Posts Tagged With: Atzerodt

Graves of the Conspirators

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Dave Taylor

Over the last week, I had the opportunity to visit and photograph many of the graves of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. Here are some black and white stills of their final resting places.

Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt

Location: Old Arsenal Penitentiary, Washington, D.C.
Period of interment: 1865 – 1867
Pine Boxes B&W

Site of the burial of the executed conspirators

Immediately following their execution, the four conspirators were buried in pine boxes next to the gallows.  In 1867, their bodies, along with the body of John Wilkes Booth, were reburied in a warehouse on the grounds of the Arsenal.  In 1869, President Johnson released the remains to their respective families.  Today, the site of the conspirators’ execution and initial burial location are part of the tennis courts at Fort Lesley McNair in D.C.

John Wilkes Booth

Location: Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, MD.
Period of interment: 1869 – Present
Booth B&W Grave

After Booth’s body was returned to Washington and an autopsy was preformed, he was initially buried in a gun box beneath the floor of a storage room at the Arsenal. In 1867, he was moved and his remains were placed with those of the other conspirators in a warehouse on the Arsenal grounds. President Johnson released Booth’s body in 1869. Edwin Booth purchased a family lot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore and had his grandfather, father, three infant siblings, and brother John Wilkes buried together in the plot. John Wilkes Booth is unmarked in the plot.

David Herold

Location: Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Period of interment: 1869 – Present
Herold B&W Grave

The Herold family had owned a burial plot at Congressional Cemetery since 1834. Davy was the seventh person to be buried there when his body was released in 1869. While Davy is unmarked, his sister Elizabeth Jane was later buried right on top of him. Her stone is the farthest right in the plot.

Mary Surratt

Location: Mount Olivet Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Period of interment: 1869 – Present
Mary B&W Grave

This basic stone bearing only “Mrs. Surratt”, is a replacement for an earlier stone that bore the same text. It is all that marks the plot of Mary Surratt, her children Isaac and Anna, her son-in-law, and some of her grandchildren.

Lewis Powell (body)

Location: Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Period of interment: 1884 – Present
Grave of Lewis Powell's body Rock Creek Section K, Lot 23

While Lewis Powell’s skull is buried with his mother in Florida, the rest of his body is likely at D.C.’s Rock Creek Cemetery in a mass unmarked grave in Section K, lot 23. A portion of that section is pictured above. Eerily, one of the headstones in that section is marked “Lewis”. For more about the travels of Lewis Powell’s remains, read the middle section of this post.

George Atzerodt

Last confirmed location: Glenwood Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Period of interment: 1869 – ?
Public Vault Glenwood Cemetery ExteriorPublic Vault Glenwood Cemetery Interior

The location of George Atzerodt’s remains are still a bit of a mystery. It is known that they were placed in the public vault of Glenwood Cemetery (pictured above) after being disinterred from the Arsenal. It was erroneous believed that he was then buried in a family plot at St. Paul’s Cemetery in Baltimore. Research facilitated by this website has proven this to be false. It is possible that Atzerodt is buried somewhere at Glenwood but the interment book for that period of time was stolen in the late 1800’s. More research is needed.

Dr. Samuel A. Mudd

Location: St. Mary’s Catholic Church Cemetery, Bryantown, MD
Period of interment: 1883 – Present
Mudd B&W Grave

After Dr. Mudd died in 1883, a tall monument with a stone cross on the top was placed on his grave at St. Mary’s Church. Around 1940, some of Dr. Mudd’s descendants decided to replace the weathered stone. The new stone (pictured above) contained Mrs. Mudd’s birth and death dates as well as the doctor’s.

John Surratt

Location: New Cathedral Cemetery, Baltimore, MD
Period of interment: 1916 – Present
Surratt B&W Grave

The longest lived of all the conspirators, John Surratt and his family are buried under this plain cross stone bearing only the family name in Baltimore’s New Cathedral Cemetery.

Samuel Arnold

Location: Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, MD
Period of interment: 1906 – Present
Arnold B&W Grave

Samuel Bland Arnold, one of John Wilkes Booth’s schoolboy friends, was involved in the abduction plot but was not in D.C. when the assassination occurred. Sam was the last member of his family to be buried in the plot upon his death in 1906.

