Samuel Arnold (Lincoln conspirator)
Encyclopedia
Samuel Bland Arnold was involved in the plot to kidnap President
Abraham Lincoln
in 1865.
He and the other conspirators, John Wilkes Booth
, David Herold
, Lewis Powell
, Michael O'Laughlen
and John Surratt
, were to kidnap Lincoln and hold him to exchange for the Confederate prisoners in Washington D.C.. This was attempted twice, but failed as Lincoln was not where they thought he would be.
Arnold and O'Laughlen dropped out of the conspiracy when the prisoner-exchange program started.
After Booth's April 14, 1865 assassination of Lincoln, Arnold was arrested on suspicion of complicity. He was actually relieved when he was arrested. During the trial, one of the chief witnesses was Louis J. Weichmann
, a boarder at Mary Surratt
's (John Surratt
's mother).
Arnold was sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson, along with Samuel Mudd
, Michael O'Laughlen
, and Edmund Spangler
. In 1869 Arnold, Mudd, and Spangler were released after being pardoned by President
Andrew Johnson
(O'Laughlen had died in prison in 1867).
After Samuel Arnold returned home, he lived quietly out of the public eye for more than thirty years. In 1898 he returned to Fort Jefferson and took photographs of his old prison, but the photographs do not survive. In 1902 Arnold wrote a series of newspaper articles for the Baltimore American describing his imprisonment at Fort Jefferson.
Arnold died four years later on September 21, 1906. He is buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. The only conspirator who survived him was John Surratt.
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
in 1865.
He and the other conspirators, John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
, David Herold
David Herold
David Edgar Herold was an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. After guiding fellow conspirator Lewis Powell to the home of Secretary of State William H. Seward, whom Powell intended to kill, Herold fled and rendezvoused outside of Washington, D.C., with Booth...
, Lewis Powell
Lewis Powell (assassin)
Lewis Thornton Powell , also known as Lewis Paine or Payne, attempted unsuccessfully to assassinate United States Secretary of State William H...
, Michael O'Laughlen
Michael O'Laughlen
Michael O'Laughlen, Jr. was a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln...
and John Surratt
John Surratt
John Harrison Surratt, Jr. was accused of plotting with John Wilkes Booth to kidnap U.S. president Abraham Lincoln and suspected of involvement in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. His mother Mary Surratt was convicted of conspiracy and hanged by the United States Federal Government...
, were to kidnap Lincoln and hold him to exchange for the Confederate prisoners in Washington D.C.. This was attempted twice, but failed as Lincoln was not where they thought he would be.
Arnold and O'Laughlen dropped out of the conspiracy when the prisoner-exchange program started.
After Booth's April 14, 1865 assassination of Lincoln, Arnold was arrested on suspicion of complicity. He was actually relieved when he was arrested. During the trial, one of the chief witnesses was Louis J. Weichmann
Louis J. Weichmann
Louis J. Weichmann was one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution in the conspiracy trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination. Previously, he had been also a suspect because of his association with Mary Surratt's family.-Background and early life:Weichmann was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the...
, a boarder at Mary Surratt
Mary Surratt
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt was an American boarding house owner who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to death, she was hanged, becoming the first woman executed by the United States federal government. She was the mother of John H...
's (John Surratt
John Surratt
John Harrison Surratt, Jr. was accused of plotting with John Wilkes Booth to kidnap U.S. president Abraham Lincoln and suspected of involvement in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. His mother Mary Surratt was convicted of conspiracy and hanged by the United States Federal Government...
's mother).
Arnold was sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson, along with Samuel Mudd
Samuel Mudd
Samuel Alexander Mudd I, M.D. was an American physician who was convicted and imprisoned for aiding and conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the 1865 assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson and released from prison in 1869...
, Michael O'Laughlen
Michael O'Laughlen
Michael O'Laughlen, Jr. was a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln...
, and Edmund Spangler
Edmund Spangler
Edmund Spangler , also known as Edman, Edward, and Ned Spangler, was originally from York, Pennsylvania, but he spent the majority of his life in the Baltimore, Maryland area...
. In 1869 Arnold, Mudd, and Spangler were released after being pardoned by President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
(O'Laughlen had died in prison in 1867).
After Samuel Arnold returned home, he lived quietly out of the public eye for more than thirty years. In 1898 he returned to Fort Jefferson and took photographs of his old prison, but the photographs do not survive. In 1902 Arnold wrote a series of newspaper articles for the Baltimore American describing his imprisonment at Fort Jefferson.
Arnold died four years later on September 21, 1906. He is buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. The only conspirator who survived him was John Surratt.
External links
- Samuel Arnold
- Samuel Arnold at Find-A-Grave
- samuelmudd.com web site