Samuel Arnold (conspirator)
Samuel Bland Arnold | |
|---|---|
Deceased | |
| Conviction(s) | Conspiracy to kidnap Abraham Lincoln |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment with hard labor |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  Confederate States |
| Service/ |  Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1864 |
| Rank | Private |
| Unit |  1st Maryland Infantry[1][2] |
Samuel Bland Arnold (September 6, 1834 – September 21, 1906)[3] was an American Confederate sympathizer involved in a plot to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He had joined the Confederate Army shortly after the start of the Civil War but was discharged due to health reasons in 1864.
Early life
Samuel Arnold was born in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., on September 6, 1834. He was the son of Mary Jane and George Arnold, Sr. and had an older brother. The family later moved to Baltimore where Arnold attended St. Timothy's Hall, a military academy – where he and John Wilkes Booth were schoolmates.[4]
Role in Lincoln kidnapping conspiracy
After his discharge, Arnold returned to Baltimore and in the late summer of 1864, he was recruited by Booth to be part of the kidnap plot.[4] Bored and unemployed, Arnold accepted. On March 15, 1865, the conspirators met at Gautier's Restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue to discuss the plot.[4]
Arnold and the other alleged conspirators,
Arrest and trial
After Booth assassinated Lincoln on April 14, 1865, Arnold was arrested from his job in Virginia on suspicion of complicity. He admitted his part in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, and his co-workers supported his contention of being in Virginia at the time of the assassination. During the trial, one of the chief witnesses was Louis J. Weichmann, a boarder at the home of Mary Surratt (the mother of John Surratt).
Conviction and sentence
Arnold was found guilty of conspiracy by a military tribunal and sentenced to life in prison at
Post-prison years and death
After Samuel Arnold returned home, he lived quietly out of the public eye for more than thirty years. In 1898, he returned to Fort Jefferson and took photographs of his old prison, but the photographs have not survived. In 1902, Arnold wrote a series of newspaper articles for the Baltimore American describing his imprisonment at Fort Jefferson. Arnold died four years later on September 21, 1906.
See also
Notes
- ^ Arnold, Samuel B. Series: Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Confederate Organizations , 1903 - 1927. National Archives. Archived from the original on September 5, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
- ^ Summers, Robert (2008). Dr Samuel A Mudd at Fort Jefferson. p. 33.
- ^ Booth, p. 138
- ^ a b c d "Samuel Arnold". rogerjnorton.com. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-59884-261-6.
References
- Booth, John Wilkes; John H. Rhodehamel; Louise Taper (1997). Right or wrong, God judge me : the writings of John Wilkes Booth. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-02347-7.
External links
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