The Web of Conspiracy (review)

206civil war history listing Stanton's first name as Edward, was posthumously assembled. Williams was more careful in this volume than in earlier ones concerning the use of the best of alternative texts for documents when several were available, and in the fullness of the bibliography. It is singularly appropriate that Allan Nevins' presidential address last December to the American Historical Association was a warm plea for the "professional " historian to welcome the "amateur" to the ranks of those seeking after truth. Williams loved his work as an amateur should, but he was a professional in the best sense of the word. Harold M. Hyman University of California at Los Angeles. TheWeb ofConspiracy. By Theodore Roscoe. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., Pp. 502. $10.00.) this book is undeniably the most comprehensive study of Lincoln's assassination which has so far been written, or is likely to be written in the foreseeable future. The author has diligendy assembled most of the known facts, combined them with his own research, and thereby has produced a rather voluminous but readable account of the greatest tragedy in American history. Ever since the secret records of the War Department have been thrown open to the public, many historians have gone over these priceless pages. The first ones, of course, grabbed the bulk of the cream, and left very little of it for those who followed in their wake. Roscoe therefore rightíy took much material from his predecessors, to whom he gives due credit. But in the opinion of this critic he erred in publishing a wealth of irrelevant material which they had not considered interesting enough to use. Citing the case-histories of a multitude of suspects, for instance, including those who were quickly discharged , and reporting at length the interrogations which others have either abbreviated or disregarded, he established a more complete record than heretofore printed; but he also loaded his book up with so much ballast that its essential parts are almost buried under it. A few slight errors should be pointed out. It was not the stagehand Spangler , but the actor Chester who was to turn off the theater lights in the first abduction plot. Not Doctors Leale, Taft, and King, but Dr. Leale alone placed the dying President on the floor and tried to revive him. Roscoe also is mistaken in stating that Herold's request of Dr. Mudd for road information makes no sense. When the two travelers arrived at the doctor's house, they told him they were headed for Washington, so as to allay any suspicions that they were involved in the assassination; but what they really wanted were directions to the roads leading south. Therefore Herold concocted the fairy tale that they expected to find a boat farther south to take them north to the capital. A look at the map, showing a big bend in the Potomac, makes it clear that this story was not unreasonable. Far less plausible is the author's speculation that Andrew Johnson may have been given drugged brandy on the day of his inauguration as vice-president. His conjectures about the name of the colored maid in Book Reviews207 the Surratt household, whether it was Susan Mahoney or Susan Jackson also seem a waste of time. She was Susan Mahoney in 1865, and married a man named Jackson between then and 1867. Still another "mystery," why Susan spun a fancy yarn in 1865, but did not repeat it in 1867, has an equally easy solution: In Ì865 she was paid $250 for her testimony, but two years later there was no promise of a reward held out to her. Roscoe next wonders needlessly how it was possible for the Baltimore Provost Marshal to arrest two of the conspirators so quickly. Again the explanation should not be hard to find, considering that the War Department must have known their identity through Wiechmann's previous disclosures. A minor error concerns Major Rathbone, who is said to have taken up residence in Germany. This is incorrect. He was on his way to a German spa, and was spending the night in a hotel at Hanover, when he became insane and...