Washington Livery Stable, 1865
Where Booth Bought a Horse after Lincoln's Assassination

After shooting President Lincoln in a box at Ford's Theater in Washington, April 14, 1865, Wilkes Booth escaped from the city. Guided by sympathizers, he crossed the Potomac near Port Tobacco, Md., to Mathias Point, Va., on the night of Saturday, April 22d. The following Monday he crossed the Rappahannock from Port Conway to Port Royal and took refuge in a barn. Here he was discovered two days later by a detachment of Company L, Sixteenth New York Cavalry, and killed. The assassination of the President was the result of a conspiracy. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, was attacked on the same evening by Lewis Payne, a fellow-conspirator of Booth, and was severely injured. Those suspected of being involved in the conspiracy were tried before a military commission convened at Washington May 9, 1865. Their names were David E. Herold, G. A. Atzerodt, Lewis Payne, Michael O'Laughlin, Edward Spangler, Samuel Arnold, Mary E. Surratt, and Dr. Samuel A. Mudd.  Herold, Atzerodt, Payne, and Mrs. Surratt were hanged; O'Laughlin, Arnold, and Mudd were sentenced to be imprisoned for life, and Spangler for six years. O'Laughlin died in the bleak prison on the Dry Tortugas in 1867. Arnold, Mudd, and Spangler were pardoned by President Johnson in February, 1869.