By Richard Look
Captain Henry Warren Smith climbed the stairs to the entrance of a home in Washington, D.C., during the night of April 17, 1865. Bathed in the soft gaslight of street lamps, Smith paused at the door and peered through the blinds of an adjacent window. He observed four women huddled together in close conversation.
He rang the doorbell and interrupted the scene. One woman rose, came to the window, and whispered in a low voice, “Is that you, Kirby?” Smith replied, “No, it is not Kirby, but it is all right; let me in.” The woman said, “All right,” and opened the door.
Smith stepped inside and asked, “Is this Mrs. Surratt’s house?” She said, “Yes.”
Thus began an encounter that ended with Smith arresting the woman, Mrs. Mary Surratt, and taking into custody Lewis Payne, both suspects in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln three days earlier.
Smith, 28, hailed from a military family. His father, West Point Class of 1823 graduate Joseph Rowe Smith, retired from active duty in 1861 and served in less rigorous roles through the war. Smith’s older brother, Joseph, Jr., served as Surgeon General and Medical Director of the U.S. Army.
Smith began his military service in September 1861 with a captain’s commission in the Adjutant General’s Office in Washington. Following the murder of Lincoln and the manhunt for alleged killer John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators, Smith received orders to arrest Surratt at her home on 541 H Street. He did so with a detail of three men stationed around the house about 10 p.m. on April 17.
While Smith and his men prepared to escort Surratt and the other women from the residence to be interrogated, the mysterious Kirby arrived. He turned out to be Lewis Powell (also known as Payne). Smith, by this time joined by two detectives, took Powell into custody.
Surratt and Powell were tried by a military tribunal, found guilty, and hanged on July 7, 1865.
Smith received $1,000 of the $100,000 reward offered by the federal government for the apprehension of Booth and his accomplices. In June 1867, Smith testified in the civilian trial of Surratt’s son, John. A hung jury ended with his release.
By this time, the army had transferred Smith to Vicksburg, Miss., for duty in the Freedmen’s Bureau. He then joined the 3rd U.S. Cavalry and died in 1869 at Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory. He outlived one wife and was survived by his second, Virginia, and two sons.
Buried in the fort’s cemetery, Smith’s remains were removed to the Santa Fe National Cemetery in 1896.
Richard Look has had a longtime interest in the Civil War and purchased his first military image in 1996. He lives in Jacksonville, Fla.
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