The Lincoln Conspiracy

A Meeting of Confederates

By mid-summer 1864, John Wilkes Booth is living a dangerous double life.  He is a very public personality, a theatrical star whose off-stage performances and dalliances generate as much gossip as his on-stage appearances generate rave reviews. Yet he also has a very private life.  He is part of a ring that smuggles supplies to the Confederacy. How great a role he plays is subject to on-going debate, but there is no doubt he is deeply enough involved that if he is caught, he will hang. His smuggling operations bring him into contact with other operatives of the Confederate secret service. He even travels to Montreal, a hotbed of Confederate intrigue, to meet with the leaders of the Southern underground.  But he wants to do more.  He wants to be more.

Booth, who has been schooled all his life in the theatricality of the grand gesture, wants to make his mark on history.  When the story of the Civil War is told to future generations, he wants its hero to be John Wilkes Booth.  And that summer, he concocts a scheme that will assure him a leading role in the history of his beloved South.


Booth plans to abduct President Lincoln and hold him for ransom. He is not after gold – he is after men. He will free Lincoln only if all captured Confederate troops are released from Union prisons. As the tide of the war continues turning against the South, it becomes clear the North has an unassailable manpower advantage. The Confederacy cannot win a war of attrition. If Lincoln can be apprehended, the North might be willing to swing open its prison gates and free tens of thousands of Southern soldiers. Even now, it sounds like a desperate act. Among some Southerners, desperation appears to be the last hope for victory.

Having cast himself as the star of the heroic drama, Booth now takes on the roles of director, producer and scenarist.  His years on the stage have taught him that no production can be mounted as a true "one man show".  He will need a supporting cast.

Samuel Bland Arnold

His next step is -- in hindsight -- an obvious one.  He reaches out to people he knows.  Booth contacts Sam Arnold, a former classmate turned Confederate soldier (he either mustered out for health reasons or deserted) now working on his brother’s farm in Maryland.  And he sends word to Michael O’Laughlen, a former Booth family neighbor in Baltimore and former Confederate solider, who is also living off work his family provides. Both men are miserable and aching for something new.  Booth provides it. 

Michael O'Laughlen Junior

The actor invites his two old friends to join him at a fancy Baltimore hotel in that summer of 1864.  It's easy to imagine their meeting.  The three young men -- Booth at 26, O'Laughlen just turned 24, Arnold 29 -- drinking, swapping stories, reliving "the old days".   The former soldiers may have shared stories of the battles they fought.  Perhaps Booth revealed his secret life -- portraying himself as a valiant and indispensable agent of the Confederate secret service.  And then, he unveils his plan -- the bold stroke that can save the Confederacy.

No one knows if it was the strong ties of friendship, the audacity of the proposed kidnapping, or just the famous Booth charm.  Whatever the reason, Arnold and O’Laughlen leave the meeting as the first members of the conspiracy.