done!
Thanks Dave...
Wow, I've never heard of these facts before, very chilling... Abe Lincoln was a great man, ugly tragedy for this nation and the condemned.. thank you for posting this information...
Very welcome Steve!
Excellent depiction of this important event. It needs to be remembered!
Thank you Kevin
Well done video, thanks. This was truly a ghastly experience for the condemned.
Very welcome
I really enjoyed this, so much History. Thank you, I'm a new subscriber, too. Semper Fi from an old Marine Sergeant and greetings from Charleston, West Virginia
Thank you so very much, and for your service. West Virginia is beautiful country!
Nice job on this video. Very informative.
Many thanks!
Mary Surratts black bonnet she wore to the gallows is in a museum near Andersonville Georgia . I saw it many years ago but it truly was something to behold
Gill, thanks for sharing!
Yes, The Little Drummer Boy museum in downtown Andersonville.
Very interesting. Well done. Unlike teachings in school, you had my attention the entire video.
I'm so glad! Thanks...
Well done!
Thanks for the history lesson.
Loved the details that this video revealed.
Thank you! Glad to hear!
Outstanding piece, thank you!
Thank you Jerry!
I didn't know...wat I know now....
Thanks to u....I appreciate the time and your days clearing the way for facts.
Thank you Danny, its hard to put together an historical video that is not disputed by someone, but we do our best.
What a masterful telling of the story of how four of the accused in President Lincoln’s assassination met their fate that hot, summer day some 150 years ago. Very well done and impressive! Thank you.
Any viewers wishing to learn more about the Lincoln assassination, IMHO you could not go wrong starting with the now classic book “20 Days,” published I believe circa 1965 and authored by Dorothy M. and Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr. The book, filled with rare or seldom seen photographs of President Lincoln in life and death, exhaustively accounts the assassination from the plotting, to Ford’s Theater, the hunt for the surviving assassins, the executions, President Lincoln’s funeral (and funeral train), and the long-term aftermath. The book is an absolute masterpiece in my opinion. This video was of the same quality. TY again.
Thanks you Andy, Yes, that book is the very one that gave me my first exposure to the Lincoln Assassination. I still have my old copy.
The Powell photographs have always struck me as like art.
Very informative, I enjoyed your documentary to say the least. I happen to be the Godson of Prosser McKeever Watts. (He goes by Mike) He is the great Grandson of Richard Austin Watts . Interesting enough he also lives in the very same house Richard A Watts built in 1872. Adrian Michigan. At the age of 91 he is still mentally very sharp. For decades Mike and I have discuss Civil War
Thank you so much for posting! My wife is from Jackson, so we are sometimes in that area (that's how we got the shots of the graveyards). Do you happen to know if Mike has any family photos, or letters, or whatever of, or by, Richard Watts? One thing that troubled me about this video is that there are so few images of Richard Watts available.
@greatlakestraveller9703 yes Sir how would you like me to send them to you?
great story telling voice.....a pleasure to listen to
Thanks John!
Great video. I was pulled into your narration. I felt for all of them. You made it come to life.
thanks so much,,your kind words are much appreciated!
Well done. Very informative. I am a resident of Jackson County and can you provide the location of, or address of where Rath lived back then? It would be interesting to see that. There is a link to Bonnie and Clyde by way of an abandoned Ford V8 tied to the gang, the location of which is very close to home, that's pretty cool to drive by and think that they were possibly there. Local history is so interesting. Thanks.
This is innteresting. In 1845 (I believe that is the date) Michigan became the first English speaking government in the world, to forbid the death penalty. This came about because in the few years prior there had been 3 executions,,, that had gone wrong or were innocent people that were put to death. 3 out of there,,, three strikes,, they did not get even one correct. So, when Michigan wrote its constitution, in that original document, the death penalty was eliminated. The only executions in the state since,, were a few Federal executions. So it is doubly interesting,, that Michigan officers were used for any executions.
It is pretty ironic, isn't it?
@@greatlakestraveller9703 Well done, by the way. Few TH-cam postings rise to this level.
@@Sailor376also Thank you - much appreciated!
Great job, brilliant narration
Thank you!
Such clear photographs, amazing 🙏
Amazing to see the photos today. Some of them look like they were just taken.
Great research!
Thanks Mark, as always! :)
Very interesting presentation. Today, the site of the conspirators’ execution and initial burial location are part of the tennis courts at Fort Lesley McNair in D.C.
Yes, just doesn't seem right, does it?
@@greatlakestraveller9703 Doesn't seem right to me either.