Michael O’Laughlen

Location: Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, MD
Period of interment: 1870 – Present
O'Laughlen B&W Grave

Another childhood friend of Booth’s who was involved in the initial abduction plot, Michael O’Laughlen was sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas. He died from yellow fever while in jail despite the attentive care he received from his fellow prisoner, Dr. Mudd. He was initially buried on an island adjacent to Fort Jefferson. After his fellow conspirators had been pardoned, O’Laughlen’s body was transported from Florida to Balitmore. He was interred in the family plot on December 14th, 1870.

Edman Spangler

Location: Old St. Peter’s Church Cemetery, Waldorf, MD
Period of interment: 1875 – Present
Spangler B&W Grave

After his release from Fort Jefferson, Edman Spangler returned to working at John Ford’s different theatres. Eventually he made he way to Charles County Maryland and reunited with Dr. Mudd. Spangler lived on Dr. Mudd’s property doing carpentry work and farming until his death there in 1875. His grave was marked in the 1980’s by the Surratt and Mudd Societies.

References:
The Lincoln Assassination: Where Are They Now?: A Guide to the Burial Places of Individuals Connected to the Lincoln Assassination in Washington, DC by Jim Garrett and Rich Smyth
Betty Ownsbey

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The Surratts – Society Members

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Dave Taylor

While looking through the illustrated souvenir book, Maryland Line Confederate Soldiers’ Home, Pikesville, Maryland complied by Capt. George W. Booth, I came across a few names I recognized.  The book contains not only a history of the Pikesville Soldiers’ Home, but also the muster rolls for the various Confederate Maryland companies during the Civil War.  It gives the names of conspirators Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlen, who served in the 1st Maryland Infantry, companies C and D respectively.  At the end of the souvenir booklet is a roster of those veterans who became members of the Society of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States in the state of Maryland:

Roster Confederate Marylanders

Here we see the Arnold brothers, Sam and Charles, who both served in Company C of the 1st Maryland Infantry.  Conspirator George Atzerodt’s brother Henry, who went by Harry, became a member as well.  Thomas A. Jones, the man who hid Booth and Herold in the pine thicket and sent them across the Potomac river, was also a member of the society due to the endorsement of his superior Colonel William Norris.  On Thomas Jones’ application for membership into the society Norris wrote:

“I certify, on honor, that I know of my own personal knowledge, that the above applicant served honorably in the Army or Navy of the Confederate States as Chief Agent of the Secret Service Bureau in Maryland where his unpaid services were of incalculable value to the Confederate States in keeping open the most thoroughly reliable path of communication through the Yankee line for 2 1/2 years…during which time the man lived under Yankee fire…”

Finishing up those familiar members are the Surratts, John and Issac. Isaac wasn’t paroled until September of 1865, assumingly having learned about his mother’s fate long after she had been executed. John, of course, was the longest lived of all the Lincoln assassination conspirators as his trial ended in a hung jury.  Though he lived to 1916, he was not the last surviving member on this list.  That honor goes to Harry Atzerodt who died in 1936 at the age of 91.

References:
Maryland Line Confederate Soldiers’ Home, Pikesville, Maryland complied by Capt. George W. Booth
Thomas A. Jones – Chief Agent of the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland by John and Roberta Wearmouth

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New Gallery – Port Tobacco

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Dave Taylor

“Tuesday morning, after my visit to the pine thicket, I rode up to Port Tobacco.

Tuesday was then, as it is now, the day for the transaction of public business in our county. I was therefore likely to meet a good many people in the county-town that day, and bear whatever was going on.

I found the men gathered about in little groups on the square, as men in villages will al ways be found when anything of more than usual interest is engaging public attention. Upon this occasion, of course, they were discussing the assassination, and the probable whereabouts of the assassin. The general impression seemed to be that Booth had not crossed the river.

I mingled with the people and listened till I was satisfied that nothing was positively known. Every expression was merely surmise.

It was while in Port Tobacco that day I made the acquaintance of Captain Williams. He was standing in the bar-room of the old Brawner Hotel (now St. Charles Hotel) in the act of drinking with several gentlemen who were gathered around him, when I entered. Some one introduced me to him and he politely invited me to drink with him. Just as we were about to take the drink, standing with our glasses in our hands, he turned to me and said, ‘I will give one hundred thousand dollars to any one who will give me the information that will lead to Booth’s capture.’

I replied, ‘That is a large sum of money and ought to get him if money can do it.’

