Henry Lawrence Burnett
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- For other persons named Henry Burnett, see Henry Burnett (disambiguation).
Henry Lawrence Burnett (December 26, 1838–January 4, 1916) was a brevet brigadier general for the Union in the American Civil War and a prosecuter in the trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination.
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[edit] Early Life
Burnett was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1838. Not wanting to be a farmer, he ran away from home to get an eduaction. He married Kitty Hoffman, the daughter of a judge.
[edit] Civil War
When the Civil War broke out, Burnett joined the 2nd Ohio Cavalry, eventually rising to the rank of major. When he was trampled by a horse and was no longer in the best physical conditions, he transferred to Judge Advocate General's Corps of the Department of the Ohio.
After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, Burnett was called upon by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to be an Assistant Judge Advocate General. Along with him were John Bingham and Joseph Holt, the Judge Advocate General. The accused conspirators where George Atzerodt, David Herold, Lewis Powell a.k.a. Paine, Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlen, Edman Spangler, Samuel Mudd and Mary Surratt. The trail began on May 10, 1865. The three spent nearly two months in court, awaiting a verdict from the jury. Holt and Bingham attempted to obscure the fact that there were two plots. The first plot was to kidnap President Lincoln in exchange for the Confederate prisoners the Union had. The second was to assassinate Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward in a plot to throw the government into electoral caos. It was important for the prosecution not to reveal the existence of a diary taken from the body of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. The diary made it clear that the assassination plan dated from the 14th of April. The defence surprisingly did not call for Booth's diary to be produced in court. Holt was accused of withholding evidence, but it was never proven.
On June 29, 1865, the eight were found guilty for their involvment in the conspiracy to kill the President. Arnold, O'Laughlen and Mudd where sentenced to life in prison, Spangler six years in prison and Atzerodt, Herold, Paine and Surratt were to hang. They were executed July 7, 1865. Surratt was the first woman in American history to be executed. O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867. Arnold, Spangler and Mudd where pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in early 1869.
[edit] Post-Civil War
After Kitty died, Henry moved to New York to practice law, serving as counsel to the Buffalo and Erie Railroad. He remarried Sarah Lansing, but he was once again widowed by her in 1877. He left his children with is late wife's family and moved to New York City. He married a third time, this time to Agnes Tailer, and moved to an elite section of the city. In 1898, President William McKinley appointed Burnett federal district attorney for the southern district of New York and on completion of his four-year term, he was reappointed by McKinley's succeesor, Theodore Roosevelt.
Looking for a country home besides their home in the city, Burnett and his wife bought a horse breeding farm in Goshen, New York where Henry raced on the amateur circuit. He died January 4, 1916 and is buried in Slate Hill Cemetery in Goshen.
