Over May and June of this year, I presented a day-by-day project documenting the Trial of the Lincoln Conspirators. To further support usability of this project for students and researchers, I am releasing individualized tables of the testimony given at the trial relating to each conspirator. Rather than having to look through the entirety of the trial to gain an understanding of the specific evidence against a single person, all of the relevant testimony regarding each conspirator has been organized into an easily accessible and hyperlinked table. I have previously released the testimony regarding Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and continue today with Samuel Arnold. The text that follows this paragraph contains the same information that will always be found on a standalone page of the trial project called Samuel Arnold Testimony and can be accessed by clicking the picture of Arnold on The Trial homepage. The organized testimony regarding the other conspirators will be published over the next couple of weeks.
The following table shows all of the testimony given at the Lincoln conspiracy trial concerning Samuel Arnold. Clicking on any of the witnesses’ names will take you to their corresponding testimony in the chronological Trial project.
The default arrangement of the witnesses in the table is by Relevant Testimony. This organizes the witnesses based on what specific aspect of the conspirator’s case was discussed. In the case of Samuel Arnold, I organized the testimony into four categories, labeled A – D. Descriptions of what each category means can be found after the table. The tabs on the bottom of the table allow you to view the witnesses arranged by Date and Alphabetically by last name.
Mobile users: Due to the smaller screen size on mobile devices, you will likely have to scroll left and right on the table to see the Relevant Testimony column.
Relevant Testimony descriptions:
A. Samuel Arnold’s Association with John Wilkes Booth
The first step in establishing Samuel Arnold’s connection to the crime of assassination was to connect Arnold to the assassin. The prosecution brought forth witnesses who testified about Booth making contact and being seen with Arnold in the months prior to the assassination.
B. Samuel Arnold was Part of Booth’s Conspiracy
Compared to some of the other conspirators, the prosecution had no problem connecting Arnold to John Wilkes Booth’s conspiracy. A letter had been found in Booth’s hotel room letter written by Arnold, expressing his uncertainty in an undisclosed plot. Moreover both the prosecution and Arnold’s defense brought forth a detective to speak about the confession Arnold had given when arrested by authorities admitting to his involvement with Booth.
C. Samuel Arnold was an Armed, Former Confederate
Perhaps the weakest tactic by the prosecution to implicate Arnold further was to point out that a revolver had been found in his bag when he was arrested and that he was formerly in the Confederate army. The prosecution attempted to equate Arnold’s limited service in the Confederate army with the treasonous crime of assassination.
D. Samuel Arnold Left Booth’s Plot in March
The entirety of Arnold’s defense was based on his own confession (B). Arnold freely admitted he had been part of a plot by Booth to abduct President Lincoln and turn him over to the Confederacy. However, when the possibility of successfully carrying out such a plan ended, Arnold left Booth’s plot completely. The defense showed that Arnold ended his association with Booth in March and that, at the time of the assassination, he had been working at a store in Virginia for almost two weeks.
For the closing argument in defense of Samuel Arnold please click here.
Please remember that the Relevant Testimony descriptor is not meant to be definitive. In many instances, a witness might cover material from more than one category. Still, the attempt has been made to determine the most applicable category for each witness’s overall testimony.
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