Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy:  July 12

President Lincoln at Antietam battlefield, 1862

President Lincoln was vitally interested in news from the front lines of the Civil War.  He would regularly visit the War Department telegraph office -- located next door to the White House -- to review dispatches from Union commanders.  In 1862, he visited the battlefield at Antietam in Maryland shortly after the Union victory.  On July 12, 1864, Lincoln became the first sitting U.S. president to witness a battle involving forces he commanded.  He watched from a parapet at Fort Stephens, just outside Washington, as his army repelled a Confederate attack.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy: July 8

There were three killings planned on April 14, 1865.  John Wilkes Booth targeted President Abraham Lincoln, George Atzerodt went after Vice President Andrew Johnson and Lewis Powell attacked Secretary of State William Seward.  Booth succeeded and Powell almost did.  When he entered Seward's house that night, he confronted the cabinet officer's son, Frederick, who served as an assistant to his father in the State Department.

Frederick William Seward

Frederick put up a fight, even though Powell had a gun.  The pistol misfired and Powell used it to beat the younger Seward severely.  He suffered a fractured skull but -- like his father -- survived Powell's vicious assault.

Frederick William Seward was born on July 8, 1830.  He would serve as a diplomat under three presidents -- Lincoln, Johnson and Hayes -- and was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1874.  He died in 1915.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy:  July 7

So many people wanted to be inside the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7, 1865 that prison authorities issued tickets for admission.  Nearly 1,000 people crowded the courtyard, the buildings, even the top of the walls to face a gallows, constructed of raw lumber.  With the mid-day sun beating down on the scene, four prisoners were led from their cells and positioned on the gallows.  Each was fitted with a hood, or hanging cap, and a noose place around each of their necks.

At 1:26 PM, the supports beneath the gallows were knocked away.  Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt dropped through the trapdoors.  They dangled in their nooses for nearly 25 minutes before soldiers cut them down.  Doctors examined each body and pronounced all four conspirators dead.  They were buried in shallow graves next to the gallows.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy:  July 6

At mid-day on July 6, 1865, Mary Surratt learned she would hang the next day.  She erupted in wails of grief and sorrow.  Two Catholic priests, Jacob Walter and B.F. Wiget, went to her cell and tried to comfort her.  Anna Surratt also arrived, but her mother was inconsolable.  Mrs. Surratt was also suffering from severe menstrual distress and she was doubled over in pain.  The prison doctor prescribed wine and pain medication.  Outside her cell, in the prison courtyard, soldiers tested the gallows from which she would hang.  The priests and Anna remained at her side until the next morning.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy: July 5

Marry Surratt

Following the conviction of the Lincoln conspirators on June 30, five of the nine military judges signed a letter to President Andrew Johnson, asking him to commute the death sentence imposed on Mary Surratt.  Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt delivered it to the president on July 5, 1865.  Johnson signed the execution order and did nothing about extending clemency to Mrs. Surratt.  The president later claimed he never saw the letter.  Holt disputed that account.  He said Johnson read the letter, then signed woman's death warrant, muttering that she "kept the nest that hatched the egg."

Later on July 5, soldiers began constructing a gallows at the Old Arsenal Prison, where the condemned were locked up.