{"id":43686,"date":"2021-07-29T17:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T21:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=43686"},"modified":"2021-07-31T21:49:52","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T01:49:52","slug":"lincoln-assassination-conspirators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/lincoln-assassination-conspirators\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Beyond Booth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who were the Lincoln assassination<\/a> conspirators? What role did each person play?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Wilkes Booth did not act alone. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer<\/em> reveals the identity of the Lincoln assassination conspirators and the role that each one played in the plot. It also outlines their plans and preparations and what happened to them after the plot was carried out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more to learn about the Lincoln assassination conspirators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Planning the Assassination<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Booth spent April 14 laying plans for the assassination, which required connecting with multiple co-conspirators. He knew he\u2019d need help escaping to Virginia, a Confederate state where he hoped to find support and acclaim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019d also need help because, in addition to killing Lincoln, he wanted to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. He hoped that killing several key government officials would rally Confederate sympathizers and veterans to renew their fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introducing the Co-Conspirators<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Following are brief bios of the key Lincoln assassination conspirators and their roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) David Herold: <\/strong>Booth\u2019s most-loyal follower, Herold was a tracker and outdoorsman whose role in the assassination plot was to guide conspirator Lewis Powell to Secretary of State Seward\u2019s home in D.C., and wait while Powell killed Seward (Powell didn\u2019t know his way around the city). Then Herold was to accompany Powell out of the city to meet up with Booth south of Washington, in Maryland, after Lincoln\u2019s assassination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Lewis Powell:<\/strong> Powell was a former Confederate soldier and loyal Booth follower, whose job of assassinating Seward was expected to be fairly easy: Seward was barely conscious and recuperating in bed after a serious carriage accident. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) George Atzerodt: <\/strong>Assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson in his room at the Kirkwood House hotel in Washington, Atzerodt had doubts about the plan from the beginning. As a motivator, Booth threatened to implicate Atzerodt in the plot afterward regardless of his actual involvement, so he\u2019d be hanged anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) Mary Surratt: <\/strong>The Lincoln assassination conspirators included the 42-year-old widow Mary Surratt, who owned a tavern in Maryland and a boarding house in Washington, D.C. Her son, John Harrison Surratt, was a friend of Booth\u2019s and a Confederate <\/strong>secret agent. Booth and associates regularly visited her boarding house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5) John Harrison Surratt: <\/strong>A Confederate agent and son of boarding house owner Mary Surratt, John Surratt was in Elmira, N.Y., during the assassination plot, but investigators searched for him several times at the boarding house because he was known to be friends with Booth. (After learning of the assassination, Surratt fled to Canada, then Europe; he joined the pope\u2019s army in Rome, Italy, and evaded capture for a year. When he was brought back and tried, the jury couldn\u2019t reach a verdict.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6) Dr. Samuel A. Mudd: <\/strong>The Lincoln assassination conspirators included this 32-year-old doctor, who lived on a farm in Bryantown, Maryland. Mudd was a racist and Confederate sympathizer who had owned slaves until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Booth met Mudd while looking for recruits for his kidnapping plot, and Mudd introduced Booth to John Surratt in Washington. Mudd held supplies at his farm to aid the conspirators in the kidnapping plot that never happened. After the assassination, Mudd aided Booth and Herold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparations for Killing Lincoln<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Lincoln assassination conspirators made the following preparations for the attack at Ford\u2019s Theatre:<\/p>\n\n\n\n