The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators

On this day 165 years ago, four persons were hanged before an audience of approximately 3,000 people here in D.C. for their participation in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.  Lewis Thornton Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt were hanged at the Washington Arsenal shortly after 1:00pm on July 7, 1865. 

On the same night that an actor named John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln in the back of the head at Ford’s Theatre, the conspirators’ plot also included the assassinations of Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward.  Atzerodt was the intended assassin of  Johnson, and was found in a room in Johnson’s hotel with a revolver.  Powell attacked Seward, slashing him repeatedly with a knife.  Seward survived the attack, but his face was permanently disfigured.  Powell was later arrested at Mary Surratt’s boarding house.  Herold accompanied Powell and guided him to Seward’s house, but remained outside the house holding Powell’s horse.  Herold met Booth as they fled D.C., and was with Booth when Union troops tracked him down to a barn in Virginia.  Herold surrendered and was taken into custody while Booth temporarily maintained a standoff before being killed by Union troops.  

At trial, Atzerodt was convicted of Conspiracy to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson.  Powell was convicted of Conspiracy to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward.  Herold was convicted of Conspiracy and aiding John Wilkes Booth’s Escape.  And Mary Surratt was convicted of of Conspiracy.  

Four additional conspirators were tried by the military commission for the conspiracy that resulted in the murder of the 16th president.  The others were:  Samuel A. Mudd, who was convicted of Aiding Booth’s Escape; Michael O’Laughlen, and Samuel Arnold, who were convicted of Conspiracy to Kidnap the President, and;  Edman “Ned” Spangler, who was convicted of Aiding and Abetting Booth’s Escape.  Mudd, O’Laughlen and Arnold were sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor, while Spangler was sentenced to six years.  After being imprisoned at Fort Jefferson, near Key West, Florida, O’Laughlen died of yellow fever in 1867.  The remaining three were pardoned by President Johnson in 1869.

A ninth person, Mary Surratt’s son John Harrison Surratt, Jr., was also charged with Conspiracy.  He had escaped after the attacks in 1865.  but was captured in Egypt in 1867.  He had a civilian trial which ironically ended in what is referred to as a “hung jury.”  He then went on a public-speaking tour after his trial detailing his relationship with the other conspirators and arguing for his innocence.  

On this bike ride on this very hot day, I rode by Fort Lesley J. McNair, formerly known as The Washington Arsenal, where the hangings occurred.  While Fort McNair is closed to the public for security reasons, I rode by the (rebuilt) wall of the fort near where the hangings were carried out.  On the other side of the wall, where the gallows were located, there is now a tennis court.   

Historic photo obtained from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.