Sam Arnold was one of the instigators of the attempt to blame Davis because of a letter he had written to Booth. There was also a professional spy names Richard Montgomery who spied for both sides. He gave some false information along with some others.

Major Walker Taylor, a nephew of Zachary Taylor and married to one of Davis’ relatives, proposed the abduction of Lincoln. Davis declined because of the risk of killing Lincoln in the event of resistance.

In August 1863, a soldier in camp near Fredericksburg wrote to the Confederate Sec of War offering to assassinate some certain persons filling high places in the North. He received the reply that “duty requires all such schemes……….to be discouraged by the Dept and to be discarded by you. The laws of war and morality as well as Christian principles………forbid the use of such means of punishing even the atrocities of the enemy.”