The first ever President of the United States to be assassinated was Abraham Lincoln who
on the 14th April 1685 whilst watching a play was shot in the head. His killing shocked
the nation, and following it there was a period of national mourning out of respect for him.
It was John Wilkes Booth who was the one who fired the shots killing Lincoln, but following
his death there was a number of executions of people who were involved in the plot. Booth
was killed following a 12 day chase, but the plot went deeper as other conspirators planned
to kill Secretary of State William H Seward and also Vice President Andrew Johnson. But
what is the story of the brutal executions of the Lincoln conspirators? Join us today
as we find out and to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
The conspirators planned to as mentioned execute the president and also the two other senior
members of the government in the secretariat of state and the Vice President. Booth was
at the time to only well known member of the conspiracy, and at the time access to the
threatre’s upper floor containing the presidential box was restricted. Booth was the only one
who could gain access to the president. Abraham Lincoln arrived at Ford’s Theatre in Washington
DC to attend the play Our American Cousin, and he had been advised not to go but he had
promised his life. The presidential party settled into their box, and Lincoln then sat
and watched the play. It was said then that, ‘About 10:25 pm, a man came in and walked
slowly along the side on which the "Pres" box was and I heard a man say, "There's Booth"
and I turned my head to look at him.
He was still walking very slow and was near the box door when he stopped, took a card
from his pocket, wrote something on it, and gave it to the usher who took it to the box.
In a minute the door was opened and he walked in.’ When he was in the hallway, Booth barricaded
the door with a stick, and then he entered Lincoln’s box. Booth knew the play they
were watching by half and he shot Lincoln at 10:15pm when a comedic line was delivered
and when Lincoln was laughing. Booth opened the door and stepped forward and from behind
shot Lincoln with his pistol. The bullet entered his skull behind his left ear and passed through
the brain, coming to rest at the front of the skull after fracturing both his orbital
plates. Lincoln was left slumped over in his chair and he fell back. Booth then shouted
the word ‘Freedom,’ and then went on the run jumping from box to box, and holding a
knife over his head he did manage to exit the theatre through a side door whilst stabbing
an orchestra leader.
Lincoln was in a comatose condition, and the bullet was too deep to be removed, but the
wound was then pronounced mortal. They tired to get him out of the threatre and carefully
7 men picked up the president which was filled with an angry mob, and they took him to a
house across the way, the house of a tailor. Lincoln was then laid in a small bed, the
doctors took off his clothes and found no other wounds, and they found that he was cold.
He was covered in blankets, and a doctor tried to locate the bullet. Throughout the night
the physicians tried to relieve the pressure on his brain. Lincoln died at 7:22am around
10 hours after he was shot, and in his final moments his face became calm, and then on
his death Vice President Johnson became the 17th President of the United States. But this
was not the end of the matter.
John Wilkes Booth had assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William H Seward,
who was recovering from injuries on the night of the assassination as he’d been thrown
from his carriage a few weeks before. Powell carrying a Whitney Revolver and a Bowie Knife
knocked on the door, and he said he had medicine from Seward’s doctor. He managed to make
his way up to Seward’s third floor bedroom but was stopped at the top of the stairs by
the Secretary of State’s son. But then suspicion arose, and Powell aimed his pistol at Seward’s
son’s but his pistol misfired and he managed to bludgeon his son Frederick knocking him
out. Powell shoved his way to Seward’s bed and then stabbed at his face and neck and
sliced open his cheek. But as he was wearing a splint, he managed to avoid penetrating
just jugular vein. Seward later recovered, and Powell then managed to run outside, and
he was then on the run in an unfamiliar city.
But there was a third part of the conspiracy, and Booth had assigned George Atzerodt to
kill Vice President Andrew Johnson who was staying at the Kirkwood House in Washington.
George was supposed to go to the room of Johnson at 10:!5 and shoot him, and he rented the
room directly above and arrived carrying a gun and a knife. But he then got drunk and
wandered off through the streets and he then threw away the knife before he went to a different
house and slept there. But after the assassination of Lincoln, the government arrested several
hundreds of people, and most of them were released due to a lack of evidence, but the
government would charge 8 people with conspiracy. On the 1st May 1865 President Andrew Johnson
ordered the formation of a military commission to try those who were accused. A seven week
trial occurred which included testimony of 366 witnesses. There was a nine member commission
and death sentences required a lot of 6 members and after the trial took place, seven of the
prisoners were found guilty of at least one of the conspiracy charges.
Of those who were sentenced, four of the prisoners, Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt,
and David Herold were sentenced to be hanged by the neck until he or she be dead. 3 others
were sentenced to hard labour for life, and another received a sixth year sentenced. David
Herold was an impressionable pharmacy clerk, who accompanied John Wilkes Booth to the home
of a doctor who set Booth’s leg. The two then escaped through Maryland and into Virginia
and he stayed with Booth until they were cornered in a barn. Herold then surrendered but Booth
was Shot. Lewis Power as mentioned was the man who failed to kill Secretary of State
William Seward. Mary Surratt was the only woman sentenced to death in the plot, and
she owned a boarding house in Washington where the conspirators met, and she became the first
woman to be executed by the United States Federal government. Finally George Azterodt
was sentenced to death, the man recruited to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson.
A 12 foot gallows had been created specially for the executions in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary
on the 7th July 1865. It was a hot day, around 36 degrees celsius and as the condemned made
their way to the gallows, they passed a number of cheap pine coffins and shallow graves that
had been dug for them. It must have been scary for those four condemned, and they were then
forced to climb the gallows and they had heard it being tested the night before whilst they
were in the cells. As the four were lead onto the scaffold, the noose was placed around
thew accused neck along with a white hood which was placed over the heads. Many people
were there to watch, and they believed that Mary Surratt would be saved or be given a
stay of execution but that was not the case.
Following the administration of the last rites after 1:30pm, the trapdoor opened and all
four of them fell. Atzerodt screamed ‘May we meet in another world,’ but within minutes
they were dead. The bodies were left hanging and swinging for 25 minutes before they were
cut down and confirmed dead. The Lincoln conspiracy was a plan to bring down the US government,
and it succeeded with the killing of the President. It failed in other respects as the Vice President
and the Secretary of State were not killed, but on a huge gallows four main conspirators
were sentenced to death and were executed in front of a large crowd.
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