30 Jan 2012

Lost Capitol Hill: John Wilkes Booth on the Hill

At the end of last week, I was sent an edited copy of the scandal book, with a number of questions and statements needing clarification. Most of them were quite simple, but one took me a couple of hours. And although there was, in the end, little need to change any words, I did discover a few details about an interesting Hill-related event that took place in 1865.

Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, and died the next day. By the time he succumbed to his wounds, his assassin was far away, and it would be almost two weeks before he would be hunted down. Booth and his guide, David Herold, were found at Garrett’s farm in Caroline County, Virginia.

After the troopers had surrounded the barn in which Booth and Herold had spent the night, Herold surrendered, while Booth refused. The barn was set on fire, and trooper Boston Corbett fired on Booth, striking him in the spine, an injury which led to his death three hours later.

Booth’s body, as well as prisoners Herold and two of the Garretts were brought to Belle Plain, a wharf on the Potomac that had been set up by the Union army. There, they were transferred to the John S. Ide, a small ship used by the Navy.

The John S. Ide steamed upriver to Washington, at which point Booth and the three prisoners were turned over to a Colonel Baker, who took them on board the USS Montauk, which was parked just off the Navy Yard, at around 3AM.

The Montauk was a monitor, similar to the famous Monitor, the famous ironclad warship built by John Ericsson.

The next day, under a canvas sheet stretched off the Montauk’s turret, an autopsy was performed. While crowds of people were held back from entering the Navy Yard, a select few were allowed on board to both identify the dead man, as well as determine the cause of death.

Detail of picture published in the Harper

An article published in Harper’s Weekly about two weeks later describes the scene:

Booth’s body was laid out on a carpenter’s bench between the stern and turret, wrapped in a gray blanket, and a guard placed over it. The lips of the corpse were tightly compressed, and the blood had settled in the lower part of the face and neck. Otherwise his face was pale, and wore a wild, haggard look, indicating exposure to the elements and a rough time generally in his skulking flight. His hair was disarranged and dirty, and apparently had not been combed since he took his flight. The head and breast were alone exposed to view, the lower portion of the body, including the hands and feet, being covered with a tarpaulin. The shot which terminated his life entered on the left side, at the back of the neck, a point not far distant from that in which his victim, our lamented President, was shot.

Along with determining the cause of death, it was most important to determine that this was, indeed, the mortal remains of John Wilkes Booth. To that end, a doctor who had removed a tumor from Booth earlier found the scar made by his incision, a clerk at the hotel where Booth had stayed found the tattoo Booth was known to have, and the photographer Alexander Gardner was called on to both identify and take a picture of the body.

In all, Booth’s time at the Navy Yard encompassed less than 24 hours. Later that evening, two men arrived at the Montauk in a small rowboat. They removed Booth’s body, and took it to the Arsenal (today Fort McNair) where it was buried. A few years later, Booth’s brother had the body disinterred and moved to a family grave in Baltimore.

Gardner’s picture of the body has never been found.

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One response to “Lost Capitol Hill: John Wilkes Booth on the Hill”

  1. William Mark Clarke says:

    The reason why Gardners picture have never been found is that it was nt Booth.

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