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.

Today in  the Lincoln Conspiracy:  June 30

After hearing testimony from more than 350 witnesses during a seven-week trial, the nine members of the Lincoln assassination conspiracy tribunal issued their verdicts on June 30, 1865.  All eight of the defendants were convicted and four -- Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt -- were sentenced to hang.  Another conspirator, Dr. Samuel Mudd, escaped execution by one vote.  He, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison.  "Ned" Spangler was sentenced to six years.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy:  June 14

The question of Lewis Thornton Powell's sanity consumed two days of testimony at the Lincoln conspiracy trial.  On June 14, 1865, Powell again submitted to an examination -- this time by the Surgeon-General of the United States Army, along with the previous witnesses, Dr. James C. Hall and Dr. Basil Norris, an Army surgeon.  Their verdict was unanimous.

Lewis Thornton Powell

"I have made an examination this morning of the prisoner, Payne [Powell's alias], and find no evidence of insanity—none whatever," concluded Surgeon-General J.K Barnes.  "I arrived at the conclusion that he is not insane," Dr. Norris concurred.  Dr. Hall, who had admitted there was evidence for "suspicion of insanity" the previous day, now felt otherwise.  "I think I am now prepared to say that there is no evidence of mental insanity," Hall told the court.  "Payne's mind is weak and uncultivated, but I can not discover any sufficient evidence of mental insanity."

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy:  June 13

Most of what we know about conspirator Lewis Powell comes to us from testimony at the Lincoln assassination conspiracy trial.  The defense argued that he was insane and presented the testimony of two doctors to support the claim.

Lewis Powell at the Washington Navy Yard, 1865

On June 13, 1865, Dr. James C. Hall examined Powell in a small room off the main courtroom.  Later that day, he presented his findings to the military tribunal.  He testified that Powell was a man in a vigorous state of good health (except for a bout of constipation).  He also noted that the man's head was markedly asymmetrical, with the left side "much more developed than the right."  Hall asked Powell a series of questions, aimed at drawing him out and evaluating his mental faculties.

Hall testified that Powell had a sluggish memory and that he was slow to respond to simple questions.  The doctor told the court, "His mind is naturally dull and feeble, and, I presume, has not been cultivated by education."  Hall also asked Powell if a crime -- like the one with which he was charged -- could ever be justified morally.  Powell's response: "...in war a person was entitled to take life."  The doctor concluded, based on that answer, that there were reasonable grounds for a suspicion of insanity.  Under cross-examination, Hall admitted he was not prepared to declare Powell was, in fact, insane.  He protested that such a conclusion could only be based upon numerous examinations of the subject.  He said his single examination was, by necessity, too cursory to reach such a judgment.

The examination was cursory indeed.  During the course of his interview, Hall asked Powell for his mother's maiden name.  Powell said he couldn't remember.  Apparently, the doctor never asked the prisoner for his own name.  Throughout his testimony, Hall referred to him as "Payne", the alias Powell had adopted in order to enter war-time Washington.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy:  June 12

Ford's Theatre

The assassination of the president was a profound shock to the nation.  It was an even more profound shock to the employees of Ford's Theatre.  Several of them actually lived at the theater.  After the assassination, the building was under the control of the U.S. Army.  Employees were required to get passes from the military to stay in their own rooms.

On June 12, 1865, Ford's employee Louis J. Carland appeared before Lincoln conspiracy tribunal.  He testified that, on the night of the assassination, he went in search of Ned Spangler, the theater employee charged as a conspirator.  Carland went to the room of another theater hand, Jacob Ritterspaugh, to ask where Spangler had gotten off to.  Ritterspaugh was quite shaken, according to Carland.  The man said he had been backstage when President Lincoln was shot.  He had seen John Wilkes Booth dash across the stage and out the back door.  Ritterspaugh said he pointed out the fleeing figure to Spangler and said that it was Booth. 

According to Carland, Spangler slapped Ritterspaugh across the mouth.  Then he thundered, “You don’t know who it is; it may be Mr. Booth, or it may be somebody else.” 

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy: June 10

John Harrison Surratt Junior

Following the failed attempt to kidnap President Lincoln in March 1865, conspirator John Surratt fled Washington.  He made his way to New York, Canada, England and finally to Rome, where he joined the papal army.  In late 1866, Surratt was arrested in Alexandria, Egypt and extradited to the United States.

