Samuel
Arnold was born in Georgetown, on 6th September, 1834. Later the family
moved to Baltimore and later Arnold
attended St. Timothy's Hall Military Academy, at Catonsville, Maryville.
It was while at this academy he met John
Wilkes Booth.
Arnold joined the Confederate Army at
the beginning of the American Civil War,
but was discharged for health reasons in the summer of 1864.
He returned to Baltimore but was unable
to find work.
In 1864 John Wilkes Booth devised a scheme
to kidnap Abraham Lincoln in Washington.
The plan was to take Lincoln to Richmond
and hold him until he could be exchanged for Confederate
Army prisoners of war. Booth persuaded Arnold to join the plot.
Others involved included George Atzerodt,
Lewis Paine, John
Surratt, David Herold and Michael
O'Laughlin. Booth decided to carry out the deed on 17th March,
1865 when Lincoln was planning to attend a play on the outskirts of
Washington. The kidnap attempt was abandoned when Lincoln decided
at the last moment to cancel his visit.
Arnold now appeared to lose interest in the plan to capture Abraham
Lincoln. He argued that the government had resumed prisoner exchanges
with the Confederacy and it was no longer necessary to take such drastic
action. Arnold returned to Baltimore
before moving on to take a clerk's job in Old Point Comfort, Virginia.
On 27th March, 1865, Arnold wrote a letter advising John
Wilkes Booth to abandon his plans against Lincoln.
On 17th April, 1865 Arnold was arrested by the police. He confessed
to his role in the plan to kidnap Abraham
Lincoln but denied any involvement in the conspiracy to murder
the president. Despite concrete evidence that he had been in Virginia
at the time Lincoln was assassinated, Arnold was still charged with
the crime.
On 1st May, 1865, President Andrew Johnson
ordered the formation of a nine-man military
commission to try the conspirators. It was argued by Edwin
M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, that the men should be tried
by a military court as Lincoln had been Commander in Chief of the
army. Several members of the cabinet, including Gideon
Welles (Secretary of the Navy), Edward
Bates (Attorney General), Orville
H. Browning (Secretary of the Interior), and Henry
McCulloch (Secretary of the Treasury), disapproved, preferring
a civil trial. However, James Speed,
the Attorney General, agreed with Stanton and therefore the defendants
did not enjoy the advantages of a jury trial.
The trial began on 10th May, 1865. The military commission included
leading generals such as David Hunter,
Lewis Wallace, Thomas
Harris and Alvin Howe and Joseph
Holt was the government's chief prosecutor. Mary
Surratt, Lewis Paine, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel
Mudd, Michael O'Laughlin, Edman
Spangler and Samuel Arnold were
all charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln. During the trial Holt
attempted to persuade the military commission that Jefferson
Davis and the Confederate government had been involved in conspiracy.
Joseph Holt attempted to obscure the fact
that there were two plots: the first to kidnap and the second to assassinate.
It was important for the prosecution not to reveal the existence of
a diary taken from the body of John Wilkes
Booth. The diary made it clear that the assassination plan dated
from 14th April. The defence surprisingly did not call for Booth's
diary to be produced in court.
On 29th June Arnold was found guilty of being involved in the conspiracy
to murder Lincoln and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Mary
Surratt, Lewis Paine, George
Atzerodt and David Herold were also
found guilty of the crime and hanged at Washington Penitentiary on
7th July, 1865.
Arnold was sent to Fort Jefferson with fellow conspirators Samuel
Mudd, Edman Spangler and Michael
O'Laughlin. Arnold was pardoned by President Andrew
Johnson on 1st March, 1869.
After his release from prison Arnold wrote a detailed confession on
his role to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. However,
he strongly denied any involvement in the conspiracy to murder the
president. Samuel Arnold died in 1906.
(1)
Eaton G. Horner, had arrested Samuel Arnold on 17th April, 1865. He
gave evidence at Arnold's trial on 18th May, 1865.
Arnold
made a statement verbally to us at Fortress Monroe. About three weeks
previously he was at a meeting held at the Lichau House, Pennsylvania
Avenue. John Wilkes Booth, Michael O'Laughlin, George Atzerodt, John
Surratt, and a man with the alias of Moseby, were there. I asked him
him if he ever corresponded with Booth. At first he denied it, but
on mentioning the letter that had been found in Booth's trunk mailed
at Huntstown, he admitted that he wrote the letter.
(2)
Samuel Arnold, letter to John
Wilkes Booth
(27th March, 1865)
Why
not, for the present, desist, for various reasons, which, if you look
into, you can readily see. You, nor any one, can censure me for my
present course. Suspicion rests upon me now from my whole family,
and even parties in the country. None, not no one, were more in favour
of the enterprise than myself, and today would be there, had you not
done as you have. Time more propitious will arrive yet. Do not act
rashly or in haste.
(3)
Samuel Arnold, The Baltimore American (1902)
The
covering for the head was made of canvas, which covered the entire
head and face, dropping down in front to the lower portion of the
chest. It had cords attached, which were tied around the neck and
body in such a manner that to remove it was a physical impossibility.
It was frequently impossible to place food in my mouth.
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