6. The kidnapping plot and the conspirators
Booth had originally planned to kidnap Lincoln, a rather hare-brained scheme in which the President would be held hostage against recognition of the Confederacy as a ransom. He recruited several persons to aid him in executing his plan; John Surratt, his mother Mary Surratt, who operated a Washington boarding house and a Maryland tavern, where the conspirators frequently met. Others in the plot were George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell (also known as Lewis Paine), Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlen, and David Herold. Following Lincoln’s second inauguration, the plan changed to kill the President, as well as Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward.
Atzerodt was to have killed Johnson, but on the night of April 14, he lost his nerve and spent the evening drinking. Powell attacked the already injured Seward but his revolver misfired, and he slashed the helpless man repeatedly with a large knife. Seward survived. As Booth lay hidden in the swamp, one by one his co-conspirators were captured, as were others including Dr. Mudd. John Surratt, who had spent the war as a Confederate agent, escaped, first to Canada and later to the Vatican. The hunt for Booth and Herold continued, involving thousands of federal troops under the personal direction of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.