Hanged!: Chapters 6–10

by Sarah Miller
This nonfiction narrative highlights the controversies surrounding the court-martial and hanging of boardinghouse owner Mary Surratt, who was convicted for being a part of the treasonous post-Civil War conspiracy to assassinate key members of the victorious government led by President Abraham Lincoln.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–10, Chapters 11–15, Chapters 16–22, Chapter 23–Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. qualm
    uneasiness about the fitness of an action
    Many Americans’ first impression of Mary would be of a woman admitting the police into her home without a qualm, as though she had offered up her wrists to be shackled as amiably as others might shake hands.
  2. insinuate
    suggest in an indirect or covert way; give to understand
    “The mother took it calmly as though she had been expecting it,” the New York Times reported, insinuating that an innocent woman would have been shocked to find the authorities ringing her doorbell.
  3. paragon
    model of excellence or perfection of a kind
    Almost every word was a veiled insult, right down to the word “woman.” Any female qualified as a woman. “Lady,” on the other hand, indicated a paragon of femininity, a woman worthy of respect and deference, due to the refinement of her manners, breeding, and dress.
  4. misgiving
    doubt about someone's honesty
    A large woman, particularly one with a coarse (that is, masculine) expression, aroused immediate misgivings. And a shabbily dressed woman clearly took no pride in her appearance—something a lady would never dream of neglecting.
  5. boon
    something that is desirable, favorable, or beneficial
    In 1852, much to Mary’s dismay, Father Finotti had been transferred to Brookline, Massachusetts. What constituted a genuine tragedy for Mary proved to be a boon for history, for their separation forced Mary Surratt to commit her woes to paper rather than whisper them in the confessional.
  6. divulge
    make known to the public information previously kept secret
    Just six letters written in Mary Surratt’s own hand are known to survive. All six of them are addressed to Father Finotti. This scanty handful of documents divulges an astonishing amount of insight into the harsh realities of Mary’s life.
  7. censure
    harsh criticism or disapproval
    On at least one occasion, John Sr.’s transgressions were so serious that Mary did not speak to him for “ten or twelve days,” leaving history to wonder what offense had prompted her silent censure.
  8. indolent
    disinclined to work or exertion
    She was by then shouldering John’s duties as postmaster and likely managing the tavern as well, not to mention endeavoring to keep her children on a straight and narrow path while simultaneously preventing her neighbors and customers from discovering that her husband was an indolent drunkard.
  9. credence
    the mental attitude that something is believable
    A story such as this, appearing in print only once and from an unnamed source, hardly seems worthy of consideration as anything more than common gossip. But in fact, there are clues in Mary Surratt’s correspondence that lend credence to this rumor.
  10. erratic
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    Beautiful though her penmanship is, erratic spellings abound, and sentences often run together without punctuation or capitalization to divide them.
  11. indifferent
    showing no care or concern in attitude or action
    John Sr. was either indifferent or hostile to the idea of paying for schooling for Isaac, Anna, and John Jr., terming one academy “unhealthy” for his son.
  12. tenacity
    persistent determination
    Mary did her best and was soon rewarded for her tenacity.
  13. haphazard
    marked by great carelessness
    Although the original handwritten transcripts were carefully preserved in the National Archives, the questions and answers themselves were recorded in a haphazard manner.
  14. terse
    brief and to the point
    Then, abruptly—sometimes smack in the middle of a witness’s reply—the answers shift from a verbatim account, complete with the usual verbal stumbles and hesitations, to a terse summary.
  15. vehement
    marked by extreme intensity of emotions or convictions
    Anna’s protests were so vehement that her mother’s interrogation had to be interrupted in order for Mary to come and calm Anna.
  16. curt
    brief and to the point
    That curt note had perturbed Mary.
  17. flummox
    be a mystery or bewildering to
    Her insistence appears to have left the interrogator flummoxed. “I don’t know but I have misunderstood you,” he said.
  18. stymie
    hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of
    It is difficult to read the transcript without coming away with the impression that Mary Surratt’s responses had thoroughly stymied her interrogator.
  19. meager
    deficient in amount or quality or extent
    On the floor sat a tin basin and a wooden toilet bucket. A plain wooden chair or two completed the meager furnishings. Little but spiderwebs adorned the crumbling wallpaper.
  20. manacle
    confine or restrain with or as if with handcuffs
    Though the men were blinded and stifled at all hours, mealtime proved an especial torment, for with manacled hands it was next to impossible for prisoners to guide a spoon to the misaligned mouth hole.