I remember where i was and what I was doing when the news of JFK's assassination reached me. At the time, I was an older teenager, and a very young adult. That very moment, when I heard the news is probably the moment I remember most in my life. When Abraham Lincoln was shot, some people must have been affected the same way.
I was a 16 year old office junior in the Brompton road London opposite Harrods, , I came back after delivering something , I walked into the office and the four girls there were looking very sad and one girl was quietly weeping, That was the effect of JFKs assassination, It shows the impact of this monumental assaination even across the pond
@@Alanoffer My experience was so very much like yours. We are of about the same age. I still feel that way today.
I was in ou high school library. Girls were crying. Boys were sad, I was shocked. We were never the same after that day. We wanted to know who and why it was done. It took a long time to get the truth. Many stories were confusing. Still to this day conspiracies are still being told.
@@triumphmanful I don't think we have the real truth as of yet, and we probably never will in our lifetime.
I am trying to figure out where they are getting four prisoners tho.. I have never heard of anybody except John Wilkes Booth.
For a short video it was very informative and well made
Many thanks!
Those correspondences between Lincoln/Kennedy assassinations are truly remarkable. The idea that history doesn't repeat though it rhymes certainly applied to the lives of these two men as they were tied together by this event.
History will continue to repeat itself whilst the Machinations of the World are formulated by the same or similar organisations or agendas.
Lincoln and Kennedy were killed by the banker's ,
That’s the clearest picture of the hanging I’ve ever seen. Great video
Thanks Kenny!
I’m amazed at how sensitive to the prisoners they were, a cap over the bald headed guy, and umbrellas over the others due to the heat, knowing that any sunburn wasn’t going to affect them for much longer
Was there a bald prisoner?
@@greatlakestraveller9703 it said so in the commentary, the fourth prisoner can be seen with it on his head, not for long I may add
@@dnorfed Sam, If you mean George Atzerodt, what I actually said at 9:04 was that he was BARE-headed, which is not quite the same thing. Anyway, I get your point....
Very interesting -- knew some of the history but not in this depth. You did a very good job - if only they would teach history like it should be.
Agreed. thanks Jane!
Interesting that without the photographer Alexander Gardner's initiative we wouldn't have this visual record and be able to make a narrative of the events to match the ones of individuals that were present. An example of the summary justice that was the norm at that time.
All very true - thanks Christopher!
Superb job on this!!!
Many thanks!
Very detailed, compelling, and respectful. Thank you
Very welcome!
Interesting video, thanks. Born and raised in Michigan my whole life... subscribed 😎
That was a very fine history lesson. Thank you.
Thank you Sean!
Very informative and interesting topic good research
Thank you Bob!
Intriguing history. I’m happy to learn, what you have provided. Thank You.
Thank you Ivan!
@@greatlakestraveller9703 👍🏼Thank You!
I either read or heard that Ms Surrat had another son, and he escaped to Canada afterwards. If he had returned, he might have saved his mother. Also Ms. Surrat was imprisoned on a prison ship, for a while, prior to the execution.
Um vídeo impressionante. Meticuloso, bem feito, imperdível. Congratulations!!!!
Thanks!
This was a profoundly interesting and captivating video. Hello from Italy.
Thank you Lorenzo!
Very well done - Thank you
Very welcome!
I live in southwest lower Michigan so I’m not that far. I love visiting cemeteries so I definitely want to visit that one!
Thank you for sharing this 👍🇺🇸
Very welcome...
Excellent and very I formative.
😊🇬🇧
Thank you Michael!
@@greatlakestraveller9703 my pleasure
That was a very informative video. People should pay attention to this history, it is very important. Each detail is highly important and a piece of the forging of this nation!
Except they're more worried about tearing down monuments and destroying history rather than learn about it.
see my post above on Military Commission.
That is what you call a botched hanging. The hangman did not use the correct length of rope or the proper trap door to ensure a humane and quick death where the neck is broken and unconsciousness comes immediately. The proper method with the correct drop distance was still being perfected in 1865. Unfortunately for the condemned in this case, all but one had to struggle with excruciating pain, strangulation, and suffocation, not to mention the humiliation of urination and defecation combined with the “dance of death” before hundreds of or even thousands of onlookers including children. A terrible way to die indeed, especially for the infirm woman. The same thing happened to Henry Wirz, the warden of the Andersonville Confederate prisoner-of-war camp.
Yes, hanging is a potentially terrible way to die. Thanks for sharing.