On June 10, 1867, Surratt went on trial in Maryland, charged with murdering Lincoln.  Unlike his mother Mary, he was judged by a civilian court.  The trial ended in a hung jury.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy: June 8

John Wilkes Booth

Conspirator John Surratt insisted that his involvement with John Wilkes Booth was limited strictly to a plan to abduct President Lincoln, not to kill him.  But testimony at the Lincoln assassination conspiracy trial casts doubt on that assertion.  Marcus P. Norton of Troy, New York, stayed at the National Hotel from January through March 1865.  He testified to the military tribunal that he witnessed several meetings Booth had with conspirators George Atzerodt and Michael O'Laughlen at the hotel.

George Atzerodt

He recalled one in particular.  It happened a day or two before Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4.  Booth and Atzerotd were sitting in the hotel's "rotunda office".  Norton was sitting nearby and could overhear their conversation.  He was probably eavesdropping, since he had seen Booth on stage many times.  Perhaps he was hoping to pick up some juicy tidbits of celebrity gossip.  Norton recounted that Booth and Atzerodt expressed hope that "the matter...with Mr. Johnson" would not succeed "as it did with Old Buchanan" or "their party would get terribly sold.". At the time, Norton admitted, he had no idea what the men were discussing.

On June 8, 1865, Norton told the military tribunal that the assassination of the president -- coupled with the attack on the Secretary of State and the bungled scheme to kill the Vice President -- brought that conversation back to his mind.  So what were Booth and Atzerodt talking about?

In 1857, a horrifying illness swept through the guests at the National Hotel -- twice.

President James Buchanan

Vice President Andrew Johnson

On both occasions, President-elect James Buchanan had been in residence there.  The scuttlebutt in Washington was that someone had tried to poison Buchanan.  That was never proven, but was widely believed to be true.  If Norton heard correctly, it seems that Booth and Atzerodt were discussing an attempt on the life of Vice President Andrew Johnson and noting that if they didn't pull it off, things would go very badly for them.  The conversation took place two weeks before the conspirators tried -- and failed -- to kidnap Lincoln.  Based on Norton's testimony, it seems their plans at that time also included murder -- if not of the president, then of the vice president.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy:  June 7

During the Lincoln assassination conspiracy trial, prosecutors went to great lengths to paint Mary Surratt as an active member of the plot to kill the president.  Witness after witness described the fervid pro-Confederacy sentiments of Mrs. Surratt and members of her family.  They painted the Surratt boardinghouse in Washington as a nest of murderous vipers bent on destroying the United States.

Mrs. Surratt had three children.  Her elder son Isaac was a soldier in the Confederate Army.  Her younger son John was a Confederate spy who had schemed with John Wilkes Booth since the earliest days of the conspiracy.  Her middle child, Elizabeth Susanna (known as Anna), lived at the boardinghouse from November of 1864 until her mother's arrest.

Elizabeth Susanna "Anna" Surrattv

Defense lawyers called Anna as a witness to dispute testimony that her mother was consorting with the other conspirators.  She testified that both George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell (whom she knew under the name of "Wood") had visited the boardinghouse and had on some occasions stayed the night.  She said both men were there to see Lewis Weichmann, the War Department clerk who was the government's chief witness.

Anna Surratt also admitted she owned two photographs of John Wilkes Booth, whom she had met through her brother John.  She kept them hidden on the back of a painting given to her by Weichmann.  Anna told the tribunal her brother was furious when she bought them and demanded she tear them up.  She insisted that her acquaintance with Booth was casual, limited to a few brief encounters at the boardinghouse.

On June 7, 1865, a defense lawyer showed Anna a card bearing the state seal of Virginia.  She admitted she owned the card.  She testified a woman had given it to her two and a half years earlier.  Printed on the card was the state's motto, "Sic semper tyranis" -- the very words Booth shouted as he fled from Ford's Theatre the night he shot Abraham Lincoln.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy:  June 6

What did Dr. Samuel Mudd know and when did he know it? For a century and a half, that question had been hotly debated among Lincoln conspiracy scholars.  An old friend of the doctor's made a damning assertion about Mudd's knowledge at the Lincoln conspiracy trial.