In Mr. George Alfred Townsend’s article, ‘How Wilkes Booth Crossed the Potomac’ published in the Century magazine of April, 1884, the author comments upon this offer made in my presence and partly to me, in the following terms: ‘When we consider that the end of the war had come and all the Confederate hopes were blasted and every man’s slave set free, we may reflect upon the fidelity of this poor man whose land was not his own and with inevitable poverty before him perhaps for the rest of bit days,’ etc. It appears from this that Mr. Townsend thinks I deserve some need of praise for not being bribed to betray what I considered a sacred trust. But it seems to me that, had I, for money, betrayed the man whose hand I had taken, whose confidence I had won, and to whom I had promised succor, I would have been, of all traitors, the most abject and despicable. Money won by such vile means would have been accursed and the pale face of the man whose life I had sold, would have haunted me to my grave. True, the hopes of the Confederacy were like autumn leaves when the blast has swept by. True, the little I had accumulated through twenty years of unremitting toil was irrevocably lost. But, thank God, there was something I still possessed — something I still could call my own, and its name was Honor.

In 1889, soon after I was dismissed from the humble position I had held under the Federal Government in the Navy Yard at Washington, I met, for the first time since those memorable and eventful days of which I have been writing. Captain Williams. He was then a detective in Washington City. In the interview I then had with him (a not very accurate account of which was published in the newspapers at the time) Captain Williams told me that that day in Port Tobacco he very strongly suspected I knew more than I was willing to tell. But there was certainly nothing in his manner from which I could have inferred that he was any more suspicious of me than he was of any one else in southern Maryland.” – Thomas Jones from J. Wilkes Booth

Visit the newest Picture Gallery here on BoothieBarn:

Port Tobacco

Port Tobacco weaves in and out of the assassination story.  In the days of the kidnapping plot, John Surratt and Thomas Harbin convinced Port Tobacco-ite Richard Smoot to sell them a boat with which to ferry the abducted President across the Potomac river.  Conspirator George Atzerodt lived, worked, and “married” in Port Tobacco before joining Booth in his plot.  As seen above, Thomas Jones, while hiding Booth and Herold in the pine thicket after the assassination, could have made a fortune in Port Tobacco had he betrayed the pair.  Conspiracy was ripe in Port Tobacco.

You can read more about Port Tobacco’s history as the former county seat of Charles County and it’s involvement in the Lincoln assassination story by visiting these sites:

The Port Tobacco Trail
Port Tobacco Archaeological Project
Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco

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Chimney House and Atzerodt’s Carriage Shop

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Dave Taylor

Last weekend, in a bit of serendipitous luck, I visited the village of Port Tobacco and saw that the home of Chimney House was having an open house. Oddly enough, I had met the realtors for Chimney House last August while antiquing with Herb Collins in Tappahannock, VA.  Jay and his wife Mary Lilly are not only the realtors for Chimney House, but Mr. Lilly is also the president of the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco.  I was invited in by the Lillys and we proceeded to tour the house.  At the end of the day, I was in awe of Chimney House’s size, beauty, and impeccable furnishings.   Here are some of the pictures I took of the of the house:

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Now, Chimney House is more than just a period building in historic Port Tobacco, Maryland.  It also connects to George Atzerodt who made his home and business in Port Tobacco.  In 1857, George Atzerodt and his brother John moved to Port Tobacco and began operating a carriage shop in town.

Atzerodt Carriage Shop Advertisement 1857

When the war came, the brothers closed down the business as John found a job working for the Maryland Provost Marshal as a detective.  Living in Port Tobacco, George found himself in the company of a twice widowed woman by the name of Elizabeth Adams Boswell.  She is better known to assassination historians as Rose Wheeler, an amalgamation of her former husbands’ last names (Charles Wheeler and Henry Rose).  George had one child by Mrs. Wheeler, a girl named Edith.  George and Rose lived together as common law man and wife until George was pulled into Booth’s conspiracy.  Mrs. Wheeler even visited George at the Arsenal Penitentiary before he was executed for his involvement in the tragedy at Washington.

So where does Chimney House play a role?  Well, at one point columnist and author George Alfred Townsend, better known by his nom de plume: GATH, visited and sketched Chimney House in Port Tobacco.  In his sketch of the house, GATH included a small outbuilding near the Chimney House which he attributed to be the Atzerodts’ carriage shop.  With very few others of his day taking an interest in George’s life prior to his non attempt on Andrew  Johnson, GATH’s drawing has been taken as correct.  With Chimney House lasting the tests of time, people could point to the area behind the house as the location of George’s former shop.

