Mary Surratt: An American Tragedy
At 2:30am on April 15, 1865, Mary Elizabeth Surratt was awakened by loud knocking at the door of her "H" Street boardinghouse in Washington, DC. Officers first inquired as to the whereabouts of her son, John Surratt. She was quickly told that her son was wanted in connection with the murder of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth -- an acquaintance of the family. Three days later, Mary found herself under suspicion and under arrest for involvement in the assassination of the president. Elizabeth Trindal has chronicled this almost forgotten figure in a key incident in what proved to be virtually the last days of the American civil war. Mary Surratt's son, John Surratt, was believed to have acted in a plot with John Wilkes Booth and others to not only murder the president, but also to kill Secretary of State Seward. John Surratt was out of the country, and Booth yet to be apprehended. But Mary and others were arrested in connection with the assassination of the president. Eventually they were brought to trial by a military commission. Tried by a military tribunal despite protests by her defense lawyers that it was illegal to try a civilian before a military court, Mary and three others were tried for the crime of conspiring with Booth and found guilty. Many prominent citizens pleaded with President Andrew Johnson for a stay of Mary's execution, but he steadfastly refused. On July 7, 1865, Mary Surratt along with the other accused assassins were hanged. In its grief over the death of President Lincoln, did America condemn an innocent woman to die? Mary Surratt: An American Tragedy is a moving account eliciting new debate on the subject of Lincoln's assassination in the closing days of the civil war. It offers new perspectives based on painstaking research  over many years. Mary Surratt is absorbing reading from a gifted writer.  --Midwest Book Review