  21. denote
    be a sign or indication of
    “She was apparently about forty years of age, a tall commanding figure, rather stout, with brown hair, blue eyes, thin nose, and small, well-shaped mouth, denoting great firmness. This lady was Mrs. Surratt.”
  22. reproach
    a mild rebuke or criticism
    She rather avoided conversation, and never uttered one word of reproach or virulence against those by whose authority she was imprisoned.
  23. virulence
    extreme hostility
    She rather avoided conversation, and never uttered one word of reproach or virulence against those by whose authority she was imprisoned.
  24. abet
    assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoing
    For the seventy-two hours he had remained silent, he had obstructed justice, as well as aided and abetted John Wilkes Booth’s escape.
  25. glean
    collect or gather bit by bit, especially information
    His report listed just three scraps of information he had gleaned: Lloyd was acquainted with Booth and Herold and had concealed their carbines in the tavern; on April 14, Mary Surratt had instructed him to have the weapons ready; Booth and Herold had arrived after midnight to collect the rifles.
  26. complicity
    guilt as a confederate in a crime or offense
    As far as investigators were concerned, John Lloyd had “virtually acknowledged complicity” with his second confession, giving them rock-solid grounds for trying him as a conspirator alongside Booth.
  27. indict
    accuse formally of a crime
    If Lloyd’s information was to be of any use against the conspirators, therefore, he could not be indicted in Lincoln’s murder.
  28. embellish
    add details to
    Both Lloyd and the investigators, then, had an incentive to embellish the facts. The more Lloyd could be made to dread being prosecuted, the more information he was likely to volunteer.
  29. indignant
    angered at something unjust or wrong
    One of the cavalry officers tasked with tracking Booth’s trail recalled the strain of working under “the weight of indignant and impotent grief that was added to a Nation’s sorrow for its loss, as the conviction settled upon the hearts of man that the murderer had escaped.”
  30. unprecedented
    novel; having no earlier occurrence
    Reward offers of $10,000, then $30,000, brought no useful leads. Fed up, Stanton issued a broadside on April 20 that placed an unprecedented price on Booth’s head.
  31. secrete
    conceal or place out of sight
    The notice ended on an ominous note: “All persons harboring or secreting the said persons, or either of them, or aiding or assisting their concealment or escape, will be treated as accomplices in the murder of the President and the attempted assassination of the Secretary of State, and shall be subject to trial before a Military Commission, and the punishment of DEATH.”
  32. pertinent
    having precise or logical relevance to the matter at hand
    Few other men had supplied as much pertinent information as the young clerk had.
  33. relegate
    assign to a lower position
    That evening, April 25, the Garretts relegated “Mr. Boyd” and his young “cousin” to the tobacco barn for the night. In fact, the two eldest Garrett brothers padlocked Booth and Herold into the barn, for fear that the pair of strangers might be horse thieves.
  34. mitigate
    lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of
    “Yes, sir,” she said, and then she appears to have done what she could to mitigate the damage this admission caused.
  35. peripheral
    related to the key issue but not of central importance
    Colonel Olcott cast about for a few more peripheral details he could compare with Lloyd’s version of the encounter.
  36. scrutiny
    the act of examining something closely, as for mistakes
    Over the weeks, months, and years to follow, Mary Surratt’s reply to this question would provoke more scrutiny than any other: “I only saw a stranger. I never saw him before. I never thought it was the Wood who was at our house.”
  37. absolve
    excuse or free from blame
    This may have been an opportunity to absolve a piece of incriminating evidence—the carte de visite of Booth, found tucked behind a painting in Anna’s room. If Anna had secretly fallen for the dashing theater idol, as so many other women had, it could plausibly have accounted for why the assassin’s image had been in the house, as well as why it had been hidden.
  38. pilfer
    make off with belongings of others
    Stacks of envelopes, marked with the official frank of the Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners (the agency of the War Department in which Weichmann was employed), had been found in the bedroom he shared with John Surratt on H Street. This was a graver matter than simply pilfering supplies from his workplace.
  39. purloin
    make off with belongings of others
    “I am satisfied he has frequently purloined important papers which have been forwarded to Richmond by or through John Surratt,” Wood wrote of Weichmann.
  40. ostentation
    pretentious or showy or vulgar display
    “That her position sorely tried her, was apparent to all; but there was never the least appearance of guilt, and not for one moment did her faith in an All-merciful Providence waver. There was no pretence about it,—you felt that the woman was deeply and sincerely religious, yet without any ostentation.”
Created on Tue Jul 02 11:08:59 EDT 2024 (updated Wed Jul 03 19:28:09 EDT 2024)

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