Conspiracy theories concerning the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln have been in existence since almost directly after the death of this great political leader. According to author Daniel Cohen, “there were hints, and sometimes shouts, of a wider and more sinister conspiracy.” In some instance, such suspicions seemed no more than murmurs. There may be a vast number of conspiracy theories but only a relatively small number of them receive scholarly attention, perhaps rightly so. But, sometimes the small allegations may actually lead to very telling clues related to the grand schemes that many scholars and historians are familiar with today. This paper explores three such examples. The first relates to an incident involving two small
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Wilkes argues that failing to include Forbes’ presence in the assassination story essentially destroys historical consensus on what actually did occur surrounding the Lincoln assassination, “Simultaneously, the research has resuscitated a conspiracy theory which predominated for only a few years immediately after the assassination, but then fell into discredit.” Furthermore, the Forbes story, or prior lack of, opened the way to revisit allegations that the Confederacy was intimately involved in the assassination, a theory that had been proffered by various U.S. Government officials, both civilian and military, and widely known by the American public until it was replaced in the 1870s by what appears to still be commonly accepted to this day. Known as the Confederate Grand Conspiracy, it was alleged that the assassination was actually designed and led by the intelligence and covert operations arms of the Confederacy . Both were capable of conducting clandestine operations across the North, and it appears they did so with a great degree of impunity throughout the Civil War. The fact that the top Confederate brass, including Jefferson Davis himself, had sanctioned a botched operation meant to kidnap President Lincoln is at least indicative of their willingness to take the next step and do away with Lincoln altogether in order to win the war
Wilkes argues that failing to include Forbes’ presence in the assassination story essentially destroys historical consensus on what actually did occur surrounding the Lincoln assassination, “Simultaneously, the research has resuscitated a conspiracy theory which predominated for only a few years immediately after the assassination, but then fell into discredit.” Furthermore, the Forbes story, or prior lack of, opened the way to revisit allegations that the Confederacy was intimately involved in the assassination, a theory that had been proffered by various U.S. Government officials, both civilian and military, and widely known by the American public until it was replaced in the 1870s by what appears to still be commonly accepted to this day. Known as the Confederate Grand Conspiracy, it was alleged that the assassination was actually designed and led by the intelligence and covert operations arms of the Confederacy . Both were capable of conducting clandestine operations across the North, and it appears they did so with a great degree of impunity throughout the Civil War. The fact that the top Confederate brass, including Jefferson Davis himself, had sanctioned a botched operation meant to kidnap President Lincoln is at least indicative of their willingness to take the next step and do away with Lincoln altogether in order to win the war