We don’t discuss much about Lincoln here on Looking for the Confederate War, really only once that I can recall, and it was on Lewis Powell, alias Payne. I had a chance to visit his grave, or at least one of his graves, back in 2021. (You can read more here.)
A few days ago, I was reading a little book by George Raynor entitled Rebels and Yankees in Rowan County (North Carolina). Raynor has a chapter on Sarah Antionette “Nettie” Gilbert Slater, also known as the French Woman or the Veiled Lady. Raynor believes that Slater once lived in Rowan County, North Carolina. He also believes that she was a Confederate courier and spy in 1865.
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| Godey's Fashion Prints from the 1860s |
She was born
January 12, 1843, in Middleton, Connecticut. Her father, Joseph Gilbert, was a
French teacher and made pills. Parts of the family, including Nettie, moved to
Kinston, North Carolina, ca. 1858, and then to New Bern, where she met Rowan
Slater. He had studied music at Trinity College, then worked as a traveling
musician and dance instructor. New Bern was a little more welcoming of his
talents than Salisbury. They were married in New Bern in June 1861.[1]
Slater worked as a
purchasing agent for the Confederate government in Goldsboro. In 1863, the
moved to Salisbury, settling on the family farm. On July 23, 1864, he enlisted
in Company A, 20th North Carolina Troops. He is listed as present or
accounted for until he was captured on April 6, 1865, in the vicinity of
Farmville, Virginia. Slater was confined in Newport News, Virginia, until he
took the Oath of Allegiance and was released on June 26, 1865.[2]
For some reason,
Nettie decided to head north in January 1865. Raynor speculates that it was to
visit her mother who was still living in New York City. She approached Burgess
S. Gaither and James G. Ramsey, two North Carolina Confederate Congressmen, for
a pass between the lines. They wrote Maj. J.H. Corrington, Confederate provost
marshal, recommending a pass. “She has lost her only brother in the Confederate
Army and we have no hesitation in vouching for the loyalty of this lady and her
high social position and hope she will meet with no difficulty in passing the
lines of our army.”[3] Secretary
of War Seddon endorsed the request.
What happened next
is not really clear, but Nettie was recruited into the Confederate spy network.
She was chosen to deliver messages to Montreal. She spoke French perfectly and
could claim French citizenship. Raynor lays out a quick timeline. She made her
appeal to go to New York on January 16, and was on her way to Montreal on
January 31. Nettie was taking documents to support the claims that the St.
Albans raiders were acting under orders. She was escorted by another
Confederate agent, August “Gus” Howell. On her return trip, also bearing
information, she met John H. Surratt, Jr. in New York, and he accompted her to
Washinton, D.C., and the Surratt boarding house. Howell then went with her to
Richmond.[4]
More documents were
needed by Confederate agents in Canada, and Nettie was back in Montreal on
March 17, making the trip back through New York and Washington to the Surratt
boarding house. From there, they
traveled to the Surratt Tavern. Federals had raided the tavern the night
before, arresting Howell. John Surratt and Nettie crossed the Potomac River and
then headed to Richmond. David Berry ferried them across the river. When
Federal authorities questioned Berry, he described Nettie, who was using the
alias of “Mrs. Brown,” as “a rather thin delicate woman. I think she had black
eyes and dark hair. I do not recollect whether I saw her with her bonnet off. I
think she wore her veil down all the time.” (Raynor, Rebels and Yankees,
15.)
In Richmond she met
with state department and treasure department officials who asked her to go to
Montreal a third time. She and Surrat returned to Washington and on April 4,
set out again. Just what takes place over the next few days is unclear. Lincoln
was assassinated on April 14, 1865. Several individuals were arrested,
including Mary Surratt, John’s mother. She and three others were quickly tried,
found guilty of being accomplices to John Wilkes Both, and were executed. John
Surratt fled to Canada. Or, maybe he was already there.
Raynor wrote that
he was unaware of what happened to Nettie. She simply disappeared from history.
Yet we do have more of the story. Nettie was arrested on April 30, 1865, and
interrogated by a Colonel Ingram. Several witnesses swore that she was a
Confederate agent known as the “French woman,” and a major link between the
Confederates in Richmond and those in Montreal. Nettie was released.[5]
For some writers, Nettie’s
involvement was more serious. Michael Schein believes that John Surratt and
Nettie were lovers, and that she had many aliases, including Kate Brown, Kate
Thompson, and A. Reynaud. He also believes that if there was an order coming
from Richmond for authorizing the assassination of Lincoln, it was carried by
Slater and Surratt. (This has never been proven.)[6]
Schein writes that Surratt, using an alias, and Nettie checked in to the St.
Lawrence Hall in Montreal on January 10, 1865, at least three weeks before her
first trip. Of course, the Mr. T.H. Hendrickson and Miss Slater that registered
could be anyone. And why would he use an alias and she wouldn’t? The entire
letter by the two Confederate congressmen was just a ruse, Schein claims.[7]
Schein’s account seems full of “maybes” that rely on a lot of guesses and
circumstantial evidence. He further speculates that Nellie fled with Surratt to
Canada after Lincoln’s death. He had taken a round-about trip to rescue his
“beautiful young co-conspirator with whom he is in love.”[8]
Schein goes on, believing that Nettie left Surratt in late August 1865,
returning to New York City.[9]
Back in North Carolina, Rowan Slater files for divorce, which is granted on
November 19, 1866. He believes that Nettie is dead. According to Schein, Nettie
marries William Spenser, her sister’s widower, who also passes. Nettie,
according to Schein, lives under the alias of “Sarah A. Long” in New York,
passing away on April 20, 1920. “The Government never caught up with her.
Whatever her crimes, they died with her,” Schein concludes.[10]
One of Schein’s
sources is an article by James O. Hall that appeared in North and South
in August 2000. Hall claims that “Federal detectives sought to find an elusive
young Confederate agent they knew only as ‘Mrs. Slater,’ sometimes referred to
as ‘the French woman’ or ‘the lady in
the veil.’ The deceives never found her. It was not for lack of trying.” Chamlee,
in his book Lincoln’s Assassins, actually cites records from the adjutant
general’s office stating she was arrested, interrogated, and released – Records
of the Judge Advocate General’s office, Roll 2, Nos. 766-784, National Archives.
Hall concludes that Nettie disappeared from the pages of history following the
war.[11]
A lifetime could be
spent on the mysterious life of Sarah Antionette “Nettie” Gibert Slater,
centered around the last four months of the war. There are primary sources to
explore, like those cited by Chamlee, and fanciful writings to debunk, like
those of Schein. A good scholarly book on Confederate spies and the secret
service as a whole is also needed. I confess that I do not have the books by
Ted Boyias, Harold W. Mills, Jr., or Charles Rivers. I do have Tidwell’s Come
Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln.
Like Schein, there is too much “But it is not hard to draw a logical conclusion”
speculation. Tidwell uses this phrase in describing the January 1865 trip of
Surratt to Richmond.[12]
[1] Raynor,
Rebels and Yankees, 10-12.
[2] Jordan
and Manarin, North Carolina Troops, 6:444.
[3] Raynor,
Rebels and Yankees, 13.
[4] Raynor,
Rebels and Yankees, 14.
[5] Chamlee,
Lincoln’s Assassins, 198.
[6] Schein,
John Surratt, 65.
[7] Schein,
John Surratt, 66.
[8] Schein,
John Surratt, 150.
[9] Schein,
John Surratt, 180.
[10] Schein,
John Surratt, 181.
[11] Hall,
“The Veiled Lady” North and South, (August 2000), 34-44.
[12] Tidwell,
Come Retribution, 341.
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