The Day Lincoln Was Shot (39 page)

Mrs. Mary E. Surratt was tried, convicted and hanged for conspiracy. On a hot July day, a government employee held an umbrella over her head before the trap was sprung. On the morning of the hanging, her daughter Anna tried to see President Johnson to beg for mercy for her mother. Anna was kept from seeing the President by Preston King of New York and Senator James H. Lane of Kansas. Six months later, King tied a bag of shot around his neck and jumped off a Hoboken ferry; eight months after that, Senator Lane shot himself.

Dr. Samuel Mudd was tried for conspiracy and convicted. So were Sam Arnold, Mike O'Laughlin and Ned Spangler, the horse holder. All four were sentenced to Albany (New York) Penitentiary. Secretary Stanton, who felt that they had got off lightly, removed them to Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas
Prison, off Key West, Florida. There, in August, 1867, yellow fever broke out and, when the prison doctor died, Dr. Mudd volunteered his services. He saved the lives of soldiers and prisoners, but Mike O'Laughlin died. The officers of the post appealed for a pardon for Mudd and it was granted in February 1869. Arnold and Spangler were freed with him and, realizing that Ned Spangler was dying of tuberculosis, Dr. Mudd took him home to Bryantown with him, and cared for him until he died.

John Lloyd and Louis Wiechman became the government's star witnesses against Mrs. Surratt. Lloyd claimed he was threatened with death unless he testified against her. Wiechman claimed that Stanton promised him a job for his work as a witness, and for a time he worked in the Philadelphia customs house. He was later fired. When he died, he kept repeating that he was on his deathbed and he would still say that he told the truth at the trial of Mrs. Surratt.

John Surratt ran to Canada, thence to Europe, and was discovered two years later working as a Zouave forty miles from the Vatican. He was brought back, tried, and eventually released. He made money giving lectures on the assassination of Lincoln.

Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln, perhaps the most pathetic of all the people who figured in this day, was certified as a “lunatic”
*
in Cook County, Illinois, ten years after the death of her husband. It was Robert's sad duty to sign the commitment papers. She was released a year later, and spent the last months of her life (1882) in a darkened room dressed in widow's weeds. In 1871, Tad died.

The last of the survivors, Robert Todd Lincoln, died at the age of eighty-three, in 1926.

This is a list of the sources of information consulted before writing this book:

A
NGLE
, P
AUL
,
T
HE
L
INCOLN
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EADER

B
ROOKS
, N
OAH
,
W
ASHINGTON IN
L
INCOLN'S
T
IME

B
ROWNING
, M
ARY
E.,
O
UR
N
ATION'S
C
APITAL

C
LARKE
, A
SIA
B
OOTH
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T
HE
U
NLOCKED
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OOK, A
M
EMOIR OF
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OHN
W
ILKES
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OOTH

D
E
W
ITT
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AVID
M
ILLER
,
T
HE
A
SSASSINATION OF
A
BRAHAM
L
INCOLN

———,
T
HE
J
UDICIAL
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URDER OF
M
ARY
E. S
URRATT
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ICTIONARY OF
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MERICAN
B
IOGRAPHY

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ISENSCHIML
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TTO
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HY
W
AS
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INCOLN
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URDERED
?

———,
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N
T
HE
S
HADOW OF
L
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D
EATH

F
ERGUSON,
W. J.,
I S
AW
B
OOTH
S
HOOT
L
INCOLN

G
RANT,
U. S.,
P
ERSONAL
M
EMOIRS

H
ARNSBERGER
, C
AROLINE
T.,
T
HE
L
INCOLN
T
REASURY

H
ERNDON
, W
ILLIAM
,
T
HE
H
IDDEN
L
INCOLN
(H
ERNDON'S
L
ETTERS
)

H
URD
, C
HARLES
,
W
ASHINGTON
C
AVALCADE

———, T
HE
W
HITE
H
OUSE
B
IOGRAPHY

K
IMMEL
, S
TANLEY
, T
HE
M
AD
B
OOTHS OF
M
ARYLAND

L
AUGHLIN
, C
LARA
E.,
T
HE
D
EATH OF
L
INCOLN

L
EECH
, M
ARGARET
,
R
EVEILLE IN
W
ASHINGTON

L
EWIS
, E
THEL
,
T
HE
W
HITE
H
OUSE

M
EREDITH
, R
OY
,
M
R
. L
INCOLN'S
C
AMERAMAN

M
OORE
, B
EN
P
ERLEY
,
THE
A
TTEMPT TO
O
VERTHROW
T
HE
G
OVERNMENT BY
A
SSASSINATION OF
I
TS
P
RINCIPAL
O
FFICERS
(3
VOL.)

