Samuel Bland Arnold (September 6, 1834 – September 21, 1906)^[1] was an American Confederate sympathizer involved in a plot to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He had joined the Confederate Army shortly after the start of the Civil War but was discharged in 1864.

Role in Lincoln kidnapping conspiracy

Arnold and the other alleged conspirators, John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, Lewis Powell, Michael O'Laughlen, and John Surratt, were to kidnap Lincoln and hold him to exchange for the Confederate prisoners in Washington D.C.. This was attempted twice, but failed, because Lincoln was not where they thought he would be. Arnold and O'Laughlen dropped out of the conspiracy when the prisoner-exchange program started.

Arrest and trial

After Booth assassinated Lincoln on April 14, 1865, Arnold was arrested on suspicion of complicity. He was actually relieved when he was arrested. During the trial, one of the chief witnesses was Louis J. Weichmann, a boarder at Mary Surratt's (John Surratt's mother).

Conviction and sentence

Arnold was sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson, along with Samuel Mudd, Michael O'Laughlen, and Edmund Spangler. In 1869 Arnold, Mudd and Spangler were released after being pardoned by President Andrew Johnson (O'Laughlen had died in prison in 1867).

Post-prison years and death

After Samuel Arnold returned home, he lived quietly out of the public eye for more than thirty years. In 1898 he returned to Fort Jefferson and took photographs of his old prison, but the photographs have not survived. In 1902 Arnold wrote a series of newspaper articles for the Baltimore American describing his imprisonment at Fort Jefferson. Arnold died four years later on September 21, 1906.^[2] He is buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. The only conspirator who survived him was John Surratt.

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