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This post describes the hanging of a woman by the United States federal government on 7 July 1865. Shared solely for historical education and remembrance of the victims of the Lincoln assassination and the complexities of post-Civil War justice.
The First Woman Ever Hanged by the U.S. Government – Mary Surratt (1823–1865)
Mary Surratt
At 1:26 p.m. on 7 July 1865, beneath a blistering Washington sun, 42-year-old widow Mary Elizabeth Surratt dropped through the trap of a hastily built scaffold at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary (now Fort Lesley J. McNair). She was the first — and remains the only — woman ever executed by order of the federal government of the United States.
Mary owned a boarding house at 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C., and a tavern in Clinton, Maryland. After her husband’s death in 1862 she struggled with debts while her sons openly supported the Confederacy. From late 1864 her boarding house became a regular meeting place for John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and others. Weapons were stored at her Maryland tavern; on the very day of the assassination (14 April 1865) she twice travelled there with instructions that the “shooting irons” must be ready that night.
Mary Surratt’s Boarding House
Three days later she was arrested. A nine-man military commission tried her and seven men for “traitorous conspiracy” to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. After seven weeks of testimony, the commission needed only two days to find her guilty and sentence her to death. Five of the nine commissioners secretly petitioned President Andrew Johnson to spare her life “in consideration of her sex and age.” Johnson later claimed he never saw the petition.
On the morning of 7 July 1865, Mary Surratt — dressed in black, veiled, and physically supported by two priests — was led to the scaffold before more than a thousand spectators. Lewis Powell, seated beside her, suddenly declared: “Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn’t deserve to die with the rest of us.”
When asked if she had any final words, she replied softly: “I am innocent… Please don’t let me fall.”
The Washington War Department offered a $100,000 reward for the capture of John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators, John Surratt Jr. and David Herold.
Moments later the traps were sprung. Mary died instantly. Photographs taken by Alexander Gardner show her body hanging beside the three men.
The execution provoked immediate outrage. Many Americans who had demanded swift justice days earlier were horrified at the sight of a woman on the gallows. Within months the Supreme Court would rule military trials of civilians unconstitutional when civil courts were open (Ex parte Milligan, 1866). Mary Surratt’s son John Jr., captured later, escaped the noose because of that ruling.
Lincoln Assassins Hanging At The Gallows
Her guilt or innocence remains fiercely debated to this day. Some see her as a knowing conspirator who “kept the nest that hatched the egg”; others believe she was condemned for nothing more than being a Confederate-sympathising mother in the wrong house at the wrong time.
We remember Mary Surratt today not to pronounce final judgment on her guilt or innocence, but to honour the memory of Abraham Lincoln and all victims of that terrible night; to recognise how grief and the thirst for vengeance can sometimes override due process; and to reaffirm that the execution of a woman by the state — especially under contested circumstances — must always weigh heavily on the conscience of a nation.
Official & reputable sources
National Archives – Records of the Judge Advocate General, Military Commission Case Files, 1865 (RG 153)
Steers, Edward Jr. – The Trial: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Military Tribunal (University Press of Kentucky, 2003)
Swanson, James L. – Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer (HarperCollins, 2006)
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association – “The Lincoln Conspirators Trial” (various issues)
Library of Congress – Alexander Gardner photographs of the execution, 7 July 1865