Mary Surratt, convicted in the Lincoln conspiracy, was executed 157 years ago today. Her conserved bonnet is still a curiosity at a Georgia museum

Bonnet before (left) and after conservation (Drummer Boy Civil War Museum)

Many visitors to the Drummer Boy Civil War Museum in Andersonville, Ga., are surprised to learn it displays a quilted black bonnet worn by convicted Lincoln conspirator Mary Surratt.

The museum near the infamous Confederate prison tells them about Surratt, who was the first woman executed by the federal government. To this day, her conviction and punishment remain controversial. The bonnet underwent repairs in 2015.

On July 7, 1865, Surratt and three others were marched to the gallows on a sweltering afternoon at the old Washington penitentiary, now the site of Fort McNair. The boardinghouse owner and the others had been convicted in the conspiracy to kill President Abraham Lincoln, who was shot dead nearly three months before at Ford’s Theatre.

The executioners wanted Surratt (left) shielded from the sun and heat in the moments before she was hanged. 

After the distraught Mrs. Surratt was carried by soldiers up the steps to the top of the gallows, her bonnet apparently was removed and an umbrella lifted as the death warrants were read.

Surratt's last words, spoken to a guard as he put the noose around her neck, were purported to be, "Please don't let me fall.” Moments later, with the temperatures near 100 degrees, the four condemned were swinging on ropes. They were buried only a few feet away.

Her bonnet has been at the Drummer Boy museum  since the 1980s. A collector acquired the artifact in New York and brought it to Andersonville.

The bonnet first came into the possession of Union Maj. Thomas Eckert, chief of the military telegraph department. Eckert, who was a friend of Lincoln, contended that he supplied paper and a telegraph office for Lincoln to write the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. He also wrote a telegraph announcing the assassination.

Eckert (right) eventually become president of Western Union.

Many of Eckert’s personal belongings are housed in the small Andersonville museum, which houses a variety of Civil War memorabilia. The black bonnet sits on a mannequin head in one case, with a brief description.

Curator Cynthia StormCaller says the museum has done upgrades in the past several years, including the conservation of the Surratt bonnet, done by textile conservator Jessica Hack of the New Orleans area.

They didn’t take a chance of losing the item through the mail or shipment.

“We actually hand-delivered it,” StormCaller said. At the time, the silk bonnet looked aged.

Hack, now retired, told the Picket the item was one of her favorite projects that came to the studio. “We took the entire thing apart,” she said. A gallery on the company’s website said the bonnet was stabilized by heat seal consolidation.

“We had to disassemble the bonnet to fuse new material to the fabrics,” said Hack. “It was a really interesting piece.” The conservator said the silk was deteriorating in places. She was unable to learn anything about who made it and where.

Prosecutors contended Surratt knew of the plot, which they say was hatched by assassin John Wilkes Booth and others at her Washington boarding house, and gave support. Her defenders say she knew little or nothing of it and never should have been executed.

Conspirator Lewis Powell spent his last hours pleading for her life. “Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us,” he said before he was hanged. (At right, Surratt on the gallows, Library of Congress photo)

StormCaller said she doesn’t believe the businesswoman should have been executed.

She questions why the four were tried in a military court.

“I think she should have gone to jail, but not have been hung,” the curator said. “She knew a tiny bit and was not a full part of the conspiracy.”

The Andersonville Guild, a historic preservation society, and the town used a grant to purchase the museum collection in 2003. The guild is in charge of conservation and care of the items.

The Picket first wrote about the Surratt bonnet in 2009. Read that post here.