So, John Wilkes Booth's assassination of Abraham Lincoln is widely remembered due to the fact that it was the first time a sitting US President had ever been assassinated, but not many people remember that Lincoln's assassination was part of a wider conspiracy.
John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt planned to aid the dying Confederate cause by crippling the US government. They planned to do this by assassinating Lincoln, Secretary of State William H Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson, the three most important officials in the US government.
However, Booth was the only one to successfully assassinate his target. Seward was only wounded by Powell and Herold. Atzerodt, who was assigned to assassinate Johnson, lost his nerve. While Booth escaped only to be hunted down and killed in a shootout, Booth's co-conspirators were tried, convicted by a military tribunal and hanged at Fort McNair in Washington DC.
But what if Booth's co-conspirators were successful in assassinating their targets? Would the government retaliate by hanging the Confederate leadership, since it was their actions that inspired the assassinations?
John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt planned to aid the dying Confederate cause by crippling the US government. They planned to do this by assassinating Lincoln, Secretary of State William H Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson, the three most important officials in the US government.
However, Booth was the only one to successfully assassinate his target. Seward was only wounded by Powell and Herold. Atzerodt, who was assigned to assassinate Johnson, lost his nerve. While Booth escaped only to be hunted down and killed in a shootout, Booth's co-conspirators were tried, convicted by a military tribunal and hanged at Fort McNair in Washington DC.
But what if Booth's co-conspirators were successful in assassinating their targets? Would the government retaliate by hanging the Confederate leadership, since it was their actions that inspired the assassinations?