The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

Oval cabinet card photograph on larger cardstock mount. 6 x 4 3/4 in. Toning, some very minor scratching along edges of mount, pencil captioned in mount.

Samuel Arnold first met John Wilkes Booth when both were students at St. Timothy's Hall, a military school located outside of Catonsville, Maryland. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Arnold joined the Confederate army but was discharged due to poor health in 1864. It was during this time that he became reacquainted with John Wilkes Booth, who recruited him into his plot to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln to exchange him for the release of Confederate soldiers. Also involved in this plot were Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, Michael O'Laughlen, and John Surratt.

After Lincoln's assassination, Arnold was arrested at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, where he was employed as a clerk. He confessed to being involved in the kidnapping plot but denied any knowledge of plans to assassinate President Lincoln. He was found guilty during the trial of the conspirators and sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson along with Samuel Mudd, Michael O'Laughlen, and Edmund Spangler. He was released in 1869 and lived the rest of his life in Baltimore, where he died in 1906.

The present image is a retouched version of a photograph taken by Alexander Gardner shortly after Arnold's arrest, presumably aboard the gunboat U.S.S. Montauk.