Herold's fate/legacy

[jonathan]

So it crossed my mind this morning that Herold had plenty of chances to just abandon Booth. What do you think might have happened to him if he had done that? It's easy to see how he could have escaped into the Deep South or Mexico and quietly lived out his life. I wonder how history (and assassination enthusiasts) would remember him if he had just taken off.

That also brings to mind the question of how the other "main" conspirators really felt about the plot to abduct/assassinate Lincoln. I wonder if they really cared that much, or if they were just under Booth's spell. Herold, Powell, and Atzerodt were all young men, at least relatively so in the case of Atzerodt. And as we know, young men can do some stupid things. I just can't help but wonder if those three were just kind of hanging around looking for something to do as things were starting to wind down for the Confederacy, and fell in with Booth, who had a much different agenda. I wonder if they cared in anywhere close to the same way Booth did.