Dr. Samuel Mudd

Daniel J. Thomas, who claimed he had known Mudd since they were children, told the military tribunal that in March of 1865, he had a conversation with the doctor at the home of one of their neighbors in Bryantown, Maryland.  Thomas said that during the course of the conversation, he mentioned that South Carolina had fallen to Union forces and it appeared the Civil War would soon be over.  He said Mudd rejected the contention, then added, "the President, Cabinet, and other Union men in the State of Maryland would be killed in six or seven weeks."  At the time, Thomas thought Mudd was deadly earnest in his pronouncement.  He went so far as to send a letter to a local military commander recounting the conversation.  Over the next few days, however, he convinced himself Mudd was joking, since he had been a kidder all his life.

On June 6, 1865, Thomas faced blistering cross examination from the defense.  He denied that he had tried to claim a reward for providing information that led to Mudd's arrest.  He rejected a defense contention that he had asked soldiers to sign certificates that he had passed along the details of his conversation with Mudd before the doctor's arrest so he could collect $10,000 -- or even $25,000.  Under repeated questioning, however, Thomas did admit he told two soldiers they should sign certificates to that effect so he could cash in.  But, Thomas insisted, he was just joking.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy: June 5

The chief witness against the Lincoln conspirators was Louis J. Weichmann, a clerk at the War Department.

Louis J. Weichmann, witness for the prosecution

He had attended seminary with John Surratt Jr. and rented a room at Mary Surratt's boardinghouse in Washington.  He testified that the Surratt house was the hub of the conspiracy and most of its members had attended meetings there.  Weichmann himself had been detained for a time following President Lincoln's assassination because of his close ties to the Surratts.

After his testimony and the execution of the conspirators, Weichmann moved to Anderson, Indiana where he died on June 5, 1902.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy: June 3

John H. Surratt Jr.

John Surratt did not face a military tribunal for his role in the Lincoln conspiracy.  He was safely out of the country when the trial took place.  However, the military judges heard testimony that seemed to link Surratt not just to the earlier attempt to kidnap the president, but to his assassination.

On June 3, 1865, a tailor named David C. Reed testified that he had seen Surratt outside the National Hotel at 2:30 in the afternoon on April 14th.  The National was, of course, where John Wilkes Booth was living at the time.  Surratt maintained he was nowhere near Washington when Lincoln was shot, and had no contact with Booth after April 3rd.

Reed would repeat his testimony nearly two years later when Surratt stood trial before a civilian court.  He insisted he immediately recognized Surratt.  Reed claimed he had known Surratt since he was a child.  He described Surratt's clothes and hair cut, said he was 30 to 35 years old and clean-shaven.  In fact, on April 14, 1865, Surratt had just turned 21 and wore a beard.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy: June 2

Prosecutors at the trial of the Lincoln conspirators presented a great deal of testimony about the pro-Confederacy sentiments of the accused.  On June 2, 1865, E.L. Smoot told the military tribunal that Mary Surratt's brother, J.Z. Jenkins, was "an enemy to the Government during the struggle".  And he recounted a conversation he had with the bar-tender at the Surratt tavern in Maryland on the day President Lincoln died.

John H. Surratt Jr.

Smoot testified that Joseph T. Nott told him John Surratt was up to his neck in the conspiracy.  According to Smoot, the bar-tender said, "My God!  John knows all about the murder...I could have told you that thing was coming to pass six months ago."

Today in the Lincoln conspiracy: May 29

In the hope of reuniting the United States after the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson renewed his predecessor's offer of amnesty for those who had fought on the Confederate side of the conflict.  Abraham Lincoln issued amnesty proclamations on December 8, 1863 and March 26, 1864.

On May 29, 1865, Johnson issued his own proclamation, granting "amnesty and pardon" to "all persons who have, directly or indirectly, participated in the existing rebellion".  Well, not all of them.  Among those excluded from amnesty were former Confederate elected officials, governors of states that joined the rebellion, officers in the Confederate Army and Navy, and anyone who actively tried to sabotage U.S. commerce during the rebellion. 

