Hanged!: Chapters 16–22

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. prevailing
    most frequent or common
    “No, sir: she did not ask even for what she was arrested; expressed no surprise and no feeling at all,” the major said, reinforcing the prevailing notion that an innocent woman ought to have been simultaneously confused, shocked, and horrified.
  2. awry
    away from the correct or expected course
    With that question gone awry, Mary endeavored to make the court aware that the last thing she had done before being escorted from her home in police custody was to kneel down to pray.
  3. piety
    righteousness by virtue of being religiously devout
    “She knelt down,” Wermerskirch answered slyly. “Whether she prayed or not, I cannot tell.”
    Sniggers rippled through the court. The captain might as well have stabbed Mary Surratt, such was the effect of his casting doubt upon her piety in public.
  4. corroborate
    support with evidence or authority or make more certain
    The officers’ stories were not ironclad, however. Nor did they fully corroborate one another. Both Morgan and Smith claimed to have been the one who questioned Powell in Mary Surratt’s entryway, for instance.
  5. disavowal
    denial of any connection with or knowledge of
    Even the two men who had testified to Mary Surratt’s disavowal of Powell did not fully agree on the particulars.
  6. ineffable
    defying expression or description
    “We read in unmistakable letters upon her still features the record of some ineffable woe,” the Washington Chronicle reported on Tuesday, May 23. “It is not fear, not the excitement of a mighty doubt, but withering, blasting woe.”
  7. bleak
    offering little or no hope
    The bleak prison regime, combined with the dread of what lay ahead, formed a mental burden at least as heavy as the iron balls chained to Powell and Atzerodt.
  8. blanch
    turn pale, as if in fear
    Mary blanched white at the insult, and an indignant Mrs. Swisshelm burst out, “She does not look like a devil! She looks like a good, kind-hearted woman, and you are a mean coward for insulting a prisoner.”
  9. vitriol
    abusive or venomous language to express blame or censure
    The same open vitriol permeated the newspapers.
  10. tacitly
    by unexpressed agreement
    The press plainly betrayed its opinions in their headlines, tacitly encouraging the public to do the same.
  11. abject
    of the most contemptible kind
    With his “dingy and sallow” complexion and pathetically small tufts of beard, the boyish David Herold struck the Boston Daily Advertiser as having “no sense of mental or moral force, and has every appearance of abject cowardice.”
  12. sallow
    unhealthy looking
    George Atzerodt had the misfortune to be born with the low brow, short neck, “sallow complexion,” and “dull, dark” eyes that consigned a man to a life of constant mistrust.
  13. swarthy
    naturally having skin of a dark color
    The New York Times informed its readers that Mary was “a large, Amazonian class of woman, square built, masculine hands, rather full face, dark gray, lifeless eye, hair not decidedly dark, complexion swarthy; altogether, her face denotes more than usual intelligence.”
  14. inception
    an event that is a beginning
    “Mrs. Surratt appears to have been cognizant of the intended crime almost from its inception,” the New York Times announced, “and became an active participant in overt acts.”
  15. concise
    expressing much in few words
    In the Boston Daily Advertiser’s estimation, the concise daily summaries the public relied upon were not “complete or always trustworthy.”
  16. circumstantial
    suggesting that something is true without proving it
    Even the Associated Press was guilty of “unintentionally slurring over the most important facts” and “omitting…indispensable links in the grand chain of circumstantial evidence.”
  17. perusal
    the act of examining or reading carefully
    “But the perusal of testimony at best is not like hearing it,” the Boston Daily Advertiser would observe, “and when one loses the hesitations, the emphasis, the gestures of the witness, and has to judge of his credibility by what he says without the aid of knowing how he says it, the process of following the course of the trial becomes much like groping in the dark.”
  18. phalanx
    any closely ranked crowd of people
    Aiken and Clampitt aimed to open their defense of Mary Surratt as strongly as Holt had begun his case against her, with a phalanx of witnesses no one would dare to doubt.
  19. estimable
    deserving of honor and respect
    Father Boyle, too, knew her by reputation as “an estimable lady” but could neither prove nor disprove her loyalty, for such matters had never entered into their brief conversations.
  20. incremental
    increasing gradually by regular degrees or additions
    She, too, seemed disengaged from the trial, despite a few incremental improvements in her case.
  21. dovetail
    fit together tightly or easily
    “No, sir. She gave me a letter to give to Mr. Nothe [sic].”
    Again, this testimony dovetailed with Louis Weichmann’s information regarding Mary’s trip to Surrattsville: “She said, when she rapped at my room on that afternoon, that she had received a letter from [George] Calvert with regard to this money that was due her by Mr. Nothe [sic].”