GATH's sketch of Chimney House with Atzerodt's carriage shop in the rear

GATH’s sketch of Chimney House with Atzerodt’s carriage shop in the rear

However, between 2007 and 2010 Port Tobacco underwent a major archaeological project funded in part by a $60,000 Preserve America grant from the NPS.  Though no longer updated, the website for the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project has some tremendous information regarding the wonderful work that was done there.  One area that the project leaders wanted to work on was to attempt to find the Atzerodts’ carriage shop.  On a cold December day in 2007, the team made a few shovel test pits (STPs) behind Chimney House looking for evidence of the former carriage shop structure.

That was near the end of the season, and the workers restarted their work in March of 2008.  Here is a report of their efforts:

“Yesterday we set out to finish what we had started. It was warm and sunny so the conditions seemed right. But it did not take us long to realize that the rear yard of the Chimney House is just too marshy for shovel testing to work. Determined, we excavated a few STPs but soon hit wet clays and sands with little soil development above them. The digging was difficult, the screening was difficult, and there just was not enough artifact content to draw any conclusions. We stopped digging and spent a bit of time wondering why anyone would build in this marshy area.”

The archaeological team was starting to have doubts about the long-held “behind Chimney House” theory.  Here’s another look into their thought processes from September of 2008 after still coming up empty behind Chimney House:

“Look at the sketch again. Notice anything else odd about it? In all the photos we have of Chimney House, not one of them has a covered front porch on it or even what appear to be remnants of one. If this sketch was done in 1885 and our earliest photographs of the house are in the early 1900’s (roughly 1910), then it was torn down before. Could this be a journalist’s imagination just trying to make the house look in better condition than it was? Remember that most of Port Tobacco was in shambles after the Civil War as people migrated out of town. Is the repair/paint shop located behind Chimney House?”

With no archaeological evidence to support it, the team did not believe the Atzerodts’ shop was behind Chimney House.  In September of 2010, as the team leader was completing his report for the Preserve America grant, he reported his belief of the true location of the Atzerodts’ carriage shop:

“Today, while working on our final report for the Preserve America grant, which funded our exploration of Civil War era Port Tobacco, I put together several bits of information that resulted in the formulation of a hypothesis: the Atzerodt carriage shop and the house in which George Atzerodt lived with Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler might have been leased from wheelwright Griffin Carter, and that property lies on the east side of Chapel Point Road, where we have not undertaken any archaeological investigations, directly across from the road that runs west to the courthouse.”

You can read more about his hypothesis here, here, and on page 38 of this.  Here’s an aerial shot showing the area.

Atzerodt's Carriage Shop Theory

The red arrow marks the land behind Chimney House where the team found no evidence of any shops whatsoever.  The green arrow points out the general area where the team leader now suspects George Atzerodt’s shop actually was.

However, even if George’s shop was not behind Chimney House, it is my belief that Rose Wheeler, her daughters including Edith, and maybe even George himself, slept in Chimney House.  Mrs. Wheeler’s maiden name was Boswell.  Her brother, William Boswell, purchased Chimney House in 1859 and it didn’t leave the family until 1904 when it was sold by his daughter.  In the 1870 and 1880 census, one of Mrs. Wheeler’s daughters from her first marriage is living with William Boswell in Chimney House.  To me, it seems reasonable that William Boswell would invite his twice widowed sister and her children to live with him in Chimney House, at least for a while.  Whether he would allow George Atzerodt into his home would be a different matter.

Chimney House is a truly beautiful piece of history in Port Tobacco, and yet another interesting sidebar in the Lincoln assassination story.

Port Tobacco's Chimney House surrounded by tobacco plants circa 1930

Port Tobacco’s Chimney House surrounded by tobacco plants circa 1930

References:
Port Tobacco Archaeological Project
Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco
Times of Port Tobacco by John and Roberta Wearmouth
Thomas A. Jones, Chief Agent of the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland by John and Roberta Wearmouth

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Baltimore Cemeteries

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Dave Taylor

Here’s a quick photo post from my phone before I head back from a day in Baltimore. I stopped by three Baltimorean cemeteries today, Green Mount, St. Paul’s, and Loudon Park. This was my first visit to the last two. I brought along my camera but did not charge it before I left. It died after taking pictures of the Booth plot in Green Mount. What follows are some the pictures I had to take on my phone. I hope you like them:

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The Booth family plot in Green Mount.

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Samuel Arnold’s grave in Green Mount. His mother is buried in the same plot.

