Who was the Confederate spy who became a bodyguard for the Pope at the Vatican?

John Surratt was the Confederate spy who later served as a guard in the pope’s military force at the Vatican.

During the American Civil War, Surratt worked as a courier and spy for the Confederate Secret Service. He carried messages across Union lines and became associated with John Wilkes Booth and other Confederate sympathizers. Surratt’s mother, Mary Surratt, owned the boardinghouse where several figures connected to the Lincoln conspiracy met, which later drew intense scrutiny to the family.

After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, John Surratt fled the United States. He traveled through Canada and Europe, using aliases while trying to avoid capture. In the Papal States, he enlisted in the Pontifical Zouaves, a volunteer force that defended Pope Pius IX and the papal territories during the political upheaval surrounding Italian unification. He served under the name John Watson.

Surratt was eventually arrested and returned to the United States. He faced trial in 1867 for involvement in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy, but the jury could not reach a verdict. Unlike his mother, who was executed in 1865, John Surratt was never convicted.