  22. bluster
    act in an arrogant, overly self-assured, or conceited manner
    “No business?” he blustered. “As my witness, had I not a right to have the truth from you?”
  23. disclose
    make known to the public information previously kept secret
    In “the most striking and extraordinary event of the proceedings,” Frederick Aiken had been tricked into disclosing testimony that directly harmed his client.
  24. throng
    a large gathering of people
    The usual throng of women was crowded around Mary that afternoon, too, making it nearly impossible for Anna to glimpse her.
  25. haughty
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    At first Anna’s testimony “was quite haughty and had an air of insulted dignity.”
  26. delicacy
    subtly skillful handling of a situation
    For the first time the prosecution did not object incessantly, treating Anna with “marked consideration and delicacy…allowing her to tell her story in her own way.”
  27. animus
    a feeling of ill will arousing active hostility
    Anna’s contempt for the very name of “Weichmann” reared up. “Yes, sir; I have seen him and heard of him,” she said in a tone that made the Philadelphia Inquirer note that “her animus was unmistakable.”
  28. paroxysm
    a sudden uncontrollable attack
    Mary’s emotions bent her double. Covering her face with her hands, she lowered her head to the rail and “wept like a child,” loudly enough for more than one reporter to hear. Outside the courtroom, Anna, too, “burst into a violent paroxysm of grief.”
  29. nonplussed
    filled with bewilderment
    “I was nonplussed,” Rath remembered, “for, though I had fought in twenty battles, had heard the shot and shell, and had faced death a score of times, I had never seen anyone faint.”
  30. imbue
    give qualities or abilities to; endow
    Moments like these imbued Rath with a certain respect and sympathy for his sole female prisoner.
  31. pestilential
    likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease
    To make matters worse, they also hailed from southern Maryland, “a noxious and pestilential place for patriotism,” which left them vulnerable to the ticklish question of loyalty to the Union.
  32. bolster
    support and strengthen
    By the second week in June, Mary’s case, feeble from the start, was eroding. No evidence worse than what had already been heard would enter into the record. Nor would any significantly helpful testimony bolster her case.
  33. prostrate
    render helpless or defenseless
    But now even those without medical training could see that she was beginning to look as shaky as her case. When she entered the courtroom, she leaned heavily on the arm of her attendant, “apparently almost prostrated,” reported the Washington Evening Star.
  34. fare
    the food and drink regularly served or consumed
    When prompted, Mr. Hawkins described how Mary had always given the soldiers the best fare her pantry could provide. To his knowledge, she had never been paid for any of that food, either.
  35. opprobrious
    expressing offensive reproach
    “Like a herd of deer gathering around a wounded companion to gore it to death in its disabled state, some of these people feast their eyes…and unfeelingly heap upon the prisoner’s head and heart, the fiercest denunciation and most opprobrious terms!” Many journalists had described the crush of gawkers around Mary, but few had acknowledged the people’s cruelty, much less openly shamed them for it.
  36. malign
    speak unfavorably about
    But worse yet was the press, Mary’s defender emphasized, which “has hunted and maligned this unfortunate woman with the unrelenting ferocity of the sleuth-hound and the venom of asps. Prejudged, condemned, sentenced in advance by every scribbler who can pen a sensation paragraph and stab a defenseless female with impunity.”
  37. forbearance
    good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence
    “What has she to ask of her fellow-citizens and fellow-Christians?” the author demanded. Just three simple things: “Charity, forbearance, suspension of judgement.”
  38. injudicious
    lacking or showing lack of judgment or discretion; unwise
    The press took offense, as might have been expected after such a tirade. The Washington Evening Star branded it “An Injudicious Publication,” predicting that with its florid style and dramatic fervor it “cannot fail of working a contrary effect on the public mind to that intended by the writer.”
  39. florid
    elaborately or excessively ornamented
    The Washington Evening Star branded it “An Injudicious Publication,” predicting that with its florid style and dramatic fervor it “cannot fail of working a contrary effect on the public mind to that intended by the writer.” The Bath Daily Times and Sentinel remarked that “certain parties are trying to make it out that Mrs. Surratt is a model of Christian excellence. Few will believe it.”
  40. diatribe
    thunderous verbal attack
    What effect Amator Justitiae’s diatribe ultimately had on public opinion, the press did not deign to mention.
Created on Tue Jul 02 11:09:13 EDT 2024 (updated Wed Jul 03 19:29:11 EDT 2024)

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