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The O’Laughlen family marker in Green Mount. Michael is buried here with his father, infant brother, sister and probably other family members not marked on the stone.

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The unmarked plot of the Taubert family in St. Paul’s cemetery in Druid Hill Park. Here is where family members of George Atzerodt are buried including his mother, sister, brother in law, and his nieces and nephews. It was once thought that George Atzerodt was also buried here, but recent research on this site has determined this to be incorrect.

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Section and the approximate area in which John C. Atzerodt is buried in Loudon Park Cemetery. John was George’s brother and a detective who investigated his brother’s involvement. John is the one who received his brother’s body upon its release in 1869. The section in which John is buried is one of individual plots and sparsely marked. A thorough search of the area was conducted but no marker for John was discovered.

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New Gallery – George Atzerodt

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Dave Taylor

An immigrant from Germany, Atzerodt joined Booth’s conspiracy to abduct President Lincoln due to his knowledge and skill at ferrying men and supplies across the Potomac. When the kidnapping plot failed, Atzerodt, still hoping to gain financially from his involvement with Booth, was assigned the task of killing Vice President Johnson.  He took a room at the Vice President’s hotel, the Kirkwood, on the morning of April 14th.  That night, as Booth struck at Ford’s Theatre and Powell attacked Secretary of State Seward in his bedroom, Atzerodt got a drink but failed to act.  He wandered around D.C. before making his way to Georgetown the next morning and taking the stage to his cousin’s house in Montgomery County, MD.  He was arrested there, brought back to Washington and imprisoned aboard the ironclad monitors, Saugus and Montauk.  From there he was transferred to the Old Arsenal Penitentiary.  Atzerodt remained imprisoned here during the duration of the trial of the conspirators.  George was found guilty by the military commission and executed by hanging on July 7th, 1865.

Visit the Picture Galleries to see the new collection of images relating to George Atzerodt.

EDIT: Thanks to Betty Ownsbey for sending me four new pictures of George for the gallery.  If anyone else has images they would like to share, feel free to email them to me at boothiebarn (at) gmail (dot) com.

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Photographing the Conspirators

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Dave Taylor

Reader littlecoco7 posed the following question under the Quesenberry post:

“This has nothing to do with this topic, but I would like to know out of all the conspirators who had their picture taken from Alexander Gardner, how come there was no photo of Mary Surratt taken?”

Thanks so much for the question littlecoco7.  The mug shots of the conspirators are very valuable resources to us now.  For George Atzerodt, Michael O’Laughlen, and Edman Spangler, these few shots consist of our entire photographic record of their lives.  While engravings and drawings were made of them during their time in the court room, we have yet to find other photographs of these individuals.  Even those who we do have additional images of, the mug shots are unique in showing them as they were almost immediately after the crime was committed.  Before delving into your question as to why Mary Surratt (and Dr. Mudd for that matter) were not photographed with the rest, let’s look into how and when the conspirators were photographed.

The best resource for information about the images of the conspirators is the team of Barry Cauchon and John Elliott.  These talented gentlemen are in the process of writing a highly anticipated book regarding the incarceration of the Lincoln conspirators.  One of my links on the side of this blog is to Barry Cauchon’s blog, “A Little Touch of History” while the pairs’ Facebook page about their book, “Inside the Walls” is here.  Barry and John presented some of their findings at the 2011 and 2012 Surratt Society Lincoln Assassination Conferences.  Their research was remarkable to say the least.  To keep their excited fan base content while waiting for the final publication of their book, they produced two supplementary booklets about their talking points.  The most recent one that they sold at the 2012 conference was entitled, “13 Days Aboard the Monitors” and delved into the mug shot photo sessions and the hoods worn by the conspirators.   All the information in this post can be found in this terrific booklet and is currently available for purchase through Barry and John and the Surratt House Bookstore.

Through the research of Barry Cauchon and John Elliott we believe that three photograph sessions occurred while the conspirators were imprisoned aboard the monitors Saugus and Montauk.  The first set of images were all taken of a standing Lewis Powell wearing the clothes he was found in and the clothes he was wearing when he attack Secretary Seward.  There were a total of six pictures taken on this day, April 18th.

Carte-de-visites of two of the six photographs taken of Powell on April 18th.

At this point in time, only two of the conspirators were being housed on the monitors; Michael O’Laughlen and Lewis Powell.