There was another exception: "...all persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the benefits hereof by taking the [loyalty] oath herein prescribed, are in military, naval, or civil confinement, or custody, or under bonds of the civil, military, or naval authorities, or agents of the United States as prisoners of war, or persons detained for offenses of any kind, either before or after conviction..."  In other words, those who were already locked up for their actions during the war could not seek a pardon under the terms of the proclamation.  That meant there would be no amnesty for the Lincoln assassination conspirators.

Today in the Lincoln conspiracy: May 27

The lawyers representing the Lincoln assassination conspirators faced many hurdles.  Their clients were being judged by a military tribunal, not a civilian court.  The defendants were not permitted to speak on their own behalf.  And they were accused of plotting to kill the Commander-in-Chief that each member of the tribunal had served.  Defense attorneys were fighting an uphill battle.  Even so, they didn't always cover themselves in glory.

Take, for example, the testimony of Augustus Spencer Howell.  The attorney representing Mary Surratt called Howell to the witness stand on May 27, 1865.  The purpose of his testimony, apparently, was to cast doubt on the star prosecution witness, Louis Weichmann.  Howell testified he and Weichmann were both staying at the Surratt boardinghouse the previous February.  He claimed Weichmann professed his sympathies for the Confederate cause and even proclaimed his intention of moving to Richmond and getting a job in the Confederate War Department.  It was a startling accusation, considering Weichmann was a clerk at the United States War Department and a member of the home guard unit charged with protecting Washington from Southern attack.  Howell seemed to be suggesting Weichmann was some sort of secret Confederate agent, deep in the heart of the U.S. government.

The prosecution team, Gen. Henry Burnett on the right

The prosecution pounced.  Brigadier General Henry Burnett, the assistant judge advocate for the case, asked Howell, "What has been your business for the last year and a half?"  It seemed a harmless, routine inquiry.  But the defense vigorously objected.  When the court overruled the objection and the question was repeated, the defense objected again.  The court overruled it again.  What was it the defense was trying to keep out of the trial record?

Howell, it turns out, was a blockade runner.  He made several trips across the Potomac River, accompanying people to and from the Confederate capital of Richmond.  Howell denied he smuggled supplies, and denied acting as a courier.  But he admitted visiting Richmond every few months during the early years of the war.  And he had even made a trip to Richmond the previous February -- just days after he stayed at the Surratt boardinghouse.  Needless to say, Howell's testimony didn't carry a lot of weight with the tribunal.

Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy: May 26

In early 1865, John Wilkes Booth was often seen around Washington riding a bay horse, notable because it had only one eye.  Conspirator John Surratt also used the one-eyed bay when it was stabled in the city.  On the night of the assassination, Lewis Powell rode the one-eyed horse to the home of William Seward, the Secretary of State.  Powell savagely attacked Seward with a knife, but he survived.

On May 26, 1865, the story of how Booth came to own the one-eyed horse was told to the military tribunal sitting in judgement of the Lincoln conspirators.  Thomas L. Gardiner related that he had been at his uncle's Maryland farm the preceding November when Booth arrived.  He was looking to buy a horse that, he said, would be good for pulling a buggy.  Instead, he bought the damaged saddle horse. 

Home of Dr. Samuel Mudd

Gardiner testified Booth was with another man that day -- Dr. Samuel Mudd, who lived a quarter-mile down the road from the Gardiner farm.

Today in the Lincoln conspiracy: May 25

On May 25, 1865, there was a bizarre courtroom confrontation during the trial of the Lincoln assassination conspirators.  A defense lawyer found himself trying to impeach the testimony of his own witness.  And the witness eagerly admitted he had lied.

Surratt Tavern near Clinton, Maryland

George Cottingham was an Army detective who had arrested John Lloyd, the man who leased Mrs. Mary Surratt's tavern in Maryland.  He testified Lloyd had confessed to him that Mrs. Surratt visited the tavern on the day of the assassination and told him to have firearms ready for two men who would call for them.  John Wilkes Booth and David Herold arrived at the tavern late that night and asked for the weapons.

The testimony was a complete surprise to defense attorney Frederick Aiken.  He protested that during a pre-trial interview, Cottingham had told him Lloyd made no mention of Mary Surratt during his confession.  Cottingham admitted that's what he told  the lawyer.  "Undoubtedly," he proclaimed, "I told you a lie there; for I thought you had no business to ask me."