Samuel Mudd, Edmund Spangler, and Samuel Arnold
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was one of the most devastating moments in American Presidential history. To this day the death of the beloved president is remembered as an American tragedy. Therefore, it was pretty shocking when several people who were convicted of conspiring against the president were pardoned by Andrew Johnson in 1869. The three men were all believed to be directly involved in the assassination of President Lincoln but it was due to the efforts of Dr. Mudd’s wife, John Ford (Spangler’s former boss) and attorney Thomas Ewing Jr. that President Johnson agreed to the pardon.
Samuel Mudd was a noted doctor and farmer in southern Maryland. He was home with his wife and four young children when John Wilkes Booth came to his home. The man was on the run with a broken leg after having just shot a bullet through President Lincoln’s head. Dr. Mudd knew only that a wounded man was on his doorstep and proceeded to set the leg and care for the man. Mudd was arrested and though he proclaimed his innocence in the matter, it was proven at his trial that he had been in contact with Booth at least once before the assassination. With that Mudd’s fate was sealed and he was given a life sentence in federal prison.
Samuel Bland Arnold was not directly involved in the assassination attempt but he did plot to kidnap the President. In 1865, he conspired with John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, Lewis Powell, Michael O’Laughlen and John Surratt. The plan was to kidnap the President and force him to release Confederate prisoners. There were two attempts and both failed. Arnold left the conspiracy group when a prisoner-exchange program started and there was no need to force the President to release Confederate prisoners. After President Lincoln’s assassination, he was arrested and tried for being complicit in the murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Edmund Spangler was as a carpenter and scene shifter at Ford’s Theater when he became acquainted with John Wilkes Booth. He was dazzled by Booth’s fame and was eager to do whatever the actor asked of him. On the night of the assassination, Booth asked Spangler to hold his horse. Spangler was busy and asked another employee Joseph Burroughs to hold the horse for him. After the assassination, there was commotion backstage and a man who worked at the theater, Jake Rittersbach attempted to chase Booth. Spangler hit him in the face and told him not to say which was Booth had gone. He was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison.