Changes

==The trial==

==The trial==

[[Image:Lincoln conspirators1.JPG|right|200px|thumb|The surviving conspirators were brought topside from the hold of the ironclad USS ''Montawk'', their shackles and hoods removed long enough for Alexander Gardiner to take these photos. Top row (l-r) David Herold, Edman Spangler, Lewis Powell; bottom row (l-r) George Atzerodt, Michael O'Laughlin, Samuel Arnold.  Mrs. Surratt and Dr. Mudd were held in Washington; John Surratt had fled to Canada.]]  

[[Image:Lincoln conspirators1.JPG|right|200px|thumb|The surviving conspirators were brought topside from the hold of the ironclad USS ''Montawk'', their shackles and hoods removed long enough for Alexander Gardiner to take these photos. Top row (l-r) David Herold, Edman Spangler, Lewis Powell; bottom row (l-r) George Atzerodt, Michael O'Laughlin, Samuel Arnold.  Mrs. Surratt and Dr. Mudd were held in Washington; John Surratt had fled to Canada.]]  

On May 1, President Johnson issued an order that all of the conspirators would be tried, not in a civilian court of law, but by a military commission, which consisted of:

On May 1, [[Andrew Johnson|President Johnson]] issued an order that all of the conspirators would be tried, not in a civilian court of law, but by a military commission, which consisted of:

*Lieutenant Colonel David R. Clendenin

*Lieutenant Colonel David R. Clendenin

*Brevet Colonel C.H. Tompkins

*Brevet Colonel C.H. Tompkins

*Brevet Major General August V. Kautz

*Brevet Major General August V. Kautz

*Brigadier General Robert S. Foster

*Brigadier General Robert S. Foster

*the Honorable John A Bingham (Special Judge Advocate)

*the Honorable John A. Bingham (Special Judge Advocate)

*Colonel Henry L. Burnett (Special Judge Advocate)

*Colonel Henry L. Burnett (Special Judge Advocate)

*Brigadier General Joseph Holt (Judge Advocate and Recorder)

*Brigadier General Joseph Holt (Judge Advocate and Recorder)

*Walter S. Cox (O’Laughlin)

*Walter S. Cox (O’Laughlin)

*Frederick Aiken, John W. Clampitt, and Reverdy Johnson (Mrs. Surratt)

*Frederick Aiken, John W. Clampitt, and Reverdy Johnson (Mrs. Surratt)

Of the attorneys, Thomas Ewing was the son of a senator and a former chief justice on the Kansas Supreme Court; he was also the brother-in-law of General William T. Sherman.  Reverdy Johnson was a former Maryland Attorney General, as well as a former member of Congress.  An attorney so respected, his credentials included practicing before the United States Supreme Court.  But his services before the commission consisted of an advisory role, and even in that he limited it to just a few occasions, the result of an insult leveled upon him by one of the commissioners which questioned his Union loyalty.

Of the attorneys, Thomas Ewing was the son of a senator and a former chief justice on the Kansas Supreme Court; he was also the brother-in-law of General [[William T. Sherman]].  Reverdy Johnson was a former Maryland [[Attorney General]], as well as a former member of [[Congress]].  An attorney so respected, his credentials included practicing before the [[United States Supreme Court]].  But his services before the commission consisted of an advisory role, and even in that he limited it to just a few occasions, the result of an insult leveled upon him by one of the commissioners which questioned his Union loyalty.

   

   

Over the course of the following six weeks, 350 witnesses were brought before the Commission, most of whom were brought in either for or against the two whose guilt in the affair was in dispute: Dr. Mudd and Mrs. Surratt.  Mudd’s crime was that he knowingly aided in the flight of Booth, hindered the search for Booth, and openly sympathized with the subject of killing Lincoln throughout the war (as did many individuals, both North and South);  Mrs. Surratt may have been guilty of only running a boarding house where the conspirators stayed.  Indeed, she conversed many times with the handsome, famous actor about various things, but her guilt may have gone no further than that.  Had she been given the total services of Reverdy Johnson, had her son been there to speak on her behalf, she may have been acquitted. [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/lincolnaccount.html]

Over the course of the following six weeks, 350 witnesses were brought before the Commission, most of whom were brought in either for or against the two whose guilt in the affair was in dispute: Dr. Mudd and Mrs. Surratt.  Mudd’s crime was that he knowingly aided in the flight of Booth, hindered the search for Booth, and openly sympathized with the subject of killing Lincoln throughout the war (as did many individuals, both North and South);  Mrs. Surratt may have been guilty of only running a boarding house where the conspirators stayed.  Indeed, she conversed many times with the handsome, famous actor about various things, but her guilt may have gone no further than that.  Had she been given the total services of Reverdy Johnson, had her son been there to speak on her behalf, she may have been acquitted. [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/lincolnaccount.html]