Gardner came back to photograph the conspirators on April 25th.  By this point all of the main conspirators except for Booth and Herold had been arrested.  Gardner photographed Powell again, along with Michael O’Laughlen, George Atzerodt, Edman Spangler, Sam Arnold and Hartman Richter.  Richter was a cousin of George Atzerodt’s and was hiding George in his house when the authorities caught up with him.  While Richter would be cleared of any involvement in the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, in these early days of the investigation he was locked up and photographed with the main gang.

One of two O’Laughlen photographs from April 25th

One of two Spangler photographs from April 25th

One of four Powell photographs from April 25th

One of two Arnold photographs from April 25th

One of two Atzerodt photographs from April 25th

One of two Richter photographs from April 25th

Finally, on April 27th, Gardner returned for his last photograph session.  Here he took pictures of the recently captured Davy Herold and another conspirator Joao Celestino.  Celestino was a Portuguese ship captain with an intense hatred for William Seward.  It was thought he was involved with the attempt on the Secretary’s life but was later released as no evidence existed to connect him to Booth’s plan.

One of three Herold photographs from April 27th

One of three Celestino photographs from April 27th

It has also been written that Gardner and his assistant took one photograph of the autopsy of John Wilkes Booth.  The single print of the event was apparently turned over the War Department but has never been found.  If it was taken, it was either destroyed shortly thereafter, or still remains undiscovered somewhere today.

In the wee hours of April 29th, the conspirators on were transferred off of the monitors and into the Old Arsenal Penitentiary.

So, why didn’t Mary Surratt and Dr. Mudd get their pictures taken?  In short, they were not photographed because they weren’t there and their complicity in the affair had yet to be determined.  Though Mary Surratt had been arrested when Powell showed up at her boardinghouse at the most inopportune time, she was not imprisoned on the iron clads.  Instead, she and her household were sent to the Old Capitol Prison merely as questionable suspects.  The same held true for Dr. Mudd who joined others involved in Booth’s escape like Colonel Samuel Cox, Thomas Jones, and Thomas Harbin, at the Old Capitol Prison.  In the initial stages of the investigation, Mary Surratt and Dr. Mudd were not seen as conspirators.  It was not until more and more evidence arose pointing towards their foreknowledge and association with the assassin that they were treated less like witnesses and more like accomplices.

References:
A Peek Inside the Walls – “13 Days Aboard the Monitors” by Barry Cauchon and John Elliott

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The Tauberts of St. Paul’s

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Dave Taylor

Yesterday, I graciously received the cemetery records of St. Paul’s cemetery from Sandy Harper, church historian of Martini Lutheran Church.  Through the collaborative research of Sandy and the many others who particpate in this site, we have dissected the previously held belief that conspirator George Atzerodt was secretly buried in St. Paul’s cemetery.  Here are the facts we have managed to establish together:

1.  Gottlieb Taubert was the brother-in-law of Geroge Atzerodt.  He married George’s sister, Marion “Mary” Atzerodt.  Gottlieb was a member of Martini Lutheran Church and purchased a plot at St. Paul’s and buried two young children there prior to 1869.

2.  Victoria Atzerodt, George’s mother was buried in the Taubert plot in 1886.

Victoria Atzerodt’s death record from Martini Lutheran Church

3.  Gottlieb Taubert died in 1925 and was buried in the lot.

Gottlieb Taubert’s death record from Martini Lutheran Church

Gottlieb Taubert’s death certificate

4.  Mary (Atzerodt) Taubert died in 1928 and was buried in the lot.

Mary (Atzerodt) Taubert death record from Martini Lutheran Church

Mary (Atzerodt) Taubert’s death certificate

The remaining burial in question was the one that occurred on February 19th, 1869.  It had been believed that George was secretly buried in the Taubert plot on this date.  However, through the insights of Ms. Harper and the church’s verifying records, we now know that the burial on this date was not of the 29 [30] year old brother-in-law of Gottlieb Taubert, but the 29 day old child of Gottlieb Taubert.  The dead child’s name was Freidrich Gottlieb Herman Taubert:

Friedrich Taubert’s death record from Martini Lutheran Church

From these records, I feel comfortable saying that there is no longer any credible evidence that George Atzerodt is buried in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Baltimore. While his mother and sister are buried there, the final resting place of George is still a mystery. The last records place him in a holding vault at Glenwood Cemetery. Hopefully continual research will be able to reveal his grave.

References:
We are all indebited to Sandy Harper for volunteering her knowledge and records about St. Paul’s.
Thank you to everyone who has participated in our conversations and added so many more details to George’s time at Glenwood.

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