According to the War Department’s records, Mary Surratt and Edward Spangler had helped John Wilkes Booth gain entrance to the theater box in which Lincoln sat at the time of his murder. Spangler then “hindered” efforts to save Lincoln. Herold helped Booth escape through military lines. For his part, Payne attempted to kill Lincoln’s secretary of war, William H. Seward, at Seward’s home on the same night that Lincoln was shot. Seward suffered knife wounds to the face and throat from the attack, but survived. Atzerodt had apparently lain in wait for Vice President Johnson on the night of April 14; the report did not specify where. Finally, O Laughlin was charged with lying in wait to murder Grant. The others were convicted of giving aid or support to Booth at various times before and after Lincoln’s assassination.
Herold, Atzerodt, Payne and Surratt were sentenced to death by hanging. Spangler, O’Laughlin, Mudd and Arnold were given life in prison with hard labor.
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Back when the country took the threat of a cabal of conspirators, seditionists, and treasonists seriously. Jefferson Davis was implicated for inciting the treasonous cabal and "aided the subversion and overthrow of the Constitution and laws of the said United States." Maxine Waters should be brought up on the same charges.
The Brady photos of the hanging are spectacular. Lewis Powell stole a straw hat on the way up to the gallows, donned it and declared Mrs. Surratt’s innocence. (I have other ideas, lol!) The Surratt museum in Maryland is very interesting.
Democrats and anger issues - some things never change...
Mudd got the short end of the stick in that deal.
After seeing the likes of Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, Davis will likely be the LAST President from Mississippi.
Davis was arrested and never faced trial even though he demanded one. You are an idiot.
Mary Surrat got hung for??? We have politicians far more guilty of things than what Surrat was accused of, and they are still in politics.
What people tend to forget is the conspirators weren’t just after Lincoln; they wanted to decapitate the US government. Besides Lincoln, they went after VP Johnson, the Sec’y of War, and General Grant (who was supposed to be at Ford’s that night). It’s hard to imagine the outcome if they had been successful. I have to imagine that Reconstruction would have been much harsher for one thing.
Never knew they were after Grant. Dam good thing they failed because if they had got Grant, there would have been a hell of a lot more blood spilled.
He was the one who insisted that it was over and if the politicos insisted in their demands for violent repercussions against the South and its Generals, that he might take drastic actions. And Sherman would have lead the charge you all can bet on that one. After what they did to him because of his terms of surrender with Johnston.
“Mary Surratt and Edward Spangler had helped John Wilkes Booth gain entrance to the theater box...”
I didn’t know Mrs. Surratt was that directly involved. I thought she just ran a boarding house where the conspirators met & plotted.
I do remember reading that Pres. Andrew Johnson received many appeals for clemency for Mary Surratt, but that he was adamant, saying “She kept the nest where the egg was hatched”.