M
OORE
, G
UY
W., T
HE
C
ASE OF
M
RS
. S
URRATT

M
ORROW
, H
ONORE
, “L
INCOLN'S
L
AST
D
AY
,”
C
OSMOPOLITAN
M
AGAZINE
,
F
EBRUARY
1930

M
UDD
, N
ETTIE
,
L
IFE OF
D
R
. S
AMUEL
A. M
UDD

P
ITTMAN
, B
EN
,
T
HE
A
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P
RESIDENT
L
INCOLN AND THE
T
RIAL OF THE
C
ONSPIRATORS

P
RATT
, F
LETCHER
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S
TANTON

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UGGLES
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LAYERS

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ANDBURG
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ARL
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M
ARY
L
INCOLN
—W
IFE
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W
IDOW

———,
T
HE
P
RAIRIE
Y
EARS
(2
VOL.)

———,
T
HE
W
AR
Y
EARS
(4
VOL.)

S
EWARD
, F. W.,
R
EMINISCENCES

S
TARR
, J
OHN
W.,
L
INCOLN'S
L
AST
D
AY,
T
RIAL
OF
J
OHN
H. S
URRATT
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W
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INSTON
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The page numbers in this index relate to the printed version of this book; they do not match the pages of your ebook. You can use your ebook reader's search tool to find a specific word or passage.

Adams, Edwin, 223–24

African Americans, 7–8, 10, 154

   slavery and, 9, 11, 112

   voting rights for, 24, 114

Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp,
105, 106, 159–60

Anderson, Kate, 12

Anthony, Henry B., 32

Apostate, The,
89

Arnold, Isaac N., 210

Arnold, Samuel, 16

   Booth conspiracy and, 74–76, 80, 81–82, 87–90, 92–93, 95–96, 98, 138, 177, 312–13, 334–35

   letter to Booth from, 95–96, 281, 304–5, 312–13

Ashmun, George, 207–8, 209

assassination of Lincoln:

   Booth approaches Lincoln, 229–30

   Booth fires, 230–31

   Booth identified as killer, 233, 237, 249, 257, 258, 266–67, 299, 301–2

   Booth's arrival at theater, 221–23, 226–28

   Booth's escape following, xiii, 231–33, 244, 255, 262–64, 270, 279–81, 289, 290, 308, 313–14

   Booth's final preparations for, 203–5

   Booth's idea to implicate Johnson in, 171–72

   Booth's leg broken during, 231, 232, 263–64, 279, 280, 307–11, 327

   Booth's letter explaining his motives for, 176–77, 183, 212, 252, 298

   Booth's name omitted from reports of, 289, 298, 299, 301–2

   Booth's plan for, 83–84, 106, 151, 171–72, 177, 187, 187–88;
see also
Booth conspiracy Booth's preparations at Ford's Theatre on day of, 138–43, 189–92

   Booth's “Sic Semper Tyrannis” phrase in, 204, 230

   conspirators' final meeting before, 210–12

   delay and lost opportunities in apprehending Booth after, 268–69, 276–78

   doctors' immediate examination and treatment of Lincoln, 234–38

   Lincoln carried out of theater, 238–40

   Lincoln's death, 328–31

   news of, 246–53, 256, 258, 286, 288–89

   newspapers' reporting of, 298–99, 322–23

   Rathbone stabbed by Booth during, 230, 234–35, 259

   vigil for Lincoln at Petersen house, 240–41, 259–62, 286–87, 296-97, 315–16, 322, 324, 327–28

   witnesses questioned after, 264–68, 275–78, 289–90

Atzerodt, George, 77, 80, 85, 301, 319–20, 327

   in Booth conspiracy, 16, 75, 79, 86–88, 90, 92, 98, 106, 149, 150, 156, 171, 172, 187–88, 189, 210–12, 222–23, 225–26, 251, 254, 263–64, 275–78, 282–84, 290, 299–300, 305, 308, 334

   Booth's naming as co-conspirator, 176–77, 212

   knife of, 318

   Lee's search of room of, 283–84

Augur, Christopher C., 40–41, 43, 241, 257, 258, 262, 264, 265, 267, 269, 270, 275–78, 281, 284, 289–90, 291, 304, 312, 333

Badeau, Adam, 39–40

Barnes, Joseph K., 36, 49, 333

   Lincoln's assassination and, xi, 241, 246–47, 258–59, 261, 286–87, 296, 315, 328

Bates, David Homer, 41, 61, 200, 216, 302

Beckwith, Samuel, 121

Beecher, Henry Ward, 123

Bell, William, 242–43, 245

Benjamin, Judah, 48, 98

Bennett, James Gordon, 47

blacks, see African Americans

Blair, Frank, 35

Booth, Asia (sister of John Wilkes), 64–65, 72, 97, 176

Booth, Edwin (brother of John Wilkes), 16, 63, 64, 115, 138, 227, 314

Booth, John Wilkes, xi, 9, 15–16, 21, 63–77, 115–18, 163–65, 174–77, 179, 180, 182–84

   as actor, 64–65, 89

   Arnold's letter to, 95–96, 281, 304–5, 312–13

Bessie Hale and, 35, 65, 124, 334

   Browning and, 172

   Chester and, 68–71, 76, 98

   
Civil War and, 65–66

   Grant and, 184

   Herold and, 17

   Lincoln assassinated by, see assassination of Lincoln