Very chilling video! Where were the bodies buried?
Check out this TH-cam video: th-cam.com/video/lPb23jRI4EM/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=OneIfByLandAdventures
@@greatlakestraveller9703 Cool thx.
Well done 👍 I learned more here than I did in 4 years of high school.
Thank you Daniel! As you can see from the comments, there is still a great deal of controversy and disagreement about what exactly happened, but you do the best that you can when telling this story...
Great work !
Thank you!
Thank you for this video.
Very welcome - thank you!
@@greatlakestraveller9703 You're welcome 😊!
Very well done.
Thank you much! :)
'Thank you. Great documentary.
Very welcome - thank you!
Very interesting. Thanks 👍
Very welcome!
Great job on video.
Thanks Lee
I was wondering if those that were hung that day are still buried in the same spot
Outstanding video
glad you liked it! thanks!
I just came upon this..what a great video!! Thank you..the part about the name Christian Rath is an amazing coincidence..
Thanks Arthur
Great pictures.
The best history video I have watched.
Thank you!
Ironic that the executions were from Michigan, as Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1847 -- the first English speaking government to do so.
That was my take on it as well.
Fascinating video. I read that Corporal Coxnhall was born in England.
That I didn't know - thanks for sharing!
Great video. Sounds like their was an aquarium or some percolating water source in the background. You're voice over quality is great. Would like to hear less of that (if that's what is is). It causes audio transition issues in edit.
I sincerely do not mean this as a critique. Just want to help further your channel. Cheers!
Thanks Chris...
@@greatlakestraveller9703 PS - It's not a deal breaker or anything. I'm just an audiophile and hear these things. Thought I'd share. Keep up the videos!
@@metroplexchl Will do! :)
The man in white is NOT Christian Rath. The picture of the officers present at the execution show Rath and he is in uniform. The video, itself shows the picture of him and identifies him.
I also question the order of the prisoner procession. You have David Herold arriving before Lewis Powell on the scaffold, yet one of Gardener's photos show an already seated Powell, while Herold is in the process of sitting.
Over all a very good video. I learned some more than I did previously.
The issue of whether the man in white is Capt Rath or not has already come up in a previous post, and yes, I'm starting to come to that belief myself, which is why I added an extra note under the video yesterday. The photo you referred to is not proof of what he wore during the execution however, unless you can say for certain that it was taken immediately before or immediately after the execution. Do you know of any documentation stating exactly when it was taken? So far, I haven't seen any, but if you have, please let me know.
Also as I said in the video, there were many accounts of the executions, and they did not all agree. The account I used primarily (as I said in the video) came from the one in the Washington Evening Star, which does state that Herold was in the procession ahead of Powell. Maybe they did get it wrong - anything is possible, but you have that same problem with any one account of the execution. The fact that Powell was seated, while Herold was not, may or may not prove anything. At best the photos only tell the partial story of what happened. Many of the exact second-by-second details of that day may be lost forever.
In short, everything you say may be correct, but its hard to say for certain. Thanks for sharing.
I should also point out that I am most definitely NOT an expert on the Lincoln Assassination. There are many people who have forgotten more about this topic than I ever learned. I did have the advantage of living relatively close to the graves of these two men, so I did my best (with very limited time and resources) to tell their story. It's good that others such as yourself question these videos, as hopefully we can all learn more. Thanks again!
So interesting, thanks
Thanks Randy!
Very interesting
Great video there
Thank you - much appreciated!
One thing you left out that in my opinion is an important detail is how all 3 men said Mary didn't deserve to be hanged because she had no knowledge of the plan of the assassination or when it had been done.
Great job thank you
Much appreciated!
Were the graves for the four who were hanged, just temporary? Or are the four still buried in the same place?
All four were reburied elsewhere after Andrew Johnson released their bodies in 1869
Come to think of it, I think they had already been moved to another location (inside the fort) even before that.
Well done Sir!
Thank you Tom!
That was really really good.
Many thanks!
It would have been fascinating if, once all 20+ people were on the platform, it suddenly collapsed. It doesnt looks like they wasted much wood in its construction
If Hanging was still capital punishment today, and one of the Hanging ropes had only 5 turns instead of 7, they will be protest that its cruel and unusual punishment for having only 5 turns of the noose instead of 7. And execution will be delayed for another year or never performed at all.
Lincoln had dealt with the Russian Czar over the purchase of Alaska. His own Senate's actions were far more expensive than the Czar's price.
At 18:03 you can see a ghostly face between two branches in the tree at right.