David
Herold was born in Maryland on 16th June, 1842. He was the
sixth of eleven children born to Mary Herold. David's father, Adam
Herold was the chief clerk at the Navy Store at the Washington Navy
Yard.
Herold was educated at Charlotte Hall Academy. It was here that he
met John Surratt who in 1863 introduced
him to his friend, John Wilkes Booth.
Booth asked Herold to take part in his plot 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. Others involved in the plot included Lewis
Powell, George Atzerodt, Michael
O'Laughlin and Samuel Arnold. Booth
decided to carry out the deed on 17th March, 1865 when Lincoln was
planning to attend a play at the Seventh Street Hospital that was
situated on the outskirts of Washington.
The kidnap attempt was abandoned when Lincoln decided at the last
moment to cancel his visit.
On 9th April, 1865, General Robert E. Lee
surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant
at Appomattox. Two days later Booth attended a public meeting in Washington
where he heard Abraham Lincoln make a
speech where he explained his views that voting rights should be granted
to some African Americans. Booth was furious and decided to assassinate
the president before he could carry out these plans.
Booth persuaded most of the people, including Herold, who had been
involved in the kidnap plot to join him in his plan. Booth discovered
that on 14th April, Abraham Lincoln was
planning to attend the evening performance of Our
American Cousin at the Ford Theatre in Washington. Booth
decided he would assassinate Lincoln while George
Atzerodt would kill Vice President Andrew
Johnson and Powell agreed to murder William
Seward, the Secretary of State. All attacks would take place at
approximately 10.15 p.m. that night.
At 10.00 p.m. Herold and Lewis Powell
arrived at the home of William Seward,
who was recovering from a serious carriage accident. When William
Bell, a servant opened the door, Powell told him he had medicine from
Dr. Tullio Verdi. When Bell refused to let him in, Powell pushed past
him and rushed up the stairs. Frederick Seward, the Secretary of State's
son, came out and asked him what he wanted. Powell hit Steward with
his revolver so hard he fracturing his skull in two places. Powell
was now confronted with George Robinson, Seward's bodyguard. Powell
slashed him with his bowie knife before leaping onto Seward's bed
and repeatedly stabbed him. Powell, thinking he had killed him, racing
out of the house where Herold was waiting with his horse.
Herold went to Mary Surratt's boarding house and together with John
Wilkes Booth, who had successfully killed Abraham
Lincoln, headed for the Deep South.
At 4.00 a.m. Herold and John Wilkes Booth
arrived at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd
who treated Booth's broken leg. With the help of other sympathizers
they reached Port Royal, Virginia, on the morning of 26th April. They
hid in a barn owned by Richard Garrett. However, federal troops arrived
soon afterwards and the men were ordered to surrender. Herold came
out of the barn but Booth refused and so the barn was set on fire.
While this was happening one of the soldiers, Sergeant Boston
Corbett, found a gap in the barn and shot Booth. His body was
dragged from the barn and after being searched the soldiers recovered
his diary.
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 Powell, 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.
Herold's lawyer, Frederick Stone, called several witnesses to show
that his client did not hold strong political opinions. He also claimed
that Herold had the mentality of an 11 year old and was not responsible
for his actions.
On 29th June, 1865, Herold, Lewis Powell,
Mary Surratt, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel
Mudd, Michael O'Laughlin, Edman
Spangler and Samuel Arnold were
found guilty of being involved in the conspiracy to murder Abraham
Lincoln. Herold, Powell, Surratt and Atzerodt were hanged at Washington
Penitentiary on 7th July, 1865.
Execution
of Mary Surratt, Lewis
Powell, David Herold and
George Atzerodt at Washington Penitentiary on 7th July, 1865.
(1)
Otto Eisenchiml, Why Was Lincoln
Murdered? (1937)
Another bizarre feature in the story of Booth's pursuit is the failure
of the War Department to prosecute some people who had sheltered Booth
and helped him in his flight. Again, the House of Representatives
Committee, debating the distribution of rewards, was puzzled. In a
proclamation dated 20 April, Stanton had declared that "All persons
harboring or secreting the conspirators or aiding their concealment
or escape, will be treated as accomplices in the murder of the President
and shall be subject to trial before a military commission, and the
punishment of death.
(2)
Ben Pittman, The Assassination of
President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators (1865)
Herold is a doltish, insignificant-looking man with a slender
frame and irresolute, cowardly appearance.
(3)
Captain Christian Rath, was placed in charge of the execution of Mary
Surratt, Lewis Powell, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael
O'Laughlin, Edman Spangler and
Samuel Arnold. He was later interviewed
about his role in the event.
I was determined to get rope that would not break, for you
know when a rope breaks at a hanging there is a time-worn maxim that
the person intended to be hanged was innocent. The night before the
execution I took the rope to my room and there made the nooses. I
preserved the piece of rope intended for Mrs. Surratt for the last.
I had the graves for the four persons dug just beyond the scaffolding.
I found some difficulty in having the work done, as the arsenal attaches
were superstitious. I finally succeeded in getting soldiers to dig
the holes but they were only three feet deep.
The hanging gave me a lot of trouble. I had read somewhere that when
a person was hanged his tongue would protrude from his mouth. I did
not want to see four tongues sticking out before me, so I went to
the storehouse, got a new white shelter tent and made four hoods out
of it. I tore strips of the tent to bind the legs of the victims.
(4)
William Coxshall, a member of the Veteran Reserve Corps, was assigned
the task of dropping the trapdoor on the left side of the gallows.
The prison door opened and the condemned came in. Mrs. Surratt
was first, near fainting after a look at the gallows. She would have
fallen had they not supported her. Herold was next. The young man
was frightened to death. He trembled and shook and seemed on the verge
of fainting. Atzerodt shuffled along in carpet slippers, a long white
nightcap on his head. Under different circumstances, he would have
been ridiculous.
With the exception of Powell, all were on the verge of collapse. They
had to pass the open graves to reach the gallows steps and could gaze
down into the shallow holes and even touch the crude pine boxes that
were to receive them. Powell was as stolid as if he were a spectator
instead of a principal. Herold wore a black hat until he reached the
gallows. Powell was bareheaded, but he reached out and took a straw
hat off the head of an officer. He wore it until they put the black
bag on him. The condemned were led to the chairs and Captain Rath
seated them. Mrs. Surratt and Powell were on our drop, Herold and
Atzerodt on the other.
Umbrellas were raised above the woman and Hartranft, who read the
warrants and findings. Then the clergy took over talking what seemed
to me interminably. The strain was getting worse. I became nauseated,
what with the heat and the waiting, and taking hold of the supporting
post, I hung on and vomited. I felt a little better after that, but
not too good.
Powell stood forward at the very front of the droop. Mrs. Surratt
was barely past the break, as were the other two. Rath came down the
steps and gave the signal. Mrs. Surratt shot down and I believed died
instantly. Powell was a strong brute and died hard. It was enough
to see these two without looking at the others, but they told us both
died quickly.
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